Before we start, I feel like explaining that thanks to the release of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, I feel this is a topic I can feel is relevant enough to touch, and in the way I feel addresses it fairly well. Enough about that, let's get to the point of this blog post.
There are three learning styles that are based off of the types of activities that people focus on better than others, and with that, there are three types of entertainment. TV for visually amused people, music for auditory amused people, and then there's people like me who get stuck to video games for days or weeks, and rarely, sometimes months at a time (That happened a year ago when I started playing Warframe). What does this have to do with anything I'm here to talk about? This is important in the perspective of a parent, and equally important, the child.
Spyro was a part of the childhood of, if I were to guess, around half of the people who had a Playstation in the 90's as a child. Whether they had only one of the games, or multiple of them, it must have appealed to them as a child in some way shape or form. I myself did have Spyro games growing up, and even played one at a friends house before I got my own copy of a game from the franchise. However, the Spyro game I played at a friends house wasn't actually one of the more popular games.
Enter The Dragonfly (which I think is a terribly corny title) definitely had it's fair share of problems, more-so one the Playstation 2 than the GameCube (which was the console I played it on). It was rushed...yeah, that's an understatement. It wasn't just rushed, it was under developed in general. I get that Universal was trying to get it released in time for the market, but at the same time you don't just hand out the product when it's been only more than half processed. If I want to buy steel plates for a sick dune buggy i'm building, I don't want just coal and iron that's only been cooked together half done, I want polished steel plates in mint condition! Overall shouldn't have been developed by anyone outside of the vision of the original creators. This was where the series started to seriously tank.
A Hero's Tail (which was far times better as a title) felt a lot more refined than the previous title in the series (I should know because I actually played it for a decent amount of time), and this shows throughout the game...okay, you could definitely pick out dialogue in the game that's worth changing, such as: "ah, chicks". That really doesn't sound like something Spyro would have said under Insomniac's development. But it's far from a bad game, in fact collecting the Light Gems felt just like an expected mechanic. "Collect this item throughout the levels in order to further progress the game", something I would believe would be considered as natural within the franchise.
I haven't seen very much of Shadow Legacy on the DS to give my opinion, but I have seen enough to know that it plateaus in the planes while the original three games peak like mountain tops for a short and simple comparison. The only other game I played that existed in the original universe was season of ice, so yeah...not much to say there, that game speaks for itself. With that, let's get into the meat of this club sandwich, the Legend series reboot.
Hoo boy, we've got a bit to talk about here. To start off, I only had the first two games growing up, but i'm going to be talking about Dawn of the Dragon anyway, because I consider it the most important game in the series, looking at it from a development standpoint. Quick confession: I actually got the Eternal Night for what I believe was my eighth birthday at Toys R Us before getting a New Beginning, but it thankfully didn't alter my perspective, just the overall feel I had playing these games growing up (same thing happened with KH2 and re:chain of memories, but honestly, who cares at this point). Let's get the obvious thing out of the way first...okay, Sparx talks, I understand, but that isn't the most obvious thing- Yes! I know that Spyro is voiced by Elijah Wood, but I thought his performance was actually spot on for his role in the games! The most obvious thing to get out of the way first is that the series went from a cheerful and comical Puzzle Platformer to a darker-storied Beat'em Up RPG!
I can honestly say that I sympathize with people who didn't welcome this change whatsoever, but only because Devil May Cry 1 was another game I grew up playing with, and I loved it so much that the reveal of DMC5 made me so happy for an E3 reveal that I almost cried. No other reveal has ever done that to me before and will probably never do that to me again. The point is, I was glad to see the reboot series ninja theory produced has fallen into development obscurity and hopefully will never resurface again. Sure, as a game DmC Devil May Cry was good, but like I said, as a game. As a Devil May Cry game? That notion makes me want to take my shovel and plant a few dumb ass trees.
So, if I can look at the Legend series the same way hardcore players of the original series do, I can understand why the reboot series wasn't exactly a hit. Why would anyone want to take something like Spyro the Dragon and attempt to reinvent it in the darker tone that the Legend trilogy was? The obvious excuse is that someone who played the original games when they were little children may have already made it to high school by the time a New Beginning came out, and may not like the more child friendly tone that the original games presented. This is an okay excuse, but at the same time you can't blame adolescent hormones for changing the foundation of the franchise.
The major flaws with the Legend series wasn't that it changed genres and style, it was the same flaws that the last three games had before A New Beginning. Development. Listen, I'm not gonna bash on the fact that it's a combat focused RPG, in fact, those are my favorite types of games! If you try to sell me a game where the focus is bad ass, well; ass kicking, then I'm already sold! Yes, fast paced combat is what I love in gaming, which is why I liked Devil May Cry so much, but that's not the point here. The flaws were that the games were indeed this: Over the top underwhelming.
No one really likes games where it's nothing but button mashing nonsense, and that's where most of these games failed was that the first two games were mostly nothing except mashing one button throughout the entire game. At least Dawn of the Dragon expanded on it and polished the combat with light and strong attacks, grabs and even a combo meter. But the combat still fails because increasing difficulty the further you get into the story isn't going to make the combat help the game win a gold medal. This happens way too often with games these days and is the ultimate flaw of the beat'em up/hack'n slash genre.
Sure, there was the occasional puzzle, but they weren't really much, and the rail ride in the third area of the first game was actually pretty cool, but the games didn't have enough of that kind of stuff. I personally enjoyed the atmosphere and dialogue of the games a lot when I was a kid (*ahem* Sparx in NB was pathetic), but it just didn't cut it for most people. The charm wasn't enough, and the tediousness of the gameplay killed a lot of the justice for these games. Reboots in general tend to be hits or misses and the Legend trilogy ended up somewhere in the middle before it missed.
If I were a storyboard writer for a game company, I would personally like working on the Legend of Spyro for a fourth installment, because as I said before, I personally enjoyed these games growing up, so much to the point where I think my copy of the Eternal Night got scratched from playing it too much like a lot of my other games. It has really good potential in my opinion, and with a good developer like sucker punch who made the inFAMOUS games, I think that the Legend series has a chance.
Wanna share your opinion? I made a Straw Poll! And if you like ranting for WAY too long like me, comment and more than likely i'll read it! And if anyone reads this whole thing through despite the lack of personality I put into this, thank you. I don't imagine there are too many people like you on the internet.
Straw Poll: https://bit.ly/2qXDL1s
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