darkSpyro

(Putting this in General because the YOTD board doesn't get many views)

I was watching a review of Spyro YOTD by AntDude92 and he states that he feels the 5 extra playable characters-Sheila, Sgt. Byrd, Bentley, Agent 9 and Sparx-were a bit much, and that Insomniac were trying too hard. Personally, I love having them around, although Bentley and Agent 9 annoy me. It would've been cool if Sparx had his levels in Spyro 2 and not YOTD so that it seems Spyro 2 has more stuff. What do you guys think about having five extras in the game?

I have always been of the opinion that the reason I prefer Ripto's Rage over Year of the Dragon is the playable characters. I found all the characters had very stiff controls. Agent 9's jumping and aiming mechanics were extremely clunky to maneuver with. Bentley was really slow and it seemed like there was a delay between a button input and him actually doing an action.

The Sparx overhead SHMUP-style levels were a bit of an eyesore. And I thought Sgt. Byrd fell way too fast from his hovering, making aiming from the air especially annoying. I thought Sheila was well done, but her stages were based on platforming and exploration, whereas the other characters were more focused on combat. And I just don't think that worked well in the Spyro games.

I mean, it's still pretty good. But it was frustrating enough to take away from my overall enjoyment of YotD. <.<

For some reason I think Imsomniac Games were tired of Spyro and they decide to add more characters to play !!

I really enjoyed playing with new characters, but I prefer Ripto's Rage instead of YOTD

When I was a child, I found all the playable characters to be very frustrating to play as. The only one I could just about get along with was with Sheila, and sometimes I used to wonder whether she used to move a bit too fast, and I used to hate that when there was an enemy upon a high ledge that you needed to jump to, before you could hit them as Sheila jumped up, they'd attack before she landed, causing her to fall off most of the time, very annoying. It's like she needed a second to land, to then attack. The Sparx levels used to disorientate me a lot too.

Nowadays, I do get some sort of enjoyment from them, don't know whether it's where I've gotten more used to them over the years. But to this day, the hardest one to control is Agent 9. He seems a bit easier when he's in first person actually. Sgt. Byrd's Base is really interesting, they've all got their advantages, and disadvantages.

I think they should've gone for a more Spyro 1 approach, just got rid of the challenges, and had longer levels, and you had more of those egg thieves, and I think they should've used the old gems from Spyro 1, considering it's supposed to be the dragon lands. I must admit, the last few levels of Midnight Mountain don't fit the theme of the home world, except for Crystal Islands.

I prefer Spyro 1, 2 and A Hero's Tail over 3.

Eugh. Bentley's speed. Frustrated me so much. SSF, about the enemy knocking Sheila off before she had a chance to hit them, I totally agree! In Sunny Villa, Sheila has to jump up a tower to get someone's girlfriend and many, many times I've been really annoyed about the Rhynocs knocking Sheila off before she had a chance to kick!

In my opinion, Agent 9 was like a REALLY clunky Ratchet... the Ratchet 1 style, with no real strafing and what not. <.<;

Quote: HIR

In my opinion, Agent 9 was like a REALLY clunky Ratchet... the Ratchet 1 style, with no real strafing and what not. <.<;

Agree

Do AHT characters count? :<

I represent that party which enjoys having these extra playable characters in YotD. The reason why I feel this way is simple: they bring some variability to the gameplay. This game would have been only a repetition of the GtG if it hadn't had those extra features. Although GtG is such superb game that it wouldn't break my heart if they had repeated that.

But even though these extra characters bring something new to the gameplay, the actual execution of the characters didn't go so well. They all seem quite the same to me except Sgt Byrd (mainly because of his flying skills). The slowness of Bentley and Agent 9 were frustrating at the times. I understand that Bentley, being a giant yeti, cannot move quite fast (even though folklores state that yetis are agile) but there is something bothering me about Agent 9, who should be highly trained little monkey (or ape?), moving slow.

All in all those characters are nice to have around. Sparx levels are ok and Hunter missions in Speedways are somewhat soothing to play. Those main extra characters worked their functions perfectly in those small tasks in various levels but a whole adventure levels designated for them wasn't probably necessary for me. But of course the adventure levels open up the plot to the player with their cut-scenes etc.

I get this feeling that many of this characters were born out of Insomniac's desire to have characters "that could hold a weapon." Bentley and Agent 9 are prime examples. Sgt. Byrd somewhat counts too, since he could pick up bombs and missiles. <.<;

I think the extra characters in YOTD added some variety to the gameplay. The only character that I don't like is Agent 9 because I thought his challenges were difficult and his controls weren't great. I thought Bentley was ok but he could have done with moving around quicker and only challenge of his that I really didn't enjoy was Yeti Boxing.

I'm not sure which order I like them in, though Year of The Dragon is definitely my least favourite of the original trilogy. The other characters' mini-sections really got on my nerves, besides Sgt. Byrd's and Shiela's I found all of them to be poorly designed gameplay-wise, and they were very unspectacular by the standards of the older Spyro games. It's a shame because it was a good idea... It just didn't turn out right.

Love Shiela's gameplay and her personality. Jumping up high is so fun, and I liked all the designs of her mini-games.
I also like Sgt. Byrd for the same reasons, although, I don't like him as much because I feel like some of his challenges were a bit bland(namely, the Molten Crater one :/).
I like Bentley's personality but he was sooo slow- not his speed, but it felt like whenever you hit a button, it would take a whole second for him to respond. Also, I didn't really like his challenges besides the original one where he rescues Bart, Yeti Boxing was my least favourite of all Spyro minigames even as a kid(in fact, the egg was the last collectable I got before the Super Bonus Round).
Agent 9, same as Bentley, my favourite personality of the lot but least favourite of all to play, his controls are just too difficult to use, but I didn't like his challenges at all and it was also disappointing that we only got to use him about three times before the game ended.

Sparx's personality is just Sparx. I have mixed feelings about his challenges. The level and environment design was decent but the graphics were just memorably terrible, and I also didn't like his controls. Whenever I die it's because I'm not used to the controls and bugs come swarm up on me and kill me. Overall didn't like Sparx mini games, but I didn't hate them too much, and that's purely because you got decent bonuses for completing them.