darkSpyro

When I was young I pretty much thought Spyro ended after YOTD until I saw a commercial for Hero's Tail back in late 2004, maybe early 2005. That rocked my world and I brought it ASAP. I actually still haven't beaten the game - the farthest I've gotten is to the boss fight with Ineptune - but I know the basic gist. Reading the manual I was disappointed that there was no Bianca. Hunter, the Professor, Sgt. Byrd, and Zoe are all present but no Bianca or Elora.

After I got access to the internet around 2007 I learned that Bianca has appeared in other games but... She's different from in YOTD.

So far the only game I've played with her in it is ETD. That's also the only console game she was in.

Her voice is the first thing that stands out. It's the same voice actress but it's a lot more cheery and high. It sounds like she swallowed helium or something. Her voice in YOTD was a lot lower and more sarcastic sounding. It's the same actress so I'm not sure what's the issue here.
Her appearance in future titles always bugged me too but I'm not sure why. Her design is identical but it looks way worse in non-Insomniac games. Maybe the art style?

The main issue is the way she's presented. She's pretty much just the Token Female of the group. Elora is mysteriously gone and Sheila doesn't cut it enough. Bianca's far more of a stereotypical doe then she was in YOTD and she pops up mainly to use a Deus ex Machina spell. In certain titles she seems to be demoted from a competent sorceress in training to being barely above a performing magician.

TLOS had a good chance to reuse characters from the Classic series but the only one besides the obligatory two to pop up was Hunter. Maybe if that continuity had more games..

Mmm... I did miss the old Bianca when I got the other Spyro games (Bianca from YotD), but there was nothing to expect since Insomniac wasn't making these games anymore. TLoS had a good chance to bring back some characters, but how....?

She does look better in YOTD.

And of course, many people have made good fanart pictures of her.

I also miss YoTD Bianca. She just felt like an excuse to have a female in afterwards. I hate hate hated her in SoI as well as ETD. I disliked her hardly appearing in future games. But I think I remember her having her family in SL, which is actually a neat concept.

Not that she was especially developed in YoTD, since the story for that game didn't really do much anyway and I still didn't like her much there, but I will admit she was an interesting character and I wanted to see more of her- she could have been part of the story to reveal more Forgotten Realms lore. I wanted to see more of the Forgotten Realms as it just felt underdeveloped, but it was so interesting. I think that explains YoTD as a whole...

Never speak of EtD Bianca. *shudders and hallucinates*

She sounds like a Barbie doll

As I recall, everyone in EtD was pretty much hit with the ugly stick a few times. Bluh...

Alas, after the Insomniac games the Spyro franchise has just been bad with female characters in general. We don't get any more fighting ladies like Sheila, no more smart leaders like Elora, no thoughtful ladies like Bianca... Heck, in LoS there are only two females in the whole thing at all (one is a mom and the other is a constant damsel in distress even when you get to play as her; ick). Maybe we'll get a Skylanders Bianca at some point; that would be really nice since Skylanders has had the best track record for making good, tough female characters since the Insomniac days.

Quote: Razz

As I recall, everyone in EtD was pretty much hit with the ugly stick a few times. Bluh...

Alas, after the Insomniac games the Spyro franchise has just been bad with female characters in general. We don't get any more fighting ladies like Sheila, no more smart leaders like Elora, no thoughtful ladies like Bianca... Heck, in LoS there are only two females in the whole thing at all (one is a mom and the other is a constant damsel in distress even when you get to play as her; ick). Maybe we'll get a Skylanders Bianca at some point; that would be really nice since Skylanders has had the best track record for making good, tough female characters since the Insomniac days.

Though AHT probably the worst offender,since they were either taking care of kids or being whiny and silly.At least Cynder pretended she was a good character(and was in TEN until they noticed she had to be captured before stealing Spyro's spotlight),but on SL and AHT it made me want to have a male-only game if they couldn't handle a female character.
And hey,at least the female Skylanders' designs are getting better than cat Skylanders,specially after VV decided that a Sphinx with dragon claws and a feathery tail is a cat.

Quote: Razz

As I recall, everyone in EtD was pretty much hit with the ugly stick a few times. Bluh...

The game was unfinished. So I'm assuming that meant all the in-game models were too! ^.^;

The sad thing about the in-game EtD models is that they look and move pretty finished. I think all that might have been added had the game come to completion would have been some lighting polish.

re: AHT/SL ladies
While the roles of the females in those games had their problems, there were at least, more than two of them. I'd say LoS and AHT both were very problematic in terms of female characters, equally so, but for different reasons. And Ember got better in SL (we also had Flame cooking in that game, which I thought was pretty cute and a nice break from stereotypically gendered roles). Bianca in SL, though...ugh. Mike Graham and Chris Wilson (who went on to make LoS) really seem to have something against interspecies romance and would do whatever they had to make it not work (from making a female love interest totally unlikeable to replace her with their own character to just not including any females at all except a love interest; yuck). Lucky for us, Chris was dropped from the Spyro team and Mike has been doing a much better job just producing Skylanders instead of having any input as a writer.

Actually, the graphics in ETD still held up pretty decent today, IMO, besides the really horrid bits(a lot of NPC models are reaaaally awful, that's my biggest complaint with the graphics). The artistic direction was horribly lacklustre, but I think most textures, and even a couple of the animations, are still nice.

Of course, the game wasn't very good, so it really doesn't matter. >.>

^ Pretty much this.

Quote: Razz

Maybe we'll get a Skylanders Bianca .

lul i joke, i joke

^LOL!! !!