darkSpyro

I recently 125%'d the first Spyro the Dragon for the first time ever! Despite being the ideal age for the franchise when it was new, I was more or less unaware and went on playing Crash 2 and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (Remember that?!).

So this past Christmas, I picked the game up on PSP and played on and off for a bit before putting it down. It simply didn't appeal to me and I set it aside as a loss. However, something happened recently, and I began to enjoy the game after randomly starting over again. I couldn't put it down, and had a great time building progress between the PSP and PS3 versions. If not only for it's style, the music, gameplay, and overall atmosphere felt amazing.

So, imagine my excitement when I finally beat the game, and jump into Gateway to Ripto.

Right of the bat, the game felt... A bit skewed. It's as if they took the base game, and slightly altered every bit of it to make it feel 'clunky'.

First starters, the 'flow' of gameplay is constantly broken by this:

"SPYRO I KNOW YOU'RE BUSY BUT I'M JUST AN NPC AND YOU MUST WAIT FOR ME TO SHUT UP SO I CAN PERFORM TASK XYZ TO HELP YOU JUMP TO THAT LEDGE"

Then, you're given missions rather than straight up collecting, such as playing hockey, assaulting hula girls, and shooting rocks at lizards.

Third:

"HEY SPYRO, YOU OCD FREAK. YOU CAN'T 100% THIS LEVEL BECAUSE YOU REQUIRE ABILITY ABC. GO 23.5% ALL THE OTHER LEVELS TO GET ENOUGH GEMS SO YOU CAN LEARN ABILITY ABC TO CLIMB THIS LADDER. THEN GO LEARN ABILITY #637. I KNOW THAT BOTHERS YOU, BUT ATLEAST YOU CAN RUN BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE LARGE HUBWORLD AND FALL INTO PITS/WATER YOU MUST CLIMB OUT OF TO GET BACK TO THAT LEVEL WITH YOUR NEW ABILITY."

And fourth... There was something charming about charging an enemy and having non-gluton Sparx fetch scattered gems while a gems flies to you out of your opponents body (Sounds dark!)

The point of the first game was to go for A-Z, while speeding though and bashing enemies. It was fun! Now... It feels like I'm being force fed "gameplay" to make the game longer, and it just makes the game feel REALLY slow.

Am I just looking at this the wrong way? Was it a mistake to jump straight into Spyro 2 after the first?

I'm a bit disappointed to have expected something more like the original.

Now, I'm afraid Spyro 3 is the same deal.

Anyone else ever been here? What did you do? And if you haven't, and currently enjoy the game, what can I do differently?

I'm hoping it's just the same case with the original - Didn't like it at first, and suddenly it clicks. Right now, I've only done a few levels (But not 100%!), and I can't stand it.

If you don't like second game you'd definitely not like the third installment. It's very similar, graphically and gameplay wise. The only difference is though, it has a few problems. They introduce four new playable characters, and none of them are as fun to play with as Spyro. It's the most flawed game of the three.

I personally find Year of the Dragon to be the best of the three, but it definitely continues down the path laid out by Ripto's Rage. It's a phenomenon experienced by pretty much every 3D platformer series, where the sequels add a bunch of extra stuff on top of the core gameplay established in the first game, basically making it more "diverse" and less "pure and simple". Either you love it or you hate it, and it seems pretty clear that you're in the hate it category TC, so YotD probably isn't for you.

Well if you played Enter the Dragonfly it would probably make you appreciate Spyro 2 a lot more.

The 'you can't 100% this level because you don't have an ability' is something that only happens five (if I remember right) times in the game. Only twice if you know how to get around it.

If you use the All Abilities code, you won't have to do near as much back-tracking, and once you get 100% and get the unlimited superflame, there'll be even less back-tracking, if any at all.

Also, if you don't like back-tracking, then you'll definitely won't like Insomniac's later series, Ratchet & Clank, there's quite a bit of it in those games.

If you aren't a fan of the mini-games, YotD isn't for you. YotD really has a lot of mini-games, and they tend to differ from the main gameplay even more than in RR, where at least you are playing as Spyro and using Spyro's controls most of the time.

The rest of the classic series (GBA games, EtD, AHT, etc) is based on Spyro 2 and 3 as well, so if you're not a fan of the Avalar crew and mini-games, then you might want to stick to the first game.

Quote: SuperSpyroFan

If you use the All Abilities code, you won't have to do near as much back-tracking, and once you get 100% and get the unlimited superflame, there'll be even less back-tracking, if any at all.

Also, if you don't like back-tracking, then you'll definitely won't like Insomniac's later series, Ratchet & Clank, there's quite a bit of it in those games.

I've got to say, you just saved the game for me!

I had no idea that cheat codes were a thing for this game. It's much more enjoyable now that I can go through levels and play like the original.

Quote: wicked_duckling

I've got to say, you just saved the game for me!

I had no idea that cheat codes were a thing for this game. It's much more enjoyable now that I can go through levels and play like the original.

Well, again, the 'abilities required to proceed' thing only happens about five times, so there isn't that much that you're getting around by using it.

And yes, there are cheat codes, although All Abilities is one of only two that do something that isn't aesthetic.

Quote: wicked_duckling

Quote: SuperSpyroFan

If you use the All Abilities code, you won't have to do near as much back-tracking, and once you get 100% and get the unlimited superflame, there'll be even less back-tracking, if any at all.

Also, if you don't like back-tracking, then you'll definitely won't like Insomniac's later series, Ratchet & Clank, there's quite a bit of it in those games.

I've got to say, you just saved the game for me!

I had no idea that cheat codes were a thing for this game. It's much more enjoyable now that I can go through levels and play like the original.

So there's a chance you may like Spyro 3 then, because he already has the abilities in that one.

^ the unlockable characters making you backtrack, tho

Quote: Arc of Archives

^ the unlockable characters making you backtrack, tho

I'm pretty sure you can still complete the game without every single egg, but I'm not too sure.

You can complete the main story without every egg. You need to collect all of them (and all the gems) to get to the secret final world, though.

But you don't need every orb/gem in Spyro 2 and TC already said they disliked the backtracking there