Spyro the Dragon: Reignited Trilogy - November 13th, 2018 (PS4, Xbox One)

[Ratcicle King]

So far, every announcement for this was outside of any big events, don't think they'll just do a 180° now. Ripto's Rage is coming up soon but I doubt it'll be on SDCC, at most they'll have the pannel and announce an artbook like they've been teasing for a while now, especially since said pannel isn't a streamed thing, so announcing anything big there would be the dumbest move possible

[Blueknight V2.0]

14 minutes ago, Ratcicle King said:

especially since said pannel isn't a streamed thing, so announcing anything big there would be the dumbest move possible

Well Sega did it for Sonic's 25th anniversary SDCC panel while announcing Sonic Mania, Forces, Lego Dimensions Sonic pack and a Sonic Boom season 2 sneak peek. So I don't think Sega made a dumb move there. Plus Crash's panel was streamed last year, so it should be the same with Spyro if you go by the common Crash/Spyro logic.

[Graystripe2000]

Ripto model

https://www.twitter.com/SpyroTheDragon/status/1016368303785144320

[Jango]

Hohoho! Look at that smug face and cheeky smile, Ripto looks so malecy and full of himself in this! I can feel the "charm" eventhough it's a static image. Can't wait to hear his voice! Much better than the concept art, indeed. I knew it would grow on me.

[Blueknight V2.0]

Looks really great however like VTNVIVI pointed out that this looks to be concept art. But from here on up until Gamescom possibly next month is when we'll see a ton of for Ripto's Rage before switching over to Year of the Dragon. Now like Gnasty Gnorc he looks really menacing and actually now that I think about it. Were they trying to copy Ripto in Skylanders, because I just noticed some costume similarities in the reignited Ripto design and Kaos' from Skylanders?

[Your Vest Friend]

I think Kaos in Skylanders was trying to be more Zim than Ripto. Even casting the voice actor for Kaos aside, the malicious evil who also happens to be tiny and (mostly) inept is a pretty common comedy gag. One Ripto doesn't even fall under since he wasn't inept (and Spyro calling him shorty when he was shorter than Ripto in the same cutscene was...what). 

[Forte-Metallix]

7 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

I think Kaos in Skylanders was trying to be more Zim than Ripto. Even casting the voice actor for Kaos aside, the malicious evil who also happens to be tiny and (mostly) inept is a pretty common comedy gag. One Ripto doesn't even fall under since he wasn't inept (and Spyro calling him shorty when he was shorter than Ripto in the same cutscene was...what). 

I disagree completely. Kaos is a thousand times more threatening than Ripto could ever hope to be. By the end of Trap Team, he gained complete fourth-wall awareness and realized he needed to take out the player themselves as well as the Skylanders, and SuperChargers starts with him having basically already won. And even though he was hijacked by the Darkness at the end, Kaos had already backstabbed it and reclaimed his role as Big Bad, and that was the third game in a row he achieved that.

Ripto was always more bark than bite. His actions in every game he appeared in were essentially, "I'm taking advantage of this new epidemic by scattering all the Macguffins and going around acting like I'm in charge!" He never really conquers any new land (Changing the banners =/= seizing power over a nation), and I don't recall many of the Avalar citizens saying Ripto was directly responsible for the crises going on in their realms. Enter the Dragonfly has him blatantly say he screwed up his plans of conquest, and then he just goes to his arena and patiently waits for Spyro to come in and tear him a new one.

Honestly, I feel the only ways Ripto became more popular than the Sorceress or Gnasty Gnorc were through demeanor and actually interacting with Spyro. In terms of presence, he's no-doubt the least intimidating or even consequential.

[E-122-Psi]

31 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

I think Kaos in Skylanders was trying to be more Zim than Ripto. Even casting the voice actor for Kaos aside, the malicious evil who also happens to be tiny and (mostly) inept is a pretty common comedy gag. One Ripto doesn't even fall under since he wasn't inept (and Spyro calling him shorty when he was shorter than Ripto in the same cutscene was...what). 

Early 3D games didn't seem to have as much concept of size scale. Boss models were nearly always oversized to get away with basic hit boxes (remember giant Fang and Metal in XTreme preview shots?) while the playable character usually had the shortest model.

I remember a similar deal with Crash. Cortex was supposed to be vertically challenged but Crash was dwarfed by him, and even his 'little sister' in the early games. It was the later games and remakes that made him a bit taller.

Ripto not inept however? I dunno, while he wasn't harmless outright, he still blundered his way around from the moment he first appeared, just the characters underestimated him (and Moneybags' flexibility in selling out) during the third act. He does arguably put up the best fight out of all the three main bosses in the end however, being neither a frail coward like Gnasty Gnorc or a villain ball throwing narcissist like the Sorceress.

[Blueknight V2.0]

More concept art for Ripto. Wait a minute, I thought what we got yesterday was concept art. I guess that was in-game after all.

[Your Vest Friend]

Oh hey, turns out it's from the same person who redesigned Bubba. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I honestly think that looks immensely better than the box art version. I think it's actually a really nice update similar to N Sane's Cortex.

[Jango]

SPYRO 2 GAMEPLAY, BOIS LES GO

 

[Blueknight V2.0]

54 minutes ago, Jango said:

SPYRO 2 GAMEPLAY, BOIS LES GO

 

Interesting, this is actually my first time I ever checked into Ripto's Rage gameplay. The gameplay seems like a challenge based twist compared to Year of the Dragon.

[KHCast]

It looks so good omg. THE TIKIS.

really hope they’ll make Sparx’s gameplay a bit less...meh? I mean they weren’t bad, but definitely were the low point imo for 2.

[Your Vest Friend]

You don't play as Sparx in 2, how could that be the low point of it?

[KHCast]

1 minute ago, VEDJ-F said:

You don't play as Sparx in 2, how could that be the low point of it?

Was it 3? I’m mixing the two. Could have sworn it was in 2, but wouldn’t shock me if it’s 3 considering all the other playable characters in that game. Guess I’ll attribute my concern with that game then 

[Jango]

Now that the "OMG FIRST SPYRO 2 FOOTAGE" effect has passed I can look at it more critically.

The good: obviously the visuals look amazing, the new level of detail is fan-fucking-tastic and IMO, it never feel "clustered" or too much. Animations look better overhall, the gem counter adds the numbers one by one like in the original, also, the gems have different shapes like they used to! Swimming looks great, some sound effects are improoved too, like the gem collecting bling. Enemies design look amazing, holy shit I love it. Zoe looks much more unique too. Voice acting sounds solid. 

The bad: level feeling. You can't barely even see the sky. In the original, the lake area with the tiki that eats fish had the sky fully visible, while here, it looks like you're inside a cave of sorts. Idol Springs' sky had a nice purple-orange-pink-ish skybox, kinda like a sunset in the summer. Here... You can't even see it and the lighthing doesn't give that feeling, it looks like the level takes place in the morning

The ugly: characters design. Yeah, they're not BAD, but they missed the point there. All the things that made the original unique are gone. The monobrow, the black-dot eye and the little mouth... Shame. The text box looks fugly too. Some things look unfinished, like the hula girls' dance. Also, the orb animation is gone and the new one isn't great...

Wish we could hear the music.

Other than that, still loving the effort and love put into these remakes, and the team looks really passionate about working on it, was were VV with Crash. 

[Teoskaven]

The only thing that kinds bugs me out a bit is that the animation for getting the orbs seems to be similar to the one for getting the talismans instead of the orb bouncing towards you. It could be a placeholder though.

[KHCast]

Yeah it’s a little distancing of them in the video to say they looked at the games in detail and the animations and whatnot, but then also not get the orb bouncing down. Nitpick sure, but still something that would have been a nice touch.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

On 2/13/2018 at 7:57 PM, VEDJ-F said:

Clancy Brown was treated poorly

Been meaning to ask about the context behind that. 

[TheOcelot]

Concept art for Spyro 2:

 

[Kittea]

I'll have a more thorough look at the video when I get the chance but for now I like what I've seen ^^

I will say I'm not keen on Zoe's design. I don't know how to describe it. She just looks a bit plain? Also the Orb animation is really intrusive and they definitely need to tone it down a fair bit.

I wish the commentators for each of these streams would take a break for a couple of mins during each video to give us a chance to hear the music lol I love what I've heard so far despite some aspects of the original versions being toned down a bit ^^ Tree Tops sounds fantastic!

[Forte-Metallix]

Thanks to a pre-order poster, we can see tiny renders of Bentley and Sheila!

 

And here's another poster with a new Spyro render:

Spoiler

 

[Blueknight V2.0]

Alright guys they just updated the panelist list and they include 3 Insomniac Games employees; Ted Price, Brian Hastings and Brian Allgeier.

And now there could be a lot more possibilities for the trilogy in the way of extra content.

Now some brand new gameplay of Stone Hill, Town Square and Peace Keepers from Spyro 1.

Now there are more screenshots thanks to PEZ

And some concept art for Spyro

Now we got evidence that we'll see something later today, what could it be? Spyro 3 Year of the Dragon I think so.

Could Stewart Copeland be returning for the Spyro Reignited Trilogy? Could be possible and I think we'll find out something in a few days during SDCC 2018. Also we got a full level playthrough of the Colossus level from Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage in the Reignited Trilogy with thanks to Josh Gaming for posting this on YouTube.

 

[Jango]

Hot damn! Colossus is on point save for a few small changes here and there, but the new layer of charm and detail always compensates. And wow, I don't know what happened, but Colossus music is perfect! Copeland... Could it be?

Funnily enough, Town Square, Stone Hill and Peacemakers still have toned down soundtracks and are clearly old builds/footages, so hopefully they're adjusting the soundtrack as we speak. But seriously, Colossus music is spot on. 

Still, man, they gotta redesign the text boxes and change that font, as a graphic designer myself, this bothers me more than it should xD