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

[Rowl]

A lot of people say, that Spyro 3 of the Trilogy has the most glitches. But I didn't run into one single glitch (so far). I actually had some pretty bad, game breaking glitches in the second one. Especially in the level Zephyr. 

[Jango]

1 hour ago, Rowl said:

A lot of people say, that Spyro 3 of the Trilogy has the most glitches. But I didn't run into one single glitch (so far). I actually had some pretty bad, game breaking glitches in the second one. Especially in the level Zephyr. 

Not game breaking glitches yet, but mostly annoyances, like the "Sparx deciding he wants a vacation", the camera positioning itself in weird angles and just general graphic and animation polishment. 

Still playable and highly enjoyable tho'. Just wish all 3 were as polished as the first one.

[Rowl]

Yeah... it seems that the first one was the best polished out of them all. But still, it is a very enjoyable game. I haven't had this much fun with a 3D platformer since Banjo-Tooie.

[RedDevilDazzy]

Glitches eh, there's one you guys need to avoid altogether.....

 

[Forte-Metallix]

Rejoice, Switch owners! We may only need to wait six more months!

https://www.gonintendo.com/stories/328448-gamestop-germany-adds-listing-for-spyro-reignited-trilogy-on-swit

Here we go with this story again! Will Spyro Reignited Trilogy come to Switch? It's been a debate for quite some time, and now the latest bit of evidence comes from GameStop Germany. The retailer just added a listing for a Switch version of the game, and they say it's coming out on Aug. 16th, 2019. We'll reach out to Activision for comment, but it's likely they won't have anything to say.

[Jango]

Cool, but where's the patch?

[Blueknight V2.0]

Here's a roundup of all the evidence that the other Spyro Reignited ports may get revealed during tomorrow's Nintendo Direct. Which was confirmed about an hour before Canadian Guy Eh posted the above video.

 

I was going to make a video on this, but obviously I couldn't go into as much detail because I didn't know about half of those details. Including looking at both sites as a cross-reference.

[Jango]

Well, we didn't got Spyro on Switch today, but we got this:

If you don't have time to watch the video right now, here's some highlights:
 

Quote

- Most of the development time was spent in Spyro 1, that's why it's the most polished of the 3. Toys for Bob really wanted to make the game the best version it could be. They wanted the same for Spyro 2 and 3, but we'll get there...

- The Gnorcs' design were initially closer to the original game, more "frog-like" and less generic WoW orcs. Some of them still resemble the old design, like the ones in Ice Cavern. It's unknown why they changed it...

- Speaking of Gnorcs, their weapons were censored in Twilight Harbor because of ESRB and the mass and school shooting going on in the States... Neither Toys for Bob or Activision wanted to censor anything.

- File size... it is what it is... believe it or not, what we got is the optimized version of the game. Apparently, the full thing had 2 TB, that's over 2 thousand GB! HOW???

- Toys for Bob had less time to remake the Spyro Trilogy than Vicarious Visions had to remake the Crash Trilogy, which is just insanity, considering the first Spyro alone is denser than all 3 Crash games combined. As expected, the team had to work over 12 hours per day with Activision breathing on their necks... Spyro 3 suffered the most, the game was literally unplayable by September (the original release date), missing almost all the collision and most cutscenes. Seeing as TFB wouldn't be able to finish in time, they called over Sanzaru to help finish the game. It's amazing what they achieved in so little time. These teams deserve all the appreciation in the world.

- A patch is indeed coming to fix mostly Spyro 3. Apparently, the rush to release the game was so big, that they accidentaly shipped an outdated version of the game instead of the most recent build at the time. It's unknown tho' why it's taking them so long to release at least a minor patch...

- And finally, just like the original music toggle, an ORIGINAL GRAPHIC toggle could be featured in the game, as TFB used this tech themselves when remaking the game. It's unknown why it was removed from the final game, but it's probably because it would clash with some stuff and they didn't had more time to fix it and make it a feature instead of a development tool.

TL;DR

Activision were assholes as usual, rushed the Toys for Bob and Sanzaru and made them work overtime everyday to finish their product... Because of that, the game didn't had the level of polish the teams wanted and couldn't feature stuff that would've made it the definitive version, like the original graphics toggle. We are not worthy TFB and Sanzaru. I'll be writing them a letter later on for the miracle they've performed under such nasty work conditions by the publisher. I'm so fucking angry with Activision.

Fuck you again, Activision.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

14 minutes ago, Jango said:

Well, we didn't got Spyro on Switch today, but we got this:

If you don't have time to watch the video right, here's some highlights:
 

TL;DR

Activision were assholes as usual, rushed the Toys for Bob and Sanzaru and made them work overtime everyday to finish their product... Because of that, the game didn't had the level of polish the teams wanted and couldn't feature stuff that would've made it the definitive version, like the original graphics toggle. We are not worthy TFB and Sanzaru. I'll be writing them a letter later on for the miracle they've performed under such nasty work conditions by the publisher. I'm so fucking angry with Activision.

Fuck you again, Activision.

I fucking called it.

On 11/13/2018 at 3:53 PM, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I can tell you as someone who studied Game Design and development, traces of development doesn’t mean what a lot of us think. Back then, even between 2015 and 2016, what we were told for a potential project being in development might’ve just been core ideas. As in “this is a possibility” and nothing else.

I have my doubts they were developing Spyro in 2015, or even 2016. Crash was a risk in their eyes and I doubt they’d put Spyro in development til they knew for sure they’d get a return on the investment. Not only that, but Skylanders was still running strong with Superchargers having just released in 2015. If ANY trace of Spyro was in development in 2015, it was nothing more than Activision raising the possibility if Crash succeeds. 

When Crash began looking like it was going to be a success and Skylanders going into a bit of a hiatus in 2017, that is the only time I can truly believe they actually began development. It reeks of typical Activision greed. Crash did well so let’s not only get them ported to every console ASAP, but let’s move ahead on Spyro! It begins to make a whole lot more sense when you recall upon the first announce trailer, we only had Spyro 1 footage and nothing else. It begins to show that this was a rushed developmental process. To be absolutely honest, it makes sense now why the game was delayed, because I truly believe they literally didn’t have 2 or 3 finished and NEEDED the additional two months to get them to at least workable states. 

If you need any more evidence on this, Sansaru only just finished their last game project a few months ago (A Marvel VR game). If they’re the ones who worked on Spyro 3, that means it’s highly likely Spyro 3 only ended up with a few months of dev time likely making use of already made assets from Toys for Bob when it became apparent how much of a bad situation the game was in. 

With that, it becomes clear what REALLY happened. With the delay to November, Activision clearly rushed the game hard to make the holiday deadline, which explains not only the rushed disc print, poor optimisation and such but also explains why they’re still unpolished. 

The final piece of evidence begins to become clear when you then take into account the download controversy. It begins to make sense now why not only is the disc contents total rubbish, but why the game itself when downloaded reaches 70GB, more than GTA V, and Spider-Man PS4. The rushed development likely means Toys for Bob and Sansaru got little to no time to actually figure out how to compress their assets and such and optimise them to fit into a lower file size without losing quality, because put simply, Activision rushed development and it came down to either optimising the game or trying to ensure as much of it was in a polished state as possible.

Now, is this what happened? I don’t know, I could be completely wrong, but that’s the only conclusion I can come to when you tie everything together.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

3 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I fucking called it.

Like me and everyone else familiar enough with Activision

[Jango]

Still unbelievable what they achieved. They probably really started developing (modeling, animating, rendering) in January 2018, which is crazy. I am sad.

[Rowl]

Yeah, I'm not surprised by this. If you work in the art industry, not matter if you are a writer, an animator or a game programmer, you will be nothing more than a tool for the higher-ups. Those rich bastards always forget that the people who make their games and movies are still human beings and not machines. Activision is just like any other company that demands their employees to work 15 hours a day, with no weekends, a low salary and if they ever break down of exhaustion, they will get fired, blacklisted and will never find a job in this industry again.  

[Jango]

It just makes me sad for them. Actually, not just sad, but also simpatize. The art industry can be nasty, as well put by @Rowl.

The developers' health should be over the game's quality, always, one thing will influence on another. No human being works better or delivers better when under great pressure, sick or tired, that shit is a myth. There's a certain point after long hours of works that it just won't go anymore. I work in a creative field (graphic design) and I've done some, arguibly too many, overtimes. 12 to 15 hours a day isn't right. Artists/creatives tend to be perfectionists, which is another thing to consider, they always want to deliver the best, but when deadlines and higher-ups' pressure don't allow it, they crack. I hate making a half-assed work just to deliver in time. I know that's "how the market is", but it ain't ideal. I wouldn't have minded another 2, 3, even 6 months delay, as long as the developers were free to give their best on their time. 

And even then, the Trilogy still managed to be great, so beyond sad, I'm amazed by these two teams. I'm sure if they were given the correct development time (seriously, less than a year to build 3 big games from the ground up?) the game would've turned even greater. Still, it's amazing what we got by November.

[Rowl]

I recently finished Spyro 1. Got 120%. Out of the three original games from the trilogy, I really liked Spyro 1 the most. It is easily the most polished out of the three. I didn't run into one single glitch in the game. Unlike with Spyro 2 and 3 which both had some really bad game breaking glitches.

Too bad Activision didn't give ToB and SG more time to fix the game. I personally would give the game an 8/10. But maybe only a 7/10. Kinda depends on how many glitches Ripto's Rage and Year of the Dragon still have hidden in their games. I'm still not done with those two. 

[Jango]

This patch must hurry, man. I haven't finished 3 yet.

[Rowl]

1 hour ago, Jango said:

This patch must hurry, man. I haven't finished 3 yet.

I hope so. I got a really bad glitch with one mission in Enchanted Towers, where the wolf puppy always gets stuck on the one pillar and will not move away. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Am I really the only one who was able to finish every game 100% without getting hit with any of the game breaking bugs?

Keep in mind, I’m not saying they don’t exist, I’ve seen the posts and images on Reddit proving they do, but I feel like with how common people seem to imply it is, I just got ridculously lucky.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

4 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

just got ridculously lucky.

You certainly did. This game while good,  is quite a buggy mess. Not the worst, but it clearly would've been better optimized under better development conditions. 

[Marcello]

43 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Am I really the only one who was able to finish every game 100% without getting hit with any of the game breaking bugs?

Keep in mind, I’m not saying they don’t exist, I’ve seen the posts and images on Reddit proving they do, but I feel like with how common people seem to imply it is, I just got ridculously lucky.

I never ran into them either. I got 100%+ and the Platinum Trophies for all three games and I never had anything bad happen.

[Rowl]

This game isn't a glitchy, buggy mess like Sonic 06 or Boom, but still has some pretty bad glitches here and there. So far I have found three of them that broke the game for me: Two in Ripto's Rage and one in Year of the Dragon. 

Those two games also had other glitches, which didn't break the game, but kinda killed off the atmosphere for me. Like in the boss battle with Gulp the music and sound effects were suddenly missing. 

[Jango]

This glitches are nothing but lack of polishment and testing due to lack of correct development conditions and time... 

I wonder if the patch will come out with the Nintendo Switch's release, that is, August 16th. A bit far way, but understandable. Maybe a big chunck of the dev team is working on the port.

[TheOcelot]

When I platted all three games I encountered no glitches in Spyro 1 & 2 and only a few in Year of the Dragon.  The Reignited Trilogy is fantastic and the devs have done a brilliant job. It's just such a shame they weren't given the development time which a game of this stature deserved so that they could make it as polished as possible. Similar perhaps to Mania's development, in that whilst Mania was delayed for three months it was still released with a tone of glitches along with half the story cutscenes missing, which was disappointing. Granted Mania did get a bare-bones patch soon after release, and then a more significent patch nearly a year later (at the same time Mania Plus was released) which fixed lot of glitches and added the missing cutscenes, but it doesn't change the fact that the original game was still released buggy and incomplete. So if/when the Reignited Trirlogy does get a (very welcome) patch which hopefully fixes the glitches (and maybe adds cut-content) it still doesn't change the fact that the original game was not as polished as it should have been when it first came out.

I shouldn't have to pay full price for an unfinished game... Activision has a lot to answer for.

I really hope CTR Nitro-Fuelled is given the dev time it deserves.

[Jango]

Also, the patch might actually included what's behind Artisans' castle door. That door can't be for nothing, I refuse to believe.

Also, they could make start-up the menus cooler, right? I'm pretty sure they wanted to, but couldn't because of time constraints. It's impossible that they deliberately made parts of the game incredibly refined and detailed and some looking unfinished... Fucking Activision, should've let them take their time.

[Graystripe2000]

New patch is out. AND IT INCLUDES SUBTITLES BABY!

https://support.activision.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Latest-Updates-for-Spyro-Reignited-Trilogy

[Forte-Metallix]

21 minutes ago, Operationgamer17 said:

New patch is out. AND IT INCLUDES SUBTITLES BABY!

https://support.activision.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Latest-Updates-for-Spyro-Reignited-Trilogy

MOTION BLUR

Added an option to toggle motion blur on/off under the Options → Camera menu
BUG FIXES

Fixed progression and completion bugs impacting Wizard Peak, Hurricos, Fracture Fills, Lost Fleet, Fireworks Factory, and Charmed Ridge
Fixed camera bugs in Sgt. Byrd's Base and Dino Mines
Stability improvement fix in Spider Town
Additional misc. bug-fixes and improvements impacting Glimmer and Ripto's Arena

 

Oh, thank heavens. Still haven't played this trilogy, but I've heard horror stories about these levels in particular. (Though I recall the original Byrd's Base having a bad camera, too)