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


Ryannumber1gamer

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Two more shots:

image.jpg

image.jpg

9 minutes ago, Blue Wisp said:

Spyro looks so animated even from stills, looks like a living cartoon.

Hnnng.

Lovely. Just lovely.

I for one accept our new platformer remakes overlords.

Now where's my Gex HD remake Konami.

Square owns Gex.

And the platformer remakes we need are Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie.

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I think this is whatcha call one o' them "day one" purchases. Mmm hmm.

I'll be there with bells on. Gimme some o' dat sweet sweet nostalgia.

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10 minutes ago, Marcello said:

Square owns Gex.

thatsthejoke.jpg

But a Banjo remake wouldn't be bad at all. But it might be a Microsoft exclusive perhaps.

One step at a time though. With Crash and Spyro it's time for platform mascots getting remade to the spotlight.

Fuck Yooka Laylee.

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Mmmm this is the good stuff I've been waiting for! Welcome back Old School Spyro I'm ready to be your fan again baby!

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39 minutes ago, Marcello said:

Two more shots:

image.jpg

image.jpg

Okay, now this...

This looks even better than what they did with Crash. I can't wait to see 2 and 3.

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One thing you gotta give TFB credit, which was clear in Skylanders, and it's shining even more here, is how they give their models personality. All redesigned enemies we've seen so far feel like their own characters, not random mooks. Even Sparx, who looks like a crack addict, I can see the intention, he's an energetic firefly, he's always flying circles around Spyro, he'll fly into the camera if you put the controller down, so they gave him this ''always alert'' expression.

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2 hours ago, AlphaRuby said:

 

Cue the vocal minority angry about it not being all to PS4.

 

Like I said involving Crash. Exclusivity begging,  while legit annoying and quite possibly the worst thing from consumers,  is not a big enough mass to appease, thank goodness.

Their miniscule loss equals the majority's gain if this all turns out to be legit. 

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While I'm not a Spyro fans, this seems kinda good so I may get it. (After I get Crash)

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I can't get over Sparx' face on that screenshot. It cracks me up, lmao. He looks dead inside xD Probably just a bad angle anyways. Can't be mad at this view, tho'. Everything looks so good... Exceeeeept the logo. I don't know, the NST logo had more visual flair and was more balanced. I'm a graphic designer, let me have this :V

Can't wait for the trailer, the anxiety is not letting me work properly this morning xD

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Artisans looks just..........gobsmackingly beautiful I honestly can’t wait to this in motion. I remember the Unreal Engine proof of concept from a few years back that didn’t look THIS good.

Between this , Spider-Man , Mania Plus and a potential Sonic Racer this year I’m dizzy.

Red Dead Redemption isn’t gonna get a look in.

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Looks ok. I have no idea who the team working on it is. I hope they don't  mess wi5h old controls to bad :/

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Okay guys analyses time, thanks to VTNVIVI on this great video, that I woke up to. This is great can't wait for the trailer around 11AM EST, and really canot wait to see my first Spyro game (Year of the Dragon) reimagined.I wil cover as much as I can on my blog Bluestreak over at Wordpress if you guys are interested, while also keep you guys informed here. Does anyone else think this looks better than the Legend of Spyro Trilogy, especially Dawn of the Dragon?

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This will be a bit of a long post, since there's a lot to get out, so bear with me on this.

For context, the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy ranks as one of my all time favourite game trilogies, damn near as much as the Mega Drive Sonic the Hedgehogs. I love how good the controls are, Stewart Copeland's music is one of the quintessential PS1 classics, and I especially love how simple, but beautiful the graphics are. It's still impressive after all this time how the games even run to begin with, considering that free-roaming 3D environments were impossible to do on the PS1 (at least, compared to something like the N64).

However, I've never been on here to discuss the PS4 remakes. This was for two reasons:

1. If they weren't outright confirmed, I didn't want to get involved in an eternal session of speculation where we'd keep taking guesses over random points of potentially meaningless evidence.

2. I have no interest in these remakes. Ignoring the fact that I already have all three games, so this wouldn't have meant much to me as is, I'm worried that these remakes will get things wrong. And I'm calling this, and the N-Sane Trilogy, a REMAKE - because that's what it is. It may be an attempt to faithfully recreate the originals by as close an approximation as possible, but that is a remake - making something from the ground up. The 2011 version of Sonic CD is a remake, since it is made within a new engine. Shadow of the Colossus on the PS4 is a remake, since the assets are brand new. And this new Spyro trilogy is a remake, since there will be changes made.

And that's what had me worried since the possibility of these was first brought up. That like the N-Sane Trilogy, the developer (presumably Toys for Bob, but I'll leave it blank for now) will try to create the closest equivalent to the original games as they can, and will therefore be off with a few things. I don't mind changes or deviations from the source material, but when it's attempting to be a very faithful remake of a certain game, they risk hitting an uncanny valley effect where it's close enough, but not close enough that I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it.

I had no interest in discussing these remakes unless asked, but then I saw those screenshots. And we need to talk.

First off, the character models are pretty good. Spyro's a bit chunky at the front (reminds me a bit of a pregnant cat), but I think it works, and he's quite expressive. The enemy designs in Spyro 1 were not that game's strong point, so any change is already going to be an improvement. They look expressive, and could work quite well.

No, my problem is with the environments, and how unappealing they look. Yes, I said unappealing. They don't look bad, in the sense that they're well constructed approximations of the original level designs, but my problems stem from their use of aesthetics and colour.

For a start, they remind way, way too much of those fan remakes where someone takes a level from an old game, sticks it in a new engine, and leaves it at that. (Or they add details upon details upon details until the aesthetic is overly cluttered and busy.) There's so much focus put towards using all this new technology to add little details and cool effects that they don't realize how washed out the colour palette looks, or how its clean design has been utterly swamped in more miscellaneous details than Jim Lee's artwork. Yes, it can look impressive in a comparison to the original visuals, but that eventually fades into the back of your mind and becomes meaningless.

Secondly, the original games had a very strong consideration for colour theory in how it influenced the look of the levels, their mood, and the level design. Most famously, colour theory was used in making Spyro purple - he was originally green, but it blended in too well with the green hills of early levels, so Insomniac went through many different colours until they found one that stood out against any of the game's backdrops. Colour theory was very important in creating levels that had a particular feeling, while still having every element be easily identifiable to the player (which helps them to orient where everything is, and makes things less strenuous for players with impaired vision). And this isn't coming from someone with a very strong knowledge of colour theory: this was the subject of a Gamasutra feature written by the game's original artists back in 2000. This shit's been public knowledge for nearly 20 years!

But these screenshots imply a disregard for that colour theory, with the standard washed out colours, pale sunlight for no particular reason, lighting that blends levels in with the skyboxes, and the other aesthetic problems that plagued the N-Sane Trilogy. Again, when it's trying to be as faithful a remake as possible, the idea that the developer seems to be disregarding the use of colour theory that made the original games so visually appealing is just... bothersome. Like, there's more to faithfully recreating a game than just getting the gameplay right, you know? If you're not going to do the visuals justice, or you replace the iconic soundtrack with a meaningless wall of noise, or you ignore the pacing and mood that made the original so distinct (to name but a few of the countless things that go into remaking a game) - then why bother?

Why not do something different; something new that you can call your own without forcing people to make comparisons? These decisions don't have to be bad (and sometimes aren't; the Magic Crafters world looks quite good), but these are decisions that should be held under greater scrutiny if the intent is to recreate something to the best of one's ability. I know there's not much that can be done about this - this looks quite far along, and I'm not aware enough of game development to know how long it would take to adjust the environments until they were a PS4 equivalent of what the originals' simple and clean designs, so there might not be enough time to do that. And with how pleased people are as to how the game looks (which, like the N-Sane Trilogy, I'd chalk up to the excitement of an old franchise coming back being a strong influence), I doubt the developer will feel much incentive to bother.

I hate that this bothers me so much (particularly since I'm doing that whole "complain about a game that's not out yet" thing that I once criticized - in a shitty video I made back when Skylanders was first announced, to boot!). But I just feel like these visuals could be so much better than they are, especially when this will be the definitive (or most easily accessible) way to play the original games for quite some time. I hope the remakes are good, but this combined with my prior lack of interest has just got me as turned off as I possibly could be.

To everyone who's excited for this, I hope you enjoy 'em, and I hope they do well enough to bring the series back. I'm just not interested. Sorry.

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Did Spyro do alot of flying instead of gliding in the original game, then why pass DotD off as the first time with free flight? Because a lot of the screenshots feature Spyro flying.

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4 minutes ago, Blue Knight/Bluestreak said:

Did Spyro do alot of flying instead of gliding in the original game, then why pass DotD off as the first time with free flight? Because a lot of the screenshots feature Spyro flying.

No, it was gliding in the originals, except with a powerup that granted free-flight for a short period of time. It's likely just the angles taken with the screenshots.

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It's looks amazing. They nailed the design of spyro. It's new but it's familiar. I know It's made the same guys who did skylanders but I'm putting faith in them. 

 

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When I woke up to this I seriously though that the screenshots were CG or just artwork. Holy hell this game looks insane.

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It begins.....

 

The quality of the cosmetics looks pretty much on par to Crash N Sane Trilogy so far. The scenery looks AWESOME, the models have the same slightly smoothed out design that saps out a bit of the cartooniness, but are otherwise nicely on-model and attractive. I'm wondering how the other characters like Hunter and Bianca will turn out.

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10 minutes ago, Apollo Chungus said:

This will be a bit of a long post, since there's a lot to get out, so bear with me on this.

For context, the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy ranks as one of my all time favourite game trilogies, damn near as much as the Mega Drive Sonic the Hedgehogs. I love how good the controls are, Stewart Copeland's music is one of the quintessential PS1 classics, and I especially love how simple, but beautiful the graphics are. It's still impressive after all this time how the games even run to begin with, considering that free-roaming 3D environments were impossible to do on the PS1 (at least, compared to something like the N64).

However, I've never been on here to discuss the PS4 remakes. This was for two reasons:

1. If they weren't outright confirmed, I didn't want to get involved in an eternal session of speculation where we'd keep taking guesses over random points of potentially meaningless evidence.

2. I have no interest in these remakes. Ignoring the fact that I already have all three games, so this wouldn't have meant much to me as is, I'm worried that these remakes will get things wrong. And I'm calling this, and the N-Sane Trilogy, a REMAKE - because that's what it is. It may be an attempt to faithfully recreate the originals by as close an approximation as possible, but that is a remake - making something from the ground up. The 2011 version of Sonic CD is a remake, since it is made within a new engine. Shadow of the Colossus on the PS4 is a remake, since the assets are brand new. And this new Spyro trilogy is a remake, since there will be changes made.

And that's what had me worried since the possibility of these was first brought up. That like the N-Sane Trilogy, the developer (presumably Toys for Bob, but I'll leave it blank for now) will try to create the closest equivalent to the original games as they can, and will therefore be off with a few things. I don't mind changes or deviations from the source material, but when it's attempting to be a very faithful remake of a certain game, they risk hitting an uncanny valley effect where it's close enough, but not close enough that I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it.

I had no interest in discussing these remakes unless asked, but then I saw those screenshots. And we need to talk.

First off, the character models are pretty good. Spyro's a bit chunky at the front (reminds me a bit of a pregnant cat), but I think it works, and he's quite expressive. The enemy designs in Spyro 1 were not that game's strong point, so any change is already going to be an improvement. They look expressive, and could work quite well.

No, my problem is with the environments, and how unappealing they look. Yes, I said unappealing. They don't look bad, in the sense that they're well constructed approximations of the original level designs, but my problems stem from their use of aesthetics and colour.

For a start, they remind way, way too much of those fan remakes where someone takes a level from an old game, sticks it in a new engine, and leaves it at that. (Or they add details upon details upon details until the aesthetic is overly cluttered and busy.) There's so much focus put towards using all this new technology to add little details and cool effects that they don't realize how washed out the colour palette looks, or how its clean design has been utterly swamped in more miscellaneous details than Jim Lee's artwork. Yes, it can look impressive in a comparison to the original visuals, but that eventually fades into the back of your mind and becomes meaningless.

Secondly, the original games had a very strong consideration for colour theory in how it influenced the look of the levels, their mood, and the level design. Most famously, colour theory was used in making Spyro purple - he was originally green, but it blended in too well with the green hills of early levels, so Insomniac went through many different colours until they found one that stood out against any of the game's backdrops. Colour theory was very important in creating levels that had a particular feeling, while still having every element be easily identifiable to the player (which helps them to orient where everything is, and makes things less strenuous for players with impaired vision). And this isn't coming from someone with a very strong knowledge of colour theory: this was the subject of a Gamasutra feature written by the game's original artists back in 2000. This shit's been public knowledge for nearly 20 years!

But these screenshots imply a disregard for that colour theory, with the standard washed out colours, pale sunlight for no particular reason, lighting that blends levels in with the skyboxes, and the other aesthetic problems that plagued the N-Sane Trilogy. Again, when it's trying to be as faithful a remake as possible, the idea that the developer seems to be disregarding the use of colour theory that made the original games so visually appealing is just... bothersome. Like, there's more to faithfully recreating a game than just getting the gameplay right, you know? If you're not going to do the visuals justice, or you replace the iconic soundtrack with a meaningless wall of noise, or you ignore the pacing and mood that made the original so distinct (to name but a few of the countless things that go into remaking a game) - then why bother?

Why not do something different; something new that you can call your own without forcing people to make comparisons? These decisions don't have to be bad (and sometimes aren't; the Magic Crafters world looks quite good), but these are decisions that should be held under greater scrutiny if the intent is to recreate something to the best of one's ability. I know there's not much that can be done about this - this looks quite far along, and I'm not aware enough of game development to know how long it would take to adjust the environments until they were a PS4 equivalent of what the originals' simple and clean designs, so there might not be enough time to do that. And with how pleased people are as to how the game looks (which, like the N-Sane Trilogy, I'd chalk up to the excitement of an old franchise coming back being a strong influence), I doubt the developer will feel much incentive to bother.

I hate that this bothers me so much (particularly since I'm doing that whole "complain about a game that's not out yet" thing that I once criticized - in a shitty video I made back when Skylanders was first announced, to boot!). But I just feel like these visuals could be so much better than they are, especially when this will be the definitive (or most easily accessible) way to play the original games for quite some time. I hope the remakes are good, but this combined with my prior lack of interest has just got me as turned off as I possibly could be.

To everyone who's excited for this, I hope you enjoy 'em, and I hope they do well enough to bring the series back. I'm just not interested. Sorry.

I'm just going to give my perspective here, because while I'm someone who doesn't absolutely adore Crash and Spyro's retrospective trilogies, I did grow up with them, Crash more so, since I actually started with his PS1 games, as opposed to Spyro which was PS2 era for me. Crash 3 Warped was one of my favourite games of all-time, and I still enjoyed Spyro...despite my first experience being Enter the Dragonfly (Yep, nostalgic memories with that one, despite all of the issues).

That said, when I played their retrospective trilogies later down the line, I had fun but I couldn't complete them, other than Warped. I don't really know why, they are good games, but I think I just ended up hitting burnout. To be fair, I beat Crash 2 and 3 on replaying, but 1 I couldn't never finish. And while Spyro 1 doesn't have anywhere near the problems the original Crash does...to be absolutely honest, if they go and add some quality of life additions to Spyro like they did with Crash, I probably will finish them. I'll probably even platinum them (I sure wasn't planning to do it for NST but still ended up doing it).

Personally, I don't find these as big a problem as you say they are. Ratchet, as someone who did follow the series from the first game was really good. The story sucked and the music blew in comparison to the atmospheric and catchy techno tracks of the original, but in terms of gameplay, I thought it was probably one of the best in the series, I just wish it had the same story quality and musical quality of previous games.

Crash is even more faithful, the only real change beyond the graphical upgrade was the music and general QoL stuff. And to be fair, screenshots might not be the most accurate of ways to view the game. What we see as dull and drab might actually look somewhat better when we get to see it in proper motion. 

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Woooooooo boy...

Can't wait to play "I swear these Gems were here the last time I played it decades ago™." Of course that's assuming it's 1-to-1 with minor changes. but i've only ever owned 3 and never 100% it so this doesn't apply *goblin laugh*

The really cool thing about this is that'll be a WAY meatier package then N Sane was with alot more things to collect and do this time around. So it'd be really interesting to see how things will be improved upon from the original trilogy. Namely having universal controls across all three games (excluding powerups, extra playable characters etc.) And the best the thing:

W7l0Jo.gif

Frying that snobby asshole again. (in HD!) That, I remember doing in a seperate save last time I played.

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I agree that the color pallete is different and that can change the mood and feel of a lot of levels. They should've learnt their lesson, because color liberties, if we can call that, was brough up one too many times during the N.Sane Trilogy development. Still looks beautiful if you ask me. 

But one thing they can't dare to fuck up is the soundtrack and SFX. Seriously, if they can't use Copeland's material but in higher quality, DON'T do a bastardized version of the soundtrack. Remix it as close as possible to the source.

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Trailer is up! Damnit I can't link it right now, but it's on this french website:

jeuxvideo.com

Go there!

Ninja'd 

Looks good, but like the first Crash trailer, only the first game is shown. 

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RehEs4g.png

What isn't coming out September this year at this rate? Lol.

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