Spyro the Dragon (character)
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| Spyro the Dragon | |
|---|---|
| Game series | Spyro the Dragon |
| First game | Spyro the Dragon |
| Created by | Charles Zembillas |
| Voiced by (English) | Carlos Alazraqui (1998) Tom Kenny (1999-2002) Jess Harnell (2004-05) Elijah Wood (2006-present) |
| Voiced by (Japanese) | Akiko Yajima |
Spyro the Dragon is the main character of the Spyro the Dragon series. The first three games of the series were developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America for the PlayStation.
Contents |
[edit] Characteristics
[edit] Personality
[edit] Original Series
No character description is given for Spyro in Spyro: Ripto's Rage!, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, or Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, but one is provided in Spyro: The Dragon, giving a definite personality written for at least one of the games in the series. Spyro's character description in the game manual for The Dragon is narrated by Sparx:
"Spyro is the mischievous hero of this tale. He may be the smallest hero in the Dragon Family, but even the Elder Dragons admit he's got gumption! Just ask Gnasty Gnorc - he won't mess with Spyro again! Spyro's always rarin' to go, especially when he can headbash some sheep or flame some frogs. He's so full of energy, he keeps me on the move! Spyro is extremely curious and hardly ever cautious, which sometimes gets him into trouble! That's why I stick around, to make sure nothing too serious happens to him!" Sparx
It could be presumed that Spyro is quite cocky, as he says in Spyro: A Hero's Tail when thieves steal eggs in the dragon nursery and the nursery owner asks if he could go after him he says, "You know, I'm gonna be out saving the world anyway..."
Spyro has become much more arrogant after the original trilogy, and in more recent outings, has actually denied help to those who did not expressly indicate that they would award him. Also, any friendship he had with Elora has seemingly been severed, instead having Ember in her place. Most will argue, however, that Elora and Ember are not to be considered to be replacements for each other. In any event, Spyro is most likely still friends with both characters.
[edit] The Legend of Spyro
In the new continuity, Spyro's personality differs greatly from his past outings. Spyro is young and compassionate for others and he is always willing to help them no matter what happens. Spyro doesn't asks for rewards and is just happy to be a big help to those in danger. He even saves Cynder from being destroyed when the area he fought her in was collapsing.
[edit] Appearance
When the first game was being developed, Spyro was originally green. However, this would result in him periodically "disappearing" while standing or moving in front of similarly-colored green scenery. To remedy this, his color was changed to purple. [1] Starting with Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Spyro's rendered art displays a ridge of yellow spikes down his back, although this was not reflected by Spyro's in-game model until A Hero's Tail.
Spyro has a resemblance to the Disney character Figment. The primary difference between the two is Figment being bipedal and frequently seen in a yellow sweater.
[edit] Abilities and Upgrades
Spyro's main attacks consist of ramming his opponents with his long horns or breathing fire at them. Because he is young, Spyro can't fly very well and can't breath a continuous stream of fire, instead spitting short, fan shaped bursts. In several of the games there are gates that temporarily give Spyro the ability to fly, spit massive fireballs, spit ice, and charge at an extremely fast speed. In the third game, in the Fireworks Factory level, there is a power-up gate that gives a combination of the fireball and flight upgrades for the purpose of defeating two evil Oriental dragons that are rampaging. In Enter the Dragonfly Spyro gets 3 different breaths:ice, electricity, and bubble. He also could shield attacks with his wings. In 'The Eternal Night', to remedy Spyro's limited stream of Fire Breath, an upgrade available early in the game allows him to finally shoot a continuous flow of fire.
In addition to these temporary power-ups, there are often unlockable abilities that can be purchased, such as a climbing, head bash and swimming underwater in Ripto's Rage, but Spyro is useless when he tries to swim in other substances (such as ooze and honey), he can't swim in those.
In the Legend of Spyro series, Spyro gains 3 additional elemental abilities besides his fire breath: Ice, Electricity, and Earth. In 'The Eternal Night', he temporarily becomes the extremely powerful "Dark Spyro" when he is possessed by the Dark Master, the main villain. The "Dark Spyro" character can be unlocked as a skin for Spyro after completeing 5 secret challanges.
[edit] Character history
[edit] Original series
[edit] Early Childhood
As told in the Japanese Spyro the Dragon manual and an interview with Sparx by The DNN (Dragon News Network), some details of Spyro's past is known. Two thieves were running off past the dragon kingdom with two eggs. At this time, the dragon realms were at peace. One was a red dragon egg while the other was a yellow dragonfly egg. The dragons caught the thieves red handed with the 2 eggs, then the thieves dropped the eggs. The dragons took the eggs as their own and cared for them until they hatched. The Dragonfly egg hatched first, his name was Sparx. Sparx used to crawl around the dragon's egg when he was a larvae. One day, the red dragon egg became hot, as if breathing fire from the inside. The Dragon hatches from the red egg, his name was Spyro. By this time, Sparx was a fully fledged dragonfly. Spyro rescued Sparx from a bird and they became the best of friends. It is unknown of where they came from or where are their parents.
[edit] Dragon Realms
In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty Gnorc attacks the Dragon Realms, freezing all the dragons in crystal statues and turning all of the dragon's treasury into minions called "Gnorcs" after being called ugly. Spyro, the one dragon Gnasty's magic spell failed to effect due to his small size, realized this, and set out across the Dragon Realms to free the resident dragons and recover their treasure. After traveling through many worlds, freeing many dragons and disposing of all of Gnasty Gnorcs's minions, Spyro challenged, pursued, and defeated Gnasty Gnorc (though he later returns) and rescued all of the Dragon Realms' treasure as well as the remaining dragons.
[edit] Avalar
Several weeks after defeating Gnasty Gnorc, during an extended period of rainy weather, Spyro decided that he needed a vacation from the Dragon Realms. Noticing a portal to the location of "Dragon Shores", he entered the portal to escape the weather. However, to his surprise, he arrived in a realm called Avalar, because the residents had redirected the portal to bring him there instead. Avalar includes portals like Skelos Badlands, Glimmer and Idol Springs and bosses like Gulp and Ripto. After a confusing moment, he encountered the dictator Ripto, who accused the residents of "bringing a dragon to Avalar." A brief tussle ensued, ending with Ripto's escape to Avalar's Summer Forest homeworld after his magical sceptre fell into the maw of his steed, Gulp. At Elora's request, Spyro visited the realms of Avalar and recovered several talismans, then pursued Ripto and fought against one of Ripto's minions, Crush.
After Crush was crushed under a pile of rocks, Ripto and Gulp escaped to Autumn Plains, and Spyro pursued them. In Autumn Plains, he was asked to help out the residents and recover the rest of Avalar's talismans. Spyro caught up to Ripto, and fought against his steed, Gulp. Elora assisted by providing weapons to use against Gulp; Ripto fell off the battle area after the battle, and Elora gave Spyro a place to rest while she returned to the Professor to check up on a portal to return Spyro home.
Spyro decided to search for Elora and found himself in Winter Tundra, he was met with news that Ripto was still alive, and had locked himself inside the Tundra's palace. Once more, Spyro was asked to travel through the local portals, this time to recover enough Orbs to challenge Ripto with. Spyro succeeded, and challenged Ripto to a duel. Zoe, the fairy, informed Spyro that the Professor was working on new types of Orbs, and a fierce battle ensued, with both Spyro and Ripto using powers from the Orbs for attack. Ripto used one Orb to create a large, mechanized version of his steed Gulp. When Spyro destroyed that, Ripto used another Orb to transform the arena floor into lava, while creating a large bird to help finish Spyro off. Spyro combatted them in an aerial duel, however, and defeated him, sending him and his bird to their demises in the pool of lava. Spyro was then sent to Dragon Shores.
[edit] Forgotten Realms
In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, The Dragon Realms were celebrating an important event: the Year of the Dragon Festival. Every twelve years during this time, the fairies deliver 150 dragon eggs to the Dragon Realms, which will become the next generation of dragons. The dragons celebrated until they fell over from exhaustion and slept. While they were asleep, a mysterious rabbit girl named Bianca came with an army of rhynoc creatures to steal the dragon eggs. The dragons woke up to notice their newest dragon egg brood gone, and found Bianca trying to steal the last remaining dragon egg. Spyro, Sparx and Hunter attempted to stop Bianca, but it was too late. She took the egg back through a wormhole to the realm where the dragons once lived: the Forgotten Realms. Her master, known as the Sorceress, was beginning to lose her powers, due to the fact that the dragons, the source of the world's magic, had migrated to the other side of the planet. She took the dragon eggs, planning to use them in a spell to give her eternal life and power.
After the elder dragons tried to fit through the wormhole, they determined that only Spyro was small enough, meaning that he had go to the Forgotten Realms and recover the 150 eggs. The Sorceress, along with Bianca, created monsters to fend off Spyro, but he defeated them. Along the way Spyro recruited four new allies, including Sheila the Kangaroo, Sgt. James Byrd, Bentley the Yeti, and Agent 9, a monkey in the Professor's (from Spyro 2) service, all of whom were being held prisoner by Moneybags at the behest of the Sorceress. As Spyro arrived in the Midnight Mountain world, Bianca realized how far her master would go to achieve power. She betrayed the Sorceress and went to Spyro's side, releasing Hunter from a trap he had fallen into and opening the door to the Sorceress's lair (after Spyro found 100 eggs). In a great battle, Spyro defeated The Sorceress. She was not killed, however. He had to recover 149 of the missing eggs, as well as 20,000 gems to fight her again in a secret region of the Forgotten Realms. After taking control of a spaceship, Spyro shot down the Sorceress once and for all, recovering the final egg and saving the Dragons from extinction.
[edit] Other adventures
In "Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly", Ripto steals and scatters all of the dragonflies (for the young dragons previously born in Spyro: Year of the Dragon), and Spyro set out across the realms, learning new abilities from an ancient dragon elder, to recover the dragonflies and to teach Ripto a lesson.
In Spyro: Season of Ice, Spyro travelled to the Fairy Realms to rescue the resident fairies (including Zoe), who had been trapped in ice following one Rhynoc's misguided attempt to cast an enchantment of strength and intelligence upon himself.
In Spyro 2: Season of Flame, Spyro found the Dragon Realms grown icy cold (even his own fire-breath frozen into breath of ice), Due to Ripto taking the Fireflies, Bianca was able to restore his normal flame breath with the magic of a few fireflies, Spyro searched again throughout the Realms to recover the other missing fireflies.
In Spyro (a mobile phone game), Spyro was the special guest of the Fairy Queen for the Royal Ball. But before the party began, none of the fairies were ready. Their dresses were locked in magical chests. Spyro set off to unlock the chests to get their dresses to get them ready.
In Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs, Ripto tried invading again, and was successfully able to take over the Professor's laboratory and drive Spyro out; Spyro was tasked with travelling throughout the Realms to recover twelve 'Hearts', in order to open a passage back to the Professor's lab and confront Ripto again.
In Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, Ripto teamed up with Doctor Neo Cortex to get rid of their foes. Spyro meets Crash Bandicoot and they teamed up to defeat Ripto and Dr. Cortex.
In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Spyro discovers that the Dragon Realms were being plunged into darkness, this time by an evil resident and a Dragon Elder from a long time ago named Red. With the help of four allies, Spyro defeated Red and Gnasty Gnorc again.
In Spyro: Ripto's Quest, Ripto attacks once more, forcing Spyro to set out and recover parts of a machine protecting the realms of Fire, Grass, Ice, and to defeat Ripto again.
In Spyro: Shadow Legacy, Spyro fought against a dark sorcerer attempting to seize control of the Dragon realms using dark, shadowy mirrors of each Dragon Realm (called the Shadow Realms). Spyro learned the art of "dragon-kata" (melee attacks) and the use of magic from the Dragon Elders, and set out to rescue those the Sorcerer held captive, and defeat the Sorcerer himself.
Spyro met up with Crash Bandicoot again, making a cameo appearance in Crash Twinsanity. He was believed to be taking back his Gems from Crash's enemys, N.Gin, N.Tropy and N.Brio.
[edit] The Legend of Spyro series
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning serves as a reboot for the series, and is unrelated to any other Spyro game in terms of story[2]. In this game, Spyro is a dragon of prophecy, a rare purple dragon born once every ten generations. As an egg, the temple where the unborn Spyro rests is attacked by the forces of the Dark Master who are intent on destroying all the dragon eggs. Ignitus, one of the eggs' guardians, escapes with the purple dragon's egg, leaving it to drift downriver into a swamp, hoping for the best. The egg is discovered by a family of dragonflies, and upon hatching, Spyro is adopted into the family and raised as one of their own, alongside Sparx, a young dragonfly born the same day.
One day, after coming under attack by strange foes and discovering that he can breathe fire, Spyro is told that he is not a dragonfly himself but a stranger from a distant land; Spyro decides to leave the swamp in search of his true home; Sparx, though reluctant at first, decides to follow along. Spyro is pursued by hostile forces, but eventually comes into contact with a distraught Ignitus, who although pleased that Spyro is alive, fears that with the Dragon Temple under occupation by their enemy, and led by an enemy dragon named Cynder, their war is already lost.
Spyro convinces Ignitus to lead him to the Temple, and is able to drive Cynder's forces out, after which Ignitus tells Spyro more about their war against the dark armies, offers Spyro some training in the art of the fire element, and then sends Spyro off to rescue three other dragons from Cynder's forces. One by one, Spyro clashes with Cynder's armies, rescues the three other dragons, while acquiring new skills and training along the way. It is learned that Cynder has been draining the dragons' power into crystals, and also that Cynder herself is merely a pawn serving the Dark Master -- Cynder originally being born from the same brood of eggs as Spyro, but are not siblings, as said by the Sierra production crew [3].
After freeing the final Guardian, Terrador, Ignitus is captured by Cynder. Spyro attempts to fight Cynder, but Cynder succeeds in draining Ignitus's power of fire into a crystal, and escapes to the sealed realm of the Dark Master. Ignitus fears that it is too late to stop her, but Spyro pursues Cynder and forces a showdown, eventually using all of his power in a final attack which defeats her, purging her of the Dark Master's influence and returning her to her true form, a young dragon the same size as Spyro. The realm begins to collapse in on itself; Sparx insists on making a quick exit but Spyro declares he will not leave Cynder behind with the Dark Master; though barely, Spyro is able to grab Cynder and escape safely.
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night continues from where the first game ended, with a new villain, Gaul the Ape King, arriving at the Well of Souls in an effort to usher in a new age of darkness. Spyro must unlock the secrets behind a series of strange visions that he is having and find the power to defeat this terrifying new force[4]. When fighting Gaul, Spyro falls through the Well of Souls. This, combined with the Well's beam hitting the celestial moon from right underneath causes Spyro to become possessed by the Dark Master, transforming him into "Dark Spyro". After defeating Gaul, he was unable to control his emotions and struggled to get out of his dark state until Cynder saves him, knocking him free from the Dark Master's influence.
| Sparx the Dragonfly | |
|---|---|
| Game series | Spyro the Dragon |
| First game | Spyro the Dragon |
| Created by | Charles Zembillas |
| Voiced by (English) | Andre Sogliuzzo (2000-2002) Jess Harnell (2004) David Spade (2006) Billy West (2007) Wayne Brady (2008) |
| Voiced by (Japanese) | N/A |
[edit] Sparx
Throughout the series, Spyro has always appeared with one companion at his side: a dragonfly named Sparx. In the world of the Dragon Realms, dragonflies offer protection for young dragons such as Spyro; without Sparx, Spyro would be susceptible to being killed or defeated in a single hit.
While Spyro and Sparx occasionally converse with each other, Sparx's focus in the Spyro series is more oriented towards gameplay than narrative: Sparx is the player's health meter personified. Whenever the player takes a hit, Sparx's body color changes, from gold, to blue, to green, and ultimately disappearing entirely, leaving Spyro vulnerable to defeat upon the next hit. The player can restore Sparx's (and, hence, Spyro's) health by defeating small creatures called "fodder" throughout each level. Doing so releases a butterfly, which Sparx devours, recovering one hit point in the process.
Aside from his function as a health meter, Sparx also assists by collecting nearby gems and treasure for the player, and in later games Sparx's own abilities can be upgraded, including the ability to withstand an extra hit (first with a brighter shade of yellow to represent full health, but later with a shade of red to indicate low health), being able to retrieve treasure from a larger distance, or even the ability to retrieve gems directly from boxes without requiring Spyro to destroy them first. Sparx can also help Spyro by pointing towards the location of gems that Spyro has not collected yet.
Sparx also appears as a playable character in several mini-games throughout the later games in the Spyro series, such as several Gauntlet-style levels in Year of the Dragon and Season of Ice, and a rail shooter-style minigame in A Hero's Tail. If the player has acquired the additional hit point, Sparx's own health reflects the extra hit as well. In levels where the player controls a character other than Spyro (such as Hunter in A Hero's Tail), Sparx follows along with that character in the same manner as for Spyro. In Spyro 2 Sparx changes colour to show how many hit points he and Spyro have.
Gold: No hits, full health
Blue: 1 hit, a bit bad
Green: 2 hits, quite bad
Gone: 3 hits , DANGER one more hit and you lose a life
Spyro dead: 4 hits you lose a life
Also Spyro can flame "fodder" (sheep, frogs, ladybirds ect) to release butterflies for sparx to eat and gain a hit point. For the every tenth butterfly you get will be a blue one which is and extra life, you can also get lifes by smashing clear bottles with a blue butterfly in them or getting a skill point. You can only get upto 99 lives unless you know the skill point trick.
In The Legend of Spyro storyline, Sparx is Spyro's foster brother. With Spyro having a separate health bar, Sparx serves primarily as a travelling companion. In this continuity, Sparx's role has been reduced to serving as the series' comic relief, often giving out humourous dialogue and sarcastic remarks. Spyro often serves as the subject of Sparx's jokes, of which Spyro often retaliates. Despite this, he is still willing to help Spyro no matter what happens.
Sparx's voice is a high pitched buzz that many would expect from an insect that was supplied by Andre Sogliuzzo, but more recently he has been shown to speak in a more intelligible nature in A Hero's Tail by Jess Harnell. Most recently, Sparx was voiced by David Spade in A New Beginning, Billy West in The Eternal Night, and by Wayne Brady in Dawn of the Dragon.
[edit] References
- ^ Design - Retrieved June 12
- ^ Sliced Gaming article - Retrieved June 12
- ^ Spyro Forum - Retrieved December 31, 2007
- ^ Megamers - Retrieved June 12
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