The Legend of Spyro

The Legend of Spyro is a trilogy of games that are part of the Spyro the Dragon series. It acts as a reboot to the original series. It includes the games A New Beginning (2006), The Eternal Night (2007), and Dawn of the Dragon (2008).

The games use a combination of close-combat and platforming gameplay, though more oriented on combat than previous games in the Spyro series. The story revolves around Spyro, the protagonist, and his efforts to stop Malefor, The Dark Master, from destroying the world.

The games received mixed reviews; the games' controls and story received much praise, while the gameplay was often criticized as being repetitive.

Gameplay

The trilogy features platforming gameplay similar to the rest of the Spyro series, though with a much heavier emphasis on combat. The levels in the games are linear in nature; the player guides Spyro along a set path, battling minor villains along the way, until he reaches a boss at the end of the level. The first game also features flying levels with rail-shooter gameplay.

Spyro is capable of both close-quarter and long-range combat. Long range attacks consist of a variety of elemental breaths, specifically fire, electricity, ice, and earth breath.^[1] Spyro learns these breaths at various points throughout the games. He can also expel large blasts of these elements in an attack called a "Fury."^[2][3] As Spyro uses his abilities, his magic meter is depleted. He can refill his meter and his health using specially colored gems found by defeating enemies and breaking parts of the environment.^[4][5] These gems can also be used to increase the strength of Spyro's attacks.^[6][7]

The Eternal Night introduces an ability called "Dragon Time." This feature allows Spyro to slow down time around him, making certain platforming segments and combat in general easier.^[8]

Dawn of the Dragon features a number of other alterations. Spyro is given the ability to fly at will,^[9] allowing for more exploration. The game also features a two-player co-op mode, with player two controlling Spyro’s friend, Cynder. If there is no player two, then the player may switch between Spyro and Cynder during gameplay.^[9]

Plot

Characters and Setting

The series' protagonist is Spyro, the titular character of the series. He is the purple dragon that prophecies say will direct the fate of his era. He is young and idealistic. After being hidden in a swamp by Ignitus, he was raised by dragonflies. One of the dragonflies, his adoptive brother Sparx, follows Spyro loyally, helping Spyro find his way if he gets lost.^[4]

The main antagonist of the series is Malefor, also known as The Dark Master. He is the first purple dragon who was born 1,000 years ago. He believes that the purpose of the purple dragons is to awaken a giant monster called The Destroyer, which will destroy the world.

Cynder is the main antagonist of A New Beginning. She was cursed by Malefor and became his servant. After she was defeated by Spyro, she returns to a normal size and her curse was reverted. Afterwards she becomes a good friend of Spyro, even falling in love with him as the series progresses.

Story

A New Beginning

The game begins in an temple where Ignitus, a red Guardian dragon, is watching over a purple dragon egg that contains Spyro who is prophesized to direct the fate of an era. The forces of the Dark Master, a being with whom the dragons are at war with, attack the temple to prevent the birth of the purple dragon.^[10] Ignitus takes the egg to safety and sends it to the swamp, where Spyro is raised by a family of dragonflies.^[11]

Years later, Spyro returns to the temple, where Ignitus tells him of Cynder, a powerful dragon who is working for the Dark Master.^[12] He tells Spyro that Cynder has taken three guardian dragons;^[13] and discovers that Cynder plans to use their power to release the Dark Master from his prison.^[14] Spyro rescues the Guardians, but Ignitus is captured and drained of his power, breaking the seal on the Dark Master's prison.

In the Dark Master's prison world, Spyro confronts Cynder in a final showdown. With Cynder's defeat, the Dark Master's hold on her is broken, and she reverts to a normal dragon around Spyro's size.^[15] They escape from the Dark Master's world before it collapses around them and return to the temple.

The Eternal Night

Cynder is distraught about her actions, and leaves before she can do further harm to Spyro.^[16] After she leaves, the temple is attacked by Apes. After Spyro repels the Apes, he searches for the Chronicler, who summoned him in a vision.^[17] While searching, he discovers that the Apes have erected a base on the Mountain of Malefor, and that they've taken Cynder to try to turn her to their side.^[18] Once he finds the Chronicler, he tells Spyro that the Dark Master was once Malefor, a purple dragon whose power allowed him to master the elements.^[19] The Apes intend to release Malefor using a lunar alignment called the Night of Eternal Darkness.^[20]

At the mountain, Spyro confronts Gaul, the Ape King. During the fight, the alignment occurs; Spyro uses the power of the alignment to kill Gaul, but becomes corrupted by Malefor's power until Cynder frees him from its evil influence.^[21] As the mountain crumbles around them, Spyro encases himself, Sparx and Cynder in crystal to protect them.

Dawn of the Dragon

Nearly three years later, Spyro, Cynder and Sparx are released by mysterious beasts later shown to be working for Malefor. They chain Spyro and Cynder together around their necks using dark magic and take them to a packed arena. As they are pitted against a golem, they are rescued by Hunter, a Cheetah from the Valley of Avalar. The three heroes learned that Malefor had returned after their disappearance and had shrouded the world in darkness ever since. When they return to the dragon city and defeat the golem from before, they find that Malefor has released the Destroyer, a creature meant to make a new world out of the ruins of the current world. Before Spyro and Cynder can stop him, the Destroyer initiates the end of the world, so they set off to face Malefor.

Once there Malefor is waiting and tries to convince Spyro that his destiny is to join him and destroy the world. In denial, Spyro rejects this and the battle with Malefor begins. This takes Spyro and Cynder to the center of the earth, where Malefor ultimately meets his end. Realizing what he must do, Spyro uses his power to reconstruct the breaking world. It is successful, but it is unknown what happened to Spyro and Cynder until the Chronicler states that he can not find any trace of them in a book of all dragons that have passed away. Ignitus then becomes the new Chronicler of the new age, while the old one passes on. And Spyro and Cynder are then shown flying through Avalar happily.

Development

The transition from traditional controllers in A New Beginning to the Wii remote in The Eternal Night proved challenging, as the cue system developed for the traditional controllers of the PlayStation 2 and GameCube didn’t work for the Wii.^[22] The ultimate solution for this problem was found by Krome Studio's lead coder, who wrote a program to simulate how any action was performed, making it possible for developers to code that action for the Wii.^[22] However, the Wii Classic Controller can be used to play The Eternal Night on the Wii, since it is compatible.

Reception

Critical reception of the games was mixed. IGN was highly impressed by A New Beginning, citing its story, voice acting, and controls as major positives. At one point, they compared the game to God of War.^[23] GameSpot, on the other hand, wasn't impressed, calling the story dull, the gameplay repetitive, and the levels uninspired.^[24]

The Eternal Night was not as well received. IGN called the game "pointlessly difficult," citing an unresponsive jump button during platforming segments and "unfair" combat mechanics.^[25] GameSpot also complained about the high difficulty, saying that the game's "Dragon Time" was required to simply stay alive.^[26] Game Chronicles was kinder; while they did not like the game's lack of precision or its difficulty, and really did not like some of the acting, they also said that a patient player would find a lot about the game to like, particularly the production values.^[27]

Dawn of the Dragon was very well received. IGN said that while the gameplay was still repetitive, the flight mechanic and other new features were welcome additions.^[28] Gamezone was unimpressed by the game's graphics and multiplayer, but referred to the production values, including score and voice acting, as "epic."^[29] Impulse Gamer believed that the game was targeted at a young audience, who they say will enjoy the flight mechanic over all else.^[30]

References