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Description
RAAANT INCOMIIIING!!!
I plan to be vulgar and ridiculous.
If ya can't handle that, then carry yer sorry ass somewhere else more sunshine and rainbow-filled!
GOOD DAY.
--------------------------------------------

The Legend of Spyro.
My favorite fucking franchise of game in the entire FUCKIN' UNIVERSE.
Not everyone likes it.
In fact, some people think the TLoS series was "the death of Spyro."
To each their own, i don't mind that people think that way at all.
It's a very different type from the other Spyros, most notably because it is dark, serious and has more dry/sarcastic humor.
It's not as kiddie as the other games were, you can't swim, there's no mini missions to skateboard and so on.
To some, it's unnerving.
For me, though, it's a masterpiece.
Of course the story presents some major flaws in the way it was told, and the first two games were very repetitive, but for an Aspie such as myself who's been playing ANB for literally 10 years, i find that repetition soothing.
It's like a wind-down game for me, my absolute favorite of all time and no matter how many times i hear it, i never tire of the story.
The whole story.
In the trilogy, my "fave list" goes in order from first to last.
ANB is my first favorite, TEN is my second favorite, and DotD is my least favorite.
And i do mean LEAST favorite, despite the flying function.
Honestly ANB is my favorite because i've had it the longest, associate it with childhood fondness and i like the starting concept.
Had i started this adventure while i was older, TEN may have become my favorite just because it's so dark and cool.
However...
I have complaints about the second game.
A LOT of complaints.
This is where the bitching begins.

~~The Eternal Nightmare~~

The rating system is E10+, which i suppose is fair enough considering the elements of the game.
Also, TEN is actually the rarest game in the trilogy, in case you didn't know.
But as much as i love the story and how just ATE UP it is, this game was...sort of ass while playing.

First off, you should know my game is for the Wii.
I don't have PS2, which honestly would've probably been way easier, IMO, but i took what i got and ran with it happily.
Now i've beat this game a good five or six times, but only because the game's themes draw me in so much -- not necessarily because it was super fun.

It was SO. DAMN. DIFFICULT.
The controls felt a tad slower than in ANB with enemies being able to thrash the absolute shit out of you.
Also, recovery time from getting hit was ATROCIOUS.
You had to put forth more effort, which is fine, but the enemies did a hell of a lot more damage, and while i appreciate the variety, everything was just insufferable from level one.
The apes, dogs, AND spiders were way too challenging for the first fucking level.
Difficulty like that should be optional, like that felt more like something on a casual-to-difficult setting.
I personally prefer easier setting because i'm a pussy it makes the game more enjoyable for me.
Spyro can be a little difficult, and really all games should have challenges, but in this it was just way too much.
It took away from the ability to enjoy the gameplay.
It wasn't as smooth, and maybe some people like that.
Some people actually think it wasn't difficult, but again i was also playing on the Wii, where you need real-time motion control, so...
Idk.
I'm good at the game, but i'm not great.
Just saying, it's so damn hard to get through!!!
Arborick, as the first major boss SHOULD NOT MAKE YOU WANT TO KILL YOURSELF.

That's my next point.
Boss fights.
In many games, bosses (like in Spyro) have multiple health bars that you must deplete one by one.
Let's take ANB's Ice King for an example here.
Say you're fighting and you beat him down to the second or third health bar, but he kills you.
When you respawn, you're still at the second or third health bar, only it's full again.
That's totally fair to me.
Now skip to TEN.
You're fighting Gaul (or Arborick or whoever the fuck else had multiple bars).
You get to the middle of the fight on his second health bar.
You die.
You know what happens?
You have to start ALL OVER again, from the very top, cutscene and all.
THAT is not damn fair for the player at all, especially when GAUL'S FIGHT IS TEN TIMES HARDER THAN MALEFOR'S FIGHT IN DOTD AND SURVIVING THAT FUCKING ROIDS-APE MOTHER FUCKER'S FIRST HEALTH BAR SHOULD BE A BOB DAMN FUCKING ACHIEVEMENT.
I can live with the boss health bar regenerating, BUT NOT PUTTING YOU AT THE BOB DAMNED FUCKING BEGINNING.
Same with Arborick!!
His first health bar is harder than his last one if you ask me, and if you die on the last bar YOU FUCKING START OVER!!
That's not enjoyable to play!
And i'll admit, ANB isn't that hard (at least not if you have all your breaths upgraded and have been playing for so long you actually find new ways to fight just to make it more entertaining), so i understand that maybe they wanted to make it a slight more challenging, but this was just wrong.
I can even forgive the difficult or more complicated platforming, but the enemy difficulty and cheat-y boss fights, coupled with poor recovery time when you get hit and MAJOR damage inflicted by enemies, it just fuckin' sucks.

Next, the Dragon Time feature.
Dude...that shit, is cool.
Its integration into the story and how they went about it was really clever, i think, and i can even accept Spyro being able to slow down time in certain circumstances.
Of course, i imagine it's not something he does often, currently, because he's pretty humble and responsible and would rather not fuck with time.
What's annoying is in DotD there's never mention of it ever again.
They come out of his time crystal, and that's it.
Never again.
I'm not even upset that it wasn't a feature of the third game, they could've just had Spyro say "I'm going to try not to use that again unless i really have to from now on."
THAT would've made me happy, but nope.
Bleh.
Anyway back to TEN, Dragon Time is really cool, but it becomes overly necessary to your success.
Sometimes you need it just to survive fighting NORMAL enemies (again, because it's overly difficult).
To need it to platform, to me is kind of ridiculous.
I DO agree with needing it for super fast moving objects you have to jump onto, but i digress.
I like that you need it to fight the blunder tail scorpion things and to fight bosses and certain tougher enemies, but it still feels over-used to me.
When you inherit this power, the Chronicler tells you "Use this gift sparingly, only when circumstances demand."
Spyro ends up having to slow down time a whoooole frickin' lot throughout the game, at least if you want to survive and move on.
So really, it's not using it so much that bothers me as it is the contradiction.
Spyro seems more responsible to me than that.
Not to mention he's a damn flying lizard and the most powerful known creature in the universe who can FLY, so...
JUST FUCKING FLY.

Neeext, i am irritated about our lack of interacting with/seeing Cynder.
With her being the most beloved character in the TLoS franchise, i would think the developers would've found a way to make her more enjoyable or present.
I know this game was about Spyro and i accept that, but how cool would it have been to see more cutscenes of her?
What if we got to see her arriving in the Ancient Grove and looking around, seeing she's alone and then just moving on sadly?
What if we had gotten to see her be kidnapped by the Scavengers?
Granted, that would've lost the element of surprise we feel when we first see her appear on the ship, but still.
Just show MORE with her!!!
And i know people love her in the third game, but i personally don't.
She looks hideous, and her voice acting is ass, so even though i FINALLY got to play as her, i couldn't really enjoy it as much.
But i've bitched about that before, so imma stay back with TEN.
Maybe there just wasn't enough time for Cynder, in which case maybe they could've just used longer levels instead of super ass fucking difficult enemies to stretch it out.
More platforming and stopping points with certain more sparse enemies would've meant more time to showcase story.
Not everyone likes that and i get that it's annoying, but skipping cutscenes IS optional.
I don't mind the stops, honestly.
They can be irritating, but they don't squander the quality of gameplay for me, so long as they aren't frequent.

Lastly, level travel.
In ANB and TEN, while i love them i will admit it's insanely frustrating that you can't choose what level to play.
In DotD you can at least do that much, which i'm really grateful for, otherwise i would NEVER play it.
I feel like it would give the player ample opportunity to go back again and again and play a level until they feel better about it, instead of only getting to play it once completing orbit from start to finish.
If they're worried that players are just gonna do it to get more blue gems, honestly who cares?
Make the blue gem clusters optional only for the first run on a save load, and maybe make them a little more scarce in enemy wins in earlier levels, if you care about it so much.
Idk, i mean upgrading is hard enough as it is.
Also a random little nitpick, but i hate Billy West as Sparx.
I can understand them not being able to get David Spade again, but Billy just sounded weird to me.
Everyone else was fine, but...ew.

Ultimately, the reason i'm bitching about this is because i really would love to play it WAY more often, but it's so difficult and frustrating that the lack of enjoyment means i always have to be in the right mindset to play it.
With ANB i can just fire it up and go.
I don't need all games to be like that, but for this particular franchise, yes i would like to be able to relax a little and enjoy my favorite story.
Each game in the trilogy getting a little more difficult than the last makes sense to me, but DAMB.
DotD's difficulty was actually sensible, and made sense as a "max" for the series.
TEN, then, should've been between ANB and DotD.
So...
Yeah.
I am now turning to other games for enrichment, so i can enjoy myself while being moderately challenged.
Thanks a lot, Insomnia.
And it's a first world problem and idfc, because i have ranted and ranting gets it out of my system.
The end

P.S. How sad is it that i FINALLY drew Spyro, only to use him as a means of attention for bitching?

Fire stickers by piZap!

---DO NOT STEAL MY CONCEPTS, ART OR IDEAS!!! I DO NOT OWN TLOS BUT I DO OWN THIS ART AND FAE!!!---

Description
RAAANT INCOMIIIING!!!
I plan to be vulgar and ridiculous.
If ya can't handle that, then carry yer sorry ass somewhere else more sunshine and rainbow-filled!
GOOD DAY.
--------------------------------------------

The Legend of Spyro.
My favorite fucking franchise of game in the entire FUCKIN' UNIVERSE.
Not everyone likes it.
In fact, some people think the TLoS series was "the death of Spyro."
To each their own, i don't mind that people think that way at all.
It's a very different type from the other Spyros, most notably because it is dark, serious and has more dry/sarcastic humor.
It's not as kiddie as the other games were, you can't swim, there's no mini missions to skateboard and so on.
To some, it's unnerving.
For me, though, it's a masterpiece.
Of course the story presents some major flaws in the way it was told, and the first two games were very repetitive, but for an Aspie such as myself who's been playing ANB for literally 10 years, i find that repetition soothing.
It's like a wind-down game for me, my absolute favorite of all time and no matter how many times i hear it, i never tire of the story.
The whole story.
In the trilogy, my "fave list" goes in order from first to last.
ANB is my first favorite, TEN is my second favorite, and DotD is my least favorite.
And i do mean LEAST favorite, despite the flying function.
Honestly ANB is my favorite because i've had it the longest, associate it with childhood fondness and i like the starting concept.
Had i started this adventure while i was older, TEN may have become my favorite just because it's so dark and cool.
However...
I have complaints about the second game.
A LOT of complaints.
This is where the bitching begins.

~~The Eternal Nightmare~~

The rating system is E10+, which i suppose is fair enough considering the elements of the game.
Also, TEN is actually the rarest game in the trilogy, in case you didn't know.
But as much as i love the story and how just ATE UP it is, this game was...sort of ass while playing.

First off, you should know my game is for the Wii.
I don't have PS2, which honestly would've probably been way easier, IMO, but i took what i got and ran with it happily.
Now i've beat this game a good five or six times, but only because the game's themes draw me in so much -- not necessarily because it was super fun.

It was SO. DAMN. DIFFICULT.
The controls felt a tad slower than in ANB with enemies being able to thrash the absolute shit out of you.
Also, recovery time from getting hit was ATROCIOUS.
You had to put forth more effort, which is fine, but the enemies did a hell of a lot more damage, and while i appreciate the variety, everything was just insufferable from level one.
The apes, dogs, AND spiders were way too challenging for the first fucking level.
Difficulty like that should be optional, like that felt more like something on a casual-to-difficult setting.
I personally prefer easier setting because i'm a pussy it makes the game more enjoyable for me.
Spyro can be a little difficult, and really all games should have challenges, but in this it was just way too much.
It took away from the ability to enjoy the gameplay.
It wasn't as smooth, and maybe some people like that.
Some people actually think it wasn't difficult, but again i was also playing on the Wii, where you need real-time motion control, so...
Idk.
I'm good at the game, but i'm not great.
Just saying, it's so damn hard to get through!!!
Arborick, as the first major boss SHOULD NOT MAKE YOU WANT TO KILL YOURSELF.

That's my next point.
Boss fights.
In many games, bosses (like in Spyro) have multiple health bars that you must deplete one by one.
Let's take ANB's Ice King for an example here.
Say you're fighting and you beat him down to the second or third health bar, but he kills you.
When you respawn, you're still at the second or third health bar, only it's full again.
That's totally fair to me.
Now skip to TEN.
You're fighting Gaul (or Arborick or whoever the fuck else had multiple bars).
You get to the middle of the fight on his second health bar.
You die.
You know what happens?
You have to start ALL OVER again, from the very top, cutscene and all.
THAT is not damn fair for the player at all, especially when GAUL'S FIGHT IS TEN TIMES HARDER THAN MALEFOR'S FIGHT IN DOTD AND SURVIVING THAT FUCKING ROIDS-APE MOTHER FUCKER'S FIRST HEALTH BAR SHOULD BE A BOB DAMN FUCKING ACHIEVEMENT.
I can live with the boss health bar regenerating, BUT NOT PUTTING YOU AT THE BOB DAMNED FUCKING BEGINNING.
Same with Arborick!!
His first health bar is harder than his last one if you ask me, and if you die on the last bar YOU FUCKING START OVER!!
That's not enjoyable to play!
And i'll admit, ANB isn't that hard (at least not if you have all your breaths upgraded and have been playing for so long you actually find new ways to fight just to make it more entertaining), so i understand that maybe they wanted to make it a slight more challenging, but this was just wrong.
I can even forgive the difficult or more complicated platforming, but the enemy difficulty and cheat-y boss fights, coupled with poor recovery time when you get hit and MAJOR damage inflicted by enemies, it just fuckin' sucks.

Next, the Dragon Time feature.
Dude...that shit, is cool.
Its integration into the story and how they went about it was really clever, i think, and i can even accept Spyro being able to slow down time in certain circumstances.
Of course, i imagine it's not something he does often, currently, because he's pretty humble and responsible and would rather not fuck with time.
What's annoying is in DotD there's never mention of it ever again.
They come out of his time crystal, and that's it.
Never again.
I'm not even upset that it wasn't a feature of the third game, they could've just had Spyro say "I'm going to try not to use that again unless i really have to from now on."
THAT would've made me happy, but nope.
Bleh.
Anyway back to TEN, Dragon Time is really cool, but it becomes overly necessary to your success.
Sometimes you need it just to survive fighting NORMAL enemies (again, because it's overly difficult).
To need it to platform, to me is kind of ridiculous.
I DO agree with needing it for super fast moving objects you have to jump onto, but i digress.
I like that you need it to fight the blunder tail scorpion things and to fight bosses and certain tougher enemies, but it still feels over-used to me.
When you inherit this power, the Chronicler tells you "Use this gift sparingly, only when circumstances demand."
Spyro ends up having to slow down time a whoooole frickin' lot throughout the game, at least if you want to survive and move on.
So really, it's not using it so much that bothers me as it is the contradiction.
Spyro seems more responsible to me than that.
Not to mention he's a damn flying lizard and the most powerful known creature in the universe who can FLY, so...
JUST FUCKING FLY.

Neeext, i am irritated about our lack of interacting with/seeing Cynder.
With her being the most beloved character in the TLoS franchise, i would think the developers would've found a way to make her more enjoyable or present.
I know this game was about Spyro and i accept that, but how cool would it have been to see more cutscenes of her?
What if we got to see her arriving in the Ancient Grove and looking around, seeing she's alone and then just moving on sadly?
What if we had gotten to see her be kidnapped by the Scavengers?
Granted, that would've lost the element of surprise we feel when we first see her appear on the ship, but still.
Just show MORE with her!!!
And i know people love her in the third game, but i personally don't.
She looks hideous, and her voice acting is ass, so even though i FINALLY got to play as her, i couldn't really enjoy it as much.
But i've bitched about that before, so imma stay back with TEN.
Maybe there just wasn't enough time for Cynder, in which case maybe they could've just used longer levels instead of super ass fucking difficult enemies to stretch it out.
More platforming and stopping points with certain more sparse enemies would've meant more time to showcase story.
Not everyone likes that and i get that it's annoying, but skipping cutscenes IS optional.
I don't mind the stops, honestly.
They can be irritating, but they don't squander the quality of gameplay for me, so long as they aren't frequent.

Lastly, level travel.
In ANB and TEN, while i love them i will admit it's insanely frustrating that you can't choose what level to play.
In DotD you can at least do that much, which i'm really grateful for, otherwise i would NEVER play it.
I feel like it would give the player ample opportunity to go back again and again and play a level until they feel better about it, instead of only getting to play it once completing orbit from start to finish.
If they're worried that players are just gonna do it to get more blue gems, honestly who cares?
Make the blue gem clusters optional only for the first run on a save load, and maybe make them a little more scarce in enemy wins in earlier levels, if you care about it so much.
Idk, i mean upgrading is hard enough as it is.
Also a random little nitpick, but i hate Billy West as Sparx.
I can understand them not being able to get David Spade again, but Billy just sounded weird to me.
Everyone else was fine, but...ew.

Ultimately, the reason i'm bitching about this is because i really would love to play it WAY more often, but it's so difficult and frustrating that the lack of enjoyment means i always have to be in the right mindset to play it.
With ANB i can just fire it up and go.
I don't need all games to be like that, but for this particular franchise, yes i would like to be able to relax a little and enjoy my favorite story.
Each game in the trilogy getting a little more difficult than the last makes sense to me, but DAMB.
DotD's difficulty was actually sensible, and made sense as a "max" for the series.
TEN, then, should've been between ANB and DotD.
So...
Yeah.
I am now turning to other games for enrichment, so i can enjoy myself while being moderately challenged.
Thanks a lot, Insomnia.
And it's a first world problem and idfc, because i have ranted and ranting gets it out of my system.
The end

P.S. How sad is it that i FINALLY drew Spyro, only to use him as a means of attention for bitching?

Fire stickers by piZap!

---DO NOT STEAL MY CONCEPTS, ART OR IDEAS!!! I DO NOT OWN TLOS BUT I DO OWN THIS ART AND FAE!!!---