Drageuth plays Spyro (or, Drageuth beats a Down's Syndrome donkey)*

[Drageuth]

This post is for comments that were made in the original thread. It does not include every single post, just the ones that pertained to the actual video.

Spoiler warning:

I never actually played any of the Spyro games. By the time I realized they exist, I think I already felt I was "too old" for them. That's changed since then, I seem to be able to appreciate these kind of things much easier now that I'm older, however strange that might sound.

Anyway, you shouldn't care about messing up, missing a level (or gems), sucking at the game or anything like that. It's not a walkthrough or a guide, just you having fun. And if you run out of things to say, start talking about something that's not game related. Or alternatively, if it's not your first playthrough, talk about the game itself, sharing some background info/childhood memories/random trivia. That's what I usually do and it works fairly well.

P.S. There's nothing wrong with your voice. At least you don't have a silly accent like I do.

I hope one of your upcoming videos includes one of the flight levels. Actually, I think Night Flight is one of the more annoying ones, but I could be mistaken. I'm also hoping/assuming that, since you've been through the next two worlds as well, you've figured out why Sparx exists. I can happily accept that you've decided not to collect every single little item along the way, but ignoring the meaning of poor Sparx's life makes me a little sad.

So, just in case:

Spyro has full health - Sparx is gold
Spyro gets hit once, is down to 3/4 health - Sparx is blue
Spyro gets hit twice, is down to 2/4 health - Sparx is green
Spyro gets hit thrice, is down to 1/4 health - Sparx disappears
Spyro gets hit four times, and dies

Chomping on some butterflies heals Sparx, thereby replenishing your health meter. It's also really cute. And since the enemies in Spyro the Dragon aren't exactly very frightening, the most annoying thing about not having Sparx around is that it becomes a little more difficult to pick up gems. Sparx will pick up many of them for you if you're just casually running by, but if he's absent, it can get annoying (like trying to grab those stupid keys).

Don't worry too much about not collecting everything. Having a certain number of dragons is important to progress in the game, but getting 100% of the gems only opens a single area toward the end (and I couldn't ever get this part to open even when getting 100% completion on the PSX, anyway). I don't think the instruction manual tells you anything useful outside of how to control Spyro.

There's really not much to Spyro, but I love it anyway, mostly for nostalgia. I've never played the others in the PSX series, but I did play a couple on the GBA, and the new reboot trilogy on the PS2. It's not until the third game of the reboot that YOU CAN FLY WHENEVER YOU WANT! I hope you don't hate this one too much by the time you're finished, but if you do, I'll forgive you.

Spyro was always pretty solid platforming on the PSX. One of the few 3d platformers on the system that I completed to 100%. (Both it and the sequel)

I managed to get the stage unlocked, even... wasnt very fun though. The stage, I mean.

..Still, I almost giggled while watching the videos at how oblivious he was to poor Sparx

Yeah, Spryo the Dragon, Ripto's Rage, and Year of the Dragon were all pretty awesome. Didn't like Enter the Dragonfly as much though; too short.

Ripto's Rage was really hard at points to complete 100%, though the first and third were pretty easy.

The secret stage for the first was alright, but not fantastic. For the 2nd, it was pretty interesting, and for the third, it was alright (but I liked the fact that if I remember, there was a secret added ending if you beat it...but the first had that too...sort of).

Plus, it was fun to beat the snot out of Moneybags in the 3rd, after he had a habit of stealing your money in the 2nd and 3rd games.

Sparx really didn't have a role aside from being your health bar in the first game, so it's understandable why he'd be oblivious to his existence.

In reply to Milady:
That... that... that totally makes sense!! It doesn't explain it anywhere in the game (that I've seen, anyways), and since I downloaded it I never got to read the instruction manual. It also explains why so many things turn into butterflies...

Dude... that is going to totally change the way I play this game... Also, I do a flight level in the next batch of videos (not the ones attached to this post, although I did do that flight world -- there was a problem, which I somewhat explain), but the one in Beasts Makers world. I did not fair very well at all. =\

There are three dragons that clue you in about Sparx, but they never actually tell you how to exactly the interpret the color changes. The first one is an Artisan dragon in the home world (apparently named Delbin, I think he's the one you find in front of the pool with the five platforms).

S: Where's Gnasty Gnorc? I'll torch him!
Keep your horns on, Spyro. You have much to learn first. Do you know what the dragonfly following you is doing?
S: Umm...
His name is Sparx, and he's helping and protecting you. Keep an eye on him, and see what I mean.

There's another Artisan dragon in Stone Hill, Carvin, to whom I know you listened, because it prompted you to say that you'd never seen him eat a butterfly (although he had already done so at least once by that point).

C: Watch the dragonfly, Spyro. His color indicates his power. When he eats butterflies, he stays strong...like me.
S: Uh, sure.

And there's Magnus, a Peace Keeper dragon in the home world who mentions him as well.

M: Hi, Spyro. Sparx the dragonfly has been doing a good job protecting you. Make sure to keep him strong by feeding him lots of butterflies.

Another thing that I wanted to mention earlier was the treasure. I think the basic idea behind your wanting to collect it all (and why enemies drop it) is that Gnasty Gnorc actually created all of the enemies using the dragon's gems, sort of like how you free a cute little animal every time you kill an enemy in a Sonic game. The intro explains this, I believe, but it's also why one of the Peace Keeper dragons tells you that the treasure has been turned against them. But I can certainly understand why someone might not think the voice acting is the best.

I cannot, however, explain the lack of female dragons. The origins of the young purple dragon and pink polka-dotted dragon egg collectibles are mysterious. On that note, I can't think of a single female dragon in the Spyro series that appears until the reboot on the PS2/3. Even then there's only one.

I feel kind of bad that Spyro the Dragon is the only game I can make lengthy posts about, when everyone else's wall-o-text posts are about RPG with an insane amount of depth, or something.

You also need all the gems and/or eggs for something at the very end. If I'm not mistaken, there was a door in the room before Gnasty Gnorc that requires all of one or the other to open.

Clearly the female dragons know their place: in the kitchen. Also, out of sight, out of mind. Alternatively, they're like the entwives. The male dragons just kind of "lost them."

Don't feel bad, Sypro is actually an excellent series with... loads... of depth? I mean, it has a story. More than SHOOTAN anyways.

There are three dragons that clue you in about Sparx... [ explanation ]

Another thing that I wanted to mention earlier was the treasure. I think the basic idea behind your wanting to collect it all (and why enemies drop it) is that Gnasty Gnorc actually created all of the enemies using the dragon's gems, sort of like how you free a cute little animal every time you kill an enemy in a Sonic game. The intro explains this, I believe, but it's also why one of the Peace Keeper dragons tells you that the treasure has been turned against them. But I can certainly understand why someone might not think the voice acting is the best.

I cannot, however, explain the lack of female dragons. The origins of the young purple dragon and pink polka-dotted dragon egg collectibles are mysterious. On that note, I can't think of a single female dragon in the Spyro series that appears until the reboot on the PS2/3. Even then there's only one.

I feel kind of bad that Spyro the Dragon is the only game I can make lengthy posts about, when everyone else's wall-o-text posts are about RPG with an insane amount of depth, or something.

Don't feel bad. The amount of useless trivia that I have on facts that no one really cares about is astounding. And quite honestly, it is a fun game -- I wasn't expecting to get into it as much as I have been, not after I saw how simplistic the first couple of worlds were. But it's a lot more involving than I thought it was going to be -- they did a great job of building it up, making it slightly more difficult as you progress, which I think is the way a game should be made. I don't like to feel like a tool at the beginning of a game, but I shouldn't be a master by the end of my first playthrough, either.

As for the female dragon thing... yeah. I'm perplexed as well. Unless they couldn't find any good female voice actors. But, then again... they couldn't really find any good male ones. And I wasn't intuitive enough to pick up on the relationship between Sparx and my health. In hindsight, and after reading the transcript of what was said to me, it makes perfect sense... but at the time, I wouldn't have gotten it for the life of me. It probably would have taken a couple more playthroughs before I picked up on that fact on my own.

You also need all the gems and/or eggs for something at the very end. If I'm not mistaken, there was a door in the room before Gnasty Gnorc that requires all of one or the other to open.

Clearly the female dragons know their place: in the kitchen. Also, out of sight, out of mind. Alternatively, they're like the entwives. The male dragons just kind of "lost them."

Don't feel bad, Sypro is actually an excellent series with... loads... of depth? I mean, it has a story. More than SHOOTAN anyways.

Clearly the female dragons are my kind of dragons.

Anyways. Since I'm not going for 100% completion, I'm not all that concerned with getting everything. Even if the secret area is going to be missed, it's not like I got all of the flight areas either, so it's not that big of a deal. I just want to play through and see how much I can enjoy it, and to get some practice at doing an LP without sounding depressed (which, in a later video that hasn't been uploaded yet, I totally do).

I don't really feel all that bad, I love Spyro. And I'm glad that Drag seems to be enjoying it, because it's sort of hard to explain to someone without making it sound like the most boring thing in the world.

If you had said to me, "Oh my God, I found the coolest game in the world! It's Spyro the Dragon! You play as this little purple dragon, and go around collecting gems, and trying to free dragons that are frozen in gems, in hopes of beating some big baddie named 'Gnasty Gnorc'!" I probably would have stared at you in disgust, drank a beer, and played some Call of Duty. Or something equally as "manly." But, then again, I would have looked at myself -- a skinny motherfucker with five tattoos who likes to think that he looks badass, but inside is basically a child who never grew up with too much of a romantic side for his own good, and a few too many neurotic tendencies to make him worth hanging around with -- then told myself, "Well, fuck it. I've got nothing better to do this evening."

And quite honestly, the only reason that I started playing this game was because I wanted to try something simple for my first LP, and I remembered seeing commercials for it back when it first came out, and it seemed fairly easy. And you made an off-hand comment about how much you loved it, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Turns out you've got pretty good taste in games.

Also. Post 11,000. w00t. I went around the site and posted two random posts so that I could make this my 11,000th one. It just seemed appropriate.

I haven't watched the Beast Makers levels yet to see if you've gotten the hang of it (I know Tree Tops is pretty super charge intensive, and at least one area requires a glide at the end) but I remember the super charge + glide thing being a little annoying, especially when you're trying to get to that particular green area in Magic Crafters: High Caves.

Spyro won't glide automatically. You've got to press X at the last minute to jump, then let go of square at the top of your jump and hit X again to get him to glide. If I'm not mistaken, one of two annoying things can happen and cause you to miss. Either Spyro lowers his head and charges himself into the abyss (as he did a few times in High Caves, only to be spared by fairies), or you let go of the charge button a little too early, and gravity takes over.

And of course, super charging is the most fun when they start giving you multiple ramps to run down one after another.

Yeah, I had a couple of those multiple ramps... they are a helluva lot of fun. I never did get the hang of the super jump, though... I was trying to get the gliding working with a number of different tactics -- all of them failed utterly. I tried letting go of run as soon as I was off the track and then hitting glide; I tried hitting glide at the top of the jump, but still holding onto run; I tried holding down glide as soon as I got off the jump while holding down run... quite honestly, since I was filming, I didn't want to waste too much more time trying to master the technique.

It was definitely very annoying, and it's the only "move" that I didn't quite "master" while playing the game. When it was just a regular super ramp, or running down some of the tighter passages at high speeds, those I did okay with after a couple of tries. But the super jump... couldn't do it.

I also never got the hang of the flying levels. =\

Yeah, like I said I remember it being a pain. And not only on my first play-through, it's something that's consistently annoyed my sister and I both on multiple runs. My description of what to do could be incorrect, it's been a while since I've tried it, but that's the way I recall doing it.

I had a ton of fun with the flying levels, and I ended up being the person who beat them for everyone else in the house when they were playing. They take a couple of plays, at least, to get the hang of, and getting 100% completion in a single run requires a combination of luck (for moving targets like the boats and planes) and extremely precise timing and planning.

Congratulations on finishing it. It's not the most enthralling game ever released, but I hope you enjoyed it through to the end.

I'm probably going to go back through and try out the flying levels again. They are a great side-quest for killing time, but can be really annoying sometimes. Seeing as though I only did each flying level a couple of times, there's definite room for improvement.

I actually did really enjoy the game. Like you said, it's not the most enthralling, but there's definitely enough there to keep me occupied for a few more hours if I choose to go back and finish it all. And none of it was really annoying -- with the exception of the super glide, and the voice acting -- which definitely makes it a more enjoyable game to play. I can't say that I loved it, but I definitely had a lot of fun.