>one of the biggest platform mascots
>dead
What happen?

Sony makes developers switch to a new IP every couple of years. Spyro died in 2000 and I wont see it any other way.

I'm more interested in what happened to art direction in video games. Spyro is an absolutely beautiful game thanks to its use of color and building architecture. 99% of games in the past 15 years struggle to make something that is clear, readable to the player, and is just plain visually appealing. You can even see this in remakes or remasters of some games that just look worse than their originals.

Just look at what Spyro reignited did to the Magic Crafters' homeworld. The colors are all fucked, there's this fog or haze over everything, the rocks are just jagged and covered in snow all the way down that overly complicates the scene. It's just bad.

>>714734689
For reference, the original.

>>714733878 (OP)
Insomniac games stopped developing it, same reason Crash died after the third game when Naughty Dog was done. Will say though, honestly shocked at how mediocre Crash 4 was. I was expecting it to be complete shit.

I want it to come back because I want more Cynder porn.

>>714735142
This, but because I want more Sorceress porn.

>>714733878 (OP)
>that time Spyro was voiced by Elijah Wood with a dark epic storyline spanning a trilogy and God of War inspired combat
Why does no one ever talk about these games? I'm surprised the scalies don't remember Cynder.

>>714735392
cynder is the ONLY thing scalies remember, i'm pretty sure. once in a blue moon someone draws the levels instead and that's cool but you can still tell when spyro is there drawn by a furry artist instead of someone just drawing spyro
also: obligatory "i want to live in spyro 3's hub worlds" post

>>714733878 (OP)
Universal shat the bed with the PS2 debut of the series (they chose an unexperienced developer named "Check Six Games" and they didn't give them a lot of time)

>>714735392
Why does he look somalian?

>>714733878 (OP)
Neil Cuckman axed anything that was Last of Us slop and fired anyone who disagreed with his "vision"
also probably couldn't figure out a way to bake in some MTX without it feeling weird and out of place. There's definitely still life left with this IP and I think it would do well as a AA game, but Naughty Dog (thank god) has no interest in it and I don't think Sony is gonna allow anyone else to touch it.

>>714733878 (OP)
naked male dragons? i'm in

>>714736009
wasn't*

>>714733878 (OP)
>What happen?
You know what happened

>>714733878 (OP)
Aside from Mario and Sonic, what other platforming mascots have actually survived??
Crash is in the same boat as Spyro btw

>>714736371
Ratchet for better or worse.

>>714734689
>>714734751
Even as fa of the remakes I'm in agreement, it feels like the artists tried to fill in as much as possible when simplicity was better. Also, turning Cloud Spires which (even kid me knew) was supposed to be built on top of cloud like structures, and making most of it boring grey rock was just bad. Like, we should have gotten something like Disney's Hercules Mount Olympus.
https://youtu.be/UpjjJkZZmJU?si=JXSQK25m9ObOv3Uz&t=5713

>>714735392
>Why does no one ever talk about these games?
Because it took until game 3 for the main gameplay, the combat, to actually be fun. Also, Spyro (and Cynder) have near free flight in the last game which also helps.

>>714737050
Nobody care about anything past 3. Nobody know who “Cynder” is

>>714736960
>making most of it boring grey rock
Yeah there's a lot of design they didn't seem to understand at all. I remember a lot of the stone structures in the first world looking like it was just poured concrete instead of actually brick/stone which made everything feel kind of like a miniature golf course.

They REALLY fucked up in Peacekeepers with the canyons, too. Again, the haze and bloom washing everything out and making things too hard to see, but look at the rocks. This is just generic mountain rock colored brown-orange. Giant rock formations like this out in the desert can be very flat due to years of erosion and sinking waterlines. Spyro OG nailed this and in that game the textures baked in changes in color to simulate how in real-life canyons you can literally see the change in the rock layers.

>>714734689
>>714734751
The remake obviously misses the point of what made the OG's design an instant classic
I'm sure if the PS1 devs had access to better hardware in their time, the grass would be more lush and detailed, the water and mountains too, but just look at the color palette. The tall, steep peaks are whimsical and I was always wondering what was "just out of view". It's also perfectly clear in presentation, if you've played the game, you can see at a glance the supercharge pad in the distance immediately.
And then there's the ugly fucking characters, this remake has been bullied for 7 years and it'll never be enough

>>714737854
Again for reference. Not the change in stone layers within the texture work.

>>714733878 (OP)
Spyro was great with art direction, music and as a 3D game it was great at the time.

I just don't think there was ambition or talent to keep it cutting edge.

>>714736357
I hate furries so god damn much

>>714737854
>MISSION BEGINS IN SIXTY SECONDS.wav

>>714737854
>>714737976
It honestly is really egregious for the first game of he trilogy because it's clear to everyone that the first game was the one that was worked on the most.

Why does a series have to go on forever? The Spyro trilogy was solid and then Insomniac moved onto RaC which was also good.
Though if it was going to get a Spyro 4 they should have expanded more on the dragon society introduced in the first game, with its unique architectures and dragon subspecies.

>>714738190
Dustbowl?

>>714738383
Badwater.

>>714738190
Spyro hub worlds would make good TF2 maps.

>>714738190
Thank fuck TF2 doesn't have a shitload of bloom and fog everywhere.

Off-topic but does anyone else think TF2 looks way better in older DirectX versions? The colors/shadows look deeper and the models have a much softer "feel" to them which really achieves that painted, Norman Rockwell look they were going for.
DX9 just has kind of a shiny plasticy rubber/action figure aesthetic to it and even the textures on the maps feel out of place.

>>714734689
>>714734751
>WTF WHY DOES A PS4 GAME HAVE MORE POLYGONS AND HIGHER DETAIL THAN A PS1 GAME REEEE IT'S BAD
clockwork

>>714735392
>Why does no one ever talk about these games?
Because 2/3 of them are genuinely shit and the 3rd one is mediocre. People only remember them because of the Cynder porn.

>>714737379
okay ESL-kun

>>714735392
First of all it was a shallow attempt at rebranding Spyro by trying to make it some LOTR, epic, dark fantasy. The only way this could be made more clear is Frodo Baggins himself voicing Spyro. Secondly they played like shit. They were diet-diet God of War, with endlessly recycled ape enemies for the 6 levels and two flying segments that existed in it. The second game was like this too only slightly harder. The breath elements were interesting I will give them that. The third one completely changed the aesthetic and gameplay from the previous two into something somewhat resembling a roleplaying game, with free flying and larger levels and actual collectibles. But it was also extremely short and the story across all 3 games was painfully generic and boring. Especially by Spyro standards which already did the “evil dragon” antagonist twice before this game. I hated this era of Spyro and Crash with the Titans games because they were responsible for the first death of both franchises. A death that defines their status to this day.

>>714740783
Even as a teenager playing the Legend of Spyro games for the first time, I was thinking "holy fuck this is fucking deviantart fanfiction garbage" when watching the cutscenes.
>"the dark master" was apparently the best name a bunch of adults could come up with, yeah we get his real name later but still, why this garbage?
>u r duh chosen 1 it is ur destinee
>plot points just happening out of nowhere with no explanation
>tropes, tropes and more tropes, literally almost every part of this trilogy overarching story is an overdone trope
And yeah, I too heard that the trilogy was literally just an attempt to pitch a "spyro movie" to Hollywood.

>>714741159
Fun fact the entire script for that cancelled LOS movie is online and its actually significantly worse than the games. Even if it was made it could have very well been one of the absolute worst animated movies of the 2000s and not even people elevating it to “cult” status could save it.

>>714742827
>its actually significantly worse than the games
Wouldn't surprise me, mostly since early drafts of movie scripts are usually shit.

>>714743553
Even the later versions are just as bad https://lostmediawiki.com/Announce:The_Legend_of_Spyro_Script_20220602001