Overview
the list of various differences between the original games and Reignited Trilogy: dialogs, censorship, features, design, etc
[1]
Sparx has been redesigned to more closely resemble an actual dragonfly, with the legs/joints and less goofy eyes. which is more realistic, I give it that, but a bit jarring
mod to return original Sparx’s look – [link]
in Twilight Harbor (Spyro 1) Gunners now use a goo-guns instead of machine-guns, same as in Scorch realm (Spyro 2) Riflemen now use slingshots instead of muskets
those changes were done, probably, in order to comply under ESRB game rating and willing to tone-down the usage of guns in the game to avoid complains from parents and various watchdog groups
mods to restore their weapons:
[link]
[link]
Juliet in Zephyr (Spyro 2) originally sounded like a man awkwardly pretending to be a woman, like a drag. in Reignited she sounds way more feminine, like a proper girl. some players consider it to be a bad thing, because it ruined a gay joke and made that whole quest less rewarding. in original it was funny to learn that Juliet is actually a man (or freak, or whatever) and it made you wonder was Romeo aware of it and what the heck was going on in their relationships
here is a video with original voiceovers (timestamp – 1:23)
[link]
to make matters worse – on the same level, Little Bo Peep, who clearly was a man in original game (he had male outlook and voice) was redesigned as a woman (look at his wig), but still carries his original masculine voice
so, in a nutshell, a character who 100% was a man – now is a man pretending to be a woman, and a man pretending to be a woman now is 100% woman. just some weird LGBT transitions are going on here =D
in original game the baby dragon obtained from the cat hockey sidequest in Frozen Altars (Spyro 3) was wearing a sheep’s costume. in Reignited he is just a regular baby dragon without any distinctions (so his name makes no sense whatsoever now)
overly, the baby dragons were redesigned to the worse, with less unique baby dragons and most of them being a palette-swap of others (no wearing a cool sunglasses, none who breathe a giant wall of fire…)
adult dragons, on other hand, received much more love, with every single of them being redesigned in some interesting way with distinctive feature and outlook
Bombo the Flagkeeper from Scorch realm (Spyro 2) was renamed into “Bob” and his appearance was changed from a goofy man to an evil muppet that vaguely resembles a human being
the reasons for those changes are presumably to avoid alleged racial stereotyping towards Middle Eastern inhabitants – releasing the game where a goofy Middle Eastern guy, called “Bombo”, is throwing the bombs at you for no real reasons but to be a d1ck – wasn’t in developers’ best interests
Mr. Bones’ (Spyro 2 & 3) does the flossing from Fortnite
while some fans claiming it to be just a pointless shilling that has no ties to Spyro whatsoever – other found it funny for the lul-factor’s sake
also, Pandas in Terrace Village (Spyro 2) do the dabbing when sneezing
graphics, visuals, textures and skyboxes are different between the games. some locations looked better in original games, especially their skyboxes: they either had more colors or more whimsical, fairytail-like atmosphere. also tint is different, for example the sky in Sunny Flight (Spyro 1) was more green than bright blue
some examples:
also, color palette is different. for instance, the ice in Icy Peak (Spyro 3) had more bright and vibrant colors
while better graphics and shadows are great, there are some instances where having better graphics makes minigames or challenges harder:
- various underwater levels, like Aquaria Towers (Spyro 2), are much harder to the eyes due to underwater tint and shadows, navigating thought those areas is more difficult than it should be
- super highspeed water tunnel in Seashell Shore (Spyro 3) is harder with the shadows, because they make seeing what’s up ahead difficult. disabling shadows make that minigame way easier
- The Nancy ice skating challenge in Icy Peak (Spyro 3) is a pain because of the new shadow effects – seeing the purple dressed hockey players in purple area with purple shadows around is a bit overblowning
- using the Supercharge was always a bit of a pain in the original games, but with a scenery redesigns you now have more chances to hit a rock or other prop and lose a momentum
- the grass and foliage, while graphically impressive, has an unfortunate side-effect of obscuring gems on the ground – finding green gems on green earth covered in green grass isn’t easy task for the eyes
lots of enemies and NPC were redesigned, and while some of them looked much better in Reignited, for example witch-cats in Charmed Ridge (Spyro 3), pandas in Terrace Village (Spyro 3), Idol Spring’ inhabitants (Spyro 2), and Alchemist in Fracture Hills (Spyro 2)…
…other NPCs and enemies looked much worse in Reignited. for example Tikis in Molten Crater (Spyro 3). they now look less “tiki” and more like regular stone-dudes
landblubber from Zephyr (Spyro 2) also is divisive among fans
also some players didn’t like that gnorcs and rhynocs look less goody and more serious in Reignited, and lose their muppet-like appeal
Enchanted Towers’ inhabitants (Spyro 3) were changed from regular purple villagers to stereotypical hipsters with latte, eyeglasses and pullovers
[2]
she looks just the same, only all her features and animations were polished to much of the players’ acclaim. extra points for the scene, where she holds her own ear like a teddy bear while the Sorceress announces her true plan
Elora now has more animal-like redesign which received a generous amounts of fan art (*cough* Rule 34 *cough*), however some players didn’t like her new voiceover and personality. in original game she was less playful and more bossy, while in her new iteration she is over-cute and less serious
he looks fine, but for some reasons developers made him squint a lot and you never actually see his eyes in full
her redesign was especially divisive among fans, as she is now sporting a red haircut and a jacket. some players think those additions were the pointless attempts to add more distinctive sexual characteristics, to make her actually look feminine, while before she was just an average, non-distinct looking kangaroo
but those are just a tip of complains. players also noted that her body proportions are all-wrong (huge lower-part and thin waist) and her tail is enormous
beloved fairy Zoya was redesigned and much players considered to the worst. both her face and dress was ridiculed and made fun of. the Save Fairy (from Spyro 1) however received much more positive acclaim
1-Up chests (Spyro 1) now have arms for whatever reasons. they didn’t have ones in the original game
Spike (Spyro 3) and Scorch (Spyro 3) were looked more intimidating and threatening in the original games
Spike (Spyro 3) was considered to be the hardest boss in the original games. in Reignited his difficulty was toned-down marginally: his gun shoots once instead of two times, and he has 6 HP instead of 9 HP
on other hand, Gulp (Spyro 2) has gained a significant spike in difficulty. not only now he charges way faster than before, but his energy orbs now have better accuracy, AoE, and quite hard to dodge. fighting with him is frustrating due to a sudden difficulty spike. so unexpectedly hard that some critics compared it to Dark Souls’ kind of cruelty[www.eurogamer.net] towards the player
some minigames became harder or easier depending on various factors:
EASIER:
- Sunny Beach’s Turtle Soup (Spyro 2) – better camera movement greatly helps here
- Magma Cone’s Crystal Geysers (Spyro 2) – much easier with a new camera and less stressful Hunter’s AI
- Cloud Temples’ Agent Zero (Spyro 2) – Zero’s AI is less aggressive than before
- Spooky Swamp’s Escort the Twins (Spyro 3) – rocks no longer respawn, so you need to remember just 3-4 obstacles on the way
- Frozen Altars’s Yeti Boxing (Spyro 3) – he was like a mind-reader in the original game, now you can just outspam him with two attacks
- Fireworks Factory’s Definitely Not DOOM (Spyro 3) – smooth FPS controls makes that previously challenging minigame a breeze
- Haunted Tomb’ Hovercraft Demolition Derby (Spyro 3) – again, smooth and fluid controls makes that minigame easier, but it is still a nuance on keyboard+mouse
HARDER:
- Colossus’s Hockey (Spyro 2) – because of new camera and geometry, the field is bit smaller in size and enemy has easier time to catch a goal
- Metropolis’s Ox (Spyro 2) – AI is much more aggressive
- Fireworks Factory’s Twin dragons (Spyro 3) – superflame deals less damage, enemies move quicker, more aggressive and just more tedious
- Dino Mines’s Bailey Gang! (Spyro 3) – AI is much more aggressive
- Crystal Islands’s Whack-a-mole (Spyro 3) – because of over-the-shoulder camera seeing your surroundings is now harder
- any skateboarding (Spyro 3) – it is now easier to fall down and ruin the race/score
skateboard challenge in Lost Fleet wasn’t particularly difficult in the the original game, but Reignited turned it into one of the more frustrating minigame. the worst part of it is auto-adjust feature that automatically centers Spyro to help him not to crash, but reading that feature takes some time and until then you will fall again and again. also, there is an invisible wall near the shortcut that tampers your progress too
Bentley was very sluggish and slow in the original game, and Reignited greatly boosted him. Agent 9 now plays like Ratchet (Lock-Strafe mode) which is more enjoyable than whatever he had in the original game
original Spyro 3 had adaptive difficulty – the more you do and collect without dying, the harder the game becomes. Reignited doesn’t have that feature and so the game is always in “normal” state. it makes third game in trilogy way easier for veteran players because game no longer is getting harder the better you play
original Spyro 2 had a cheat-code to unlock all abilities (swim, climb, headbash), but Reignited removed that code, which is odd because all other cheat-codes (mostly cosmetics) were included in Reignited. that is quite annoying for those players who don’t feel like backtracking
in Spyro 2 and Spyro 3 collecting all Skill Points unlocks the epilogues, which were the short-stories telling about what happened with various NPCs after game’s end. in Reignited they were replaced with concept-art galleries
in the original games those altars had the fancy sparks, but Reignited removed them for some bad reason (probably to make graphics neat and clean)
original Fracture Hill’s (Spyro 2) bagpipes were ear-bleedingly bad…
…the new soundtrack not only made them sound better, but also greatly enhanced the overall sound, making it more festive-like
some players are sore towards the updated music, citing that it’s nowhere near as good as the originals. thankfully, Reignited comes with the option to use the original trilogy’s music instead
[3]
Gregg Berger did a voice for both Hunter and Ripto in original Spyro 2/3 and while he is still doing Ripto’s voice in Reignited, Hunter was voiced by a completely different person. new Hunter’s voice is considered inferior to the original games, because now he sounds like a mix between “Sonic The Hedgehog-wannabe”, “Bill & Ted’s reject” and a “radical stoner surfboard dope”. in the original games he sounded more competent and had a mentor-like personality
in original she had a clumsy-raspy voice, but in Reignited she has much bossy and malevolent personality
some dialogs were tone-downed to avoid various complains or make them more kid-friendly, for instance:
- originally, after losing in Lost Fleet race (Spyro 3) Hunter says that he is “still get all the chicks”. that was changed to “still win a popularity contest”
- originally, Smelt the Seal was saying after defeating the Bluto (Spyro 3), that Spyro “got a lot of talent for someone so purple”. it was changed to “dragons must have a lot of talent”
- originally, Bianca used to say “our army will dispose of you and take eggs back”. it was changed to “our army will hunt you down and take eggs back”
- originally, monk in Colossus (Spyro 2) orders Spyro to “kill” the yeti. it was changed to “torch him”
…but most importantly
in case if Spyro had enough gems to pay Moneybags off to unlock Icy Speedway (Spyro 2) but still didn’t do it, the latter said the following phrase in original game:
…I bet you spent all your money on flirtatious fawns over in Fracture Hills. You always were a sucker for a pretty face, Spyro
but in Reignited he says a more innocent phrase:
…I bet you spent all your money on fanciful frivolities over in Fracture Hills. You always were a spendthrift, Spyro
the Fireworks Factory (Spyro 3) had the shout-out to The Matrix, when Greta’s kicked ninja in a Bullet Time fashion. Reignited removed that scene
you can watch it here (timestamp – 1:06)
[link]
in original game, one may notice the two fauns sitting next to earth elemental in the tunnel of love (Spyro 2). in Reignited it was cut and now a faun is going on with a satyr
intros and outros were redone harshly and some jokes and slapstick were cut, for example:
- in Hurricos’ outro – one of the Electrolls doesn’t slap the other at the end, like he did in the original game
- in Sunny Beach’s intro – turtle doesn’t chase the Waterworker with the electric stick
- in Zephyr’s intro – landblubber’s graphical explosion is replaced by a Looney Tunes-esque fade-out
- in Shady Oasis’ outro – the oversized hippo doesn’t try to blame another hippo for eating all the fruits
- in Water Wizard intro – the Snail Elephants don’t run over the Water Wizard (he instead runs away)
- in Magma Cone outro – one inhabitant no longer purposely throws another one into a lava, like a blood-heartless murdered, not it looks like an accident
you may compare all those intros/outros here
no matter what changes they done with the game – it is welcome to know that you still can see two Hunters at once, like in the original game
if you want to thank me……then check my guide about fixing various game issues: launching, crashing, optimization, stuttering, gamepads, etc. the guide is huge, but the topic is broad to begin with
[link]