This is the one I was looking forward to most out of the trilogy. After I finished the first game, I made a list of hopes that I want for the future of the franchise. This game delivered that on almost all fronts, I didn't even expect it until a brand new game came out but no this is just one of the best sequels ever. Needless to say that I already hold this highly and even higher than the last.

Let's start with that. First off, there's a better use for flight, using superflight which works similar to supercharge and you just have a limit to using your flight wherever whenever instead of just gliding. On top of that, gliding adds the ability to 'hover' which helps with banging into walls when you're oh so close to reaching the ledge, you just hold (in my case triangle) to hop up an extra step, which brings me to my next topic.

New abilities! You no longer die when you're in the water, you can even swim underwater and guess what? No breath meter! (unless it's a flight level (Man I wish those would go extinct!)) How do you get this? Glad you asked, yet another thing I asked for, gems. The gems are used for something this time around, Moneybags. He's a new character that basically acts as the Tom Nook of the franchise and deprives you of things then taxes it, asking for a certain amount of gems to obtain it. Gems also compile now so you can use gems from anywhere to use for Moneybags but can still look in the menu to see how many are left in the level.

Now the thing about abilities like that is that it prevents you from getting 100% on stuff right off the bat unless you already have the right abilities. (such as sometimes needing to dive underwater for gems) You don't need them to finish the level, just 100% it (just to be clear). I guess that adds replayability though, I'm alright with that, I'll make an exception.

This goes for the last game too but I failed to mention it because I didn't know about it. Motion blur...why is it there? It's subtle but when you move the camera around so much then it starts to suck, I thought it was the vibrant colors making my head hurt the whole time so I only played in small doses but no, I think it was the motion blur, so if you're like me and get headaches from just about anything, turn it off in the menu.

I will add that there are actual bosses this time around at the end of each realm. Ripto as an end boss makes up for having Gnorc at the end of the last game, I was really satisfied. Also is this where Dark Souls got its inspiration? Because you essentially collect 'souls' every time you defeat an enemy and you use them to unlock gates, it's really spooky to think about and I think it'd be funny if they acknowledged it.

I asked for more story and we got it, plenty of cutscenes and I love every bit. The world of Avalar is just as good as the Dragon Realm in the original game, if not better. The one thing I might ask more of is to make some of it a bit darker, I get it's for kids, but I just mean Legend type of dark, maybe add Cynder in there wink wink. There's plenty to FAWN over here and not to mention how much it improves on the system overall. I felt like it needed an extra gameplay element to it in the last game, well the new story boosts that concept and doesn't make it as simple as saving dragons, this time you're collecting Talismen from each of the leaders of the worlds so that you can gain enough power to beat Ripto. With every few worlds, there will be a little side mission that you can do and get some other items in the process which sometimes in turn unlock new levels entirely.

These missions comprise of little tasks, such as a new gameplay mechanic...spitting! You can pick up rocks and stuff and spit it either into a specific spot or at enemies, it's pretty sweet and you also have an aiming function. I won't spoil all the gameplay nooks and crannies but dang does this game improve on the last.

Nunca jugué el 2 original así que no sabría qué mejoró y qué no, pero vaya que para el sentido "complecionista" este juego es un embole tremendo. Es mas o menos el mismo problema que tengo con Crash Warped y Wrath of Cortex, que está lleno de minijuegos bastante mediocres, pero los de acá tienen un ritmo super lenteja y ni hablar de los jefes. Lo disfruté mucho más cuando me saqué la mentalidad de querer terminar al 100% cada uno de los niveles, y ahí se nota que el diseño que complementa las mecánicas base sí hay una mejora respecto al anterior titulo, y usar las almas de los enemigos para comprar power ups temporales se me hizo un cambio a favor.

Ya iré a probar Year of the Dragon a ver si es tan bueno como lo recordaba.

This is a solid improvement on the original game's formula and ideas. There's much more variety and creativity to the level design and gimmicks, so the game feels much more fresh and substantial despite being only a little bit longer than the original. The music's even better, and the platforming has some more interesting twists to it as well. Some of the objectives can be a bit annoying, but they're not too bad. This is once again a very cozy game, that I could definitely see myself revisiting in the future.

…this is literally almost identical to Spyro 1

Like yeah the structure I feel is better and more streamlined. Instead of Spyro 1’s jumbled mess of worlds within worlds within worlds, there are 3 cohesive hub world areas with levels packed inside of them. It’s a lot more streamlined in that sense. Instead of looking for Dragons, you’re looking for orbs, but instead of collecting them like in any collectathon, you always need to do someone else’s busy work in order to be rewarded with one. I mean I’m fiiiiiine with this decision I guess, it’s just not terribly exciting.

Overall like the first game though, platforming is super basic and uninteresting, boss fights suck, music is forgettable, it’s just a very “in one ear out the other” type of game just like the first. Story is a slight improvement in that they added a few more central characters but the overarching plot is still just “bad guy does a bad thing and you need to stop him”. Spyro also gets permanent upgrades to his moveset that includes abilities such as…climbing ladders. And uh…stomping on things. Again, not terribly exciting.

I think at this point I’m just playing these out of obligation rather than actually wanting to play them lol

Such a great sequel to an already great game and even greater remake of such a great classic sequel.

Instant hours of fun. Super vibey, relaxing to just idle in any of the worlds listening to the soundtrack and admiring the amazing graphical work and art style. The gameplay, while a bit more nuanced with the mandatory collection of at least 40 orbs, is so much better than it's predecessor and it only adds a few layers into the mix. The narrative elevates itself with unique cutscenes separating itself from it's more linear counterpart but still staying true to Spyro fashion.

My only complaint here would be the inclusion of Talismans which really only exist to keep the player within a single world before exploring others too quick beyond the narrative, which is understandable in it's own right given you were mostly allowed to exit into beyond worlds despite whether you had freed all the dragons in Spyro the Dragon... but it also feels kinda useless? I feel like if the requirement to advance was to collect all orbs in every level would have been good enough.

The indication to explore though is welcome anyways, because all the levels in their own right are super satisfying to play through. It's simplistic and straight forward but there's something about it that's just extremely fun and the requirement to grind for all orbs honestly is not a pain in any regard thanks to this.