Game Name: The Legend of Spyro - Dawn of the Dragon
Platform: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, mobile.
Developer: Ιtranges Libellules (console)
Year: 2008
Genre: 3D adventure/action game
Rated: Everyone
Mode: Single or two-players co-op mode
Multi-Player Support: None
Media: DVD-ROM

Dragon Contents:

This rating only indicates the dragon contents and importance they play in the movie/game/episodes reviewed.

R a t i n g :

This rating indicates how good or how bad was the movie/game/episodes reviewed. A rating of 5 stars on 10 is considered as the average which mean it is not good but not bad either.

The Legend of Spyro - Dawn of the Dragon is the last game in the trilogy. I am not exactly sure why this title was chosen as it suggests that light is just below the horizon and that either a new dragon character unseen to this point or more likely Spyro (as the word "dragon" is singular) is going to shake things up. But in many different ways, the story gets even darker (for a Spyro game) than in the previous installments. The main gripe I have with this triology is that these games strive to make sure you don't feel contented that you have accomplished something important or useful. Its meandering story where everything seems to go from bad to worse and where your successes are mostly inconsequential will likely leave you dissatisfied as Dawn of the Dragon fails to provide a proper rewarding conclusion.

It is the least action-oriented game of the series as the focus put more emphasis on exploring and puzzle-solving (depending on the level). There are still plenty of fights, especially in the later levels but generally, the game doesn't try to constantly overwhelm you with waves after waves of monsters. So at least in this game, there are occasions to appreciate Spyro's beautiful surroundings.

The game has a co-op mode allowing each players to control either Spyro or Cynder and a single player mode where the player can switch in-game between these two at will (the character not selected will be under the control of the computer and will attack enemies, though not as aggressively as a player would). I will give credits where they are due: magically binding/chaining Spyro and Cynder togheter was quite clever and it makes the game fun. First, this provides a good reason as why the second player (or character) can't wander too far; there is only one screen and it is shared so the game seeks to be cooperative and not having two players roaming a level independently. And second, this allows the duo to perform creative moves such as having one of them hold firmly a raft/platform/block/you-name-it and having the other dragon pulls it in different directions. It also allows Spyro to use his abilities such as his earth boulder bash (demolition ball) to break walls and obstacles while the Cynder grasps vines growing on walls (or ceilling) or just allowing either Spyro or Cynder to be swung around to reach inaccessible places. While this magical chain is an obvious weak point that the enemies could exploit, it is only on the Floating Islands level where there are a handful "devices" that try to do that and restrict Spyro and Cynder's movements by trying to pin down this chain. In other words, what has the appearence of a restrain, is actually a handy "rope" with you to have around when exploring.

Both dragons appear a bit more mature in this game. They are exactly the same size as before but they have slender bodies, smaller heads and a less baby-ish appearance. Though, it was not originally intended to be that way and this change was made only because Sierra Entertainment requested it. Technically, Spyro and Cynder were in stasis and encased in ice at the end of The Eternal Night so their bodies could not really have changed or grown. Also, they are now both able to flap their wings and fly freely and relatively well in all levels which solves one issue from the previous two games where Spyro was able to fly (technically, to glide indefinitely) but only when it was convenient to the story while he would fall this his death the rest of the time. However, either due to their small size or because of inexperience, you can't just reach any point of a level at any time; wind and air currents will prevent you from reaching some locations and from flying so high as to ignore all the obstacles in your way. The developers of the game specifically intended the two dragons to be able to fly but relatively close to the ground. This may look like a major annoyance but surprisingly it's not most of the time: if there is a strong wind preventing you from reaching a spot (i.e. preventing you from gaining altitude), you just need to find a higher ground or try to climb vines to reach a platform where you have the wind at your back. However, sometimes this limit on how high you can fly will make it difficult for you to reach places where you are actually supposed to go.

The game is also a lot more focused on collecting items. There are 8 Elite Enemies, 99 Spirit Crystals, 20 Red Life Crystals and 20 Green Magic Crystals that increase your maximum health and magic/breath weapon (you can see what is left to be discovered in a level by pressing "Select" and then the "L1"/"R1" button). There is also 3 different sets of armor (with helmet, bracers and tail plate) to discover for Spyro and the same number for Cynder. Each piece provides a specific benefit such as increasing your defense, harming close enemies, regenerating magic or health, etc. Moreover, when a character wears a complete set, it provides an additional benefit such as nuclear hit (Spyro) / poisonous hit (Cynder), immunity to stun or unlocking the Fury breath that can then be used without activating Fury (while this attack is very powerful, it drains Spyro/Cynder magic really quickly). There is also enough Spirit energy around the game to finish it with all your elements maxed out and if you have missed many blue gems, there are group of enemies in the Burned Lands that respawn near red and green crystals so it is rather easy to quickly grind some Spirit points. While in The Eternal Night it was relatively easy to spot and find special items and upgrades if you were aware of your surrounding. In this game, it's not the same, mainly because the camera angle is mostly under the control of the computer. It is not something too difficult to get used to but since you don't have full control of where you look, you will definitively miss many of these items even when they are in Spyro and Cynder's direct field of view.

Like before, the main characters have a variety of attack moves, but they are a bit more realistic than in the previous game by being less cartoonish sword-like slash effects and more claw-like effects. Though, the hits count (i.e. combo-hits) can sometimes reach ridiculous levels (>150). Some attack patterns are definitely more in line with what a dragon could do, such as bite-grasping enemies either on ground or in the air and beating them up. For example, grasping an enemy in the air allows Spyro/Cynder to hold it firmly with their bite and forearms while using their rear claws to repeatedly slash it before hurling it back on the ground. But attacking airborn creatures is slightly more challenging because Spyro and Cynder are not limited to a double jumps and as such they can inadvertently begin to fly in combat which require them to land back to continue the fight.

The two characters do not begin the game as complete blank states: you will be able to use all four elements for Spyro (i.e. fire, electricity, ice and earth) but also four new elements for Cynder (i.e. poison, fear, wind and shadow) since her exposure to the darkness of the Dark Master has gifted her with these 'most uncommon abilities'. As with the other games, the breath weapons are different with some being more efficient to attack a single enemy while others are deadly effective when being surrounded.

The Fury attack is no longer replenished with purple gems, this is done automatically by hitting and fighting enemies instead. It also won't create a massive elemental blast radius anymore. Once activated, it allows Spyro and Cynder (at the same time) to use a special breath weapon for a limited time similar to Dark Spyro's breath weapon in the The Eternal Night but wider and much more powerful. Since Fury is quite powerful, it is recommended to keep a full bar just in case you encounter an elite enemy. Speaking of "elite enemies", they deal a lot of damage and can kill you really quickly if you are not careful. They also wear some sort of mask that can only be destroyed by the right elemental breath weapon attack (the glowing color of the mask tells you which breath weapon to use; for example, yellow would require electricity). But until that mask has been destroyed, they are nearly invincible.

The game itself has eleven levels and feel a lot less linear because most levels have large open area where you are free to roam, fly around and explore. Overall, the game is more interesting and the levels feel more relevant than in The Eternal Night because they are continuous to Spyro and Cynder's journey and to the story rather than being simple fillers.


Storyline:
The game suffers from some obvious retconning (aka retroactive continuity) and plotholes. For example, Cynder is now a dark purple dragon instead of a black one. She is also wearing her platinum collar around her neck and tail and despite their ornamental value, these were more manacles to show her enslavement to the Dark Master. She apparently wears these objects as a way to confront her fear of becoming Malefor's servant again but this was never shown in the game due to lack of time to code it. The problem with this explanation is that she lost those pieces of jewelry in Convexity at the end of A New Beginning and as such, those objects were practically unrecoverable. Beside they were also sized to fit corrupted Cynder who was an adult-sized dragoness at least ten times bigger than the juvenile Cynder you play in the game, so those things would simply not fit in any way. In the first game, the story mentions that a purple dragon is born only once every ten generations but in Dawn of the Dragon, Ignitus states that there was only two of them throughout their history (i.e. Spyro and Malefor). Other times in the same game (DotD), it's more or less back to the original premise which makes more sense since Malefor knew exactly in which brood Spyro's egg would be and if Malefor was the only purple dragon ever born, then no one would be able to establish with precision the occurrence of such event. Also, Spyro, Cynder and Sparx are still encased in ice to prevent them from being crushed by the cave-in that occured at the end of the last game, but instead of requiring lot of time and effort to tunnel and to clear up the rocks around them, their crystal prison stands in the middle of a large empty room in a lightly damaged ruins and they are found by a group of enemies who simply walk in instead of being discovered by Hunter. But enough of that and into the actual story...

The game begins three years later after the events in The Eternal Night. A group of enemies is seen walking through the ruins toward the ice crystal holding Spyro, Cynder and Sparx. One of the henchman hit the crystal and the protagonists are released from the spell and fall on the ground still unconscious. Then the enemies open a chest containing magical shackles in the form of two glowing emerald snakes and put them around Spyro and Cynder's neck. This creates some sort of magical and relatively long energy chain between them that prevent the two dragons from moving far apart from each others. The enemies then take them away. Meanwhile a cloaked anthropomorphic cheetah named Hunter is watching and is seen rescuing Sparx who was left behind as he appeared to be of no interest to the group of enemies.

Spyro and Cynder awake and find themselves at the center of a large room on a pillard surrounded by lava. As they wonder what happened to them, they try to leave but the magical shackle holding them together is also stappled to a tile on the floor preventing them from wandering away from the center of the pillar. The enemies realize that they are now awake and move to attack them for the amusement of the the other enemies around who are watching them like if they were gladiators in a pit. Spyro and Cynder defeat them until they have to fight against a huge golem made of rocks and molten lava. As they realize that they cannot fight this monster while being tied to the pillar, they both decided to pull the tile off the floor and thus freeing themselves from their rather static position. Now being free to nimbly move around, they give the bulky golem a run for its money despite being unable to fully defeat it. Hunter makes his appearence and shots an arrow in one of the golem's eye allowing Spyro and Cynder to escape.

Hunter reveals that Ignitus has tasked him to find Spyro and Cynder and that it has been three years since they fought the Ape King Gaul at the Well of Souls. With the golem and the grublins horde still on their heels, they escape the catacombs into the Twilight Falls before reaching the Enchanted Forest. At the top of a small cliff, Spyro can see an active volcano and Hunter confirms that the Dark Master (Malefor) has returned shortly after their disappearance (as the Chronicler feared would happen). Malefor struck quickly and reclaimed the throne at the dragon temple and which some dark magic, he suspended it above the volcano as a symbol of his dominance. Hunter continues by revealing that they have been at war ever since and that the golem they faced earlier was an ancient earth golem from the deep; an embodiment of destruction summoned by Malefor himself. But before the conversation could continue the group is shot with some sort of green ball-like and glowing projectiles that knock them unconscious.

They wake up to again as captives of Hunter's tribe in the Valley of Avalar with their magical chain pinned to a large pole this time that also serves as some sort of watch post. Chief Prowlus openly blames the dragons for all their misfortunes but Hunter reminds him that Malefor alone is responsible for this and that Spyro is their only hope. To which Prowlus points out that he remembers what Malefor looked like when he was young and what Cynder has done too. He also blames Hunter for bringing the dangers of the outside world when he returned with the dragons. While Hunter points out that the dangers were already around them, a group of grublins attack the village. Spyro and Cynder propose to help fight them back and are reluctantly set free. After the battle, they learn news that a villager called Meadow has not returned from his trip to search for herbs. Since the village needs to be defended in cases of a further attacks, Spyro proposes to go and find him instead. Prowlus begrudgingly accepts his offer but warns him to not return without him.

Spyro and Cynder eventually find Meadow with a broken leg in a cave. The dragons cannot not go back to the village for help since Prowlus do not trust them and would assume the worst. Meadow suggests to bring the raft at the end of the river to carry him back. So Spyro and Cynder fetch and find the different items to accomplish this task and guide the raft back to Meadow who is then able to return to his village. As a reward, Prowler allows Hunter to go with Spyro and he allows them to use what they called the Forbidden Passage to reach Dragon City; a city dedicated to the dragon race but is actually inhabited by Manweersmalls (simply called Moles in this game).

Upon reaching the city, they found it under siege by a vast army assembled by Malefor. Spyro and Cynder must defend it from the invaders and other evil creatures and prevent Malafor from putting in action the ultimate plan he has in mind for this world...

Spoilers and discussion:
(select the text with your mouse to read it)
The game's story begins to break apart shortly after defending the city walls and after the attack of the golem. At that point, the city is under siege and Malefor's forces are trying to break in. Generally, the purpose of a siege is either to take possession of the place or to kill the defenders or both, thus dealing a crippling blow to your opponent and allowing you to gain territory and a greater flexibility regarding what you can do next. But Spyro and Cynder manage to repeal the attack, and even destroy Malefor's backup plan to use the earth golem (seen at the beginning of the game) to ransack the place. It is usually at this point that the hero would have some time to rest while the invading army would be demoralized, realizes that it has exhausted itself and would retreat behind their defensive lines to regroup for another attack later or to allow their master to rethink his approach. But here Malefor simply creates (or more accuratly activates) a new monstrously large golem called the "Destroyer" to wipe the entire planet. Yes, you read that right, Malefor actually has a weapon that could easily be confused with the effect of a Warhammer 40k Exterminatus (in that dystopian sci-fi universe, an Exterminatus typically destroys a planet entire biosphere through the initiation of a thermonuclear reaction that ignites its very atmosphere). But it actually gets worse, because as we eventually see at the end, the Destroyer doesn't just activate a rapidly expending ring of fire that spreads and consumes everything at the surface of the whole planet; it literally breaks the planet itself into pieces, making an Exterminatus looks like a feeble attempt at destroying all life on it. Here, there would be no birth of a new world by destroying the old one, it would not wipe out (or critically weaken) the dominant species and thus allowing new ones to thrive. This would wipe out all life on it and nothing would survive.

Malefor reveals that the purpose of purple dragons to bring forth this destruction and that he was not even the first one to have done that; he was just the only one who failed at that task and this is where the story goes completely off the rails. First, an Exterminatus doesn't really belong in a Spyro game; while the story can deal with more mature themes and don't need to end with a "they lived happily ever after", it was never a Grimdark universe. Note that Malefor could be lying but this would be very unusual for a bad guy to lie about core elements of the story at the very end because it's the only moment lefts in the game to reveal new information; information that may have been kept secret from the protagonists because revealing it would have planted the seed of doubt in the mind of the heroes or because it would have blurred the line between good and evil. But if this has canonically happened multiple times before (Ignitus is clearly aware of what the Destroyer is and what it does, lending credence to Malefor's story) and assuming some dragons survived (because dragons still exist and they do lay eggs and do not just quantumly *pop* into existence), they would see purple dragons as harbingers of death, ruin and devastation and would kill them while still in the egg. Assuming that one group would be particularly unwise and reckless as to let such dragon lives, they would certainly not train him/her ("Please let us help you destroy our world"). There is also the problem of the henchmen and soldiers under the command of such dragon. You see, even if you don't mind working for an evil overlord because of vague promises of richness and power (or just because doing so won't get you beaten up and killed). Ultimately, you still don't want to die, and his mandrill monkeys, grublins and orcs army would bail on him and would probably be amenable to switch side if they knew that their master is a madman scheming to incinerated all of them alive. Keep in mind that planning the destruction of a whole world is probably difficult to keep secret from the people serving you so eventually the word would spread around.

But even if we could disregard all this, why would Malefor wants to rule over a planetary-wide graveyard? Or die as a result of the destruction. But more importantly, what is Malefor's motivations here? We know that he is powerful, he is intelligent since he has mastered all elements, he probably thinks of himself as the pinnacle of all life forms and as such that the world likely exists for his own benefit. He also likes to show off his power as he suspended the dragon temple above the volcano as a symbol of his dominance (this serves no purpose at all other than provinding hints of his narcissic personality: "Look at me. Look how strong I am and at what *I* can do"). Compared to this to a nihilist wishing to destroy the world, he would need to be consumed by a personal vengeance and hatred against life itself, whether it be its cruelties or its unfairness. And such personality better fits those who have been badly mistreated, shunned, falsely accused of a serious crime, etc... to the point where, if given the chance, this person will no longer wish to change everything, s/he is going to try to end everything instead. The young Malefor, being a purple dragon held in the highest regard and having the full attention of everyone around him and even idolized by the "lower" races, doesn't fit that profile... He is the archetype of a megalomaniac who see himself as some sort of god with little or no ability to empathize with others' feelings and concerns. He attacks Dragon City so that he can rule it, he uses destruction because he cannot tolerate anyone who thinks differently and cannot even begin to accept that he could be wrong; his war is one of conquest and not one of total annihilation. As soon as everyone is brought to heel, his tyranny would continue but his war would be over as he would be exactly where he believes to be his rightful place: at the top, ruling over everyone and everything. Why would he ever wants to renounce all this and destroy everything? Even if we consider this purple dragons so-called mission as a fact, fulfilling such task would only make sense if one of his personality traits was a sense of duty so profound that he would be willing to disregard reason, but it is not. In fact, his upbringing would make him repudiates this task because he would think that he knows better than whoever or whatever sets that task upon him and he could never accept that he exists for the sole purpose of destroying the world and by extension, himself. But in the game, he just states that this is what purple dragons do, so that is what must be done. The war that occured before the events of A New Beginning, trying to conquer Dragon City and the whole world thus become completely pointless endeavors because if someone has a finger on the button to trigger a nuclear armaggeddon (which doesn't even come close to breaking a whole planet apart), it doesn't really matter what regions or cities you control because ultimately, all this will be gone.

He also reveals that it was thanks to Spyro that he was able to come back, but then why did he tries to kill him while he was still in his egg? You don't kill someone who can be useful to you, much less one you absolutely need to be brought back to life. And since Malefor originally failed to destroy the world, wouldn't a new purple dragon be seen like a second opportunity to succeed this time around? Again from Malefor's perspective who believes that purple dragons exist to activated the Destroyer (willingly or unwillingly, as he himself points out), it doesn't really matter what Spyro says, thinks or does; he is destiny-bound to accomplish this task. So why all these efforts to kill him?

Malefor also hints that Cynder betrayed and manipulated Spyro to bring him to the Well of Souls. I feel that in the last level they were really throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the player hoping something would stick. But it's not the feeling of potentially having been manipulated or putting yourself in Cynder's shoes and trying to understand why she may have done that or even believing that Malefor is lying to confuse Spyro or that he is mixing lies with the truth to psychologically attack him. The only feeling the player may feel at that point is confusion because this defies all expectations. It doesn't match what was played in the previous games; there is no "Yes, I remember that it was a bit strange that she insisted so much for us (Spyro) to go there or to do that" or any other subtle hints that would allow the player to connect the dots in a "Ahhh, this is why! The plan was set in motion there!" moment. It's so random that even Cynder isn't sure of what is going on and what happened despite that the story is quite clear: one of Gaul's henchman kidnapped her and this was the reason for Spyro to go to the Well of Souls (to save her from her dark fate despite the Chronicler's advices against doing so). Even if she knew she was being used as a bait to attract Spyro, she didn't stay at the Dragon Temple, she met Spyro for a few minutes in the Fellmuth Arena before spending the rest of The Eternal Night game as a prisoner at the Well of Souls. There is no question that she was never in a position to manipulate him and that at every juncture she showed that she would not fight or work against him because Spyro is one of the few characters who makes genuine efforts to empathize with her and she knows that. In fact, she did the exact opposite of manipulating him by fighting Gaul (unsuccessfully) and preventing Spyro from turning into Dark Spyro at the end.

Lastly, Ignitus's sacrifice seems completely unjustified and force us to disregard the fact that the group could have simply flown over the fire barrier ring. While the flames are high by most standards and they do create an insurmountable wall for any land dwelling creature, they are not high enough so that a dragon couldn't fly over them (you can see them when standing on the walls of Dragon City; the engulfed tower in the back can be used as a point of reference for their height). After all, Spyro and Cynder eventually reached such a height in the Floating Islands level as to be able to see the whole continent below... and they flew there from the Burned Lands which are more or less at ground level. So a full-fledged mature dragon would likely have no difficulty at all to fly above the flames instead of trying to walk right through them and hoping to have good enough magical abilities to protect the group (and wouldn't Cyril be better placed to create a cold barrier against the flames?). And just to be clear, the problem isn't that a non-player character died, it's that the storyline in this game is a disorienting mess and the lack of proper planning of the story across the three games is without a doubt the biggest issue in this trilogy. They walk back from the arcs they have created for these characters as quickly as they were implemented:
• Malefor is a powerful purple dragon that only Spyro can defeat (note that Cynder's poison breath is actually the most effective weapon against him) but despite all your attacks and no matter how many times you drain his health bar, he does not show the slightest sign of exhaustion and nothing seems to be able to shatter his astonishing ability to absorb punishment and shrug it off. However, five ghost dragons that we never encountered or heard of before, just appear and manage to get the better of him. Malefor is as confused as the player as how and why this is happening.
• Ignitus sacrificed himself to carry Spyro across the ring of fire and later, he appears as a ghost to guide him about what he needs to do to save the world. But in the scene after the credits, Ignitus appears as a dragon in flesh and blood to meet and accept his role as the new Chronicler. Aside that the latter just disappears in a flash of light, did Ignitus inherited the Chronicler's archivist and reclusive personality and that he now doesn't mind to be completely alone for hundreds of years at a time to watch, listen and wait for things to come in order to catalog dragon history in the Books of Life?
• Spyro was too late: the whole world was destroyed, the planet was blown into pieces up to its very core. All hope is lost as the death toll (while unseen) is catastrophic and hidding underground would not help at all considering the scale of the damages. But Spyro lays down his own life, the planet is immediately pieced back together like a giant jigsaw puzzle and so are its inhabitants (I guess).
• Spyro's noble sacrifice was the only way to save everyone. There is even some sort of new nebula and stars forming a new constellation in the night sky in the shape of a somewhat feminine adult dragon similar to the shape of corrupted Cynder (Spyro has a more boxed-snout). Our heroes are thus dead: we can only assume that Spyro is now part of the new world and maybe his spirit is holding it together while Cynder ascended to the stars like Draco did when he died at the end of Dragonheart (1996) proving that her sacrifice was enough to make amend for what she did as corrupted Cynder and that she was worthy of absolution. But no, right after the credits, the Chronicler confirms that their names do not appear in the book of dragons who have died. They are then shown in the last scene of the game as being alive and flying in the Valley of Avalar (same scenery with an identical gigantic moon in the sky).

All this makes it looks like the people who wrote the story of Dawn of the Dragon killed the two heroes and then someone realized that they went too far and created a small epilogue after the credits to retcon all this. I know that they wanted to make the ending open to interpretation (i.e. they could be in dragon heaven, they could have returned to their world, or they could have been teleported to another) and leave a door open for Spyro and Cynder to be teleported in the world of Skylands (the Skylanders game series by Activision such as Spyro's Adventure). But c'mon, this trilogy was its own thing and as such it needed a proper conclusion and closing of the book on this adventure.


Graphics:
If we compared this game to the previous two installments, Dawn of the Dragon is an entirely different game with a different engine, textures and models. It is much less cartoonish in appearance and everything looks noticeably more realistic and detailed. Even the enemies are no longer the same (the mandrill monkeys having been annihilated in The Eternal Night) and while there are some are big deformed monsters, most of the enemies tend to be more well-proportioned contrarily to the typical enemies with exaggerated and bulky upper bodies in the previous two games.

The game engine also pretty much do away with Spyro's ability to do battle damages to his surrounding. Aside from breaking pottery (and stalagmites in the Burning Lands), Spyro has very few opportunities to affect things around him. It's not a huge issue as the setting of the game is less appropriate for that kind of things and because you play a lot more on your own turf than on the enemy territory where such damages would feel more satisfying.

However, just as the PS2 (released in 2000) was an exceedingly better console than the PS1 (1995), the PS3 (2006) is also a device that is significantly better than the PS2. And this is quite apparent when comparing the different versions of this game when knowing that (back then) it was specifically designed for the next generation of consoles. As such, playing it on a console like the PS3 is better in every way as everything is clearer and more detailed. There are also additional terrain features (such as volcanos, battle damages, grass, flowers, you-name-it) that will not appear in the PS2 version. One point that is a bit more negative but only from the player's point of view, is that magic crystals are glowing brightly in the PS2 version, making them very easy to spot even at a distance while on the PS3, they don't. Those crystals can be spotted just fine but they look more realistic by being just a bit shiny and reflective.

The PS2 has a lower polygons count and much simpler textures. The cutscenes are, as with any other pre-rendered videos, always quite blurry because the console has a low native resolution. While an emulator can improve things by processing the game data and upscaling it, it can only do so much and it cannot improve these pre-rendered videos. It was also necessary to reduce details and remove a good amount of objects in the game levels (such as grass and nearly all potteries) to make it playable. And even so, Dawn of the Dragon pushes the PS2 console to its limits, with notable slowdown when there are many enemies on the screen and when there are complex scenes involved. It's always playable and to be perfectly honest, the slowdowns in close pitched battles were not entirely unwelcomed but it was not ideal. There was also a lot of problems with blooming with the PS2. It seems that the console simply can't handle this light effect properly. Many times, the characters and the whole screen appear to be glowing rather than the luminosity around changing. This reaches a near problematic levels during the Dragon City siege battle where the ambient light gradually shifts toward the red as the health of the catapult you are tasked to protect and repair is getting low. But on the PS2, the whole screen is glowing red, making it difficult to see what is going on. But again, there is only so much a game created in 2008 can do on a console that was already eight years old at the time. This is especially true for bonus artworks as the PS2 resolution is terrible by today's standards.

As the game full potential cannot be described in words, the Screenshots section has a PS2 and PS3 sub-sections but here are some examples to illustrate the differences:
• Title screen: PS2 vs. PS3 - Static images are much better on the PS3.
• Intro golem fight: PS2 vs. PS3 - Notice the blooming and lower level of details in the PS2 version (ex: the health bar decorative design).
• Enchanted Forest cutscene: PS2 vs. PS3 - The low PS2 native resolution is really apparent in pre-rendered videos.
• Wyverns (a type of Grublin): PS2 vs. PS3 - The details of the enemies are simply nowhere near the same on PS2 compared to the PS3.
• Overall details: PS2 vs. PS3 - Same thing here, the details on the PS2 pale in comparison to the PS3 [take note of the glowing (PS2) vs. rather matte finish (PS3) Life Crystal on the left].
And so on...

Using an emulation such as RPCS3 will make the graphics a bit sharper and more detailed when upscaling to HD resolution (most games on the PS3 are 720p) and when enabling 16X antialiasing (see original PS3 vs. RPCS3) but the improvements are marginal. It is doubtful that someone will really notice this when playing the game unlike playing it with PCSX2 (original PS2 vs. PCSX2). It's not that the RPCS3 emulator is bad (well, it has its bad sides but not in this game), it's just the PS3 itself is so much better than the PS2 that there are less possibilities for a modern PC to compensate for the deficiencies of the console.


Sound, Voices & Music:
Like in the previous games the music is completely appropriate; it changes with the dynamic of the game depending if Spyro and Cynder are exploring, are in combat or if the situation only calls for ambient sound effects (such as the sound of wind in a cave, etc). It generally pleasant and melodious. I don't recall any time where I wanted to turn down the volume of my headphones or I thought the music was repetitive.

As for the voices and dialogs, Cynder has now a typical woman voice instead of giving the impression that she is whispering all the time and she has a very good lines especially when she tells Spyro that trying to twist a magic tether to break it isn't going to work because... it's magic. Sparx also has a different voice actor (again) which he indirectly acknowledge in a comical way when you meet him the first time after being trapped in ice for three years.

One note about Sparx, he has finally completed his hero's journey to irrelevance. It actually pains me to say this but the writers had no idea about what to do with him. In A New Beginning, he doesn't seem to belong, but it's fine, he doesn't really have to since it's the beginning of a new journey and his role is not well-defined and he can simply act as an extra. In The Eternal Night his personality is abrasive but he somewhat saved Spyro from being captured once (even if in retrospect, this was pointless as Spyro was captured by the pirates a short time later) and eventually he comes to terms with the fact that if he sticks with Spyro, he is going to be in danger on a regular basis (while not a proper character's arc, this is still character progression). At the beginning of Dawn of the Dragon, he still has not accepted the fact that Cynder is a different dragon than the evil corrupted Cynder. He eventually makes peace with Cynder much later in the game but at that point, I don't think anyone cares anymore about him. His dialog is almost non-existent, and in the rare cases when he says or does something, it is rarely appropriate to the situation. It feels like the game wants to remind the player (who can't be blamed for having forgotten that he is still there) that he exists before he falls into silence once more. And this is the moment when such characters should actually be left behind somewhere safe and just admit that things are simply too much for them. If the cowardly way is not suitable, there is always the possibility of providing a golden bridge to retreat across by giving the character a specific task that lead them on a different path than the hero. This task doesn't have to be insignificant and can be very meaningful to the story... as long as the character remains out of the way. The game actually does that near the end which is too little too late because Cynder is the one who have been interacting with Spyro since the game started. It seems that Sparx could have stayed in the swamp in A New Beginning as he originally planned to, and in retrospect, it would probably have been for the best.