ROR: Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (PS1 Vs. PC & Xbox One X) | One Step Forward, One Step Back

FOR BEST RESULTS, WATCH ON A BIG SCREEN IN 4K OR 1080p, 60 FRAMES PER SECOND.

It's Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (or Gateway to Glimmer for my PAL viewers)! Exo returns for another exhaustive review of a beloved PlayStation classic, while comparing it to it's HD remake in the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Can Toys for Bob and company recapture the excellence of its remake of the first game? How well does the Reignited Trilogy address flaws in the original game? All these questions and more, answered today.

CHAPTERS:
00:00:00 - Video Start
00:00:41 - Intro
00:02:06 - PS1 Graphics
00:05:27 - Reignited Trilogy Graphics
00:07:48 - Xbox One X Version Graphics
00:12:01 - PS1 Soundtrack
00:13:46 - Reignited Soundtrack
00:16:51 - New Mechanics
00:25:47 - Basic Level Design, Exploration, and Combat
00:29:27 - Stage Routing
00:36:41 - Backtracking Between Levels
00:42:52 - Reignited Trilogy Backtracking
00:44:07 - PS1 Minigames
00:50:26 - Reignited Minigames
00:52:39 - Reignited Load Times
00:54:09 - The 100% Experience
00:55:46 - New Game + and Glitches
01:00:49 - Pacing and Variety
01:03:27 - The Story
01:05:27 - The Characters and Production Value
01:08:42 - The Problem with Ripto
01:12:52 - Level B Plots
01:18:29 - Plot Contrivances
01:22:03 - Reignited Story
01:27:04 - Final Thoughts on Spyro 2
01:34:34 - ROR Verdict on Spyro 2 Reignited
01:38:21 - Outro
01:40:12 - Credits and Attributions

Note: So that I don't have to play each of these games five times, I've decided to focus primarily on Reignited Trilogy on PC. However, I'll still be covering ONE of the three console versions in each review. For Spyro 1, we're looking at the PS4 Pro version. For Spyro 2, we're looking at the Xbox One X version. For Spyro 3, we're looking at the Nintendo Switch version.

EPG Fan Discord:

EPG Plays (Let's Plays and Streams):

Unversed Cast (Video Podcasts on YouTube):

Unversed Cast (Audio Podcasts on SoundCloud):

Twitter:

[nakagamipenguin]

4 weeks.

That's gotta be the shortest wait between videos we've ever had.

[keybladeoverlord]

While a lot of those gripes you had with the plot are pretty solid arguements, there is one thing that wasn't a contrivance. The Avalar Gang getting Spyro to Avalar. The Professor actually mentions that they could intercept a dragon using a portal and that Glimmer was a better suited location for that, hence why they needed the power crystal for the Super Portal to take Spyro to Dragon Shores later on in Winter Tundra. It doesn't clear up all the problems with the story you mentioned, but it does explain at least two things in the plot.

[ErdrickHero]

"Why did they put hover on triangle and not cross?" this confused me for a while too, but I think I know the answer. In the first game, pressing triangle during a glide would stop spyro in midair and he'd drop straight down. This function is actually what became hover. Hover does the same thing, except you get a tiny boost of height before you stop and fall. Why can't that be on cross? Because in in free-flight (speedways), tapping cross gives you a small speed/height boost, so a separate button is needed anyway to drop, for example, to quickly get to a supercharge path.

[ToMaSsS]

"The hub themes are mediocre"
God I cannot disagree more, it gives contrast to the music in the game between levels.

[techhutch]

Is nobody going to mention Exo's glorious attempts at rewriting and voicing a couple pieces of dialogue from the game?

[TheOneTrueTMan]

I was waiting for the rant about the plot. I was not disappointed.

Hard disagree on the hub world music, though. :(

[train]

Whoa, that was fast. Didn’t expect this to come out so soon after the first game’s review

[lightninstriker]

I believe, and this is all speculation, mind, that Ripto wasn't ever meant to be threatening to *Spyro* but for whatever reason, the main quartet of Avalar residents can't get rid of him (Hunter is too incompetent and cowardly, Elora and the Professor lack a means of effectively fighting him, and of course Moneybags can't be arsed.) and the residents of Avalar are so tied up in their own problems that they wouldn't lift a finger to help either, so it's less that they needed Spyro specifically, but their only clue was that Ripto did not like dragons, and given his own general incompetence it can be gathered that against a dragon, he's nothing worth a damn, as implied in the manual (It's a snap if you're a dragon.) it's more that Avalar was already having enough problems (Since Elora implies during the post-Gulp fight cutscene that the creatures of Avalar are "finally starting to get along" and Ripto and his goons may have just been enough of a tipping point to send the whole place to hell if left unchecked, even a tiny, unimposing wizard and his monsters can take over if nobody's going to bother to stop them, so they jumped immediately to outside help because it was all they could do. Also, even if just Crush went through the portal and got trapped on the other end, it still leaves the fireball-spewing wizard and his blaster-toting pet to cause havoc, and as the final battle shows us, Ripto *is* a very powerful wizard on his own, able to create monstrous creatures and use powerful spells all by himself, while the story doesn't show us how threatening he is, in gameplay he's every bit Spyro's match, which could owe more to that Spyro is a young dragon that isn't nearly as strong as one fully-grown. The mistake the dragons made in the first game was underestimating Gnasty and believing he couldn't harm them, when a tiny dinosaur wizard appears with two giant monsters and says he's going to take over the world, it's probably not a good idea to just sit around and wait for him to do it, don't you think?

[BugsyFoga]

"Despite all my Rage I am still just a Ripto in a cage !!!"

[ZereWasTaken]

Not sure if I'm missing something here, but to your question of why remaster the soundtrack if they weren't going to change anything, you fail to mention that Copeland himself was brought on to oversee the remaster of the songs which is a partial answer as to why the songs sound so similar while still being changed and updated.

[batsam]

Guess EXO wasn’t bothered by how hunter was withholding some of the orbs until Spyro won his mini games

[BlueSparxLPs]

Regarding how Spyro gets to Glimmer, I thought it was pretty well implied that the Professor intercepted Spyro when he went through the portal, and pulled him into another one. We don't actually have a full explanation for how portals in Spyro work, so it's not unreasonable to believe that in this world an interception of that nature could be possible.

[kylelangdon]

Gonna be honest, the first time I played Spyro 2, when I was like, 5, I didn't realize I was supposed to take Ripto seriously as a threat, especially to the same level as Gnasty Gnorc. I just figured he was this little annoyance we'd be done with by the end of the first world. Then he took over the castle and I thought "Okay, he is the main villain." I was pleased with him by game's end and that dramatic final battle, but as far as a first impression, he certainly left a lot to be desired.

[duffertonshire]

Speaking about the backtracking in levels with say the teleporting bottles and so on, I always thought those bottles were for helping younger players backtrack through a stage and find any gems/routes that they might have missed. For example in the 3rd Spyro game on the panda level (Bamboo Terrace I believe?), the bottles take you back through the level like normal, leading you to see the cliff and then figure out a way to get the egg inside, while going forward you might miss the trail of platforms leading up to the cliff as they are obscured by those buildings that scatter the levels.
As a kid I always found the bottles exciting as I saw the next area appear on screen once I broke the bottle being like "Oh I know where that place is!!" and rushing over as fast as I could to find it. So I guess you could call that as me liking those segments.
Also I always found it weird that in the PAL version of the remake they don't call it Gateway to Glimmer, just seems like an odd choice. Yes that does mean the names are consistent now, just odd seeing a name I am not familiar with in the remake.

[connorplays]

Apparently the prototype of Spyro 2 actually has some unused intro and outro lines for each level from Elora, basically explaining What ripto did before you got there and what happened after you left. All I have to say about these are... WHY WERE THEY CUT?!? THIS WOULD HAVE MADE THE STORY BETTER

[Haedox]

This one is your best yet man. Great job :)

[masterofvoreth]

What makes Spyro 2 so great to me. It would have to be the fact that each world is having their own issues separate from Ripto. It makes the worlds themselves feel like actual places that is lived in. The stories in those worlds will continue way after Ripto is defeated.

[ZereWasTaken]

1:20:10 Also this is explained in the game, in the literal cutscene you are showing at this point in the video. The Professor uses orbs to change the destination of the portal Spyro takes to Dragon Shores, essentially portaljacking him and spitting him out in Glimmer instead of at the beach. It's very similar to how the giant portal in Winter Tundra pulls Ripto, Crush, and Gulp to Avalar. How did you completely miss this?

[ErdrickHero]

I really liked the muppet-like designs of Insomniac's Spyro 2. I was pretty disappointed that they changed that, it was *the* Spyro style.

[ravageduckmanguy]

I've never really felt like 2 was this universal favorite. I've seen polls where all 3 games are fairly even, and I think it speaks to the strength of the series that each game has something different to offer while still maintaining the strength of the foundation. That said, I'm also in the camp that 3 is my favorite because it takes a lot of the best things about 1 and 2. From 1 it goes back to enemies dropping gems, the uniform distribution of levels, and having the main collectible stay throughout the whole thing. From 2 it gets the variety with minigames and sidequests, and actual decent bosses, I will say 2 does have some unique strengths like having the mingames be part of the world instead of off in their own zones, or having all the bosses be actual characters and not random monsters that don't exist until right before you encounter them and (IMO) being more interesting fights.