Spyro: Year of the Dragon Documentary

At long last, here's the Spyro 3 Documentary! This video includes many developers of the Spyro Trilogy and of course, hwd405, who is the narrator this time around. Please enjoy this 45-minute investigation that reveals many new details about the development of the entire Spyro Trilogy!

Thabeast721, Crystalfissure, HCMPA, PlayStation Underground (Footage)
Spyro Wiki (Images)

And, a huge special thanks to all the developers that made this video possible.

[sr.alligator]

0:38, proof that Gregg Berger can still pull off his Hunter voice nearly 20 years later!

[fictionalmediabully]

'Spyro: Year of the Dragon' is one of the strongest designed early 3D children's games to date. It's a lot more streamlined than the previous instalments, with better respect for the player's time, and the amount of content had practically doubled. Challenge escalation is properly realised, with levels notably getting harder mixed with gradual introduction of fresh mechanics that broaden the core gameplay, and the controller-dependant analog calibration issues had been fixed. 22 years old, and still the most polished and well designed instalment to date.

[MiharuTheFox]

I am amazed those sounds came from human beings. XD Despite them having to rush it, they were responsible for creating some of the most iconic sound effects of my childhood. And damn, Neil still does the Moneybags voice flawlessly!

[trumpeterjen]

I remember seeing that bonus island in Midnight Mountain and wishing I could access it for years. I wasted so many hours (and lives) trying to get there because I could just barely see the extra lives on there, as if they were taunting me, like I *should have* been able to get there. Then, years later, I found out the only ways to get there were by hacking the whirlwind back in, moon-jumping with a cheating device, or absurd proxy jumping that I still can't do to this day.
It's some consolation that I wasn't going nuts and Craig Stitt was just as frustrated, and having the whirlwind put back in for Reignited was the ultimate catharsis.

[Kerfufflefuf]

26:35 Finally, confirmation from a long time employee and the very reason for Spyro's existence that Insomniac left Spyro because they hated working with Universal! I always knew that the 'he has no hands' claim was just a cop out!

[kyles.]

That bellow sound was actually really good, I’m glad the person responsible is this proud of it.

[untitledjunk]

Why didn’t TFB have Gregg also reprise as Hunter in Reignited? I mean, Tom Kenny reprised his roles BOTH as Spyro and The Professor.

[nickyricardo]

I wish they would have kept Sheila's boxing gloves. Why didn't the add the Dino mines mini boss to Reignited? Reminds me of how before it was released there was a rumor that Reignited would have additional content. People speculated it would've been behind the new door at the beginning of the 1st game. Obviously nothing happened with that sadly.

[jakesteel]

Mark cerney had some serious foresight when he was working with ps1 games and studios

[nataliealtemose]

I never got the sgt byrd dialogue before the fight against spike. actually, I remember the dialogue before bosses often being silent with only a text box. the only consistent speaker was bentley before scorch! "COMBUSTIBLE PROJECTILES!"

[lrigasiukah]

19:10 The BOATMAN?!
And also Spyro make big steppy

[DomtheDevilsRival]

This just goes to show how a much of a timeless classic this franchise is, and how many endless facts can be discovered because of it.

[terabitez]

This feels like more of a Spyro history in general ratehr than just spyro 3 but I love it and seeing the very first spyro drawing ever done is pretty awesome!

[GemGames]

CrystalFissure mentions the spiral staircase in one of his videos

[HectorGonzalez-qxnk]

After the harshness of the Enter the Dragonfly doc, it’s so nice to see some good coming from this Spyro 3 doc! Awesome job! I’d love to see if you could interview Ryan Beveridge who worked alongside Stewart Copeland for YotD since it has the most diverse soundtrack in the series. Maybe in an update/part 2 vid? *wink nudge* lol

[pookakanga]

Whoa, I had no idea that the 3rd game was rushed! It’s also neat to see prototype footage, I vaguely remember playing one of the demos at a game store- Seashell Shore- the music was the Enchanted Towers skate park, I think.

[colleenglanville]

*"You Brought A Dragon To Avalar?! I Hate Dragons!"*

I laughed so hard lol! 😂😂😂

[ProDreamCrusher]

It's something that we still don't know somethings about a game after 20 years of it being out, I was really hoping there was going to be a developer comment on the gold fragments and the cut enemy so we could learn more about the purposes. Fantastic that this didn't have bad blood like Spyro 4, Better tune for the whole documentary.


Glad my 2 favourite Spyro content bringers came together for a big collab on Spyro 3.

[KingDray]

13:04 The press kit I found on eBay made it in?? That's cool! Still watching through, but this documentary is amazing and very well done so far! Thank you guys so much for all the work you put into this, and HWD's commentary is really good as well!

[SmonkWonk]

I was really looking forward to this and I'm so grateful to see it completed! I love the effort put into these videos and it's obvious the franchise means a lot to you like it does for me. This game has been my special interest since I was literally a toddler so I always feel like I know everything there is to know about it and don't often come across new information about it/cut content/easter eggs/etc that I haven't seen yet so this makes me really happy