Lost in Translation
Warning: This post is filled with spoilers, read on at your own discretion.
It makes me wonder how this could happen, but there seems to be a significant number of differences in story between the GBA version of TEN and the console versions. Now, I understand a few changes will be made as the Game Boy is a vastly different system than say the Wii. However, some of the differences that fans have been discovering lately are way bigger than just a few changes to make the game play out better.
Gathered below are some you may have discovered already, never noticed or may just be interested in reading about.
1. This is an issue that some of the TEN players just wish would be dropped already. It has been brought up numerous times and sparked huge debate. Like issues from other games that cause endless waves of discussion months past the issue's resolution, this incident has done the same. What is it? Well, it happened in the opening sequence. A mere blurb has caused a huge backlash...
What was this? Spyro and Cynder were siblings?!? What could be the end all for SpyroxCynder fan fiction had gamers up in arms. Several threads were wholly dedicated to discussing the issue at darkSpyro and the Sierra forums, as well as our own forum. It seemed to be quieted for a while when this was posted in one of the discussions:
View Image
However speculation still continued, now saying that the two dragons were cousins. The same poster responds:
View Image
He made one final post and never returned again, in response to another poster's question:
Discussions became less and less until recently when a rallying to flood Krome with e-mails demanding and explanation to this issue arose on Sierra, carried over to here and eventually found its way to darkSpyro. It's certainly enormous that they make such a mistake, but it seems rightly corrected. We should all just reject it as apocrypha and move on.
2. A huge part of Skabb the Pirate's humor aspect in console TEN was from the fact he relied on two parrots (named Scratch and Sniff) to talk for him as he was too dimwitted. In the GBA game he talks freely for himself as seen around 15 seconds into this video:
Not major but it has peeved a few players who noted the glitch in continuity between the console and hand held game.
3. Here's a rundown of more changes as collected by darkSpyro member Zerodius, keep in mind some of these only make sense if you've played the PS2/Wii versions:
• The Guardians already know where the Chronicler is and sends Spyro through the Ancient Grove because it's the fastest path to the Celestial Temple.
• The Celestial Temple is located in mountains to the north rather than on a separate island.
• The Temple of Souls was King Gaul's fortress from the very beginning.
• Arborick isn’t in the game.
• The Scavengers are out to get the Naga.
• Skabb doesn't act as the host for the arena fights; a regular pirate does.
• You do get to see Skabb's right-hand man... who is promptly killed by the Advisor.
• The Advisor, Gaul's second-in-command, is exclusive to the GBA version.
• The Assassin and Scurvywings are nowhere to be seen. .
• Ignitus was captured by the Scavengers, not Cynder.
• Cynder was not captured by Gaul and neither does Gaul show her any aggressiveness.
• Cynder swaps sides (more or less) willingly and Gaul considers her an ally (he's actually surprised at the end when she "betray" him).
• Cynder actually wants to be the dark master’s ‘favorite’.
•
Cynder is loyal to the Dark Master due to her tainted nature... although she chooses Spyro over the Dark Master in the end, helping Spyro bring his dark powers under control at the end (much like the console version).
The big change? She is genuinely loyal to the Dark Master on the GBA version (which in a way, make her final choice a bit more dramatic as her loyalty is not based solely on the Dark Master's powers)... that and it's revealed that although Gaul might like her, she doesn't return the favor; she despise him and wants to kill him more than anything else.
• The Chronicler doesn't test Spyro before allowing him inside his chamber when Spyro reaches the Celestial Temple...however it's still a very difficult stage since Gaul conveniently invaded the temple beforehand.
• Dark Spyro in the GBA version is more powerful by a huge margin... why does it matter, plot-wise? Well, not only does Dark Spyro kill Gaul but he also kills all of Gaul’s army on his own (in the console version, he only killed Gaul).
4. This is a repeat from an interview concerning the GBA version:
5. Finally a few differences I've found:
As supposed to there just being a dragon temple (which is the same one from ANB) and the Chronicler's temple, there are multiple temples. They also have loads more features. While Spyro would go unconscious and dream of a place similar to the level 'Convexity' from ANB, in the GBA version he goes to a temple for each element.
The main section, which in a sense is a 'hub' 9like the Peach's castle hub in Super Mario 64 is broken down into smaller areas:
Temple of Dragon Soul - this is the overall name for the hub, and it's reached through a dream. However unlike the console version where the dream is linear and ends on its own, here you can leave whenever you like or just go in and out of the below sub-sections:
Hall of Fang and Claw - this is the practice room mentioned above where Spyro can test out moves on a dummy.
Hall of Memory - Spyro can re-visit old boss battles without affecting the main game here.
Temple of Fire, Temple of Electricity, Temple of Ice and Temple of Earth - the replacement for the console version's dream stage, Spyro learns elemental moves by traveling through these areas. They are all separate behind their own respective doors.
Two other things that were different was that each element had its own boss which was referred to as the 'Avatar of the element'. The fire temple had a big ghost-like flame ball to fight for example.
The final mystery is a place called Doxantha. When Spyro is talking to the chronicler at one point he says that all the other elders have gone to Doxantha. He never mentions it again, it was never spoken of in any version of ANB and it isn't in the console iterations. Whatever/wherever Doxantha is remains a mystery.
It makes me wonder how this could happen, but there seems to be a significant number of differences in story between the GBA version of TEN and the console versions. Now, I understand a few changes will be made as the Game Boy is a vastly different system than say the Wii. However, some of the differences that fans have been discovering lately are way bigger than just a few changes to make the game play out better.
Gathered below are some you may have discovered already, never noticed or may just be interested in reading about.
1. This is an issue that some of the TEN players just wish would be dropped already. It has been brought up numerous times and sparked huge debate. Like issues from other games that cause endless waves of discussion months past the issue's resolution, this incident has done the same. What is it? Well, it happened in the opening sequence. A mere blurb has caused a huge backlash...
What was this? Spyro and Cynder were siblings?!? What could be the end all for SpyroxCynder fan fiction had gamers up in arms. Several threads were wholly dedicated to discussing the issue at darkSpyro and the Sierra forums, as well as our own forum. It seemed to be quieted for a while when this was posted in one of the discussions:
View Image
However speculation still continued, now saying that the two dragons were cousins. The same poster responds:
View Image
He made one final post and never returned again, in response to another poster's question:
Discussions became less and less until recently when a rallying to flood Krome with e-mails demanding and explanation to this issue arose on Sierra, carried over to here and eventually found its way to darkSpyro. It's certainly enormous that they make such a mistake, but it seems rightly corrected. We should all just reject it as apocrypha and move on.
2. A huge part of Skabb the Pirate's humor aspect in console TEN was from the fact he relied on two parrots (named Scratch and Sniff) to talk for him as he was too dimwitted. In the GBA game he talks freely for himself as seen around 15 seconds into this video:
Not major but it has peeved a few players who noted the glitch in continuity between the console and hand held game.
3. Here's a rundown of more changes as collected by darkSpyro member Zerodius, keep in mind some of these only make sense if you've played the PS2/Wii versions:
• The Guardians already know where the Chronicler is and sends Spyro through the Ancient Grove because it's the fastest path to the Celestial Temple.
• The Celestial Temple is located in mountains to the north rather than on a separate island.
• The Temple of Souls was King Gaul's fortress from the very beginning.
• Arborick isn’t in the game.
• The Scavengers are out to get the Naga.
• Skabb doesn't act as the host for the arena fights; a regular pirate does.
• You do get to see Skabb's right-hand man... who is promptly killed by the Advisor.
• The Advisor, Gaul's second-in-command, is exclusive to the GBA version.
• The Assassin and Scurvywings are nowhere to be seen. .
• Ignitus was captured by the Scavengers, not Cynder.
• Cynder was not captured by Gaul and neither does Gaul show her any aggressiveness.
• Cynder swaps sides (more or less) willingly and Gaul considers her an ally (he's actually surprised at the end when she "betray" him).
• Cynder actually wants to be the dark master’s ‘favorite’.
•
Cynder is loyal to the Dark Master due to her tainted nature... although she chooses Spyro over the Dark Master in the end, helping Spyro bring his dark powers under control at the end (much like the console version).
The big change? She is genuinely loyal to the Dark Master on the GBA version (which in a way, make her final choice a bit more dramatic as her loyalty is not based solely on the Dark Master's powers)... that and it's revealed that although Gaul might like her, she doesn't return the favor; she despise him and wants to kill him more than anything else.
• The Chronicler doesn't test Spyro before allowing him inside his chamber when Spyro reaches the Celestial Temple...however it's still a very difficult stage since Gaul conveniently invaded the temple beforehand.
• Dark Spyro in the GBA version is more powerful by a huge margin... why does it matter, plot-wise? Well, not only does Dark Spyro kill Gaul but he also kills all of Gaul’s army on his own (in the console version, he only killed Gaul).
4. This is a repeat from an interview concerning the GBA version:
| Quote: |
| Exclusive to the GBA version are six special bosses. The GBA version takes that intense combat element one step further by adding a focus on unlocking new non-elemental moves for Spyro. Action-focused moves like wall jumping, hovering, rolling down slopes, and so on. Added is a special mode, exclusive to the GBA version, where you can practice combos against a training dummy. Getting high combos in this area will actually reward the player with new moves they can use in the rest of the game! Another fun aside is the boss attack room where players can replay boss fights they have unlocked. It's not something players have to do, but it's a fun extra for those that like to do that. |
5. Finally a few differences I've found:
As supposed to there just being a dragon temple (which is the same one from ANB) and the Chronicler's temple, there are multiple temples. They also have loads more features. While Spyro would go unconscious and dream of a place similar to the level 'Convexity' from ANB, in the GBA version he goes to a temple for each element.
The main section, which in a sense is a 'hub' 9like the Peach's castle hub in Super Mario 64 is broken down into smaller areas:
Temple of Dragon Soul - this is the overall name for the hub, and it's reached through a dream. However unlike the console version where the dream is linear and ends on its own, here you can leave whenever you like or just go in and out of the below sub-sections:
Hall of Fang and Claw - this is the practice room mentioned above where Spyro can test out moves on a dummy.
Hall of Memory - Spyro can re-visit old boss battles without affecting the main game here.
Temple of Fire, Temple of Electricity, Temple of Ice and Temple of Earth - the replacement for the console version's dream stage, Spyro learns elemental moves by traveling through these areas. They are all separate behind their own respective doors.
Two other things that were different was that each element had its own boss which was referred to as the 'Avatar of the element'. The fire temple had a big ghost-like flame ball to fight for example.
The final mystery is a place called Doxantha. When Spyro is talking to the chronicler at one point he says that all the other elders have gone to Doxantha. He never mentions it again, it was never spoken of in any version of ANB and it isn't in the console iterations. Whatever/wherever Doxantha is remains a mystery.
