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goldenchocobo · 4 years

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Here’s Part 2 for my Daemon collection. I included Isa in this as well, as I think he should be.

I had a very hard time searching for a Daemon for Xion. Initially I had her as a Kauai O’o- a recently extinct Hawaiian bird that’s only ‘alive’ through it’s recorded song. I decided against it in the end, as I didn’t think it suited her. I decided to go the mystical route- because she’s something that doesn’t exist, and found the ‘Night Bird’- mysterious birds that would show up in front of travelers on the mountains of Japan shortly before wolves at night. Again, I didn’t see much of a connection, so went back to basics and simply looked at Xion’s Personality. From that I chose her current Daemon’s form of a Black Duiker. Roxas, Axel and Siax’ all came naturally to me, and they haven’t changed species.

To read more about them and why I chose them and their names, It’s under the Read More;

Roxas

Settled: Serval Daemon Name: Nemea Looks: A slight Serval with golden fur and squared, black spots. She has large blue eyes and a checkered collar with Roxas’ X symbol as a pendant.

Roxas’ Daemon, Nemea is a rather up-beat cat who has more concern for others than for herself. She’s often seen playing or talking too Xion’s Daemon, Opinaus. However, when she gets angry or defensive she can be a little feral and destructive.

Symbology: Servals are often depicted as gracile and agile, leaping into the air with tactile precision. Roxas- being a Nobody of Sora and taking on Ventus’ appearance has a very strong association with the air. ‘Nemea’ can be seen in two ways, either as a corruption of the word ‘Nemo’ which is Latin for ‘Nobody’- which is what Roxas is foremost. Or it can be read as being derived from the Ancient Greek City of Nemea, which was plagued by the Nemean Lion, whom Heraclease defeated in battle for one of his trials, much like how Roxas went through many trials and hardships.

Axel

Settled: African Lion Daemon Name: Favilla Looks: A large beige Lioness with a tiny hint of red ‘mane’ on her cheeks and red ‘eyebrows’ and a red tail-tip. She has large turquoise eyes and a pink-striped nose. She wears Lea’s old neckerchief around her neck as a reminder from his time as a human.

Favilla is a very caring Lioness with a bit of a sweet side to her. While she can appear threatening to those she dislikes or cares nothing for, when she’s with Rava- Isa’s Daemon or with Roxas and Xion and their Daemons, she is very relaxed, often rolling onto her back as a sign of playfulness and friendliness to make them more at ease. When within the Organization, even though their relationship is practically non-existent, she is still visibly happy to see Siax and Rava.

Symbology: Lions are often thought of as Royalty and Power, but this does not hold completely true with Lionesses, as they are more of a symbol of protection, family and togetherness. The Lioness’ strength and power does not come from a desire for control, but the desire to protect their friends and work together in harmony. Both Axel and Lea want nothing more than to protect his friends from harm and to bring them back safely. The Name Favilla is a direct translation for the Latin word for ‘Embers’ or ‘Cynders’, as Lea wishes to burn himself into others memories so they don’t forget him.

Xion

Settled: Black Duiker Daemon Name: Opinaus Looks: A small antelope with large blue eyes. He has short but sharp horns. His ears have three tufts of fur on them and he has a single white sock on his right front hoof.

Whie Xion was not born with a Daemon on account of her being a replica, Opinaus eventually manifested beside her with an indistinct appearance. Opinus after a short while started to take form as a dog, shifting from golden retriever to shiz tsu. When spending time with Roxas and Axel however and forming their own identity, Opinaus settled as a Black Duiker.

Like Xion, Opinaus at first did not have his own identity or personality, but was brought out as they became friends with Axel, Roxas and their Daemons. Opinaus is skittish, wanting to run from a conflict rather than fight it, but if it involves his friends getting hurt, he’ll stick by them in any way he can.

Symbology: Duiker Antelope by nature are shy and skittish animals who would rather flee conflict long before it reached them. However, with sharp horns- a duiker that has found trouble have no problem defending itself. And what’s more, Duiker males will often fight for themselves and their herd, both against threats and other Duiker. Xion, while wanting to run from the Organization and flee back to Sora, feels as if she at least owns it to Roxas and Axel to stay and is torn on either staying or going. Opinaus is a corruption of Opinabillis, which is Latin for ‘Imaginary friend’.

Siax/Isa

Settled: Grey Wolf Daemon Name: Rava Looks: a Blue-grey wolf with messy but sleek fur. Light fur covers her stomach, paws and neck. She almost always wears an icy stare, and her tail is raised in the shape of a crescent moon. She wears a large blue leather with a crescent moon symbol on it.

Siax: Much like Siax, Rava has expertly mastered her emotions. She is a quiet Daemon, only speaking to Siax when needed and relaying orders to other Daemons. When she does speak, it’s usually flatly and matter-of-factly, and has been called ‘no nonsense’. However, no matter how much she hides and controls her emotions, she is always pleased to see Axel and Favilla. Isa: While not actively hiding her emotions before joining the Organization and after leaving it, Rava has a good sense of humour but mainly shows it towards Favilla and Lea, giving most others a more mature and sensible side of her.

Symbology: As Cliche as things go, there is nothing more opposite than cats and dogs and the sun and moon. Axel represents the sun, as do Lions, and Siax represents the moons, as wolves do.

The name ‘Rava’ is a corruption of the Latin word ‘Ravus’ which means grey.

#Kingdom Hearts #KH #HDM #His Dark Materials #The Golden Compass #Daemon AU #Sea Salt Trio #Roxas #Axel #Xion #Siax #Isa #Goldenchocobo's art

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ladala99 · 5 years

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Spyro Reignited Countdown - A Hero’s Tail

And finally we get... I guess it’s not really a return to form but it is a return to greatness.

A Hero’s Tail uses the Spyro characters and basic mechanics and makes it a modern (for the time) platformer. This does eliminate one of the franchise’s core features (finite gems), but ultimately, it did a good job and did the franchise justice.

And it also officially introduces Ember, who Spyro fanficcers liked to ship with Spyro, especially as a rival ship versus Cynder of later titles. Yes, that was a part of the fanbase I frequented. I am not sorry.

Gameplay

Spyro’s controls are brought to the modern (again, for the time) age, with a much more responsive camera and really that’s the only major difference. Spyro feels like Spyro. He flames, he charges, and he glides.

...Well, aside from the fact that they swapped the Flame and Charge buttons, and now you have to hold X to glide rather than just press it. I first played this game as a demo and legitimately thought the change was a mistake, but nope. Not entirely sure why it was made, but it was. Perhaps it aligns with other PS2 platformers better?

Mini rant, courtesy of how 3-year-old me remembered the controls: Circle is flame because it’s red and the mouth makes an O. Square is Charge because the sides are pointy. X is jump because the X is blue like air and you are in the air while jumping. Triangle is zoom in because the bottom represents a really wide view and the top represents a really narrow view. Why would you change this?

But anyway, it works for the game. Aside from not matching previous games, it’s easy to adapt to and the controls are very responsive. They’re not quite as tight as in the originals, but they’re very close.

Additional Playable Characters

We’ve got a few this time. There’s Hunter, Sparx, Sgt. Byrd and the new character Blink. Totally new. What are you talking about with the “but he appeared in a GBA game”?

While Hunter was technically playable before, this is the first time you can platform with him. His moveset’s pretty similar to Spyro’s, aside from one of his main attacks being very ranged. Aside from his arrows, he’s basically Spyro, but not as maneuverable. Yeah, he can scale walls and Spyro doesn’t in this game, but that ability originally belonged to Spyro, so it doesn’t feel unique.

What is unique is that one section that you’re forced to play as him as part of the story. That was neat. And frustrating because he does not platform as well as Spyro does, since his movements are floaty and you can’t correct them with gliding like you can Spyro’s, and this area has a lot of small platforms.

Sparx has a completely different gameplay style this time: rail-shooter. It’s honestly not that bad, especially in comparison to Season of Ice’s Speedways. I just prefer the other Sparx gameplay.

Sgt. Byrd, speaking of Speedways, takes over for Spyro during them. And his levels are definitely not designed in the same way the old Speedways were designed. It used to be that there was a clear linear path to take from one object to the next, but that is not the case here. I like these Speedways better than Season of Ice’s, but I don’t like them much.

As far as actual controls go, Sgt. Byrd does just fine. Sometimes his turning is a little difficult, but it works for how wide open the areas are.

Blink controls very similarly to Hunter, with the main difference being how the level is designed. Blink’s levels are all underground, having a specific set of enemies and such, and they’re all considered minigames with the goal of destroying Dark Gems. He suffers from the same floatiness as Hunter, and there’s certainly a lot of platforms. Somehow, though, his levels never got me stuck like Hunter’s did in that one section.

Sometimes I feel that Eurocom wanted to make a Blink game, not a Spyro game. While Blink’s levels are minigames, they’re really fleshed out and well-designed. They have plenty of variety, if not in appearance.

Collectables

Gems are not just currency to be used at Moneybags’ shop. They’re found everywhere, and can be collected from enemies multiple times. At the beginning you’ll be hurting for them, but by the end of the game you’ll have much more than you know what to do with. At least, that’s my experience.

Dragon Eggs return, with a twist. They’re pretty much optional, and much less valuable than the other main collectable. This time, dragon eggs come in different patterns and if you collect a set, you unlock a thing. A lot of those things are just the ability to play minigames from the main menu.

The things that I care about are the concept art gallery (as that’s always cool) and the Ember and Flame skins. Mostly Ember since I like playing as female characters. It’s just a skin, though, and it changes back to Spyro in cutscenes plus uses his sound effects. Still: first time skins are in the game, unless you count the color cheats!

Finally we get Light Gems. They’re used to power up gadgets and open doors. They’re required for progress in certain places, but not always. They’re always rewarded on the second round of minigames, which means everybody talks about how worthless Dragon Eggs are in comparison. We don’t want these unborn children, give us the shiny thing!

Oh, and Dark Gems. They aren’t collected, but destroyed. You need to smash all of them to continue. They’re just scattered around the levels. You’ll come across them.

Powerups

Supercharge returns! Sort of! It’s one of the powerups that the Professor unlocks for you when you collect enough Light Gems. It really doesn’t feel the same, and it’s used for a few doors, some of which you can’t just charge to from the pad.

There’s also invincibility which works like it did in Lost Fleet, allowing you to travel through acid. Just with a stricter time limit and now it makes Spyro metal rather than red.

Finally I’ll mention the orb-thingys that let you use a ranged version of your breath abilities. I literally have never used them, but they’re there. I can’t say one way or the other how useful they are, but they definitely are not necessary.

Other Modes

The other minigames, as all minigames repeat, are turrets and ball gadgets.

Turrets aren’t hard, but they are stressful. You need to protect the thing while other things try to steal/eat/whatever it. Or you need to protect yourself and hit a huge number of enemies. I don’t like this minigame. Especially the baby turtle one.

Ball Gadgets are much more fun to watch than they are to play. The controls work, but it takes a bit to stop. There’s also a couple of on-rails ones that are really trial-and-error. Even knowing what to do, you’re going to fast to react so you need to memorize every action.

Breath Abilities

This game continues the trend of having them! And acts like it’s the first time at the same time. Enter the Dragonfly is apparently not canon.

Fire acts like it always has. They didn’t do the particle effect thing like Enter the Dragonfly did so it moves forward with you as it should.

Electricity starts out as a weaker Fire and then ends up being much more useful. It takes longer to defeat enemies, but there are certain enemies that are immune to Fire but not Electricity. After a point, it’s not worth it to switch back, since Fire just isn’t universally useful like Electricity is.

Water is just used for puzzles. Nothing else. This is also the only time Water is an element in the series.

Ice freezes certain things (like steam vents so you can use them to pole spin), and enemies of course. There are certain enemies in the final area that are only weak to Ice. (Maybe Water too, but I haven’t tried) Otherwise it freezes enemies so you can charge them like in other games.

Bosses

Finally, we get some new ones!

Gnasty Gnorc returns as the first boss. He’s actually far stronger than he was in Spyro 1, ironically enough. The fight itself is a pretty fun platformer boss fight, but his personality... it’s so childish. It’s like they didn’t know who he really was before.

Ineptune is a new character. The fight itself is, again, great for this style of game. Her character is kind of forgettable, though.

And then we get Red, who we fight twice. The first time is actually harder if only for the fact that you’re in an icy arena and thus the controls are more slippery. He’s not a very complex villain, but his fights are pretty fun, but very similar to the other two.

Special mention to the mammoth, who wins via being in a cutscene. You never see him again, having no chance to best him. He is truly Spyro’s greatest foe.

Levels

Continuing from Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels are much more seamless. They’re still very distinct, but in a lot of cases (moreso early-on than later) they feel like the same level as you begin in.

And again like Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels don’t have concrete ends. You can check your map and see how many Dark Gems are left, but it doesn’t really feel like you’ve finished even after you smash them all.

There’s no main conflict to defeat or anything, it’s just exploring and smashing Dark Gems, and occasionally finding a Dragon Elder to give you new skills. You get a checklist, but it’s not the same.

The theming is fine, if generic. Older Spyro games tended to have an irony to them, but not this one. Everything is played straight. Which, of course, makes it so this game doesn’t stand out very much.

Story

I don’t even know if I fully understand it. So Red’s an evil dragon who mined some Dark Gems to spread evil throughout the lands. And the Elders are very hesitant to tell you more.

Eventually it comes out that Red used to be an Elder, but he betrayed them. I really don’t understand why they couldn’t just tell Spyro that. Do the Elders just have a reputation that they don’t want to sully or something?

We get no motivation on Red’s part, and normally I’d be fine with that, but with all the secrets I expect a bit more. Also: who’s Ineptune in all this?

There’s parts where I feel I missed a game. Ember knows Spyro, and Spyro appears to know Ember. I feel like I should know who Ineptune is just because of how little introduction she gets.

I read that there was going to be a TV show that got cancelled but the games didn’t, but it was literally one forum post and it may have just been someone making things up. It would certainly explain things, though.

Unique in the Series?

Yes and no. It definitely has a unique feel as far as the series goes, but it’s very generic at the same time.

A lot of what it introduces is used again in later games, even though that part of the series is very different.

But yeah, Water Breath, Pole Spinning, and Wall Kicking are unique to this game in the series. They aren’t unique in general (See: Mario. Yes, even Water Breath. See: Sunshine), but for the series, definitely.

It’s at that weird awkward part in which it’s not anything groundbreaking, but it’s still really good.

Conclusion

Best post-Insomniac Classic Spyro, if only by default. It’s generic for its time, bringing Spyro fully into said time. It works, it’s fun, and I wish there were more to this part of the series that weren’t... well, Orange.

#spyro #a hero's tail #video game review #spyro reignited

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tokowh · 6 years

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Spyro Fanworks drinking game

DISCLAIMER: Just because a particular trope/cliche is listed here does not make it inherently 'bad'. As TV Tropes puts it, Tropes are tools. Even a cliche can be used in a new and interesting way. PLEASE DO NO HARASS ANYONE for using one of these cliches in their fic/comic/whatever. This is also written by someone who does NOT drink. As such, be aware that these ratios are not great since I have no frame of reference to work with. * Take a drink if the fic is set in the 'Legend of Spyro' canon ** Take two if the fic title has 'the Legend of Spyro' anywhere in it ** Take three if it's abbreviated to 'TLOS' ** Take three if it's 'the Legend of' with some OC or other character replacing Spyro in the title *** Add on another drink if its basically a rewrite of the game, but with other characters/OCs included * Take a drink if the words 'dark', 'darkness', 'blood', 'destiny', 'legacy', or 'prophecy' is written in the fic title ** Take two if it uses two of those words in the title ** Take three if there's more than three of those words in the title * Take a drink if the fic is about Spyro and Cynder facing a new evil ** Take two if its a 'new ancient evil' *** Add on a drink if one of the antagonist main motivations is 'getting revenge on Cynder' *** Alternatively, add on a drink if they claim they were behind Malefor the entire time *** Alternatively, take another one if Malefor ends up pulling a Dr. Wily and hijacks the plot. If it's used in conjunction with 'man behind the man' above, take another one * Take a drink if it's part 'whatever' in a massive fic series ** Take two drinks if it's referred to as books instead of parts * Take a drink if it's set exactly after 'Dawn of the Dragon' ** Take two if the prologue has 'You cannot defeat me, I am eternal!' anywhere in it ** Take three if it's either in all caps, bolded, underlined, or italicized ** Down the can/bottle if its any combination of the four *** Add on a drink if, after all that, it basically becomes a glorified highschool AU * Take a drink if Spyro has his purple dragon powers hijacked by someone ** Take two if it's by the main antagonist. * Take a drink if the fic focuses more on Cynder rather than Spyro ** Take three if people hating Cynder is a major theme of the fic * Take two drinks if the fic completely ignores the fact that Cynder said 'I love you' to Spyro at the end of DotD ** Take a drink if it does acknowledge it, but brushes it off as 'Spyro didn't hear her' * Take a drink if 'This Broken Soul' is copy and pasted word for word into the fic at some point ** Take three if Cynder's the one singing it * Take a drink if Ignitus reveals himself to be the Chronicler early on in the fic, thus negating any impact his supposed death had * Take a drink if another purple dragon besides Spyro or Malefor appears in the story, despite the whole 'only one purple dragon every ten generations' thing ** Take two if s/he's the major antagonist ** Take two if she's female ** Take three if s/he's Spyros brother/sister * Take a drink whenever an OC comes in that's in some way related to either Spyro or Cynder (mother, father, brother, sister, ect, ect...) * Take a drink if there's a human turned dragon in the fic ** Take two if they're happy about it and/or have always wished/dreamed/hoped this would happen ** Take three if its because they were unloved/abused in their old life * Take a drink every time Cynder angst about her past * Take a drink if Flame and Ember appear in the story, despite the whole 'Year of the Dragon genocide' thing ** Take two if the reason for them surviving is that their eggs were laid late, or they were saved in a similar manner as Spyro * Take a drink if an OC dragon around their age shows up in a similar manner ** Take a drink if they have a 'dark and trouble' and/or 'mysterious past' ** Take two if finding out about said past is a major part of the fic ** Take three if she's female *** Add on a drink if they're a blatant recolor of a canon character *** Add on another if it's a blatant recolor of Cynder *** Add on another drink if they get paired with a canon character *** Make it two if it's either Spyro or Cynder *** Add another one if (in-universe) people hate him/her for some irrational reason *** Make it another one if said reason is never explained *** Make it another one if said reason is explained, but it's something like 'too beautiful, everyone else is jealous' or those likes *** Add another drink if they're eyes change color based on their emotions *** Add on another drink if they're somehow more powerful than Spyro or Cynder *** Again, add on a drink if they're a purple dragon *** Make it two if they're some kind of special dragon that's somehow more powerful than a purple dragon ** Take two drinks if they possess some element that is not one of the canon four (fire, ice, electric, or earth) ** Take three if its something ridiculous like blood, spirit, or pure energy *** Add on another drink if they possess more than one element *** Down the can/bottle if the second element is equally ridiculous * Take three drinks if Ember's derailed into a complete bitch who tries to sabotage Spyro and Cynder's relationship * Take a drink if Spyro and Cynder break up during the fic ** Take three if it was caused by Ember *** Take another drink if they end up getting back together again three or so chapters later * Take a drink every time Spyro/Cynders superpowered evil sides are brought up ** Take two if they actually appear in the fic * Take a drink if the fic is set in the far future and focuses on a new purple dragon ** Again, take two if she's female ** Take a drink if any character in it is a descendant of Spyro and/or Cynder ** Take two if its the purple dragon * Take a drink if its revealed Ignitus is Spyros biological father ** Take two if it's revealed he's Cynders biological father * Take a drink if another war starts up over the course of the fic ** Take three if it's because of Malefor * Take a drink if the fic ends on a sequel hook ** Take three if it's already part of a massive series * Take a drink every time Flame gets jealous of Spyro (be it over his own fame or Ember fawning over him) ** Take two if he eventually attacks Spyro because of this. *** Take three if he eventually goes evil because of this. * Take a drink if Flame is completely head over heels for Ember, despite the fact that they never met in canon. * Take a drink if Flame is already in a relationship with Ember with no relevance to the plot what-so-ever just because the author doesn't want Ember getting in the way of SpyroXCynder. * Take a drink if Flame somehow becomes the new fire guardian. ** Take two if he beats Ember for the title. * Take a drink if the story has Flame acting like a hot-head, despite being rather cheerful and looking up to Spyro in the games proper. * If by some stroke of luck you're reading a classic verse fic focusing on Spyro X Ember, take a drink if the main reason Spyro's considering getting together with Ember is that he's going through puberty * Similarly, outside of characters like Ember, Flame, and possibly Elder Tomas, take a drink if said Classicverse fic ignores anything that happened between the Classic Trilogy and TLoS * Take a drink if you're reading a Classicverse fic that does acknowledge stuff that happened between the Classic and Legendverse trilogies, and is set after Shadow Legacy, but for whatever reason still has Ember fangirling and trying to hook up with Spyro, despite hooking up with Bandit over the course of that game. * Take a drink whenever a Classic Spyro X Elora fic fails to acknowledge the fact that Elora is far older than Spyro, and how massive the species gap between them is. * Take a drink if a Classic Spyro fic has it to where the only moves Classic knows are how to charge and flame things, despite knowing actually combat techniques and magic in Shadow Legacy. * Take a drink if the fic only ever has Classic Spyro use fire, despite the fact that he, too, also has more breaths than fire. * Take a drink if anyone swears using human swear words even though it's never been said before in either universe. * Take a drink if anyone has a name that fits into Classic series but not TLOS series. ** Take two drinks if the name is obviously human. * Take a drink if most adult dragons are useless in battle. * Take a drink when a fic has pointlessly gory or violent scenes for the sake of it. * Take a drink whenever a killed off in a glorified fashion that makes it clear the author personally hated the character. * Take a drink if dragons kiss each other on the lips despite having the wrong mouth shape.

#spyro #cliches #drinking #game #fanfic #fanfiction #flame #malefor #cynder #ember

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