Might as well round out the trilogy! With a new developer and Cynder having proper deuteragonist status, could it be that the third game is the best one? Maybe! Kinda!
Krome lost the chance to make the third console Legend of Spyro game, but some part of the process stayed in Australia as Tantalus handled the DS version. This time it’s a sidescroller, like the two previous Legend instalments had been on GBA (as well as the GBA Crash crossover, the java phone tie-in for Shadow Legacy, and all three phone Legend games). The graphic style is more detailed than any of those, with textured polygons throughout and a more realistic, grim tone. This extends to the enemy types, who are all new and all ugly. I was impressed by the look at times though, especially in the flying sections.
The levels are fairly open in design, requiring some exploration. Your reward for being thorough is the occasional health or breath extender, and more enemies to fight for experience, which goes to making one of your four breaths more powerful. Levels are broken up by flying sections, which are impressive setpieces capped by a boss fight; these whole sections take the same touchscreen-controlled form as ANB’s boss battles but I preferred them here.
Combat is once again a staple. Spyro and Cynder have a wide variety of moves between directional light and strong attacks, elemental attacks, and functionally different breaths, but it’s not overwhelming and you can pull off something impressive-looking by mashing. Get a good juggle on though and you’re rewarded with more gems and stuff. It’s got depth (you can also account for enemy weaknesses) but it’s not too demanding, and it kept me fairly engaged.
The plot goes somewhere, unlike TEN. Malefor the dragon baddie is, like, evil or something. He summons a big giant golem monster, you blow it up. Dragon mentor guy sacrifices himself. Oh and Hunter’s there! It was nice having a recurring NPC, especially one of the very very few characters to return from the classic series, but his non-wisecracking non-silly voiced presence only serves to remind how disappointingly dour everything is in comparison. These characters are also still-portrait-cutscene-only; the only creatures you interact with are the goblins and whatevers that you punch.
Anyway, what impressed me was the pace. Spyro and Cynder move pretty snappily, which is a big thing I’d been missing so far in the DS Legend games. You can run, glide, walljump, and it feels pretty good; it’s just a shame you’re stuck in a 2D world. Of course the other benefit was having Cynder as a full playable participant. She comes with her own set of breaths, all dark spooky magic stuff. Ageing up the characters makes the story feel impactful, and having Cynder as a full partner gives her merit. For all these reasons, I enjoyed DotD the most out of the three. Or maybe it was because it meant I was done with this cul-de-sac of a subseries.