Grapevine
Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
Wishlist
Rating
Time Played
13h 30m
Days in Journal
3 days
Last played
July 15, 2023
First played
July 11, 2023
Platforms Played
Getting a bias check out of the way: I've personally met and am friends with one of the creators, and my name is featured in the game as an egg. Try to find me!
This is, to my knowledge, the first ROM hack of a Spyro game. As a result, it's inherently limited by how little we know about manipulating the game. The level geometry is all the same - only textures could be changed - and the creation of new things like eggs, songs, or enemies was extremely limited (generally things had to just be moved from other places, or replaced in the files.
Considering these limitations, 3.5 went well beyond what you would expect before playing. The goals in each level are fundamentally different than in the base game, and no matter how many times you've played the original you will truly have no clue what to expect in this one. It's not just "Spyro but hard", and it's not just a wacky twist, it is genuinely worthy of being considered its own experience and continues to iterate on itself in new and interesting ways. In other words, the gameplay loop is that of an actual release, not of a fan mod.
One of my worries, in being a game created by speedrunners for speedrunners, was the barrier to entry. Everything leading up to the release of the game indicated to me that it would be a celebration of the tech explored over years by people like us, and as exciting as that was I worried about the inherent limitations of such a tight scope. I knew I would be able to beat it, because I'm the target audience, but creating a full game for the sake of something like 100 people feels like a waste, and so if your average person was excluded then I would be upset.
As I played, I found that the game does a surprisingly good job of teaching the player exactly what needs to be done. In playing Spyro 3.5, you'll become a good Spyro 3 runner. I would be shocked if anyone quit the game due to its difficulty, despite being much harder than the original, because you are taught extremely effectively by the NPCs, or even better, you're shown what to do and will instinctively do it, only to find that you just learned a speedrunning trick that you can then go back to Spyro 3 and try out.
This isn't to say it's just a speedrun thing, either, to be clear. If you've watched a speedrun of this game, you'll definitely find references, and the fastest way to do something may in some bases become the required way. But far more often, you'll have to do something entirely unrelated. Even more often, you'll have to do something that isn't even possible in the original game. Either way, don't expect this to be a rehash of something you've already seen no matter who you are or how experienced you are with Spyro 3.
I'm trying really hard not to mention some of my favorite moments here, because the last thing I want to do is take away from the jaw-dropping experience of seeing them for the first time. I really do mean it when I say you can't predict what's in this until you play it. If you have the slightest bit of nostalgia for the original Spyro games, give this a shot.
Watch my full playthrough here: https://www.twitch.tv/collections/6GsT_xL-cBeREA
This is, to my knowledge, the first ROM hack of a Spyro game. As a result, it's inherently limited by how little we know about manipulating the game. The level geometry is all the same - only textures could be changed - and the creation of new things like eggs, songs, or enemies was extremely limited (generally things had to just be moved from other places, or replaced in the files.
Considering these limitations, 3.5 went well beyond what you would expect before playing. The goals in each level are fundamentally different than in the base game, and no matter how many times you've played the original you will truly have no clue what to expect in this one. It's not just "Spyro but hard", and it's not just a wacky twist, it is genuinely worthy of being considered its own experience and continues to iterate on itself in new and interesting ways. In other words, the gameplay loop is that of an actual release, not of a fan mod.
One of my worries, in being a game created by speedrunners for speedrunners, was the barrier to entry. Everything leading up to the release of the game indicated to me that it would be a celebration of the tech explored over years by people like us, and as exciting as that was I worried about the inherent limitations of such a tight scope. I knew I would be able to beat it, because I'm the target audience, but creating a full game for the sake of something like 100 people feels like a waste, and so if your average person was excluded then I would be upset.
As I played, I found that the game does a surprisingly good job of teaching the player exactly what needs to be done. In playing Spyro 3.5, you'll become a good Spyro 3 runner. I would be shocked if anyone quit the game due to its difficulty, despite being much harder than the original, because you are taught extremely effectively by the NPCs, or even better, you're shown what to do and will instinctively do it, only to find that you just learned a speedrunning trick that you can then go back to Spyro 3 and try out.
This isn't to say it's just a speedrun thing, either, to be clear. If you've watched a speedrun of this game, you'll definitely find references, and the fastest way to do something may in some bases become the required way. But far more often, you'll have to do something entirely unrelated. Even more often, you'll have to do something that isn't even possible in the original game. Either way, don't expect this to be a rehash of something you've already seen no matter who you are or how experienced you are with Spyro 3.
I'm trying really hard not to mention some of my favorite moments here, because the last thing I want to do is take away from the jaw-dropping experience of seeing them for the first time. I really do mean it when I say you can't predict what's in this until you play it. If you have the slightest bit of nostalgia for the original Spyro games, give this a shot.
Watch my full playthrough here: https://www.twitch.tv/collections/6GsT_xL-cBeREA