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The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
| The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Nintendo Wii cover | |||
| Developer(s): | Krome Studios (console) Amaze Entertainment (Nintendo GBA, DS) The Mighty Troglodytes (Mobile) | ||
| Publisher(s): | Vivendi Universal Sierra Entertainment | ||
| Director(s): | Steve Stamatiadis (console) Christopher Wilson Michael Graham | ||
| Producer(s): | Don Meadows (console) Weston Giunta (DS) | ||
| Release date(s): | Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS & PlayStation 2 October 2, 2007  November 1, 2007  November 2, 2007 Nintendo Wii October 23, 2007 December 6, 2007 December 7, 2007 Mobile: November 12, 2007 | ||
| Genre(s): | Action | ||
| Rating(s): |
| ||
| Console(s): | PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Mobile | ||
| Composer(s): | Rebecca Kneubuhl Gabriel Mann Tom Miller (Handheld) | ||
| Mode(s): | Single player | ||
| Media: | Disc | ||
| Input: | Controller | ||
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night is the second installment of The Legend of Spyro continuity, the direct sequel to A New Beginning. It was released on the GameCube, Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance.
Press Release summaries
- “The legend continues in the second installment of The Legend of Spyro trilogy with the Ape King arriving at the Temple of Souls in an effort to usher in a new age of darkness. As Spyro, players must unlock the secrets behind a series of strange visions that he is having and find the power to defeat this terrifying new force.”
- – Sierra Entertainment[1]
- “As the Night of Eternal Darkness approaches, Spyro is haunted by recurring visions of impending evil. He must master powerful new abilities on an epic quest to find the Well of Souls and prevent Gaul, the Ape King, from resurrecting the Dark Master.”
- – Spyro the Dragon website (The Eternal Night Edition)
- “With the Dark Master's spirit free from the prison inside Convexity, the Ape King Gaul seeks to ressurect him on the Night of Eternal Night Darkness, when the Celestial Moons come together in a great eclipse. But when Spyro begins to have visions that foretell of this imminent danger, he sets off on a journey in search of an ancient and wise dragon named The Chronicler, who may be able to shed some light on these coming events.”
- – The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night game manual, page 6
Gameplay
Many elements of the game are the same as its predecessor, The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Spyro must travel to the end of a level in a linear fashion and defeat the boss at the end of each level, defeating enemies with his combat moves.
Spyro will learn different breaths from the Chronicler, who is met in dreams which occur to Spyro during the course of the game. The breaths are a tool for defeating enemies. They come in different elements; Fire, Ice, Electricity and Earth. Spyro can also use furies, which are big blasts of elemental magic. Spyro is required to obtain a certain amount of purple gems to be able to use these skills. He is able to learn the skill of "Dragon Time" from The Chronicler. This power allows Spyro to slow down time. He can use this ability to jump on platforms which are too fast to land on with his normal speed. He can also use this ability to defeat enemies easier.
In the levels, there are hidden items called "Dragon Relics". There are five Health Relics, and five Magic Relics. Each Relic gives you the ability to increase your health/magic bar. Also, there are forty items called "Scriber's Quills". Each "quill" collected gives the player 5 pieces of concept art and unlocks the Art Gallery. If you get them all, they give you 200 pieces of concept art.
The Gameboy Advance version also has Dragon Relics, but other than just increasing health or magic, with ten each per type that do that, others improve Spyro's stats and grants him new abilities to reach hidden areas. The game also has a combo system, with four blue gems marking the combo gauge: it will fill up when performing combos with increased lenght an dcomplexity, and if at least one of the gems is shown, enemies will drop more blue gems when defeated, with the amount increasing depending on how much the bar is filled up. However, the combo gauge will be significantly depleted if Spyro takes damage, it will drain over time if he doesn't hit an enemy for too long and it will fill slower if the same attack combinations are overused.
Story
The story begins weeks after Spyro defeated Cynder, a dragon who was in servitude of the Dark Master.[2][3] After having a dream of their final battle in Convexity and a mysterious voice calling his name, Spyro is awakened by Sparx, who informs him that Cynder has snuck out into the temple's garden. The young dragon follows Cynder through the swamps and jungle surrounding the Dragon Temple and catches up with her. Cynder reveals that she's leaving the temple, feeling guilty for all the things she had done under the Dark Master's control, and that her destiny is somewhere out in the world for her find. Despite Spyro's pleas, Cynder departs. When Spyro is about to chase after her, he suddenly collapses and is pulled into a dreamscape. A voice guides him through his dream and Spyro regains his fire element before being shown a vision of a great tree, and the voice speaking to him makes himself known as The Chronicler.
Shortly after Spyro wakes up, the Apes attack the Temple once again, and Spyro repels the dark forces. Afterwards, Ignitus, the Fire Guardian, tries to locate Cynder after discovering she was missing, but found a vision of Spyro at the base of a great tree. Spyro claims that he kept seeing haunting visions of a mountain draped in shadow and darkness beneath the two moons. Terrador, the Earth Guardian, realizes that the mountain Spyro was describing was the Mountain of Malefor. Spyro also revealed that The Chronicler, came to his dream and showed him that tree. The Guardians are shocked, and Ignitus explains to Spyro that The Chronicler is an ancient dragon of immeasurable wisdom and was often interwoven with tales of doom. The Guardians become increasingly worried about the Celestial Moons coming into an eclipse as the Night of Eternal Darkness is drawing near. Ignitus sends Volteer (the Electric Guardian) and Cyril (the Ice Guardian) to the mainlands to learn what news they can, and sends Terrador to the Shattered Vale to warn everyone living there about the darkness spreading in the mountain, while Ignitus stays behind and goes to search for Cynder.
Spyro had been assigned to go to the Ancient Grove to seek out the tree that he saw in his dream. While searching, he is once again summoned into a dream by The Chronicler to regain his ice abilities and show Spyro a vision of a terrible Ape king, leading a huge army of Apes to the Mountain of Malefor, shouting, "...The Well of Souls!", another name of the mountain. After Spyro wakes up, he eventually finds the great tree, but it later turns out to be a monster called Arborick, whom Spyro defeats. After that, a group of Skavengers, led by a captain named Skabb, wanted Arborick for "entertainment" in a fighting arena, but that changed when the Skavengers wanted Spyro to "cooperate", so they knock him unconscious. Spyro later wakes up, finding himself in a cell within a massive flying ship called Fellmuth where the Skavengers intend to have the young dragon battle against monsters for their entertainment.
Battle after battle, Spyro overcomes the many challenges that the Skavengers throw at him, including the Blunder Tails, the Ravage Rider, and the Executioner. After his first battle, Spyro is summoned yet again by The Chronicler to regain his earth powers and tell him more about the Well of Souls and the Night of Eternal Darkness before informing Spyro to find him at the Celestial Caves at the White Isle. Afterwards, Spyro receives a message from another prisoner called Hunter of Avalar, saying that he had become Spyro's ally. Shortly after defeating his latest opponent, Spyro is forced to fight Cynder in a final match, but she tells him about her plan for escape which was cut short when an Ape army attacked and captured Cynder. With Skavengers on their ships in chaos, Spyro managed to defeat Skabb, and escaped.
After he escapes from the Skavengers, The Chronicler summons Spyro into his dream one more time to regain the power of electricity and shows him a vision of Cynder in chains, standing before the Ape King. When he arrives at the White Isle, Spyro overcomes the tough challenges of his elemental skills and he eventually finds The Chronicler, who informs him about Gaul, an Ape King who led the raid at the Temple at the night of Spyro's birth and stole Cynder's egg. Spyro insists The Chronicler on what will happen to Cynder and learns more about her past and where was she taken. The Chronicler tells Spyro about Malefor, the Dark Master. According to him, Malefor was the first purple dragon to exist; his raw power allowed him to master practically every elemental power his Elders willingly taught him. However, his power was boundless and he consumed everything. When he didn't stop, Malefor was exiled by the Dragon Elders, but after that, he built an army of Apes and taught them how to artificially harness the power of the Gems, the dragons' life force. Malefor's malice was so great that it split the earth and created a pit of despair called the Well of Souls; where the Apes have established, in effort to revive Malefor at the Night of Eternal Darkness. The Chronicler wanted Spyro to hide from the Apes until a later time, but Spyro insists on going to Cynder's aid.
Spyro eventually makes it to the mountain, fighting Gaul's minions along the way. When he finally reaches the mountain peak, he finds himself in Gaul's throne room where the Ape King himself is waiting. Using his magical staff, Gaul renders Spyro weak and drained of his elemental powers once again. He then orders Cynder to attack Spyro, but she attacks Gaul instead, in which the Ape King knocks her out and challenges Spyro himself. During the fight, the lunar alignment begins, and the evil energy it's generating is channeled through Spyro, transforming him into Dark Spyro. Spyro then uses his immense power to kill Gaul, and leaps back into the beam of evil energy. Cynder regains consciousness and knocks Spyro out of the beam, freeing him from the moon alignment's influence. When the alignment passes, the mountain begins crumbling around Spyro, Sparx and Cynder, trapping them. Spyro then used his time fury powers to encase them in a time crystal to protect them as debris collapses around them.
Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx are later revealed to be frozen in time inside the crystal, safely unharmed within the remains of the Well of Souls. The Chronicler's voice speaks to Spyro telepathically that when he awakens, the world will be different, but adds that he is not alone, he has allies. A figure is seen standing near the time crystal, revealing to be Hunter of Avalar, watching over it. The story concludes in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon...
Characters
| Character | Description | Voice Actor |
|---|---|---|
 Spyro |
A small purple dragon destined to save the world. While resting off the weakness of his final battle against Cynder, Spyro is troubled by recurring nightmares and is soon thrown into another adventure. Guided by the mysterious Chronicler, he must master his elemental abilities and use them to stop the Ape King Gaul from resurrecting the Dark Master. | Elijah Wood |
 Sparx |
Spyro's dragonfly sidekick and foster brother. He is a relunctant hero who is practical and worldly; skeptically observant. He uses wit and sarcasm as a mask for his uncertainty and trepidation. Sparx serves as a confidant and comic relief throughout Spyro's adventures. | Billy West |
 Ignitus |
A red Guardian dragon who is master of the Fire element. He serves as a father figure and mentor to Spyro. | Gary Oldman |
 Volteer |
A yellow Guardian dragon who is master of the Electricity element. | Corey Burton |
 Cyril |
A blue Guardian dragon who is master of the Ice element. | Jeff Bennett |
 Terrador |
A green Guardian dragon who is master of the Earth element. | Kevin Michael Richardson |
 Cynder |
Spyro's former enemy. After being purged of the Dark Master's influence, Cynder seeks to find her own place in the world. | Mae Whitman |
 The Chronicler |
A mysterious dragon who is legend known only to few. He is usually connected with tales of doom. | Martin Jarvis |
 Mole-Yair |
A Manweersmall whom Spyro met back on Munitions Forge. | Jeff Bennett |
 Gaul |
The Ape King, leader of the Apes. He seeks to ressurect the Dark Master during the Night of Eternal Darkness. | Kevin Michael Richardson |
Levels
| Number | Name | Relics
|
Quills 
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Temple | 2 | 5 |
| 2 | Fire Dream | None | None |
| 3 | Ancient Grove | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Ice Dream | None | None |
| 5 | Grove Underground | 1 | 5 |
| 6 | Fellmuth Arena | 1 | 5 |
| 7 | Earth Dream | None | None |
| 8 | Pirate Fleet | 1 | 5 |
| 9 | Electricity Dream | None | None |
| 10 | Celestial Caves | 2 | 9 |
| 11 | Mountain Fortress | 2 | 7 |
Development
The producer of the Spyro franchise at the time, Don Meadows, stated that The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning was never intended to be a one off; it was always about taking the Spyro franchise and reworking it, with the story and development of characters to be a key part of the experience and not an afterthought. The developers of Krome Studios wanted this to be a collection similar to a series of epic movies gamers get to play; and not just say that to the press, but deliver that to the end-consumer. They really wanted to bring those elements of the great story-telling epics across from movies and into the game platform while still delivering a great game that would appeal to kids and adults alike.
Sierra Entertainment had a really good back-catalogue of being able to do that, and with the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series, Krome has the proven experience of being able to bring those kinds of stories targeted at families to console. Within the context of the series, A New Beginning was about establishing the characters as much as it was about changing the perspective of what type of game-play can be approached in a product that from the outset that is intended as an 'everyone' title.
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night very much continues that story, and the developers focused on delivering the next chapter, and bringing forward the deeper themes that are part and parcel of the next chapter of being an epic story. This is the primary reason why this game is darker, in every aspect from the art style to the darker musical score - the mood of this story is a departure from the 'bubblegum' platform games, and one we were both very excited, but also were quite nervous about doing - the hope is that what we have done with the story-arcs, and that the story is driving the game and not something that happens for 5 minutes between levels will be something that the younger audience appreciates. The level of work probably only expected of movie scripts was put into making the story really go somewhere and touch the audience.
From a production schedule, they were already into full development of The Eternal Night before the A New Beginning's shelf launch date. This overlap had given Krome an opportunity to be able to incorporate characters and themes that would feature significantly in The Eternal Night their introduction in A New Beginning.[4] The entire development was very hard to endure; the producers had high hopes of what they might accomplish. However, due to the major budget restraints and tight deadline, Krome Studios were forced to basically reuse assets from A New Beginning, including enemy models and animations, and alter the storyline to account for it. The development team worked hard to get it finished, but in the end, the team was disappointed with the finished product.[5]
During development, numerous story scripts were made and scrapped; some were used for the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS versions of The Eternal Night. For example, in the GBA version, after the three battles at Fellmuth Arena, Ignitus appears instead of Cynder, and unlike in the home console versions, where Cynder gets kidnapped before she could elaborate a plan with Spyro to stall for time, Ignitus successfully creates a distraction to help Spyro escape.[6][7]
Reception
Upon its release, The Eternal Night has received mixed reviews, garnering less praise than The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Like its predecessor, it was criticized for its gameplay and its high difficulty. Game Chronicles said that while the game may be too difficult for kids and a bit too simple for adults, many will be able to find a lot to like about the game.[8] The voice acting was also mixed among critics, particularly Billy West's role as Sparx the Dragonfly, stating that the character's lines are placed incorrectly.[9][10] British Nintendo magazine NGamer gave it 70%, calling it a "decent platformer, if you can get into the relentless fighting groove".
Joystiq gave the Gameboy Advance version a 9.5, praising the game's graphics, combo system, and its storyline; they called it "the last great GBA game." IGN was the harshest and among the most negative reviewer to criticize this game and they gave the Nintendo Wii version a 3.6 while the Sony PS2 version a 3.5. They criticized it for its "Lame controls, lame storyline, lame platforming, lame combat and crappy experience. The biggest problem is just how pointlessly difficult this game is."
Gallery
- For this subject's image gallery, see The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night/Gallery.
Trailers
Trivia
- Unlike A New Beginning, The Eternal Night wasn't given an Xbox port due to the decision made by Vivendi Universal.[11]
- Krome Studios considered adding new breath weapons and elements, but the D-pad on the controller didn't have enough buttons for the concept. In the end, they came to the decision to keep things simple by focusing on the quality of four existing elements.[12]
- The Game Boy Advance version of The Eternal Night has several story and dialogue differences from the home console version:
- Amaze Entertainment incorrectly labeled Cynder as Spyro's "sibling", making it a developer oversight.[13]
- Cynder doesn't appear in the Fellmuth Arena. Instead, Ignitus appears, and he sucessfully creates a diversion, while in the console versions, Cynder was captured in the chaos. In storyboards for the console versions of The Eternal Night, this is revealed to be an early draft of the events; while another, where the trio escapes the Well of Souls, is not depicted even in this version.[14]
- The Celestial Moons are named "Adrano and Zella", later confirmed as canon by concept art of the console game.
- An area mentioned by Spyro while conversing with the Chronicler is Doxantha, where the other Guardians have gone to. Whether it is the early name of the mainland Dragon City Warfang or another region is unknown.
- The Eternal Night was the last game to be released for the Game Boy Advance in Europe, being released in November 2007.
- The Game Boy Advance version contains a secret room in the Training area. Here, there are several statues depicting what is believed to be legendary dragons named after the development team.[15]
- There are various unused voice clips in the game's files where Spyro references boasting about challenges, flying, having just healed, or just about to lose all his health.[16]
References
- ↑ SPYRO THE DRAGON® TO CONTINUE HIS EPIC NEW TRILOGY THIS FALL IN THE LEGEND OF SPYRO™: THE ETERNAL NIGHT. (Date Posted - July 6, 2007). GameIndustry.biz.
- ↑ "I've been only sort of half-sleeping with one eye open for weeks now,". Sparx, The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (console version).
- ↑ Spyro, Cynder and Sparx's age. (Date Posted - Apr 23, 2015). DeviantArt.
- ↑ The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night AU Interview. (Date Posted - October 8, 2007). IGN.
- ↑ Interview with Spyro Developer Michael Graham. (Date Posted - November 7th, 2008). Hardcore Christian Gamer.
- ↑ Spyro - Eternal Darkness (2007) Storyboard. (Date Posted - Feb 2, 2008). Blogger
- ↑ IF = "Seed" Part 2. (Date Posted - May 4, 2008). Blogger.
- ↑ Game Chronicles Review. (Date Posted - Dec. 17, 2007). Game Chronicles.
- ↑ The Legend of Spyro PS2 IGN review. (Date Posted - Oct 26, 2007 5:35 pm). IGN.
- ↑ The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night for PlayStation 2 Review - PlayStation 2 The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night Review. (Date Posted - Jan. 28, 2008). GameSpot.
- ↑ There being no Xbox version of Eternal Night had nothing to do with us! That was entirely a Vivendi / Sierra decision. (Date Posted - Apr 2, 2023). Twitter.
- ↑ TLoS Elemental Class Earth. (Date Posted - Apr 22, 2016). DeviantArt.
- ↑ Dear Devealopers,. (Date Posted - Oct 7, 2007 9:41 PM). Sierra Community Forums (closed down).
- ↑ Alina Hiu-Fan Chau's Blog. (Date Posted - Jan 28, 2008). Blogger.
- ↑ The Secret Room in the GBA version of The Eternal Night. (Date Posted - Jan 1, 2011). YouTube.
- ↑ The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (PlayStation 2, Wii). The Cutting Room Floor.
