There are a lot of complaints about the "3D sickness", but watching the Japanese version's camera is really what's making me sick around here...actual motion sickness. I thought only Gex 3 could do that to me.
Something I've learned about the whole "localization" process is that is isn't necessarily about how different regions have such profound differences in gaming culture, it's more about how it is changed simply by passing hands and the other hands feeling they need to do "something" to "improve" the title. There's a certain smugness to it that i find a bit distasteful.
DrakeDarkHunter fun fact - the localizers for Lunar 1 had an idea to "improve" the game (by forcing players to use a specific plant-related item from their inventory or automatically die after the final boss), which the developers back in Japan thought was a cool idea. So the "Play the harp/ocarina or die" thing has been in every release and remake except the first Japanese one.
I quite like the way that in the normal version you aren't told about the stones in the artisans world. I remember playing this as a kid, and when I heard that tip, I rushed back to the first home world to see if it would work. The amazement and astonishment that this had been there the whole time, and I never knew was something games tend not to offer very much these days.
The spoken dialog was in Japanese for the Japanese game though. So considering that someone who speaks Japanese is able to understand Japanese, and that the dialog in the game was spoken in Japanese, it shouldn't be a problem.
As a Dane, I can tell you that I had no idea what was being said in the game. It wasn't until I was in my teens, and could understand English, that i found out that there were more homeworlds after the peacekeepers.
Japanese children got cheated out! Imagine somewhere on youtube, there's a japanese version of the angry video game nerd who reviews the Japanese version (Game he played as a child) and then plays the American version (the game most of us have played). His reaction would be priceless XD!
The Japanese Angry Videogame Nerd? That would be "Ikatteiru Bideogēmuotaku" - it's not real, I just literally tranlsated "Angry Videogame Nerd" to Japanese in Google Translate :)
I remember reading an article by a Naughty Dog developer about localizing Crash for Japan and apparently it's an absolute requirement that tutorials are added if they weren't in the original game, which explains the signs. Aku-Aku gave the game-stopping tutorials in Crash.
Wow this has got to be one of the worst localisations I have ever seen. I mean they literally turned a good game into a broken mess just by regional difference alone. I feel bad for people in the East that got this inferior garbage while the West got to play the real Spyro.
They post sings everywhere? wow. And people talk about how developers here think we're too stupid to figure out japanese games, apparently japanese developers think the same thing about their own audience...
Hahah what the sign actually read is "Children dragon that can't swim shouldn't be playing around here. Also, there's no such thing as walking on the platforms in a certain order, which opens a secret door" It literally says this :')
I've never played Spyro, but I can tell you why the claims about "3D sickness" possibly make sense: by cultural standards, all media portraying anthropomorphized animals as the main characters is considered "too childish" in Japan, and thus, marketed towards mostly pre-school children... therefore, since kids that young get dizzy more easily than older children with the quick camera movements on these games, and most likely, the test groups for the first game were elementary or pre-school children, it might have fueled such claims, which would explain the camera issue and the speed nerf... it would also make sense that the sounds Spyro makes on the japanese version are due to the fact it was marketed towards little children (also, because japanese people have a thing for cutesy stuff)
Takeru Minamoto I would have been 7 when Spyro came out and I was first playing, I didn't have any problems and I don't remember any of my friends having problems either. It was awesome having a fast moving and explorable game rather than the usual side scroller for once :)
both my brother and I played spyro as kids, I would have been 8 and my brother 5. and we never got sick or felt dizzy. while it is possible for some kids and adults to get sick from the game, the fact they warent the change is still silly, since the frist game in japan should have had a option to change the camara.
I know I'm ten months late, but I would like to throw in my two cents. When I was less than ten years old, I tried a first-person shooter for the first time. I think it was a Medal of Honor game. After a few hours, I started to get dizzy and decided I don't need my parents to tell me that I should take a break. It took hours for me to feel this "3D sickness" and I was perfectly fine after a thirty-minute break, but I guess it does exist. This is why parents need to do parenting.
It's ironic that Crash was a huge success in Japan while Spyro wasn't, and that was thanks to a good conversion of the original game and a successful marketing campaign that made Crash more appealing to japanese audiences.
Dear Hylia, is this one of the worst regional porting jobs I've ever seen. There’s Castlevania 3 and Streets of Rage 3's jacking up the difficulty in NA and PAL to make people buy the game instead of renting it, but as an American who loves the Spyro trilogy to death, this just blows my friggin' mind. To be fair, though, I have heard that Japanese gamers are apparently more susceptible to motion sickness than Western gamers. Apparently that's why first person shooters aren’t very popular over there.
I had to do a double take when I first saw it too. Slow it down if you must, but don't screw up the camera. That's why I wanted to bring up F-Zero X. Which came out before Spyro 1 and is way faster and jerkier. I don't know though, I don't get motion sickness, so I can't say I understand it.
+ExoParadigmGamer pretty much any time konami made any ports over they went out of their way to jack the us version best example, xmen arcade and contra hard corps
+ExoParadigmGamer I think there are plenty of instances where the American versions of games are worse than the Japanese version, but this is the only instance of a Japanese version being worse than the American version.
Spyro the Dragon actually caused motion sickness in a lot of American players as well. That's one of the main reasons I rarely revisit it as much as Spyro 2 or 3.
I actually have gotten motion sickness from playing 3D games with similar mechanics to Spyro, as well as watching TH-camrs play them, so the "3D sickness" is a thing...
The names of the stages are also different. If you look at 6:10, the changes are; Artisans -> Green Garden Stone Hill -> Speed Chase Dark Hollow -> Night Square Town Square -> Glide Town Toasty -> Wonder Pumpkin Sunny Flight -> Sunny Sky
Also in the japanese version of Spyro 2 Riptoes Rage when you collect the gem and look at the gem counter in the far top left, the gem counter doesn't bounce when you collect a game. Whilst in the American and European version it does.
10:00 The sleeping dogs in that level were actually quite scary. They'd turn black and chase you with a mouthful of jagged teeth when you woke them up.
You said that Japanese text is more complex, but all the text in this game is rendered in kana (characters for letters) with no kanji (characters for words), so the theory doesn't quite line up.
CyPHeR it's fine that you're on your high weeb horse about taking japanese on rosetta stone or whatever but the fact is the japanese characters have a much higher level of detail which would be more difficult to instantly recognize if they were rotating in a 1998 low-res digital world.
The reason it doesn't rotate is because most kids in Japan would have a hard time identifying the letters (might be that kids in America are used to seeing letters in 3D while Japanese kids just don't) This is different in the overworld because the game itself is already 3d while the menus aren't.
One of my family members had 3-D sickness. I think it started from this game. Also, if I was a Spyro enemy, I would just get a lawn chair, a glass of lemonade, and just sit there and relax.
The little sound effects spyro makes are really cute but I bet it soon gets annoying!!! I always wondered why they bothered giving you passive camera as an option- who wants to be constantly moving the camera around??? And 3D sickness? There's enough rapidly moving and flashing anime out there to not worry about spyro the dragon!
Spyro 1's US release came out less than a year after an infamous incident where over 600 kids in Japan were hospitalized after a bright flashing light effect in a Pokemon episode triggered epileptic seizures in them; I'm sure that the incident was still fresh in the Japanese public's memories by the time Spyro got its Japanese localization. The Pokemon incident is also why there's much less flashing lights in anime now compared to back then.
+kitty collins - Personally, I hate having to manually move the camera in 3D games. Even when you have the camera follow Spyro, you still end up having to manually move it every time you want to line up a jump. Why isn't there an option to put it behind him and keep it there, like it does while charging? Why the lazy, sort-of following mode where it eventually ends up behind him after you've moved around enough in the right direction? I'd rather see what's in front of me than what he looks like from the side, or the front. Honestly, other than when looking around (which there's a button for), how often do you want the camera anywhere but behind you?
I played Spyro 3 as a kid all the time and I remember getting nauseous from the camera movements while Spyro was running, so it's not like the claims of 3d motion sickness were unwarranted. They had the right idea when it came to fixing it, it just seems like they went way overboard.
The original Spyro was cute to you? I always wanted to kick him in the face every time he opened his mouth, and his design isn't that appealing to me either.
Yes, he was pretty cute imo, at least compared with the traditional dragon design, or hell, even the rest of the dragons in the game. He looked cartoon-ish, and wasn't trying to be edgy or too cool like most of the other mascots of that era, so he was cute even compared to the ones from his same kind. And let's be fair, he wasn't near as annoying when speaking as, let's say, Bubsy. It was totally tolerable from what I remember.
With Reignited Trilogy coming out, looks like the Japanese can get to experience the game that never came out: 3. PLUS no longer having those bullshit changes.
They will probably still have to make some changes...All things get some kind of stupid change when released world wide. I just hope the changes aren't crappy this time and actually make the Japanese enjoy Reignited Trilogy.
Unfortunately you missed 2 other issues with the Japanese version of Spyro 2: 1. The gem-finding ability was removed. 2. The underwater charge was replaced with a single boost, making all underwater segments extra tedious. Shoutout to CGE for having the patience to stream-play through this version and discover these issues.
There's also another change between the US and Japanese/PAL versions, enemies that have swords and shield have like blood on the sharp edge, this was removed in the Japanese and PAL versions, however, some bull enemies had blood on their horns that were only removed in PAL versions, not Japanese.
Interesting thing about Japanese games is that characters always make lots of noises. Even when doing casual things like looking around in cutscenes and so on. I'm sure everyone, who's played a Japanese game, has noticed that.
Kinda sad that our japanese Brothers and Sisters never had the Chance to play Spyro like it should be: Awesome! Maybe they get that Chance with the Remakes. ^^
I actually kind of like Spyro, though I haven't played any of the games. I only played Skylanders(Yeah I know...) What I think is shit, though, is how Skylanders was meant to be a reboot of Spyro, but in the 4th and 5th games they didn't make a new Spyro figure for the game! It's like they COMPLETELY forgot the original purpose! And they removed Cynder too! How bullshit is THAT?!
+Owen Russell it was never mean to be a spyro reboot. they just took spyro and put him in their game for marketing purpose (rip spyro ) BtW YOU SHOULD TRY ANY OF THE FIRST 3 SPYRO, thoses games were just awesomes (ofc the graphism are ugly to nowaday standars, but it wasneat at this moment )
Hm. I had heard it was a spyro reboot. Guess they milked even farther than i thought. I'll have to see if I can try Spyro in the future, i'm starting to learn how popular he was in the past.
Owen Russell i remember when i heard about spyro skylander they put some screenshot, 2 of spyro... ... WHAT THE HECK? the unanim answer was to ask what they made of this poor spyro, he looked so ugly :( (while in the game before even if there was a little weird shader he looked pretty great as an adult ) and some already speculated it would just be a game containign spyro for marketing
The original three Spyro games were masterpieces that will steal away at your life when you realise how immersive and charming they are. Many people feel that after that the series never saw a good game again, though I personally feel he still saw a few decent and underrated games, particularly the GBA ones. The originals are some of my most beloved platformers ever though.
The captions during the Japanese voices is so random: "Wow, I got a cute e-mail. Sorry, Quinta, chosen kunda hanabono detection; A beauty - You got dishing, I'll not hide them in the weed at all."
wait, what's that about 3D sickness in Japan? they have all the bullethell anime games that gives everyone seizures with it's obnoxious af music, and their shows are one blog of text right after every single action scene.
It was probably more common before when 3d was new and Japanese people still preferred 2d handheld games since most Japanese people are never at home anyway. and when they are many children have to do homework which makes something like a turn based RPG much easier to plat at the same time. i can prove this because some games on super nintendo/famicom made it possible to play games such as Dragon quest with one hand using the L button instead of A which means you had the other hand free for a pencil. Dragon quest's insanely popular there and to this day and the 90's wasn't an exception.
Rin That's fascinating! Pokemon Emerald had an L=A option too. I figured it was for playing one handed, but I never saw the point of it. Never considered it might be for that level of multitasking.
There's a few other bits I wished you'd covered in this! The music on the homeworld of Dream Weavers would crack/not play unless you flamed the signpost at the beginning of the level. One of the enemies would disappear on the platform when you moved the camera around. When rescuing some of the dragons the camera would fly towards Spyro so fast it went through him (I believe it was the dragon before the home port in Dark Passage). Various buildings had their tops missing (such as the one you travel up before entering Town Square). The super charge ramps seemed to be maxed up on speed too, you literally fly down those... Its crazy...
"You will never be able to comfortably hold triangle and press X to Jump, and Square to Dive at the same time...." This man has clearly never played Claw while playing MW2.
Your comments about the camera support what I've always said about third person games; That they should put the camera behind the player and leave it there. Have the option to move it around if you want, but when the player moves, the camera should follow behind you so you can see where you're going. Honestly, does anyone play a game like this with the camera on the side or in front of the character?
The sarcasm bit was really cringy. I mean you make legit points about the version differences, but the point about Sparkz and the Pocketstation is a genuinely cool addition imo, but making that whole point about the bosses was just a nonissue.
I love this little series you have. If you ever decide to return to this, would you consider covering the Crash Bandicoot games and all the differences found in their respective Japanese versions?
and end up in jail. people in japan end up in court for downloading manga scanlations they are very strict on that shit nobody pirates in japan really, not as much as we do.
6:47 I actually don't mind this one, it's no different from how Crash Bandicoot Warped numbers it's levels but still let's you play them in whatever order you want, the only exceptions being the boss fights which have to be done last.
Yeah it's the PAL version I own, and I kind of prefer that version of High Caves. Also I never knew they shifted the gems from the impossible ledge in the PAL version. Pretty cool to know. :) In Spyro 2 by the way in Japanese, there's actually a way of switching back to the PAL and NTSC camera angle. (Wait no never mind.) lol. I should have stayed to the end. XD
@5:30 - Wow. To me, the seamless camera in Spyro 1 was one of its biggest selling points, it made things feel like there were no "loading screens" at all. There are very few games anymore that do truly seamless switching between areas.
10:18 That glide isn't too bad as long as you start gliding at the very top of your jump (which as 2 dragons from Stone Hill And Town Square respectively tell you, grant the player their longest glides) and press the Square button to charge just before you collide with the ledge.
What's the problem with Japanese people and getting easily sick from things like flashing lights and 3D movement anyway? It seems to be way more of an issue for them than just about anyone else.
I understand the motion sickness complaint, but why not just have the changed camera as an option if the old camera is clearly still in the game? just allow the player to toggle the camera in a normal play-through instead of making the fast camera a weird completion bonus. the point of a completion bonus is to give the player a prize for winning, not to lock necessary mechanics.
The PS1 Spyro the Dragon games were my childhood. I loved sharing them with friends (I bought all the games individually and then the Greatest Hits combo pack to lend out) just so they could experience the joy. I replay the games regularly for the "chill out and unwind" effect. It genuinely surprises me how they utterly messed up the Japanese version. It's a real shame Japan didn't get to experience those games as intended.
justsignmeup911 I once competed in a Pokémon Colosseum tournament and one of my opponents had motion sickness, citing it as why she couldn't play Pokémon Pinball!
justsignmeup911 just go to the options and change camera from active to passive then you'll get a very similar gameplay to the Japanese version but still be able to run fast
I saw a few texture changes in the japanese version, too! At least compared to the German version I have played. Like the clubs from the big gnorcs and I think the thieves looked a bit different, too? Would love to know which of the other enemies got a change in their appearance.
The angry voice doesn't suit you, just sounds whiny and fake. No offence, just think you'd be better off sticking to your analysis voice or tuning your annoyed voice to match your true level of annoyance. You are probably more annoyed for the poor Japanese who had to endure this version so enraged sympathy might have been more appropriate and in tune with your message. I really wanted to know all the differences but the I'm annoyed tone put me off such that I gave up watching in the end. Thank you for comparing and showing though...
You tell him to act annoyed rather than angered, only to notice that's it's for the poor gamers, but still criticise him for it. did you realize mid-comment that he wasn't actually angered? What?
Apparently they changed the story of Final Fantasy 7 to be simpler for the english version and removed plot twists because they thought it was too complex so it goes both ways
Look at 7th Saga (Elnard)... they decided that "Screw Westerners!" and made the game 5x harder for the NA release, lol. Why? Who knows. They changed the formulas for stat gains and enemy offense to make the game incredibly balls-hard and just plain unfair without hours upon hours of level grinding.
I was gonna ask if there was an Active-Passive camera option in the settings for Spyro 1. I thought it would be fixable just like that. But the charging speed, the thief chase segments are gonna be quite a bundle of joy there.
I’m up for a Japanese release of the Reignited Trilogy that balanced both sides of the spectrum soon. A slower Spyro, but the options to have a fixed camera position or a camera that gently follows him throughout his quests. And don’t forget a cuter design for the loveable purple himself! :)
Can do. I essentially make these videos as I find out about interesting differences myself. So I don't have any more American to Japan games on my radar as of now.
JoshKall would be interesting to see if Japan ever got a port of worms, at the very least I'd be interested to hear what the worms voices are like in the Japanese version and if they have any regional weapon differences!!
The camera when charging in the English version of Spyro made me nauseous as a kid, and I would get sick for days because I played it a bit too long. And just seeing it now, I have to look away because I get instant motion sickness feeling. Edit: Woah, you actually brought that up, how serendipitous.
![Spyro the Dragon LOST BITS | Unused Content and Beta Demo [TetraBitGaming]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BRtwA2vmjuw/mqdefault.jpg)
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
There are a lot of complaints about the "3D sickness", but watching the Japanese version's camera is really what's making me sick around here...actual motion sickness. I thought only Gex 3 could do that to me.
That's pretty much the exact same thing I said. XD I couldn't look at the game footage in JP version for more than 10 seconds without feeling woozy.
Silentgrace11
I can't play video games in 3D, it makes me want to hurl. Oddly, VR isn't too bad.
Something I've learned about the whole "localization" process is that is isn't necessarily about how different regions have such profound differences in gaming culture, it's more about how it is changed simply by passing hands and the other hands feeling they need to do "something" to "improve" the title. There's a certain smugness to it that i find a bit distasteful.
DrakeDarkHunter fun fact - the localizers for Lunar 1 had an idea to "improve" the game (by forcing players to use a specific plant-related item from their inventory or automatically die after the final boss), which the developers back in Japan thought was a cool idea. So the "Play the harp/ocarina or die" thing has been in every release and remake except the first Japanese one.
The same bs that still happens today unfortunately. You can argue that it’s not as bad as it used to be, but still, censorship is always unnecessary
That explains why Spyro didn't do well in Japan.
Like the AVGN would say...
"WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!"
+RyuuSix *were :)
I love AVGN lol
+Ajstorm3000 Oh! Thanks for the correction :)
No problem
I'd rather shove a crystallised dragon up my ass than play this piece of shit.
+JoshKall Good luck with that ;)
"Move to fast" by country who made Sonic.
SO TRUE
Sonic is a game made for people who like flashing lights.
So Japan
I quite like the way that in the normal version you aren't told about the stones in the artisans world.
I remember playing this as a kid, and when I heard that tip, I rushed back to the first home world to see if it would work.
The amazement and astonishment that this had been there the whole time, and I never knew was something games tend not to offer very much these days.
The spoken dialog was in Japanese for the Japanese game though.
So considering that someone who speaks Japanese is able to understand Japanese, and that the dialog in the game was spoken in Japanese, it shouldn't be a problem.
As a Dane, I can tell you that I had no idea what was being said in the game. It wasn't until I was in my teens, and could understand English, that i found out that there were more homeworlds after the peacekeepers.
@dancoulson6579 I agree, it makes it more magical. 😃
its a little funny seeing a western style dragon speak japanese
I never thought of that. That is quite amusing.
Drakengard 3.
oh that name in japan ripto
And the 2nd game is RIPTO X RIP-7R ;)
It's like an Eastern dragon speaking in an American cowboy voice.
Japanese children got cheated out! Imagine somewhere on youtube, there's a japanese version of the angry video game nerd who reviews the Japanese version (Game he played as a child) and then plays the American version (the game most of us have played). His reaction would be priceless XD!
The Japanese Angry Videogame Nerd? That would be "Ikatteiru Bideogēmuotaku" - it's not real, I just literally tranlsated "Angry Videogame Nerd" to Japanese in Google Translate :)
His reaction would be similar to when the AVGN played Super Back to the Future 2 (the Japanese-only BTTF2 game)
The Angry Video Game Otaku
I remember reading an article by a Naughty Dog developer about localizing Crash for Japan and apparently it's an absolute requirement that tutorials are added if they weren't in the original game, which explains the signs. Aku-Aku gave the game-stopping tutorials in Crash.
Wow this has got to be one of the worst localisations I have ever seen. I mean they literally turned a good game into a broken mess just by regional difference alone. I feel bad for people in the East that got this inferior garbage while the West got to play the real Spyro.
WOW. I had no idea the Japanese version was this different! That's... awful!
lol yeah call the entire race retarded because of some stupid developers, makes sense
EntermateStar
don't forget... "happends" ..!!!
Not every Japanese made is bad. Some Games are great that its exclusive in Japan
region exclusivity is never good...that means it doesn't get released here
So they pulled a reverse MGS3. Instead of adding extra camera control, they took it away. :D
Ah yes, they just had to even the score somehow!
+JoshKall Well don't forget Spyro 2.
+JoshKall Might as well nerf his fire breath, and gliding to make the most boring Spyro game in Japan lolol
well thats irony
During the PS1 & PS2 era before internet patch exist, once the game is bad it's bad forever.
True, but most of the time the games were more finished than they are today!
bobskie321 except that during the PS2 era, the OgXbox Master Race HAD patches and DLC via Xbox Live...
Even today that rule applies I mean if a game is bad it stays bad. Patching only to removes glitches.
Still true on most 360 and all Wii games.
*Enter the Dragonfly. ☹️
They post sings everywhere? wow. And people talk about how developers here think we're too stupid to figure out japanese games, apparently japanese developers think the same thing about their own audience...
Hahah what the sign actually read is
"Children dragon that can't swim shouldn't be playing around here.
Also, there's no such thing as walking on the platforms in a certain order, which opens a secret door"
It literally says this :')
Those tricky fucks
Must be some kind of code.
I've never played Spyro, but I can tell you why the claims about "3D sickness" possibly make sense: by cultural standards, all media portraying anthropomorphized animals as the main characters is considered "too childish" in Japan, and thus, marketed towards mostly pre-school children... therefore, since kids that young get dizzy more easily than older children with the quick camera movements on these games, and most likely, the test groups for the first game were elementary or pre-school children, it might have fueled such claims, which would explain the camera issue and the speed nerf...
it would also make sense that the sounds Spyro makes on the japanese version are due to the fact it was marketed towards little children (also, because japanese people have a thing for cutesy stuff)
Takeru Minamoto I would have been 7 when Spyro came out and I was first playing, I didn't have any problems and I don't remember any of my friends having problems either. It was awesome having a fast moving and explorable game rather than the usual side scroller for once :)
kitty collins
well, there are always exceptions, no?
both my brother and I played spyro as kids, I would have been 8 and my brother 5. and we never got sick or felt dizzy. while it is possible for some kids and adults to get sick from the game, the fact they warent the change is still silly, since the frist game in japan should have had a option to change the camara.
I know I'm ten months late, but I would like to throw in my two cents. When I was less than ten years old, I tried a first-person shooter for the first time. I think it was a Medal of Honor game. After a few hours, I started to get dizzy and decided I don't need my parents to tell me that I should take a break. It took hours for me to feel this "3D sickness" and I was perfectly fine after a thirty-minute break, but I guess it does exist.
This is why parents need to do parenting.
Takeru Minamoto That's also probably the reason, why there's no Chinese characters in the game
"So you'll either be able to see where your going, or be able to move fast!" Sonic the Hedgehog in a nutshell.
Mainly in the 2D games, though. (smiles)
Unless you've got widescreen which is surprisingly only a recent development
i dont get how people criticize sonic for being too fast. i think his speed is what makes the game fun.
DJ C not the speed but how you can't really see what's in front of you til you hit it
Zero Zoroark thats whats kinda polarizing with sonic. the gameplay depends on your reaction time
It's ironic that Crash was a huge success in Japan while Spyro wasn't, and that was thanks to a good conversion of the original game and a successful marketing campaign that made Crash more appealing to japanese audiences.
Dear Hylia, is this one of the worst regional porting jobs I've ever seen. There’s Castlevania 3 and Streets of Rage 3's jacking up the difficulty in NA and PAL to make people buy the game instead of renting it, but as an American who loves the Spyro trilogy to death, this just blows my friggin' mind.
To be fair, though, I have heard that Japanese gamers are apparently more susceptible to motion sickness than Western gamers. Apparently that's why first person shooters aren’t very popular over there.
I had to do a double take when I first saw it too. Slow it down if you must, but don't screw up the camera.
That's why I wanted to bring up F-Zero X. Which came out before Spyro 1 and is way faster and jerkier. I don't know though, I don't get motion sickness, so I can't say I understand it.
+JoshKall I got major motion sickness while watching this, but I was feeling it from both versions being shown here. Go figure.
+ExoParadigmGamer pretty much any time konami made any ports over they went out of their way to jack the us version best example, xmen arcade and contra hard corps
+ExoParadigmGamer I think there are plenty of instances where the American versions of games are worse than the Japanese version, but this is the only instance of a Japanese version being worse than the American version.
well that was irony
Hm, that is rather strange that they would do that to the Spyro the Dragon game. Aw well, they at least got the game instead of not getting it.
Wait you serious?!
TheNamesJunkie Oh hi Junkie nice seeing you here! ^^
Oh my
It's Junkie
Your quote is exactly what they said when japanese has a better version than Global version..
Fun fact, the European music of High Caves is known as 'Terrace Village (Beast Makers Mix) on the OST.
Spyro the Dragon actually caused motion sickness in a lot of American players as well. That's one of the main reasons I rarely revisit it as much as Spyro 2 or 3.
I actually have gotten motion sickness from playing 3D games with similar mechanics to Spyro, as well as watching TH-camrs play them, so the "3D sickness" is a thing...
PAL Spyro 1 has a unique music track, which is not a remix of anything.
The names of the stages are also different. If you look at 6:10, the changes are;
Artisans -> Green Garden
Stone Hill -> Speed Chase
Dark Hollow -> Night Square
Town Square -> Glide Town
Toasty -> Wonder Pumpkin
Sunny Flight -> Sunny Sky
Nisbah Mumtaz WONDER PUMPKIN WHS SHSVSGSB WHAT THE FUCK 😂😂😂
Wow, that is a grimy controller
This channel was made for me. More version difference videos are always welcome.
RIP
Also in the japanese version of Spyro 2 Riptoes Rage when you collect the gem and look at the gem counter in the far top left, the gem counter doesn't bounce when you collect a game. Whilst in the American and European version it does.
10:00 The sleeping dogs in that level were actually quite scary. They'd turn black and chase you with a mouthful of jagged teeth when you woke them up.
But, did they make the characters wear sexy alternate costumes?
And is the Japanese version of "Ripto's Rampage" named "Spyro's Rampage"?
I actually like how noisy Spyro is in this Japanese version! Too bad every other change was for the worse.
You said that Japanese text is more complex, but all the text in this game is rendered in kana (characters for letters) with no kanji (characters for words), so the theory doesn't quite line up.
LRGonzales It's still more complex than English, everything takes longer to write.
Not the way it was written out in this game..
CyPHeR it's fine that you're on your high weeb horse about taking japanese on rosetta stone or whatever but the fact is the japanese characters have a much higher level of detail which would be more difficult to instantly recognize if they were rotating in a 1998 low-res digital world.
kana do not take longer to write than the latin alphabet. Kanji perhaps but if you know your kana well you can write トマト easily faster than tomato
The reason it doesn't rotate is because most kids in Japan would have a hard time identifying the letters (might be that kids in America are used to seeing letters in 3D while Japanese kids just don't)
This is different in the overworld because the game itself is already 3d while the menus aren't.
One of my family members had 3-D sickness. I think it started from this game. Also, if I was a Spyro enemy, I would just get a lawn chair, a glass of lemonade, and just sit there and relax.
The little sound effects spyro makes are really cute but I bet it soon gets annoying!!! I always wondered why they bothered giving you passive camera as an option- who wants to be constantly moving the camera around???
And 3D sickness? There's enough rapidly moving and flashing anime out there to not worry about spyro the dragon!
Spyro 1's US release came out less than a year after an infamous incident where over 600 kids in Japan were hospitalized after a bright flashing light effect in a Pokemon episode triggered epileptic seizures in them; I'm sure that the incident was still fresh in the Japanese public's memories by the time Spyro got its Japanese localization. The Pokemon incident is also why there's much less flashing lights in anime now compared to back then.
+kitty collins - Personally, I hate having to manually move the camera in 3D games. Even when you have the camera follow Spyro, you still end up having to manually move it every time you want to line up a jump. Why isn't there an option to put it behind him and keep it there, like it does while charging? Why the lazy, sort-of following mode where it eventually ends up behind him after you've moved around enough in the right direction? I'd rather see what's in front of me than what he looks like from the side, or the front.
Honestly, other than when looking around (which there's a button for), how often do you want the camera anywhere but behind you?
lurkerrekrul change the camera mode from passive to active
I hope Toys for Bob keeps everything the same as the US version for the Japanese localization.
I played Spyro 3 as a kid all the time and I remember getting nauseous from the camera movements while Spyro was running, so it's not like the claims of 3d motion sickness were unwarranted. They had the right idea when it came to fixing it, it just seems like they went way overboard.
Probably should have allowed a different button, like R2 (instead of Triangle), to keep the "focused" camera.
Okay, so now Spyro is even cuter than how he already was. Okay.
The original Spyro was cute to you? I always wanted to kick him in the face every time he opened his mouth, and his design isn't that appealing to me either.
Yes, he was pretty cute imo, at least compared with the traditional dragon design, or hell, even the rest of the dragons in the game. He looked cartoon-ish, and wasn't trying to be edgy or too cool like most of the other mascots of that era, so he was cute even compared to the ones from his same kind.
And let's be fair, he wasn't near as annoying when speaking as, let's say, Bubsy. It was totally tolerable from what I remember.
With Reignited Trilogy coming out, looks like the Japanese can get to experience the game that never came out: 3.
PLUS no longer having those bullshit changes.
They will probably still have to make some changes...All things get some kind of stupid change when released world wide. I just hope the changes aren't crappy this time and actually make the Japanese enjoy Reignited Trilogy.
Unfortunately you missed 2 other issues with the Japanese version of Spyro 2:
1. The gem-finding ability was removed.
2. The underwater charge was replaced with a single boost, making all underwater segments extra tedious.
Shoutout to CGE for having the patience to stream-play through this version and discover these issues.
There's also another change between the US and Japanese/PAL versions, enemies that have swords and shield have like blood on the sharp edge, this was removed in the Japanese and PAL versions, however, some bull enemies had blood on their horns that were only removed in PAL versions, not Japanese.
Interesting thing about Japanese games is that characters always make lots of noises. Even when doing casual things like looking around in cutscenes and so on. I'm sure everyone, who's played a Japanese game, has noticed that.
Kinda sad that our japanese Brothers and Sisters never had the Chance to play Spyro like it should be: Awesome! Maybe they get that Chance with the Remakes. ^^
I actually kind of like Spyro, though I haven't played any of the games. I only played Skylanders(Yeah I know...)
What I think is shit, though, is how Skylanders was meant to be a reboot of Spyro, but in the 4th and 5th games they didn't make a new Spyro figure for the game! It's like they COMPLETELY forgot the original purpose! And they removed Cynder too! How bullshit is THAT?!
+Owen Russell it was never mean to be a spyro reboot. they just took spyro and put him in their game for marketing purpose (rip spyro )
BtW YOU SHOULD TRY ANY OF THE FIRST 3 SPYRO, thoses games were just awesomes (ofc the graphism are ugly to nowaday standars, but it wasneat at this moment )
+ballom29 nailed it. They literally just threw whatever IP they had into Skylanders in the hope that It'd sell more. I guess it worked too.
Hm. I had heard it was a spyro reboot. Guess they milked even farther than i thought.
I'll have to see if I can try Spyro in the future, i'm starting to learn how popular he was in the past.
Owen Russell i remember when i heard about spyro skylander
they put some screenshot, 2 of spyro...
...
WHAT THE HECK?
the unanim answer was to ask what they made of this poor spyro, he looked so ugly :( (while in the game before even if there was a little weird shader he looked pretty great as an adult )
and some already speculated it would just be a game containign spyro for marketing
The original three Spyro games were masterpieces that will steal away at your life when you realise how immersive and charming they are.
Many people feel that after that the series never saw a good game again, though I personally feel he still saw a few decent and underrated games, particularly the GBA ones.
The originals are some of my most beloved platformers ever though.
The captions during the Japanese voices is so random:
"Wow, I got a cute e-mail. Sorry, Quinta, chosen kunda hanabono detection; A beauty - You got dishing, I'll not hide them in the weed at all."
to make スパイロ look like Ripto, you really have to be very creative in the way you write.
Marijuana king you're probably seen it it beforehand & got used to it.
i saw the jpn one on ebay and it said "fun game"
I also grew up with Spyro and Crash instead of Pokemon and Mario :P
And link and Kirby and knuckles.
Because you did not chose Nintendo
Sirkusdyret I grew up with Spyro and Pokemon instead of Crash and Mario.
ty brestovansky Lmfao Knuckles is a SEGA Character
I grew up with all of them. Why chose when you can play all lol. I was spoiled.
What an interesting accent, it almost sounds like a parody of an American accent.
“Gee, isn’t that FUN. You have to hold down 1 button at all times!!!”
Every racing game ever: You got a problem with that, pussycat?!?
Other gamers: This is for platformers on the CAMERA, dumbasses!
wait, what's that about 3D sickness in Japan? they have all the bullethell anime games that gives everyone seizures with it's obnoxious af music, and their shows are one blog of text right after every single action scene.
I don't really get it either. Apparently they really don't like first person shooters in Japan due to motion sickness as well.
It was probably more common before when 3d was new and Japanese people still preferred 2d handheld games since most Japanese people are never at home anyway. and when they are many children have to do homework which makes something like a turn based RPG much easier to plat at the same time. i can prove this because some games on super nintendo/famicom made it possible to play games such as Dragon quest with one hand using the L button instead of A which means you had the other hand free for a pencil. Dragon quest's insanely popular there and to this day and the 90's wasn't an exception.
Rin That's fascinating! Pokemon Emerald had an L=A option too. I figured it was for playing one handed, but I never saw the point of it. Never considered it might be for that level of multitasking.
"Obnoxious"
say that again
obnoxious
There's a few other bits I wished you'd covered in this!
The music on the homeworld of Dream Weavers would crack/not play unless you flamed the signpost at the beginning of the level.
One of the enemies would disappear on the platform when you moved the camera around.
When rescuing some of the dragons the camera would fly towards Spyro so fast it went through him (I believe it was the dragon before the home port in Dark Passage).
Various buildings had their tops missing (such as the one you travel up before entering Town Square).
The super charge ramps seemed to be maxed up on speed too, you literally fly down those...
Its crazy...
"You will never be able to comfortably hold triangle and press X to Jump, and Square to Dive at the same time...."
This man has clearly never played Claw while playing MW2.
Kinda ironic that Crash and Spyro are showed as friends, but one is a iconic franchise for the japanese, and the other one....well....ummm
very nicely done josh. this is really interesting!
Your comments about the camera support what I've always said about third person games; That they should put the camera behind the player and leave it there. Have the option to move it around if you want, but when the player moves, the camera should follow behind you so you can see where you're going. Honestly, does anyone play a game like this with the camera on the side or in front of the character?
The sarcasm bit was really cringy. I mean you make legit points about the version differences, but the point about Sparkz and the Pocketstation is a genuinely cool addition imo, but making that whole point about the bosses was just a nonissue.
It's Sarcasm, yes, it goes on longer than needed, don't take it seriously though.
I love this little series you have.
If you ever decide to return to this, would you consider covering the Crash Bandicoot games and all the differences found in their respective Japanese versions?
If I lived in Japan and were an avid Spyro fan, I'd import a PSone (slim model) from America as my means of playing Spyro 3
or just download emulator and play USA/PAL or JP version buhahaha
and end up in jail. people in japan end up in court for downloading manga scanlations they are very strict on that shit nobody pirates in japan really, not as much as we do.
i doubt you would've tho. back then internet shopping wasn't really a thing.
Is it possible to freely download games in the US?
6:47 I actually don't mind this one, it's no different from how Crash Bandicoot Warped numbers it's levels but still let's you play them in whatever order you want, the only exceptions being the boss fights which have to be done last.
Wonder how this version ranked with Famitsu? Lol
That's an interesting thought. If I had to take a guess I'd say "badly"
Yeah it's the PAL version I own, and I kind of prefer that version of High Caves. Also I never knew they shifted the gems from the impossible ledge in the PAL version. Pretty cool to know. :) In Spyro 2 by the way in Japanese, there's actually a way of switching back to the PAL and NTSC camera angle. (Wait no never mind.) lol. I should have stayed to the end. XD
3D sickness is a real thing. It's called "motion sickness". It would've been great if they gave you both options, though.
Your Version Differences videos are really good, you deserve more views. The Spyro games are some of my favorites, and you covered it really well!
Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed.
Turn captions on at 4:55
Google translate serves us well
3:28
"Just look at this! Do you want to be rooting around like THIS for the whole game?!"
Tell that to Melee wavedashing.
Good video Josh, that was really interesting
Thanks. Have fun with your PS4!
Japan had cancelled Super Mario bros 2 because they thought it would be too hard.
Where are you from? You have an Australian accent for the most part but then there are some words you use a hard R for which is really jarring.
@5:30 - Wow. To me, the seamless camera in Spyro 1 was one of its biggest selling points, it made things feel like there were no "loading screens" at all. There are very few games anymore that do truly seamless switching between areas.
Wonder why they changed anything other than words and voices... Why touch anything else?
10:18 That glide isn't too bad as long as you start gliding at the very top of your jump (which as 2 dragons from Stone Hill And Town Square respectively tell you, grant the player their longest glides) and press the Square button to charge just before you collide with the ledge.
They say us Americans suck at gaming, yet they cant take spyro RUNNING. Its sad
Graymon Dgt .....the Japanese can't take western MH players seriously
okeydoki
5:01 with subtitles on: "I'll not hide them in the weed at all"
What's the problem with Japanese people and getting easily sick from things like flashing lights and 3D movement anyway? It seems to be way more of an issue for them than just about anyone else.
You know you can switch the camera mode from passive to active, right? Same as in the NTSC version.
Honestly, most Japanese don't know this game.
I understand the motion sickness complaint, but why not just have the changed camera as an option if the old camera is clearly still in the game? just allow the player to toggle the camera in a normal play-through instead of making the fast camera a weird completion bonus. the point of a completion bonus is to give the player a prize for winning, not to lock necessary mechanics.
So basically
PAL>NTSC>JPN
For Spyro 1
Question! How did the Japanese handle the Super charge when Spyro's speed is nerfed? Especially due to the jumps in Tree tops!
Great video! I know you've seen this comment a billion times, but you just deserve one more!
The PS1 Spyro the Dragon games were my childhood. I loved sharing them with friends (I bought all the games individually and then the Greatest Hits combo pack to lend out) just so they could experience the joy. I replay the games regularly for the "chill out and unwind" effect. It genuinely surprises me how they utterly messed up the Japanese version. It's a real shame Japan didn't get to experience those games as intended.
And people say Fire Emblem Fates is the worst localization
The irony of level 1-1 being called "Speed Chase" when you can't actually move quickly lol
I wonder if motion sickness is the same reason why asian are known for being bad drivers.
Oh God....Can you imagine trying to go through Tree Tops with this fixed camera? That level is a nightmare as is...
Why does he talk like that
wondered the same... sounds like he adds extra Rs every other letter...
They didn't get it, they made it lel
Demon Lord Ghirahim That's how some British people talk.
I had to do a triple take at "Spyror Toor".
...he's Australian, not British.
Spyro makes Hentai noises when he falls 😳
Nice!
the sounds Spyro makes when he jumps around in this version sound a hell of a lot like Croc
The camera in the NA Spyro gives me motion sickness. I think I'd prefer the Japanese camera.
justsignmeup911 I once competed in a Pokémon Colosseum tournament and one of my opponents had motion sickness, citing it as why she couldn't play Pokémon Pinball!
justsignmeup911 just go to the options and change camera from active to passive then you'll get a very similar gameplay to the Japanese version but still be able to run fast
Thanks kc, I might try that.
I saw a few texture changes in the japanese version, too! At least compared to the German version I have played. Like the clubs from the big gnorcs and I think the thieves looked a bit different, too? Would love to know which of the other enemies got a change in their appearance.
The angry voice doesn't suit you, just sounds whiny and fake. No offence, just think you'd be better off sticking to your analysis voice or tuning your annoyed voice to match your true level of annoyance. You are probably more annoyed for the poor Japanese who had to endure this version so enraged sympathy might have been more appropriate and in tune with your message.
I really wanted to know all the differences but the I'm annoyed tone put me off such that I gave up watching in the end. Thank you for comparing and showing though...
true
You tell him to act annoyed rather than angered, only to notice that's it's for the poor gamers, but still criticise him for it. did you realize mid-comment that he wasn't actually angered? What?
Grow up.
Okay not gonna lie.
Being able to customize Sparx's color is kinda lit. The Red one looks mad cool.
Wow! Aren't the Japanese supposed to be "smarter" than Americans? So then why the hell do they need signs to know how to play the game???
Kyle Kirkpatrick they're not, if this goes to show. I mean, the Japanese version of crash bandicoot made things a bunch easier, too.
Apparently they changed the story of Final Fantasy 7 to be simpler for the english version and removed plot twists because they thought it was too complex so it goes both ways
Look at 7th Saga (Elnard)... they decided that "Screw Westerners!" and made the game 5x harder for the NA release, lol. Why? Who knows. They changed the formulas for stat gains and enemy offense to make the game incredibly balls-hard and just plain unfair without hours upon hours of level grinding.
I was gonna ask if there was an Active-Passive camera option in the settings for Spyro 1. I thought it would be fixable just like that.
But the charging speed, the thief chase segments are gonna be quite a bundle of joy there.
5:35 So that's WHY it wasn't present in 2 and 3!?
I’m up for a Japanese release of the Reignited Trilogy that balanced both sides of the spectrum soon. A slower Spyro, but the options to have a fixed camera position or a camera that gently follows him throughout his quests. And don’t forget a cuter design for the loveable purple himself! :)
thanks youtube recommendations, also that lip sync at 4:57 is so good haha
Cool to see differances the other way around.
Please continue doing this :)
Can do. I essentially make these videos as I find out about interesting differences myself. So I don't have any more American to Japan games on my radar as of now.
JoshKall would be interesting to see if Japan ever got a port of worms, at the very least I'd be interested to hear what the worms voices are like in the Japanese version and if they have any regional weapon differences!!
The camera when charging in the English version of Spyro made me nauseous as a kid, and I would get sick for days because I played it a bit too long. And just seeing it now, I have to look away because I get instant motion sickness feeling.
Edit: Woah, you actually brought that up, how serendipitous.
Little did he know, you need to mash the SQUARE Button when swimming in Ripto's Rage Japanese version.