Ah, Spyro the Dragon. I haven't mentioned this on the channel yet but as a kid I skipped over Nintendo's 5th and 6th generation consoles in favour for the PlayStation brand. While I was super jealous of one of my friends who had a Nintendo 64, the PS1's library didn't let me down, the Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot series being some of my favorite games on the system. But unfortunately it looks like kids in Japan at the time couldn't say the same thing as their version of Spyro the Dragon had some..... changes?
Spyro the Dragon was made by the American company Insomniac Games. Normally on version differences, we look at games which were made in Japan then localized everywhere else, so it will be interesting to see what happens when the roles are reversed. So without further ado, let's take a look.

Before we look at the Japanese version let's take a look at the American version. The camera follows Spyro fairly well; it also gets behind him when you're charging. This is a good view to have when moving faster as you can see further ahead.
Now let's hop over to the Japanese version. Ah, here's a fun fact: Ripto, the antagonist from Spyro 2, got his name from how <?> Spyro was shown in Japanese text, it looks like it's spelling Ripto in English. To get back on track though: as soon as you start the game you'll encounter both of the serious problems that this version has. First, the camera is a complete joke, it's way more zoomed out than other versions and it doesn't follow you at all! This is fine for linear games like Crash Bandicoot, but not a more open game like Spyro. Look at this: I'm not even trying to make it look bad, this is how the game really plays! You can never see where you're going! The only time you get any relief from this awful camera is in the flying levels where the camera acts exactly like it does in other versions (just don't touch the ground, as the bad camera will return). Now there is a semi fix to this. In other versions if you press triangle, it takes you to this close-up view mode where you can look around. In the Japanese version how it works is that if you hold triangle the camera slowly gets behind you; if you then press and hold triangle again when the camera is right behind you, you'll then go into that close up mode. So basically if you're holding triangle down at all times, the camera does attempt to follow you. Jeez and that fun though! Holding down triangle at all times! You may as well just tape the bloody button down!
Keep in mind that this is only the first problem. Secondly, and honestly this isn't as bad as the camera, but Spyro has had a huge speed <nerf?>. His charging speed in the Japanese version is the same as his walking speed in other versions. Look here, can you even tell a difference in my speed levels when I quickly swap between charging and walking? The charging is maybe slightly faster?.. It just feels so surreal to watch when his running animation barely goes any faster than his walking animation. Again, I have found a semi fix to this: if you constantly jump and dive, you can move at a pretty quick speed. But just look at this: do you wanna be moving around like this through the whole game? But what puts the final nail in the coffin is the fact that you'll never be able to comfortably hold down triangle and press X to jump and square to dive at the same time. So your choice is to either be able to see where you're going or be able to move fast. Look, I almost ran into this level because I couldn't see where I was going! The only reason I could find as to why all of these changes were made is because when Spyro was showed off to Japan, he "moved too fast" and caused numerous reports of "3D sickness". They knew these changes sucked though, as if you actually have the balls to finish the Japanese version fully, 120%, you can play through the game again with Spyro's speed restored to normal. And if you charge, the camera actually follows you. It still doesn't follow you at all if you're not charging though. Bottom line, just stay away from the Japanese Spyro unless you really want to experience how bad it is first hand.

But enough about those game-breaking problems; the Japanese Spyro has some other interesting differences too. Obviously, all the voice acting was redone in Japanese; from what I can tell, it sounds pretty good. <Японские абракадабры с прятками в травке>. To compliment this, Spyro now makes all of these cute noises when he moves around, whereas he never made noises in other versions. Some other camera changes were also made: when you're falling down a hole, instead of the camera panning down it just fades to the exit. I actually like this, as it gives the game a cinematic feel without screwing with the gameplay. The same thing happens when you go up a whirlwind too. Although they completely took away that loop Spyro does when he enters a level: here's the regular game, here's the Japanese version. Why'd they remove it? because the game's had to give me another reason to hate it. Naah, I'm sure it still has something to do with the "3D sickness" claims. Let's just hope none of these people ever play <F-0-X>: I'm sure their heads would explode. None of the text in the menu rotates or has that metallic effect other versions have, which again makes sense as Japanese text is more complex, it would be harder to read if it were rotating. This doesn't apply to the text on the level entrances though. Also, look what we have here: 1-1, 1-2, 1-3? The Japanese version has actually ordered the levels with the boss levels being the fourth one and the flight levels being the fifth one. Sure, in other versions the levels were always in the same order in the level menu, but now it's official. You better play the levels in order or... absolutely nothing bad will happen.
You may have noticed by now all the signposts around the place. They're not only in the overworlds but in actual levels as well. There wasn't any signpost at all in non-Japanese versions. Basically they tell you how to play the game. Now to be honest with you, I can't read any form of Japanese text, but to give you an example, this sign here apparently outright tells you how to open up the door leading to the first flying level. Now if you would've asked me, this is good: there was no reason for the game to be super cryptic about how to open this and not reveal it to the player until the third world. "Listen carefully, Spyro. There's a secret area in the Artisan Home, it is at the waterfall. Try jumping on the stones there". The signs do have their problems though: you talk to them by flaming them. Look at this situation here: I'm trying to kill this guy but my flame activates the signpost as I'm trying to kill him. Sometimes they activate automatically, here I'm just stopping to adjust the awful camera and the signpost activates. Overall, the signposts just get in the way, and if non-Japanese players didn't need them, then I'm sure Japanese players don't need them either.
Another thing you may have noticed by now is that in all of my Japanese footage Sparx has always been green. Well, that's because in the Japanese version he is only green. Yeah, instead of Sparx changing from gold to blue to green he's just always green now. The only way to see your health now is by the color of his sparkles?.. Why is it that every change in this game is just a <dumb?> inconvenience to the player? To get back on topic, there actually is a reason why Sparx is only green in the Japanese version. It's a stupid reason, but at least there is a reason. It's time for the part of the episode where I talk about some obscure peripheral. This time it's the pocket station. What's a pocket station? A Japanese-only accessory that basically does the exact same thing as a Dreamcast <VMU>. You plug it into the memory card slot and certain games can send data to it. If Spyro 1 detects that a pocket station is inserted, a dragonfly egg will appear in all overworlds and every level (minus the flying levels of course). Once you collect one, you can send it to the pocket station along with a tamagotchi style minigame. Thanks to there actually being a pocket station emulator I was able to try this game out. It's.. OK, I suppose, for what it is. You hatch your egg, feed it sheep, play a dumb mini-game and take it for a walk. Once you're done, you can send it back to the game and it'll have a different color than what Sparx had. My one is red here. So apart from changing your dragonfly's color, what's the point, you may ask? Well, if you're really good at raising your dragonfly, you can allow it to take four or even five hits instead of the default three, because wow, I really needed that to take out the bosses in Spyro the Dragon, because the bosses in Spyro the Dragon are just so formidable that I would definitely need at least five hits to be able to beat them.

Well, that about covers the Japanese version. Let's quickly look at a couple of differences between the American and PAL versions. Any American going for a 100% will remember this ledge here in the Metalhead boss stage. It's easily one of, if not the hardest glide in the game to make. Just for 4 gems! Well I suppose someone acknowledged how bullshit that glide was, so in the PAL version they were moved to the other side of the ledge. The other change is music-related. In the High Caves level, the NTSC version has a slightly altered version of the music from the Tree Tops level, whereas the PAL version had completely new music made for it.
And with that, that's everything I have to show you guys about Spyro the Dragon. It truly is the worst Japanese conversion I have ever seen. I'd hate to see worse. Hmm, you know, Spyro 2 also had a Japanese release. Spyro 3 didn't - I guess they gave up at that point. I'm curious to see if they learned from their mistakes and didn't screw up Spyro 2 though. Let's have a look. What's this? A map? Other versions had a map too, but it wasn't enabled by default like it is here. This is pretty <neat?>. Argh, look: the camera isn't following me and my speed is still <nerf?> up the arse. Hahahah, it's the same jumping animation, it just looks ridiculous from the side. Unlike Spyro 1 though, there's camera options in the menu. Look at this, it's beautiful! You can make the camera act exactly the same as it does in other versions! If only it was enabled by default. My speed is still slower, but like I said earlier, it's nowhere near as big of a problem as the camera. You know, if these moronic Japanese game developing interceptors can learn from their mistakes, then maybe humanity does have some hope after all. Thanks for watching.

Spyro 3 Year Of The Dragon A Garbage Review...
О, этот акцент...
Сегодня наткнулся на такое чудо. И вот это за 2 месяца посмотрело почти столько же людей, сколько за 9 лет - The Making of Spyro?!

Воистину, этот обзор в основном garbage, но в нём есть и рациональное зерно...
Например, вам тоже в голову никогда не приходило, что разработчики могли специально сыграть на названиях и сделать портал Шейлы местом, похожим на Австрию вместо Австралии!? Чёрт, Альпы, да у этих козлов немецкий акцент, всё сходится!
Ах Инсомниак, вот шалуны...

You mean, dat Crash Team Fucken Racing? )))