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Like Ratchet & Clank, Jak and Daxter and more, the Japanese version of Spyro The Dragon has
some quite big and interesting changes made, feeling that this would make the game more
suitable for the Japanese market.
An example of this can even be found on the game's cover art, with the Japanese version
of Spyro being made to look much more cute compared to the US and European versions.
Spyro's appearance would remain unchanged in the actual game though, but that's not
to say that there weren't many changes there as well.
When the game was being playtested, the developers received a large number of complaints from
Japanese testers about motion sickness due to the 3D camera.
These reports caused concerns that Japanese gamers may be more susceptible to motion sickness
- perhaps due to not being as used to the 3D games that had only just started to become
popular.
So, the developers made some big changes to the camera for Japanese market.
Over in Japan, the camera is not only much more zoomed out but it also no longer follows
Spyro around the stage, instead keeping a fixed perspective.
This has led to much harsh criticism though, due to the fixed camera making it hard to
see where you are going.
The camera also now fades in and out when Spyro enters levels, walks into a whirlwind
or falls down holes.
Whilst in the English release, he will perform a U turn flying animation.
Perhaps to compensate for the camera change, Spyro also now moves vastly slower in Japan
- with his charging speed being roughly the same as the English version's regular walking
speed.
An interesting feature exists in the Japanese version however, where you will be able to
revert some of these changes if you were to first complete the game and get 120%.
This unlocks a feature where, by holding L1 and R1 on the title screen, you can restore
Spyro's speed to be the same as the English version and, if you use the dash command,
the camera will now follow behind Spyro as well.
Even in this mode however, the camera will not follow you unless you're dashing.
Further changes made to the Japanese version include giving Spyro a number of high pitched
sound effects during gameplay.
Alongside this, the Japanese version was fully voiced in Japanese.
An interesting change was also made to the level entrances - with them now being numbered
in the Japanese version.
Each world's normal levels are numbered 1 to 3, boss levels are numbered 4 and flight
level numbered 5.
This gives Japanese players more of a guide on how to proceed and what order they may
want to take on levels.
There exists an even bigger change made to the Japanese version designed to help players
along and this is the introduction of dozens of signposts within levels that, when flamed,
give players tips on how to proceed.
There are many of these all throughout the game, and one of them even reveals to players
how to open up the secret level at the start of the game.
English gamers would instead have to listen carefully to something that one of the dragons
say much later on in the game and then work out that they need to go back to the start
and jump on the stones in front of the waterfall in a certain order.
Sparx, the little dragonfly that accompanies Spyro, always stays green in the Japanese
version too.
Whilst in English, Sparx will change from gold to blue to green as you take damage,
in Japan, the only way to know how much damage you have taken is to pay close attention to
the small sparkles that are behind him.
The reason for this change was that, over in Japan, Spyro the Dragon was compatible
with the Pocketstation , a Japanese-only peripheral that was similar in nature to the Dreamcast's
VMU.
The PocketStation would trigger a total of 30 dragonfly eggs to appear within levels
and when collected they could be hatched in the PocketStation minigame and raised.
The PocketStation dragonfly can then be imported back into the game where it will replace Sparks
and it can also result in Spyro being able to take extra hits from enemies.
The Japanese version of the game also had some changes that resemble censorship - although
further details on why these changes were made are not known.
In the Japanese version, enemies with swords no longer have the end of their weapons covered
in a red colour which resembles blood.
However, strangely this change was also made to the European versions as well, with the
US release being the only one where the enemies have blood tinged blades.
In fact, the European versions of the game would even remove the red blood-like colour
from the end of the bulls' horns too, which was a change that wasn't made in either the
US or Japan.
Most of these changes would be carried forward to the Japanese sequel, including the camera
changes, Spyro's reduced movement speed, the signposts, and the PockStation minigame.
Interestingly though, the sequel would allow gamers to change the camera back to the English
version via the option menu - despite being enabled by default.
However, unfortunately for Insomniac, none of these alterations helped Spyro to gain
much success in the Japanese market and, for this reason, the third game and most later
titles in the series would go completely unreleased over in Japan.
In fact, the new Spyro Reignited Trilogy remake has also currently not been localized into
Japanese and there has been no announcement of this happening in the future from the devs
either.
What do you think about the Japanese version of Spyro?
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