Spyro The Dragon's First Original Adventure In 18 Years Is Not Just A "One-And-Done Thing"

It doesn't really feel like Spyro The Dragon has been gone for as long as he has. Back in 2018, we got the gorgeous Reignited Trilogy, a remake of those first three beloved PlayStation titles. Spyro was also a big part of Activision's Skylanders back in 2011, although that was a very different take on the character. But while Spyro has always been there, on the periphery, we actually haven't had a brand-new, original game in the series since 2008's The Legend of Spyro: Dawn Of The Dragon. 18 years with no new Spyro. No wonder the world is the way it is.

After nearly two decades, everybody's favorite purple dragon is finally coming back for a brand-new game in the form of Spyro: A Realm Beyond. And while the latest adventure won't be out until 2027, Screen Rant sat down with developer Toys For Bob to dig into why they're the best team for this revival, and why it's the start of a bold new era for Spyro The Dragon.

If you know anything about Toys For Bob, you'll know it's okay to be excited about this new chapter for Spyro. This is the team that remastered the original trilogy in 2018, and created an original Crash Bandicoot game — Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time — in 2020. You only need to play Crash Bandicoot 4 to understand that Toys For Bob gets how to take a classic series and inject it with fresh new ideas without compromising its original identity.

Firstly, you might be wondering why Spyro: A Realm Beyond isn't taking a leaf out of the Bandicoot's book and calling itself Spyro The Dragon 4. Paul Yan, Chief Creative Officer and Studio Head at Toys for Bob, has the answer.

"It's a different context," he explains. "Crash 4 literally picks up practically right after the events of Crash 3. Here, we just wanted to make sure that we returned to that classic sense and pick up after Reignited, but also expand and evolve the character and the moveset in ways that are quite fundamental and exciting. So I think early on we said: 'let's not give it a number because that kind of boxes us in creatively', so that was always part of the conversation."

Louis Studdert, Associate Creative Director at Toys For Bob, adds: "We also wanted to make sure that from the get-go, this game appeared as a welcoming entry point for new players. We want this to be a really great onboarding point, and so, while we still acknowledge the history, it's not required reading for anyone joining with this game, and we wanted to make that abundantly clear for anyone coming in: you can start here."

In terms of new abilities, the big new one that Toys For Bob showed off in the game's reveal trailer is Spyro's new ability to take off and fly at any time, something he could never do before. Unsurprisingly, this was the one big idea that really helped the game come together, and the major feature that helps this new Spyro game stand apart from its predecessors.

"The ability to just take off and explore at a moment's notice is where we started," Louis tells us. "And what we figured as we started building that is, it has a cascade of a million other things that kind of come from that. And so we quickly realized we needed scale to really fulfill this fantasy. So one of the things that you'll see in the game is the areas that you're exploring are much larger, they're much more vertical. There is a sense of height and distance that really needed to be there to fulfill this fantasy."

While Toys For Bob are definitely not calling this an open-world game, there's definitely a renewed focus on exploration, something that was always at the heart of the original games. However, Louis promises a "grander scale" born from the ability to fly. Combat has also received an overhaul. In previous games, Spyro could spit out a cone of fire from a relatively close range. Much like his flight, though, his flames have also received a hefty upgrade.

"What's really compelling about a Spyro game is interacting with the environment, right?" Louis explains. "It's all in the original games. It's hitting ramps. It's hitting speed pads. It's all ground-based, and we wanted that as well while flying. And what we figured out very quickly is we needed a way to engage with things at a distance. One of the things that we showed off in the teaser trailer is Spyro's ability to now shoot fireballs at a distance and at range to be able to interact with the world."

One example Louis gives is that you might shoot a fireball to light a campfire down below, which in turn will create an updraft to give Spyro a vertical boost. This sandbox approach definitely sounds like a fitting evolution of those original games in which we all ran around setting fire to sheep just to see what would happen. Change needs to happen, of course, but is there a risk of changing Spyro beyond all recognition?

"It's not a science," Paul says of the balancing act between familiarity and original ideas. "It is constantly checking with each other and having conversations and making sure that we're paying attention to the things that are right. And I think one of the lessons that we really took from Crash 4 is that we really need to pay attention to the fans. We really need to pay attention to what people take away from those experiences and what they remember. They may not be 1:1 with what those experiences were at face value, and so paying attention to those comments, to those memories, those insights, all of that is really helpful to just understand like what is cherished."

One thing fans can take comfort in knowing has not changed is the voice of Spyro himself. The Dragon has had a few actors over the years, including The Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood. However, most would agree the best is still the original: Tom Kenny. While he's probably best known these days for The Ice King in Adventure Time and SpongeBob SquarePants, he was Spyro first, and apparently Kenny was thrilled to reprise the role.

"We absolutely wanted to bring him back in," Paul says. "But nothing's a given, right? Is he going to be available for this project? Is he going to be interested in returning to this character? Fortunately, the answer was yes on both counts."

"Working with Tom is an absolute delight," Louis enthuses. "Honestly, like just as a voice actor, as a professional, as someone just hanging out with, he's just so much fun to be around. He is a top tier voice actor. He's going to a lot of voiceover conventions, and he's telling us how much he loves hearing from the Spyro fan base, and how much he hears from them at those conventions to the point where they're, you know, bringing in games to sign or things like that. But they're the ones who are pushing on him, like, hey, when's the band getting back together? When's there going to be a new game? And so he's been extremely fulfilled, you know, coming back. It's been a really great opportunity for all of us."

If you've played Crash Bandicoot 4, you'll probably know it's a pretty difficult game with some seriously tough precision platforming. This is, of course, because the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy was tough-as-nails, whereas Spyro was never exactly known for its intense difficulty. Fans can rest easy knowing this, then: Spyro: A Realm Beyond is not suddenly going to go all Dark Souls on you.

"Spyro and Crash, even though they're often thought of together, are such vastly different experiences," Louis tells us. "We always defined Crash as being about tense precision and execution. It is demanding. It is testing you on questions that usually only have a single answer. Spyro is much more about exploration. It's much more about fluidity. It's much more about exploring a space and wanting to find things in it, and going at your own pace and feeling that kind of joy of movement. We've retained that. Spyro is not Crash, and we totally know that as fans of the franchise."

Finally, what can Paul and Louis tell us about the game's story? Well, not a lot at the moment, although they promise what we've seen from the game so far is just the tip of the iceberg. Based on what they told us during our time together, it also seems clear this an older and more experienced Spyro than we've ever seen. Perhaps most exciting of all, though, is that it seems Toys For Bob has every intention of making more Spyro games if this one is a success.

Paul teases: "One lens that we apply when thinking about story and premise, not just for this adventure, but also how does it set up Spyro into the future? This is not just a one-and-done thing. We would love to see more adventures for Spyro down the road, and so, how are we not just inviting new people into this and growing that fan base, but also how do we set them up and create new possibilities that we can take advantage of?"

If this really is the beginning of a brand-new era for Spyro The Dragon, I'd say it's well overdue. We have more than our share of gritty games pushing realistic graphics to their absolute limit, and not nearly enough bright and colorful 3D platformers. Given our purple fire-breathing friend was always one of the best examples of the genre, it's only right he helps lead the charge and, hopefully, reach new heights in the process.