**Update – Activision and Toys for Bob have now implimented subtitles for all languages into the game via an update. That’s to the backlash which snowballed from this original article, the game is now much more accessible for all gamers to play and enjoy!**

I’ve been playing the Spyro Reignited Trilogy quite a lot this week as I gear up to write my review Check out my review here, yet there was one thing missing which I didn’t notice at first – and then it clicked. Just what could it be? We have:

• Remastered visuals √

• Remastered audio with the choice to play with the original score √

• Support for the Pro and X √

• New physics and visual effects √

• The game is playable in various languages √

• Subtitles ×

That’s it – In-game, when talking to NPCs in Spyro 2 and 3, you get subtitles as they constantly tell you over and over how to glide, dive, swim, and that their things have been stolen by evil creatures. However, when you enter any of the newly created pre-rendered cutscenes, there are no subtitles to be found. You know, the parts which actually set up the story and tells you what’s been happening and what’s about to happen!

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Personally, I have subtitles on constantly in games as I like reading along to what they’re saying so that if it’s late at night then I can still understand everything being said, or if I’m distracted by the sounds of something else then I still get what’s going on. Looking from the outside, having a children’s game release without subtitles is one of the major no-nos in my opinion as I imagine a lot of children will play this who have hearing difficulties or maybe playing it in a room with noisy adults if the console is situated in the living room. As such, omitting the subtitles is like removing a major part of the game in my personal opinion.

Because of this, I reached out to Toys for Bob and Activision themselves. The following statement is what I received from an Activision Spokesperson:

“When Toys For Bob set out to make an awesome game collection, there were certain decisions that needed to be made throughout the process. The team remained committed to keep the integrity and legacy of Spyro that fans remembered intact. The game was built from the ground up using a new engine for the team (Unreal 4), and was localized in languages that had not previously been attempted by the studio. While there’s no industry standard for subtitles, the studio and Activision care about the fans’ experience especially with respect to accessibility for people with different abilities, and will evaluate going forward.”



So, it looks like we ‘may’ get subtitles in the future if enough people query it and ask why they aren’t there, but I still feel that for a children’s game which was released in 2018, these sort of accessibility options should have been included by default.

Let me know what your thoughts are below, maybe you don’t care for subtitles so this doesn’t bother you? Or, maybe you do have children, or even yourself, who has a hearing disability – will this change your mind about purchasing the game? As I said, our review is coming soon and the games themselves are great, they’ve just pushed aside a section of their potential target audience by not including the subtitles for the key cutscenes.

Check out my review for the Spyro Reignited Trilogy HERE.

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