I was obsessed with The Legend of Spyro games as a kid, and with Cynder in particular. So much so that I taught myself Blender after school so that I could make a fan game. It never got far, but it did get a significant amount of attention on Deviantart back in the day, and it's what eventually got me into my university of choice! I actually found some of the old files from the project a while ago and decided to do some art in my updated art style as a bit of a throwback and a gift to my younger self.
The real reason Cynder and other characters changed colors in DOTD
"I won't talk much about Spyro because for me it's one of the worst productions I've worked on. Our engine was too old to correctly display normal maps. It was decided to boost glossiness and had an orange bloom. The whole game render looked oily and ugly
On most ELB productions, we didn't have an artistic director and decisions were made by the studio manager. These choices were decisive in the final rendering of the game. It was difficult to bring subtlety to the textures since the render was broken." - Yannick Gombart
This explains SO MUCH. We finally have the actual reason why Cynder’s change in scale color from black to indigo/dark purple! And the Chronicler's colors changing from gray to bright blue! And it has nothing to do with story!
Cynder, the Chronicler, and other characters had their textures changed so that they can stand out in the messy bloom that covered the whole game and a result of DOTD’s broken game render and outdated game engine.
The game also didn’t have an art director, can you believe it?? So Etranges Libellules’ studio manager had to make the decisions. That explains why the character designs were all over the place too!
Ever wanted to play as young Cynder from The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night? Now we can, as a downloadable mod for the PC version of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy! This mod comes with custom powerup skins and a retro skin!