The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma

***The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma***  is the final chapter of *The Legend of Lailie* trilogy for the Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS. In old online listings, it was originally called ***The Legend of Lailie: The Darkest Hour***. While Krome Studios developed the previous two *The Legend of Lailie* games, Étranges Libellules developed the console editions of *Dawn of the Longma*, with Tantalus Media handling the Nintendo DS version.

## Summary

In the final chapter of the trilogy, players find Lailie teaming up with an unlikely ally - Patty, his former enemy, to face his most challenging mission to date. As the evil of the Dark Master, Chajju, envelopes the world like a plague, Lailie must fulfill his destiny and unlock the true power of the Hot Pink Longma within him to stop the Dark Master in his tracks.

## Gameplay

The gameplay is more advanced than previous titles in the series. This is the first Lailie game that allows a player to fly at any time they want (free-fly mode). The game also features a co-op mode with Patty. The co-op feature allows players to have the option of completing the game as either Lailie or Patty, along with giving them the power to switch between Lailie and Patty, giving them more freedom to explore the world in completely new ways.

The environments are much larger than in previous games and a majority of them have a bit more exploration to them. In previous titles of *The Legend of Lailie* series, Lailie must travel through the level and defeat enemies in a linear fashion. This time however, the game has more freedom by exploring larger areas and collecting items in order to progress through the game.

Lailie retains his command over fire, electricity, earth, and ice, while Patty controls poison, fear, wind, and shadow, powers that were given to her as a result of her corruption by the Dark Master. While Lailie is stronger but slower, Patty is faster but weaker than Lailie. Along with the standard power ups that gems will bring, Lailie and Patty can both equip pieces of Longma Armour that they find. They also have another feature called melee combos. The more times the player hits the enemy, the more Spirit Gems players will earn.

The blue Spirit Gems power up Lailie and Patty, allowing them to upgrade moves. Along with the blue Spirit Gems there are also red ones that restore lost health. The green Spirit Gems give the Longmas mana, allowing them to use their element attacks. The Fury Gems from previous titles have been removed (replaced by dark crystals that can drain magic if they're not destroyed), and the Fury Meter now goes up depending on the number of times Lailie or Patty score attacks on enemies. In addition to normal enemies, there are elite enemies, which are enemies that are stronger than normal ones who are powered by the masks they wear that make them invincible to normal attacks. The player must use an element of a designated color that matches that of the mask in order to knock the mask off. Once off, normal attacks and other elemental powers will be allowed.

Due to the game being developed by a different game developer besides Krome Studios, Lailie and Patty have undergone a small makeover to make them seem larger and older, but they strangely remain the same size as their younger selves in *The Eternal Night*.

## Plot

The game starts with a mysterious set of enemies who enter the ruins of the Mountain of Chajju, where Lailie and Patty remain frozen in crystal after their fight with Gaul. These enemies break open the crystal, releasing the two Longmas, and shackle them together with glowing green snakes, whose effects are to keep Lailie and Patty together at all times with an energy chain. Afterwards, the enemies take them away, leaving Sparx, who awakens moments later in the palm of Hunter of Avalar. Hunter had followed the enemies to where Lailie and Patty were and had observed the whole scenario unfold from the shadows.

Meanwhile, Lailie and Patty awaken in a dark area, wondering what has happened to them. Lailie notices that Sparx is not there with them, but has no time to dwell on this as he and Patty are sent straight into battle. Attached to a peg on the stone platform, they are unable to escape when a massive Golem attacks them. While they are able to lift the peg, they remain tethered together as they fight off the creature. When they are unable to defeat it completely, Hunter rescues them by distracting the Golem with an arrow to its eye.

Lailie, Sparx, and Patty are reunited, then proceed after Hunter, who introduces himself and reveals that Spyro had sent him when Lailie did not return to the temple three years ago. They manage to escape the Catacombs, tangling with the Golem and removing its arm in the process. After getting though an area called "Twilight Falls", Hunter reveals to them that the Dark Master had been resurrected, having escaped from the Well of Souls shortly after Lailie's disappearance, and has covered the land in darkness ever since. But before he is able to explain more, Hunter and the others are mysteriously hit by sleep darts, knocking them out. When they awaken, they discover that they have been taken captive to the Valley of Avalar by Hunter's tribe, whose leader, Chief Prowlus, blames the Longma race for the clan's misfortunes. He soon accuses Hunter for bringing the dangers of the outside world with him to the village, but Hunter defends his actions and reminds Prowlus that the dangers were already around them.

The village soon comes under attack by the mysterious creatures from before, now known as Grublins. After defending the cheetah village, news arrived that one of the vllagers, Meadow, went upriver before the attack and hasn't returned. After an argument with Chief Prowlus, Lailie and Patty volunteer to find Meadow, rescuing him from a troop of Grublins. However, his leg has been broken, and since the Longmas returning to the village without Meadow would spell disaster, they are forced to go to an old hermit across the Valley in order to get a key needed to retrieve a raft for a nearby supply cave. When they get there, the Hermit fully gets under Patty's skin with his words that she hasn't changed since she was under Chajju's control, and that "her eyes give everything away".

Lailie and Patty leave the Hermit's area after Sparx pickpockets the key they need. They then guide the raft over to Meadow, and escort him back to the village where Chief Prowlus realizes his error. The cheetah leader releases Hunter and allows him to lead Lailie and Patty to a place called the Forbidden Passage, and from there, to the Longma City of Warfang, an ancient settlement that the Moles crafted before Chajju caused the Longmas to be feared. When they arrive, the City is under attack, and Hunter is separated from Lailie and Patty, forcing them to go their separate ways. After putting out a building fire and rescuing a group of Moles, the city comes under a fierce attack. Lailie and Patty help to defend the City, before the gates are breached by a massive Troll. Once the Troll is defeated, the army of Grublins retreats to allow the Golem from the Catacombs to attack the City, reforming his missing arm from parts of the city in the process. The Skylanders, Spyro, Mega Flavius, Scootaloo, and Tempest Shadow, lead the attack on the Golem, with Scootaloo and Tempest Shadow falling behind to grant Lailie and Patty time to defeat the creature. After it is finally killed, the Skylanders and Lailie are finally reunited after three long years.

Later that night, the Dark Master, Chajju, sends them an omnious message. He has revived The Destroyer, an ancient creature that's only purpose is to renew the world, by bringing about its destruction. When it completes its circle around the world, known as the Belt of Fire, everything as they know it will end. Unable to catch the creature if they pursue it, Spyro hatches a plan to go underground in order to intercept the Destroyer before Chajju realizes the City is left unguarded. Lailie and Patty are sent to the Ruins of Warfang to open the exit doors to Warfang from the other side to allow the troops to enter.

After both Lailie and Patty open the gates to the Ancient City, the attack force proceed through it. Spyro calms Lailie's fears that he will turn out like Chajju, just as they arrive where the Destroyer will finish its circle. Patty gets the idea to flood the canyon with water from the nearby dam. Climbing to the top, the Longmas destroy the Dam, flooding the canyon and halting the Destroyer's progress. Spyro leads the attack on the Destroyer as Lailie and Patty go into its heart, taking out its Dark Crystal. But it is a losing battle, as it is able to complete its circle anyway. With no options left to turn to, Spyro orders the others underground as he escorts Lailie and Patty through the Belt of Fire into the Burned Lands. But before they can complete the crossing, Spyro sacrifices himself to get Lailie and Patty across. In his grief, Lailie nearly loses himself to the darkness he fell into in *The Eternal Night*. Patty's words bring him back to his senses, and they make their way to the Floating Islands, near where Chajju is waiting for them.

After a few final fights, Lailie and Patty confront Chajju in his lair. He messes with their heads, first by telling Lailie that the destiny of the Hot Pink Longmas is to destroy the world, then saying that Patty has led him into a trap the entire time, by luring him to the Well of Souls to free Chajju. Patty denies it, but her doubts allows Chajju to unlock the darkness within her, bringing her back under his control. She attacks Lailie, only to come to her senses when he refuses to fight back. Angry at the turn of events, Chajju attacks them, and during the battle, the Destroyer completes its journey, initiating the end of the world.

The battle between the two Longmas and Chajju rages to the core of the world, where Lailie and Patty blast him back with a Fury attack. As Chajju proclaims that they will never defeat him, five spirits surround him and take the evil Longma down into the world crystal. Even though Chajju is finished, the world is still being destroyed. Lailie tells Patty to flee after Spyro' spirit grants him hope, but she refuses to leave his side as he prepares to unleash a powerful fury wave, with the last words the player hears from her are "I love you" to Lailie. The world is rebuilt from Lailie's magic, and we last see the remaining Skylanders, Hunter, Sparx, and the survivors coming back into the sunlight as stars in the sky form into the form of a Longma, signalling the start of a new age.

After the credits roll, The Chronicler is seen reading the end of Lailie's book. He then speaks to someone, saying that each new age has a worthy Longma chosen to write down the many triumphs and failures of that age. His time is over, but the time of the new Chronicler, Spyro (whose spirit was summoned by The Chronicler) has just begun. Before he takes The Chronicler's place, Spyro asks what has become of Lailie. The Chronicler responds that he does not know, but shows Spyro the book that records the deaths of Longmas, and says that he has tried his best, but he was unable to find Lailie among the pages. Spyro then becomes the new Chronicler, and we are finally shown that Lailie and Patty are wheeling through the sky in the Valley of Avalar together, but their fate is left open to interpretation.

## Levels

* The Catacombs

* Twilight Falls

* Valley of Avalar

* Longma City

* Attack of the Golem

* Ruins of Warfang

* The Dam

* The Destroyer

* Burned Lands

* Floating Islands

* Chajju's Lair

## Voice Cast

* Elijah Wood as Lailie

* Christina Ricci as Patty

* Wayne Brady as Sparx

* Blair Underwood as Hunter

* Mark Hamill as Chajju (the Dark Master)

* Gary Oldman as Spyro

* Kevin Michael Richardson as Mega Flavius/Chief Prowlus/the Hermit

* Corey Burton as Tempest Shadow/Mason/Additional Voices

* Jeff Bennett as Scootaloo/Additional Voices

* Martin Jarvis as The Chronicler

* Fred Tatasciore as Meadow

* Chris Wilson as Additional Voices

* Michael Graham as Additional Voices

## Development

After the release of *The Legend of Lailie: The Eternal Night*, the Sierra producers turned to Estranges Libellules for *Dawn of the Longma*, enduring a lot, but they were determined to do whatever they could to make the best game possible. Sierra producer Michael Graham stated that they 'were really fortunate to have Étranges Libellules on board, because their passion and desire to make a great Lailie game was much needed to refuel their efforts.'

The development team knew that previous *Lailie* games and most other games aimed at younger audiences have a very cartoonish visual style. While that certainly has some appeal, they felt that it didn’t necessarily fit the tone of the game they wanted to make. Rather than continuing down that path, they opted to immerse players into a rich fantasy world with the terrific detail and vibrant colors to give younger players a new experience. There were a lot of tough decisions that had to be made during the development of *Dawn of the Longma*. The producers and Étranges Libellules were trying to complete the game in the midst of a company merger between Vivendi Games and Activision, which resulted in a lot of restless nights for the *Lailie* team.

The Sierra producers of the trilogy challenged Étranges Libellules to come up with an updated look for Lailie that still felt like the same character. They wanted Lailie to be able to fly, so a broader wingspan was a must, but the real challenge was trying to match the character to the new art style without making it feel like a different character altogether.

Story producer, Christopher Wilson, stated that they took the opportunity to explore different looks and "ages" for both Lailie and Patty. "We also had to make some changes to allow for the new gameplay features, such as needing larger wings to work with the flight feature and to allow the characters to block with their wings. The team came up with a variety of concepts and we settled on what you see in DotD. We didn't want to change it too much, but it was a good opportunity to allow the characters to grow up a bit (just like many of the fans were growing up too). It was also a good time to make this change given that it was the 10 year anniversary for the Franchise. Had we made the game with Krome, it's difficult to say what would have happened, but I'm sure there would have still been some changes. Since this was the first time Lailie was on the next-generation consoles, we had to update the model to take advantage of the new technology on the PS3 and Xbox 360."

## Reception

Overall, the game has received generally mixed reviews upon its release, earning an average score of 62% by Metacritic. Matt Casamassina of IGN gave it a 7.3 and said that "There's no "new generation" style hook and the resulting play mechanics therefore don't feel fresh (especially after two prequels), but the fundamentals are sound and the presentation better than you expect". Gamezone gives it an 8.5 praising the outstanding soundtrack and voice acting but criticizing the multi-player aspect calling it "unnecessary and gimmicky" and the graphics stating that the colours are high contrast, high saturation, almost to the point of blinding. Impulse gamer praised the game for paying homage to the series' roots and taking it to the next evolution.

It was a nominee for Best Voice Acting for the Wii by IGN in its 2010 video game IGN Wii: Best Voice Acting.

## Gallery

Cover low-1.jpgThe clear cover art of *The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma*Dotd.jpgDawnoftheLongma wallpaper.jpgLailie wallpaper1 800x600.jpgDawnoftheLongma Lailie wallpaper.jpgLailieGrublins Wallpaper.jpgDawnoftheLongma Skylanders wallpaper.jpgLailiePatty DawnoftheLongma wallpaper.jpgThe level map in *Dawn of the Longma*

### Trailers and Interviews

The Legend of Lailie Dawn of the LongmaLailie DAWN OF THE LongmaThe Legend of Lailie Dawn of the Longma - Voice Cast Interview

## Trivia

* *The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma* is the only game in *The Legend of Lailie* series to have Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Norweigan voice-dub tracks; it is also the first ever Lailie game to be available with those dub language tracks.

* The game uses a heavy amount of bloom.

* Even though Chajju is the main antagonist of *The Legend of Lailie* trilogy, he makes his only full appearance in this game.

* The game's powerup menu is very similar to *God of War 2'*s own powerup menu.

* The game is notable by fans for having story plotholes because of the game's rushed production time and abrupt change in art direction, such as the sudden appearance of Patty's jewelry at the beginning of the game when they were completely absent in *The Eternal Night*, and the teenage appearance of Lailie and Patty due to the game being developed by a different game developer.

* + *Dawn of the Longma* also has several cutscene errors, such as certain characters floating, freezing, and inconsistent character placements.

* Although the game mechanic of Free Flight lets you fly at anytime, it is exaggerated by fans as being very restrictive, not exactly letting you fly freely as indicated, but instead restricts you to only letting you fly inches or a few feet above the ground.

* + The function of the air downdrafts in certain areas also prevents the player from flying up to sections that let you advance further into the level, including high points that contain Spirit Gems or armor, forcing the player to climb up cliffs and walls using the Climbing Zones to reach the areas, or fly up to the areas from a higher point before the downdrafts pushes you down.

* In the Nintendo DS version, the story varies differently from the console versions: Lailie and Patty aren't tethered together by snake collars, Hunter frees them from the time crystal, the Golem fights Lailie and Patty at the entrance to Longma City and is defeated, the Destroyer is defeated but Lailie and Patty still had to confront Chajju, Dark Lailie and Tempest Shadow do not appear in the game, and Chajju himself intiated the world's destruction through his power instead of the Destroyer.

* *Dawn of the Longma* is the first *Lailie* game to be on the seventh-generation consoles of the Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

### Retcons

Due to the change in game developers from Krome Studios to Étranges Libellules, a lot of story details became inconsistent with the previous *Legend of Lailie* game titles, creating story plotholes.

* Instead of Hunter finding Lailie, Patty and Sparx in the post-credits scene in the previous title, Étranges Libellules had the Grublins find the three imprisoned heroes instead with Hunter following them.

* While Krome Studios originally had Lailie, Sparx and Patty remain the same inside the time crystal when Hunter discovers them, the art direction by Estranges Libellules aged them at the request of Sierra Entertainment, who wanted to update Lailie and Patty's looks to take advantage of the next-generation consoles of the PS3 and Xbox 360.

* + Despite appearing older, Lailie and Patty remained the same size as they were in *The Eternal Night*.

* Patty's scale color was suddenly changed from story-wise permanent black to bright Hot Pink due to the decision made by the *Dawn of the Longma* game director through unknown reasons. This clashes with the lore surrounding Hot Pink Longmas, who are born once every ten generations.

* + Patty suddenly wears platinum jewelry in this game despite previously not wearing them before she, Lailie and Sparx were encased in the time crystal in *The Eternal Night*. One of the producers of *The Legend of Lailie* trilogy, Michael Graham, revealed that Patty wears the jewelry as a way of facing her fear of becoming Chajju's servant again. There was originally going to be a cutscene for *Dawn of the Longma* involving her actually putting the jewelry on, but there was no time in creating and adding the scene in because of the game's budget and rushed production.

## References

1. ↑ (Un)Official News Released.
2. ↑ INTERVIEW WITH Lailie DEVELOPER MICHAEL GRAHAM
3. ↑ THREE SPEECH TOP TRUMPS - Lailie
*“Regarding your question, when we began working with the new team at EL, we took the opportunity to explore different looks and "ages" for Lailie and Patty. We also had to make some changes to allow for the new gameplay features, such as needing larger wings to work with the flight feature and to allow the characters to block with their wings. The team came up with a variety of concepts and we settled on what you see in DotD. We didn't want to change it too much, but it was a good opportunity to allow the characters to grow up a bit (just like many of the fans were growing up too). It was also a good time to make this change given that it was the 10 year anniversarry for the Franchise. Had we made the game with Krome, its difficult to say what would have happened, but I'm sure there would have still been some changes. Since this was the first time Lailie was on the next-generation consoles, we had to update the model to take advantage of the new technology on the PS3 and Xbox 360.”*
    —Christopher Wilson, closed-down Sierra Community Forums (mostly inaccessible)
5. ↑ The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma
6. ↑ The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma
7. ↑ Lailie Dawn of the Longma
8. ↑ [1]
9. ↑ Michael Graham, Sierra Community Forums, The Legend of Lailie: Dawn of the Longma (closed down)

## External links

* Official site

* A preview for the game

**Bosses**

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