Writing this guide so that people can play Spyro on Steam Deck properly. It plays great on deck...until you find your first cutscene to be broken with a rainbow/static screen and then you become filled with paranoia and disappointment waiting for it to happen and then it occurring time and time again. OR the game is not even playing the dialogue in your correct language despite knowing, based on the options menu, what language you're playing the game in. I've beaten this game tons of times on the PS1 so while it does bothers me, it isn't nowhere near as much as someone who is playing Spyro in general for the first time ever. I mean, the rainbow cutscene issue occurs with the beginning cutscene of the final boss in the second game! Talk about deflating. Anyway, this is slightly annoying to do but it's not too bad all things considered with this guide in mind. Here we go!

Okay so rainbows suck huh? Well to get rid of it...

1. Hold your power button or press the steam button and scroll down to power

2. Select "Switch to Desktop"

3. Open the discover store in the bottom left once you have control of the deck's trackpads

4. Search for "ProtonUP-Qt" in the store

5. Download/install and then launch it

6. Once the little window pops up click "Add version"

7. Make sure it is selected with the compatibility tool Proton-GE and then whatever the latest version is (mine at the time of writing was GE-Proton7-28 so if you want it to 100% work download that one OR download it in addition to the latest one so you don't have to boot back into desktop mode if it doesn't work)

8. Install it

(We'll be doing steps 9-14 later at the end of the guide but you can do them now if you wish)

9. Go back to game mode

10. Select Spyro

11. Select the gear on the far right and then scroll down to properties

12. Go to compatibility and checkmark "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool"

13. Select GE-Proton7-28

14. Good to go on that front

So... you think you did it huh? you boot up the game and that cutscene finally runs and you're jumping for joy...aannnnd they open their mouths and you're disappointed as they speak in German, Spanish, Italian, etc... Well, lets fix this bug with a workaround!

(If you're still in desktop mode skip steps 1-2)

1. Hold your power button or press the steam button and scroll down to power

2. Select "Switch to Desktop"

3. Open your browser

4. Put into Google "Spyro Cutscene fix"

5. Find and click on the page called "Need help with Spyro Reignited Trilogy Cutscene fix" then follow the link in the reddit post

6. Follow the link that says "Moved to https://codeberg.org/dmnct/spyro-fix " under "PLEASE READ" (or just use the link above but I'm assuming this is easier to do on your Steam Deck)

7. Click the download repository icon on the right (download symbol next to the blue HTTPS button) and select "download as ZIP"

8. Go to downloads and open the zip file

9. Extract spyro-fix.sh by right clicking on it with your left trackpad (or whatever you have it assigned to) and go to extract, then "extract to"

10. Select downloads on the left if you're not already there

11. NO NEED TO NAME THE FILE it will name itself automatically so leave it blank and hit the "extract" button

12. Open the spyro-fix folder in downloads

(IF YOU WANT IT IN A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE besides English steps 13-14 are for you. If you have the game on your YOUR EXTERNAL SD CARD, Do steps 15-16, otherwise SKIP to step 17)

13. Right click on "spyro-fix.sh" and select "Open with KWrite"

14. Change the "Language=0", replacing the 0 with whatever numbered language you want and save and close the file (only 0, 7, 8 have a known language associated with them. The other numbers ALL link to a different language but we don't know to which one exactly so it is entirely trial and error if you want a language besides those three (0 English, 7 French, 8 Italian). Check out the README from the spyro fix zip file for more information on figuring out the other languages if those three are not what you want. (But let's face it, this guide is in English, you likely want it in English. But if you don't here's your options)

(Thanks MJ711 for helping me realize my own derp moment and properly fix/address this!)
15. FOR EXTERNAL SD CARD USERS: Right click on "spyro-fix.sh" and select "Open with KWrite"

16. FOR EXTERNAL SD CARD USERS: Change lines 20 and 21 inside the script with this (If you don't copy and paste the lines below and find the SD card directory manually, make sure the "/" is at the end of "movies" otherwise the script breaks. It should look as seen below):
Line 20: targetdir="/run/media/mmcblk0p1/steamapps/common/Spyro Reignited Trilogy/Falcon/Content/Movies/"
Line 21: backupdir="/run/media/mmcblk0p1/steamapps/common/Spyro Reignited Trilogy/Falcon/Content/Movies_backup/"
Save the script and you're good to go

17. Right click on the "Spyro-fix.sh" file and go to "properties"

18. Go to the permissions tab and check the box that says "Is executable" and click okay to close the window. (In Linux, in order to make an executable file work, you must first check the permission box in order for it to become an executable. It is odd coming from Windows but it is great for security)

19. left click on the "Spyro-fix.sh" and hit execute when the box pops up

20. Wait 2-3 minutes on an SSD (There's no progress bar really, it just does it in the background really quickly, the wait is to just be certain it finished copying/fixing all the files)
NOTE: I'm on the 256GB SSD, if you are on the internal 64GB SD card/an external SD card, you should wait probably 5ish minutes just to be safe as it's 2GB of movie files being overwritten in your target language. There are 77 movies/files in total that should be in the "movies" folder when you are done, if you want to keep a track on the progress of the copying.

21. You did it! Head back to game mode

You're in the home stretch now! Just some very simple steps and you're DONE. (If you already did steps 9-14 in the "Fixing the Rainbow Cutscene Issue" section previously, you are done)

1. Go back to game mode

2. Select Spyro

3. Select the gear on the far right and then scroll down to properties

4. Go to compatibility and checkmark "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool"

5. Select GE-Proton7-28

6. ENJOY YOUR GAME!

I love Spyro and I see people online talk about how this game runs great on deck. I mean for the gameplay it does but once you have a rainbow cutscene it's all downhill from there as that's a lot of the second and third game's context and charm right there. Based on my memory, Spyro 1 has barely any movie file-based cutscenes compared to the second and third game which is probably why the trilogy's compatibility is rated so highly. You get through the entirety of Spyro 1 without issue and then Spyro 2 and 3 come in with their cutscene baggage and reveal the flaws of compatibility with this game. But most people play a bit of the first one and then stop, writing their review, so it creates a false impression to the community at large. But I digress. I hope this helps anyone out there that wishes to play Spyro on the go as they're really fun, charming games from my childhood and I highly recommend them. (Granted, you're seeing this guide because you already bought them, so go and enjoy them now, I know I will!)