Rayman 3

[saerleiya]

I myself just passed step three four months ago.

You dirty little fish...

[rolesfamily]

Hahha it's very odd how Rayman can suddenly breathe under water no problem at all!

Evolution?

[Maz]

I've given that question some thought, and this is the theories I've come up with:

1.) As opposed to Rayman 2, Rayman 3 has only one scene which involves going underwater. Now game developers usually have a tight schedule; maybe more important things were left to be done, and they just didn't want to bother fix this for one single Part, or forgot about it in the end.

2.) Sort of what Adsolution said: In Rayman 1, Rayman learned that swimming might be a useful ability, so he learned it, and was able to do it in Rayman 2. In Rayman 2 he learned that he should improve his ability to hold his breath. So now in Rayman 3, Rayman's able to hold is breath for a very long time.

3.) Technically speaking, Rayman shouldn't be able to breathe either way, since (assuming that Rayman's body is similar to that of a human) his lungs and his mouth are in no way connected. Maybe he just doesn't have to breathe, although that's somewhat unlikely taking the previous Rayman games into consideration.

4.) Rayman keeps getting teleported from one world to another. Maybe the Land of the Livid Dead is a world with no water, but a fluid which just looks like water. Maybe it's a fluid which contains air and allows Rayman to breathe just fine, or whatever.

I personally think that it's the first one; most likely the developers just forgot about it.

[Hoozang]

I agree with Maz and Ad. Personally i would pick the third one.

[PluMGMK]

I would go with the fourth one. Personally when I looked at the diving section as a child I really didn't get the impression that he was actually under water.

[Shrooblord]

I mean he is constantly breathing out, looking at the air bubbles that come from him as he swims. But where's the intake? Not a flaw worth that much thought in my view as it's not really that important, but at the same time, it is a bit weird.

[rolesfamily]

I think 2 & 4 are seriously legit. Nice one Maz.

[Maz]

I mean he is constantly breathing out, looking at the air bubbles that come from him as he swims. But where's the intake? Not a flaw worth that much thought in my view as it's not really that important, but at the same time, it is a bit weird.

Is that so? I always thought that the bubbles were caused by Rayman spinning his hair rather than him breathing.

[Shrooblord]

Aren't they also there when he's not moving?

[rolesfamily]

If you think about the water colour in TLOTLD it is a very pure blue. Maybe it's full of lovely Oxygen! Although when Rayman does get hit it does sound a bit like a drowning gasp for air noise

who knowsssssssss

[saerleiya]

Answer 2 all the way: In Origins/Legends Rayman has bubbles around him while not swimming underwater, plus his cheeks are inflated, a sign of using air.
Although his hair movement seems to create bubbles while swimming as shown in Rayman 3.

[Master]

Hmm, well, it's the Land of the Livid Dead, sounds like a reasonable idea for the water to have some special properties.

[Earth Gwee]

I think applying logic to Rayman being able to swim underwater without needing air is like applying the same logic to the Mario games. They can both stay underwater with very little problem. Having that need for air is not an important element when considering the overall game. Now you could also argue that because Rayman and Mario's worlds are entirely removed from our own they're just able to either hold their breath for long periods of time or breathe underwater from the get-go is just a fact of their universes that doesn't need to be explained. They can just do it, no questions asked.

[Bradandez]

In a Daily Bubble issue, it states inhabitants can learn to breathe underwater. But we can't really take that into account, now can we?

[Adsolution]

1.) As opposed to Rayman 2, Rayman 3 has only one scene which involves going underwater. Now game developers usually have a tight schedule; maybe more important things were left to be done, and they just didn't want to bother fix this for one single Part, or forgot about it in the end.

There was originally supposed to be a whole underwater level, but it was scrapped for whatever reason and the boss was tacked onto the end of TLotLD.

[Embryonic Hoodbrain]

I think applying logic to Rayman being able to swim underwater without needing air is like applying the same logic to the Mario games. They can both stay underwater with very little problem. Having that need for air is not an important element when considering the overall game. Now you could also argue that because Rayman and Mario's worlds are entirely removed from our own they're just able to either hold their breath for long periods of time or breathe underwater from the get-go is just a fact of their universes that doesn't need to be explained. They can just do it, no questions asked.

Mario can hold his breath underwater unlimited in the 2D games (at least until the timer runs out), while in the 3D games he has to collect coins and air bubbles (his health is also directly connected in 64, meaning you have an unlimited health resource with pools of water). I find it funny how the only 3D Mario games based on 2D gameplay (3D Land and World) are the ones where he has unlimited breathplay. I like it better that way.

[Xenon]

I always thought it had something more to do with his helicopter hair. He did seem to develop a new, inhuman way of powering forward by the third game, which may somehow have involved ingesting oxygen by means of his own hair, similarly to what Ads and Maz suggested. Frankly, I think the developers were frustrated at this stage by the prospect of adding blue Lums or breathing bubbles to Celoche's arena.

[Embryonic Hoodbrain]

I always thought it had something more to do with his helicopter hair. He did seem to develop a new, inhuman way of powering forward by the third game, which may somehow have involved ingesting oxygen by means of his own hair, similarly to what Ads and Maz suggested. Frankly, I think the developers were frustrated at this stage by the prospect of adding blue Lums or breathing bubbles to Celoche's arena.

Yeah, not to mention you can only move horizontally (similar to the space maneuvering in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time), so it would have been very frustrating to have air bubbles in the boss arena, for the developers and players. They made the right call, Ubisoft Montpellier. In canon, however, I agree with your theory of Rayman's hair producing oxygen or storing it.

[uiol]

I had also thought about this theory years ago. Rayman generate oxygen moving mass of water with its hair, but it belies soon as Rayman sooner or later stops under the water, and at this point how him find oxygen!?

[rolesfamily]

I'm glad there wasn't much under water in Rayman 3. I really don't like it in video games, especially the breathing part. Classic sonic games had too much of it for my liking! Bad childhood memories!