Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (2002) - Playstation 2
But not just an adventure... the most glorious, dramatic, spectacular, challenging, breathtaking, and overall kickass adventure yet.
The tale begins at the land of Argus (the Japanese name of Argool, now assimilated into America, like how Princess Toadstool became Peach or Dr. Robotnik to Eggman), with our hero being commended by Princess Harmonia for his bravery and courage as a gladiator. She also would like to confess a strange and horrifying dream that she had, where Rome was being torn asunder by horrid demons, fire and brimstone, ungodly earthquakes, absolute darkness... you know, all that wonderful stuff. Rygar is disturbed, for he had the exact same dream as well! Almost on cue, the dream begins to take tangible form, as an evil lady claiming to be a Titan crashes the party with her Minotaur assistant. A real sinister looking blue winged dude flies in and captures Harmonia, and the Minotaur kicks Rygar's ass effortlessly. Falling through a deep crevasse, he is told by a mysterious voice to arise and wield the power of the weapon now before him: The fuggin' Diskarmor! Rygar realizes that something wicked is going on, and this weapon will be the only thing that can help him save Princess Harmonia. Little does he know of the perils and trials that await him, along with mythological beasts, an evil god, and the secret of his past...
Captivating, huh? The plot isn't anything too original for epic adventures such as these, but I like it anyway. The voice acting isn't bad either, though maybe a bit too wooden and melodramatic at times (and a bit silly, as evidenced by the immortal line, "I swear my victory to this feather!"), but it's all good.
Onto the graphics. The PS2 was about two years old around this time, and programmers had begun to realize its full graphical potential. Thus, the game looks nothing short of gorgeous. It really looks like Ancient Greek, taken from the pages of Sophocles or Euripedes. Crumbled statues litter the ruins of the Coliseum, shrubbery and pools of water line up beneath the walls, and the sunlight of the rising dawn bathes it all in a golden color. There's this one angle of the camera that displays the background... of the beautiful sun, Apollo's brainchild, incipient in its existence of the new day. It shines as preciously as it did in the arcade and NES games, even more so in 3D! (That's not the only homage, either - Rygar needs to move those same silly looking urns just like his arcade counterpart.) That's just the beauty of the first stage; it never lets up all throughout. A lush green field with fallen columns everywhere serves as the main hub that pretty much connects to everywhere else, Poseidonia's Shrine is absolutely steeped in lush waters that refract light every which way (and generate rainbows every now and then!), and wait until you get to the Lion's Road, which I'm almost sure is a tribute to the floating isles of Lapiz. That's not until later in the journey, but it always scares me shitless to jump from magically suspended platform to platform ABOVE stormy skies with a seemingly endless fall below me, and I don't even have acrophobia!
The sound is just... oh my god. Yes, I'll repeat that. The sound is just "oh my god!" I really don't know how else to describe it, but I'll try my best. Okay, imagine a harmony of dissonance that would sound perfect in three places; epic movies, RPG games, and philharmonic orchestra concerts. Since this game partially qualifies for the first two venues, it just fits perfectly. Hell, it might as well qualify for the third thing I mentioned, since the soundtrack was actually composed by the Moscow International Symphony Orchestra! Their work here is indescribably incredible, ranging from soft pianissimo melodies, to dramatic and tense crescendos, to the molto allegro and fortissimo pace of the boss theme. Music terms aside, it is really a well-composed masterpiece that even people who aren't gamers can appreciate. My favorite track is the song of the Labyrinthos Palace. An MP3 can better say what I cannot. ;)
As is the tradition, it is at this point of the review that I gush about the fundamental gameplay of the game in question. Though, before I do that, let me peg in one quick comment about the strong resemblance between Icarus, the aforementioned evil blue winged guy, and Raziel, the protagonist of Legacy of Kain. Besides Icarus still having his wings and his eyes being red instead of white, he's either a homage to or a ripoff of Raziel. He even has his mouth covered up for the exact same reason too (re: missing his jaw). I'm not quite sure if this was intentional, but it's just too powerful to go unnoticed.
Okay, so... gameplay. Rygar starts out with a fair amount of health and a basic Diskarmor that shoots straight out. Even in this early stage of the game, he's got quite a few decent moves. The square button is for fast attacks, and the triangle button produces stronger yet slower attacks. Of course, the two can be combined for certain combinations. My favorite thing to do is the Snap; to hold the square button and plunge it into the heart of a beast, then swing the left analog stick around in constant 360 degree motions while watching the unfortunate putz being whipped around like a cow in a tornado. The Diskarmor is practically a carnival in itself!
As Rygar goes on, the true power of his plain Diskarmor becomes realized, and it becomes the fancier and stronger Hades Diskarmor! Along with this change comes the addition of the Icol meter. Icol allows the spirit resting within the Diskarmor to burst out and cause good damage to the enemies in the imminent area. A little more on that later. Not too long after the Hades Diskarmor is brought to fruition, Rygar stumbles across ANOTHER DISKARMOR!!! WTF, I only thought there was one? Heh... not so, it would seem. He has to earn the Heavenly Diskarmor in a brutal boss battle, but after getting it, Rygar obtains a whole new movelist. Instead of thrusting straight out, the Heavenly Diskarmor is swung to the sides with the purpose of clearing out multiple enemies surrounding our hero. Holding the square button allows for the still spinning H.D. to be controlled with the left analog and ward off enemies in front. The Remote is hardly as cool as the Snap, unfortunately.
There is yet another Diskarmor to be found a bit later in the game, and it just so happens to be my personal favorite. For up-close ass-shredding, nothing beats the Sea Diskarmor. It's for short-range use only, but MAN, is this sucker fast! Insane combos can be achieved with precise button-tapping in large groups. However, the square-holding Tracer move has only been found to be effective in certain boss fights. Effective use of all three Diskarmors will help greatly to beat this game, especially on the rage-inducing Legendary difficulty (which caused the author to turn over a table and kick out one of the wooden boards on the flipside. Seriously.) Within the Hades lies Cerberus, the tri-headed hound of Hades that I'm sure Castlevania fans are familiar with by now. Inside the Heavenly beats the heart of Taros, muscular giant thingy with laser eye-beams. And the Sea carries the sultry Siren, whose enchanting form belies the true ferocity of this ice-cold killer. These summon attacks (used by holding R1 and pressing Triangle) cost one bar of Icol, and serve not only to harm enemies, but to shield Rygar from a devastating attack if timed right.
Rygar's power can grow to high proportions with the addition of Mystic Stones. These precious geological artifacts can be found around Argus here and there, usually in secluded places or after a boss battle. They serve all sorts of purposes, including practical status boosts of the Attack and Defense, giving Rygar new moves, and increasing his health and Icol. Two stones can be used with each Diskarmor... or, as you grow stronger, three or four. The Diskarmors can grow stronger and create more powerful Icol summons as well, through the magic power of Sfaria! These orbs can be found from pretty much everything you destroy, living or inanimate, and come in two flavors; regular 10-point purple or extra-juicy 100-point magenta! Collect 1000 build-up points to upgrade a Diskarmor to level 2, and then 2000 more to get it maxed out to level 3. As you can probably guess, the Sea Diskarmor is brutal at its maximum power. Not to mention that Rygar can gain a longer lifebar with Sfaria, and he can obtain nectar to improve his life, or even an Ambrosia apple to completely restore it whenever he wants. The Omphalos crystal restores all Icol, and if a Caduceus is in possession, Rygar's health and Icol will both be instantly rejuvenated on his deathbed! There are also various tablets and scrolls scattered about, which aren't necessary to advance in the game, but do offer some interesting reading.
The Legendary Adventure certainly lives up to its title, but there are still a few problems. For starters, Rygar controls rather well, for the most part. However, there are times when he comes off as a bit sluggish, like when attempting to dodge one attack and incidentally stumbling right into another. Evading doesn't feel quite as flexible as it does in Devil May Cry or the two recent 3D Castlevania games. This may sound like a bit of a nitpicky comment from me, but there are times when I wish the R-man could double jump. Another thing that I'd like to note is the lack in enemy variety. Besides the Cyclops (which I consider to be something like minibosses), there are really only four different types of regular enemies, different variations notwithstanding. But it is always fun to beat up on them, especially in large groups.
Personally, I found the boss battles to be rather kickass... for the first few playthroughs or so. There are some neato beasts to battle, many of which are taken right out of Greek mythology (like the Minotaur and Centaur), and my personal favorite is Typhon. I... won't spoil its appearance, but if Tecmo didn't research Typhon's appearance in Greek art, then I can only assume that his design in this game was primarily responsible for a Titan-sized stash of acid. However, after beating the game several times and possessing a maximum lifebar with all the Mystic Stones, it gets rather easy to beat their asses into the ground if the difficulty isn't on Legendary. Cronos is a real pain, though... unholy bastard damn near drove me to insanity. Yeah, he was the cause of me kicking over my coffee table. O_O
Control discrepancies and slightly lackluster bosses aside, there's really only one thing that bothers me considerably: The game ends too quickly! Even novices can beat the game in three to four hours. Yeah, I may receive a bit of flack for such a comment, as I'm usually in a "less is more" state of mind. But there's just some anonymous feeling that tells me that the game could have been longer, particularly Tartarus, the game's finale. It looks neat and all, but it only lasts about five minutes before the final boss battles occur. Maybe at least one more world to explore would have been cool... oh well. Whatever's there is awesome as it is. I just wish there was more!
The overall package of Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is rife with greatness. Even if the ride does end a bit too soon, it's full of twists, turns, jumps, jaunts, and caterpillars from the underworld! Even today, four years after the game's initial release, I'm simply amazed at Tecmo's ballsy move to resurrect a long-forgotten hero and reintroduce him to today's gamer crowd. Although the sales weren't as of great a magnitude as say... Animal Crossing, they were much higher than expected. But in the long run, sales mean absolutely dick. It's the lasting impression that the game left in our minds that's still lingering around today, and TLA deposited a particularly positive memory in this demented young gamer's mind.
It also has a hilariously dramatic game over message:
MP3s
Labyrinthos Palace
Rygar: The Legendary Adventure and God of War
In 2005, SCEA released God of War, an incredible action title that I imagine has been often compared to TLA, and not without reason. For starters, both games take place in ancient Greece and are heavily based off of mythology. The graphical designs of the landscapes are somewhat similar, and a few of the monsters are used in both games (Minotaurs and Cyclops, to be precise). Many of the gameplay elements are similar too, such as collecting orbs to strengthen your abilities, gaining abilities farther into the game, and the battle systems are also alike. The Blades of Chaos that Kratos, GoW's tortured protagonist, wield do remind me of Rygar's Diskarmors. They're chained to his arms, so he can swing them out pretty far, not to mention all the combos they can pull off too.
GoW doesn't have many boss battles, but that's made up for by making fights even against regular enemies so entertaining, and also making whatever bosses there are REAL strenuous and memorable challenges. A fun thing to do against weakened enemies is press the Circle button when indicated and initiate a short minigame which, if accomplished, will cause Kratos to brutally murder the unholy beast! It's also lengthier and more challenging than TLA, usually taking at least six hours or more to beat. I dare you to beat it on God mode. I almost kicked over my coffee table again at a particular scene real close to the end of the game on that difficulty! GoW is a considerably different game from TLA, but with quite a few noticeable similarities. I recommend picking both of them up to compare, because they truly are kick-ass.
Rygar (PS2)
Rygar (PS2)
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Oh, and I'd also like to thank these links for providing good Rygar info.
Links
Rygar Info Site A shrine devoted to the arcade game.
Rygar (PS2)
American Cover
Rygar (PS2)
Rygar (PS2)
There have been many great video game events all throughout the annals of time. 1986: Rygar saves Argool. 1987: Rygar saves Argool... again. Then for a long time, nothing happened. Action-adventure titles have barely found their niche in 3D around this time. Konami perfected the cross-genre in 2D with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but their attempt to do so in 3D on the N64 was not very well-received by the public. Capcom would find greater success with Devil May Cry, which tended to focus more on the action, but still had some exploring to do at certain parts. Tecmo practically revolutionized the genre, and now that it had come this far, the company just had to get in on it. They would show Konami and Capcom who's boss, and they would do so with the man that started it all. After a fifteen-year hiatus, Rygar would return for yet another adventure.
Geryon Hill
Colosseo
The Feather Speech
Even if he's only had three games released to his name, Rygar has had an incredible gaming repertoire nonetheless. Attracting longtime gamers and modern gamers alike, his legacy will forever live on in all our minds. The Diskarmor has been immortalized, the land of Argool's beauty will never be forgotten, and the glorious sunrise of the background will stay up in the sky eternally!
RPG Classics - Rygar A neat page devoted to the NES game.
Rygar - The Legendary Adventure Official Site Still up, years after release.
