Rygar: The Legendary Adventure

"Packs so much in such a small adventure"

Dear gamers,

I have been spoiled by the easy difficulty of so many of today's games that I cannot help but stare in awe at this unforgivingly difficult game. I found myself enjoying this game, all the way from its combat to exploration to its crisp visuals to the creative, yet tough, bosses scattered throughout. It's rare to find a game quite like this one here, and that rarity can be attributed to a fear of difficult games, but Rygar offers so much to the gamer, and I wish it could offer much more. Tecmo's Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is the most refreshing and disappointing game to hit the market in recent years.

The Good:
+ Fighting with the diskarmors
+ Exploring the beautiful landscapes
+ The crisp, colorful visuals
+ Yes, a genuinely difficult game

The Bad:
- Such a short game
- Being unfairly juggled by bosses
- Seems to promise much more than it delivers

The Strange:
? The camera—I don't know whether to praise or haze it

Story – 7/10

A noble gladiator, a beautiful princess, and divine intervention. These three things pretty much give a basic outline of the game's story, which I have confidence you can determine, given only these three details. Rygar is the noble gladiator, who goes on a quest to save the beautiful princess, who kinda seems to like muscular and hunky Rygar. Of course, Rygar can't go on his quest without the help of the gods, hence the divine intervention. The gods and goddesses grant him use of their power in the form of diskarmors, shield-like weapons on long chains that can swing at enemies or allow Rygar to swing from certain things. There's not too much to say about the game's story, which really isn't terrible, but it is forgettable. Fortunately, it doesn't bog down the gameplay too much.

Gameplay – 8/10

There are two major elements to Rygar—combat and exploration. Very few action games offer the exploration aspect as Tecmo does here. This alone makes Rygar stand out above the rest of the action games on the market. That the combat is fun is an added bonus. The game's major downfall here is that it seems to pretend to offer a lot to do, an exciting prospect when first playing it, but once you dive deeper into the game you realize much of what seems to be promised goes to waste. I'll go into this later. First I will look at what makes the game fun.

The exploration part of the game came as a big surprise to me. I expected a linear hack-n-slash game, and got something much more. Within dungeons, the path is mostly linear, but there's plenty of secrets in each dungeon for those who search for them. Breakable walls and objects litter the dungeons, rewarding you for swinging that diskarmor at every possible object and every questionable wall. Every once in a while you will find a secret room where an item that increases your health or magic bar waits for Rygar to take. Outside of the dungeons is a vast world with plenty to find—not just the next dungeon. There's plenty of reason to take some time to run around the world—for one, it's a beautiful world to look at, and for another, you will find some stuff that's useful for you in your mission. Like I said, there's more to this game than hack-n-slash, and even the hacking and slashing is fun.

Tecmo, who would later make Dead or Alive 3, a game with fluid combat, and would also later make Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox, perhaps Tecmo's greatest achievement on this generation of consoles, knows how to do combat. Rygar's combat does not disappoint. Combat with the diskarmors is fluid and fun. Rygar can perform several different combos, some more useful in certain situations than others. He also has three different diskarmors, which I will look at momentarily, and each one differs greatly from each other. The diskarmors can be upgraded, adding some more depth, by collecting orbs from defeated enemies and spending them on each weapon. I should also point out that Rygar's movement is much more limited than you might be accustomed to from such games as Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden. He moves like a human being, not a ninja or a half-demon, so his dodging ability is quite limited, mostly to jumping. With his diskarmors he can block of course, though as you may guess, this is a mute point against some boss attacks. On to the weapons:

There are three diskarmors, as I said. The first diskarmor, the standard one, is the Hades diskarmor. It has the longest range and attacks in a straight line. This is the best for one-on-one combat and especially against slow, powerful enemies you want to keep at a range. The next diskarmor is the Heavenly diskarmor, a weapon that swings in an arc around Rygar, making it perfect against large groups of weaker enemies. Against these groups of weaker enemies, you will find no better weapon than the Heavenly diskarmor, which also has a move that sucks enemies in and damages them. The final diskarmor, and my favorite, is the Sea diskarmor. It has the shortest range, bringing Rygar into close enough range to be hand-to-hand combat range. It has the fasted attack speed and the most combos, and since Rygar swings the weapon all around him, it is quite useful against smaller groups of enemies. As you can see, you have quite an assortment of weapons to use with Rygar, each one completely different from the last—refreshing in the face of games whose different weapons are too similar to each other (Devil May Cry 2, for example).

The true difficulty of the game comes from the boss fights. Each boss is much different from the other, and none of them are pushovers. They're rewarding to defeat, and both exhilarating and frustrating to fight. Maybe you're with me when you think of today's games and how rarely you find yourself cheering when you defeat a boss. Well, with Rygar, that feeling of cheering after defeating a boss is restored. Along with exploration, defeating bosses is one of the most rewarding experiences the game offers. At the same time, fighting the bosses can be quite frustrating. Dodging bosses' attacks can be very difficult, if not nearly impossible at times, and this isn't helped by the fact some of the bosses' attacks cannot be blocked. To add to the frustration, there will be many times when you will find yourself helplessly juggled in the air or continuously pummeled with no chance to recover. I admit, this is unacceptable, as there's nothing more frustrating in a game than watching your character get killed while you can do absolutely nothing to stop it. Defeating a boss means cutting down how much he pummels you, but defeating a boss, as I said is quite rewarding.

Also rewarding is exploration, but there's also a downside to this aspect of the game. Early on, while exploring the large worlds, you'll think to yourself, “Wow, there's so much to explore, so much to do. I'm going to have my hands full for quite some time.” The reality sets in late in the game, when you realize a lot of what you previously thought was a lot to explore was merely a deception. It's a good trick to keep gamers playing, by making them think there will be a lot to do during the course of the game, but in the end it's disappointing when the game is finished rather quickly and all of those hopes of all of that fun you wanted to have is dashed. There's so much to enjoy, why not give gamers what they want?

Visuals – 9/10

The world is huge and great to look at. There's a nice attention to detail in many aspects, from color to environment formation. Even enemies, such as the giant caterpillars are nice to look at, and the massive bosses are very impressive. If anything is the downfall, it's the camera. Tecmo tried a “cinematic” camera, and in some aspects succeeded, while in others failed. Sometimes the camera angles surprise, and show off details of the worlds you wouldn't see otherwise. Even during combat it's alright, not allowing enemies to stray off camera too often. For the purposes of exploration, though, the camera doesn't work. If a game allows gamers to explore a world, it shouldn't use a static camera, it just doesn't work. But as you might expect from the creator of the Dead or Alive series, the game is wonderful to look at.

Sound – 8/10

There's nothing new to report here: the music is good, voice acting is decent, and the sounds of fighting and jumping fit quite well. Nothing here revolutionizes the gaming market or stands out, or even is very off-putting, so I'll leave it at that.

Longevity – 5/10

In less than seven hours, you will have finished this game, even as difficult as it is. Perhaps you can add an hour or two for deaths against bosses, but even so, that's not very much, and that's not the most fun part of the game. Tecmo tried to add minor things to lengthen the game, such as a multi-leveled dungeon, which I found to be impossible. This is a good rental for those who want to save money, but it's also a nice game to have in your library, and since you can only get it used now, it's pretty cheap, so buying it is a good idea, too. I highly recommend this game for those fans of action/adventure games, it's very high quality and no pushover. You probably won't find a game like it in some time, if ever.

Score – 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/16/07