Rygar: The Legendary Adventure

""A priceless work of art, comissioned by the gods themselves? GRRAAAHHH!!! Rygar SMASH!!!""

When will the remakes end? Not any time soon, apparently. With old standbys like Shinobi being successfully reworked in 3D, and classics like Contra returning to their roots, dusting off an old franchise name has become the fashionable way to set a release out from the never-ending stream of forgettable videogame junk. (And if sales figures are any indication, it's working.) Even the usually forward-looking Tecmo has graced us with a revisiting of their NES classic Rygar, turning it into an action-adventure reminiscent of Castlevania Symphony of the Night in 3D, infusing it with mythological overtones and a unique art style to create Rygar: The Legendary Adventure.

Our story is a strange one, and pointless. The gods gift heroic warrior Rygar the use of the Diskarmor, a weapon resembling a spiked shield connected to the end of a whiplike chain. With this unique weapon, Rygar must rescue the beautiful cliche--I mean, princess--from the terrifying monsters of Hades unleashed by forces seeking to unbalance the world and return the Titans, ancient destructive demigods, to rule the earth once again. This alone would be merely uninspired, but the writers seek to give their story some identity by borrowing liberally from the tenets of Greek and Roman mythology. Those who haven't read up on their myth will be scratching their heads at all the references, and those who have will cringe at the way Rygar plays so fast and loose with them. I won't waste your time by reciting the litany of narrative problems Rygar suffers from; suffice it to say that the script- and story-writers embarrass themselves repeatedly with lame plot twists, as well as imagery and metaphors that would be pretentious if they weren't so ridiculous.

However, the Rygar team's desire to make unconventional interpretations of myth meets with great results in the visual department. Their artistic re-inventions of such figures as Icarus and monsters like Hekatonchieres and Typhon are creative and unforgettable. There's clearly no adhering to the Resident Evil ''give it more tentacles!'' school of enemy design here, and you'll fight these (often-repulsive) enemies in sumptuous visual environments. Rygar's trek takes him through ruins aged to an oddly pristine disrepair and a water temple whose fountains glow eerily and beautifully; the ''lava cave'' that occurs near the end would be cliche if it weren't so vividly rendered that you could practically feel the searing heat of the place. There's an organic quality to the environments that makes them feel like real places, rather than just ''levels'', and tons of little details like mist rainbows and artfully-placed shadows give you the feeling that Rygar's artists and graphics programmers took great joy in their task.

It's only fitting, then, that you would visit all these gorgeous locations and destroy them. ''A priceless work of art, commissioned by the gods themselves? GRRAAAHHH!!! Rygar SMASH!!!'' I'm not kidding you--a substantial part of Rygar's gameplay is showing helpless statues and colonnades who's boss. The story provides some narrative justification for why you must relentlessly pulverize inanimate objects with the Diskarmor, but it still feels rather silly and is no substitute for engaging something that can actually fight back. Further, the environment-destruction mechanic is rarely put to any great use. Many of the game's unlockable secrets (art for the art gallery, and songs in the sound test mode) are found by destroying particularly obscure parts of the scenery, and occasionally a pillar will fall to make a bridge instead of just crumbling, but the vast majority of the time it boils down to ''smash that big rock that's in your way''.

Rygar's abilities are, similarly, a bit underdeveloped. In classic Metroid-style action-adventure fashion, Rygar acquires abilities like sliding and grappling that let him go back and access previously unreachable areas. The only problem is that that's all the abilities are good for. Boxes can only be moved by the tackling ability, and the tackling ability is only good for moving boxes. Switches can only be pressed by the stomping ability, and the stomping ability is only good for pressing switches. And so on and so forth. While Rygar's execution of this kind of exploration is competent, it compares unfavorably to, say, Symphony of the Night, where the Mist Form ability had several uses other than passing through grates. The grappling mechanic is also puzzlingly elementary. You won't be lodging your Diskarmor into walls to climb up, as Rygar clearly does in the FMV intro; instead, grappling can only be performed with specially placed glowing orbs, limiting your freedom to say the least.

Of course, Rygar will be splattering plenty of Titan scum over the course of the adventure; it's made easy by the simple and responsive controls. I would have loved to see Tecmo do something truly revolutionary control-wise (like maybe the left stick controlling Rygar and the right stick directing the Diskarmor), but the approach they took is as effective as it is conventional. For starters, the camera is automatic, like Devil May Cry, and does a great job panning and zooming to give you a good angle on the action in every scene (not to mention show off the stunning scenery). Rygar can throw out a powerful single attack with the triangle button, or a quicker attack with the square button; the latter can be extended into many different combos, which are all very simple button-press based affairs.

Further, Rygar acquires three different Diskarmors, each of which has its own attack mechanics and combos that are well-suited to particular situations. You can easily switch Diskarmors without going to the menu, and while there's a sizable library of combos for each Diskarmor, you may find yourself only using the most basic ones, as attempting anything more exotic often leaves you open to enemy attacks. Rygar's inability to dodge or roll to evade attacks seems like a glaring oversight until you realize that the Diskarmor can be used as a shield (there's one on it, after all).

While the giant caterpillars and weird little fish-men that pass for regular enemies are easily dispatched with Rygar's arsenal, you will be harshly tested in the game's challenging boss fights. Bosses seem literally impossible to defeat until you get a grip on their attack patterns (by getting killed by them several times, of course). I haven't seen bosses this memorization-based since the days of the NES; I suspect this would be a plus for those looking for an ''old-school'' flavor, but it didn't do much for me except try my patience. It doesn't help that Rygar's pacing is rather uneven, with bosses coming in rapid-fire succession and no opportunity to heal in between the battles.

Rygar's ''legendary adventure'' lasts six to eight hours, but it feels somewhat longer due to the repeated attempts necessary to defeat the bosses. Furthermore, this is without visiting any of the game's secret areas or going out of your way to collect the 25 ''Mystic Stones'' that power up the Diskarmor. A sort of ''time attack'' mode can also be unlocked, and there's also a multi-level, all-combat dungeon ripped straight out of Onimusha, so there's a lot more to Rygar than its mere playtime would suggest. However, if play value is your priority in this genre, I would direct you towards the excellent Ratchet and Clank, even if it is Rygar's polar opposite thematically.

Of course, what would an epic adventure be without an epic soundtrack? Developers enlisting a orchestra to play their game's music is quite the rage lately, and Tecmo jumps on the bandwagon, with the Moscow International Symphony belting out Rygar's heroic tunes. The result is grand, sweeping, and... rather hollow. There's none of the warmth and passion found in great orchestral soundtracks like Medal of Honor Frontline, and there seems to be a great disconnect between the action and the music, as it's at it's most majestic when Rygar is... walking around uninhabited ruins. Lastly, having an on-screen character (thankfully a female!) burst into a Final Fantasy-ish vocal song seems to be the answer to a question no one asked.

I don't think any of the things that make a bad game are present in Rygar--it's just that it also doesn't have the qualities that make a good game into a great game. If you have an appreciation for great aesthetics and artwork, or you're of the mind that the traditional action-adventure genre just can't be visited often enough, then check it out. Just don't expect the kind of gameplay ingenuity that put titles like Symphony of the Night and Super Metroid in the pantheon of great action-adventures.

Graphics: 9/10
Audio: 5/10
Control: 8/10
Gameplay: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/16/03, Updated 01/16/03