Rygar: The Legendary Adventure

by Tecmo

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00007DCEB
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 26, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,820 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Taking place on an island in the Mediterranean Sea called Argus, Rygar: The Legendary Adventure tells the tale of a noble warrior determined to save the Princess Harmonia and bring the island of Argus back to a state of peace. For his contribution and bravery during the Great Sea Battle, which ultimately brought victory to Argus, Rygar was honored by Princess Harmonia in a magnificent ceremony. During the celebration, ravenous monsters called Titans emerged from the land, destroying Rygar's homeland and abducting his beloved princess. In the midst of this chaos, deep cracks appeared in the island's surface, creating a dark and mysterious underworld. Before realizing what was happening, Rygar was swallowed by this underworld. That's your cue to draw your sword and join the fray.

Product Description

The story of Rygar begins with the Island of Argus being plagued by evil Titans. Armageddon has spread over the land, creating chaos as volcanoes, earthquakes, and monsters ravage the countryside. In mankind darkest hour, a hero rises from the ashes to defeat the Titans, rescue the princess and restore order to the land. The player will become Rygar and his legendary adventure will begin. The actions of Rygar rely heavily on the use of his almighty Diskarmor, the hero?s weapon of choice in the game. The yo-yo like Diskarmor is one of the most important elements of the game. Created by gods, the Diskarmor is not just any weapon, it is an essential survival tool and divine instrument for the brave hero. The spiked razor shield will be used for attack, defense, and transportation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rygar Returns, March 18, 2003

By 

-- "--" (Gondor, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (Video Game)

"Rygar: The Legendary Adventure," sequel to the classic Nintendo side-scroller, "Rygar," casts you as, well, Rygar (in at least one of his aliases), and trades its earlier setting for one that is supposedly based on Greek mythology - though elements of Greek and Roman mythologies are used, albeit inaccurately, during the course of the game. In another nod to the nonsensical, Rygar is supposedly the greatest swordsman in the land, but instead of a sword he employs a weapon called a Diskarmor, which is essentially a bladed shield lashed to the end of a whipping chain (and resembles a deadly yo-yo). The plotline is very convoluted in an entertaining anime style, and essentially boils down to "good guy slaying bad guy to rescue kidnapped princess," with some twists along the way.

The gameplay is so bloody fun, though, that any gaping holes in the narrative are easy to overlook. Rygar, as the playable character, is a strange amalgam of Indiana Jones and the guy from "Onimusha." In fact, Rygar plays very much like "Onimusha," and even the interface is similar. Those familiar with that game will be right at home here - but they should be pleased to discover that Rygar offers a beautiful 3D engine, a more intuitive combat system, and considerably less frustrating camera angles. Add top-of-the-line production values to the mix, and you've got yourself a standout game for the PS2.

Speaking of those production values, the music is nearly as good (and sometimes better) than what you might hear accompanying a big budget Hollywood feature. The sound effects are noteworthy as well, and provide the appropriate ambience. Best of all, though, are the graphics, which are easily some of the finest yet employed in a Playstation 2 title. The rendered cutscenes adhere to this same pervading quality, creating a gaming environment that is truly cinematic.

It's not perfect, though. "Rygar: The Legendary Adventure" is over too quickly, and doesn't provide much of a challenge until you come face-to-face with some of the final bosses. Experienced players will probably breeze through this one in less than a week, and never even break a sweat on the normal difficulty setting. On top of that, Rygar's short list of enemies is uninspiring (not counting the memorable boss battles), and poses little threat to the Diskarmor-wielding hero. Aside from these niggles, though, "Rygar: The Legendary Adventure" is a satisfying experience, and is even worth several play-throughs. It is one of the best action-adventure games for the PS2 console, and shouldn't be missed.

Final Grade: B (or 4 stars)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is and Is not an amazing game..., March 11, 2003

By 

S. Morales (Levittown, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (Video Game)

I must first start off this review by saying that I genuinly had a lot of fun playing Rygar on PS2. This sequal to the original NES classic holds up well in some departments, and fails in others, but nothing that would keep this game from well, being any less fun to play.

Now let's start with the goods: The graphics. Yes, the graphics have to be the number 1 thing to mention first because they have got to be probably the most amazing things I've seen in a video game. Now, if you play this you may disagree with me because a lot of the graphics seem more "fantasy" oriented then in a game like Metal Gear Solid, but talking in that point of view I stick with my previous statement. Rygar is created with the upmost detail and his movements flow very well, offering plenty of realism. The levels are monumental, everthing from shadows, to different auras of light are absolutely flawless and breathtaking. I swear some of the levels were just so vast and beautiful I couldn't help but just stare and say "WHOOOOAHHH!" This makes exploration in the game very fun. The controls in the game are also very crisp, responsive and variable. Using your diskarmor (you can knab 3 kinds) you will hack and slash you way through levels being able to use different combo's of moves to destroy your opponents. The diskarmor is truly one of the best and most fun weapons you will use in any video game available today. And third, the soundtrack consists of a very creative and enjoyable symphonic orchestrial type music almost to be able to match wits with Castlevania on PS1. Now, there are other things that make up a good game, like story, challenge, and creativity. This is where Rygar falls.

When it comes to a good story, Rygar is pretty basic but still very tolerable. It's not very fun to follow, it's a little uncomprehendable and sometimes boring where you don't care for the cinematic sequences but just to get on with the action. You come across lot's of different writings which you pick up throughout the game, these are like memo's and such to those who are familiar with Resident Evil or Silent Hill games. You read these to figure out what actually happened to this ancient Greek world, who the bad guys are and what they are doing. Unfortunately for these, they're also not very interesting, and not very easy to follow, so you end up discarding the information as it doesn't seem relevent to the game as a whole. Another dissappointing aspect is the overall challenge in the game. It's too easy. Now, a lot of video games lately have been too easy for the simple fact that games that have too much challenge tend to turn off today's gamers and are seen as unmarketable, so this in turn makes a lot of games nowadays too easy, like this one. The enemies aren't very smart, as they will mostly dance around you and hit you about every 4 or 5 seconds and at the same time, take off very little energy. So all you need to kill these baddies is just the tapping of one of the attack buttons. This is dissappointing seeing as how the diskarmor is such an amazing, versitile weapon but seems never to have to be taken full advantage of. The first couple of bosses add some of a challenge but then as you go further, these guys just become so easy to kill it's almost laughable, it's just too hard to die. Something else that most gamers will find dissapointing is the game's length. I found to not be too long or too short but if you're a die-hard gamer looking for something that'll keep you busy for a while, don't look towards this one. One 5 day rental from this one and you'll most likely be done with it within the first 3 days. Those who don't have as much time on thier hands will find this game a decent length, but will ultimately be unsatisfied with how quickly they got to the end.

Unfortunately due to these downfalls, I had to give this 3 stars, but I do HIGHLY recommemend a rental on this one as it is a whole lot of fun to play without any technical problems like controls to be frustrated with, and if you ignore the bland story and lack of challenge which don't ever hurt the gameplay as a whole.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most beautiful games to ever grace the PS2, March 22, 2004

By 

Michael J. Tresca "Talien" (Fairfield, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (Video Game)

I had low expectations for Rygar. After all, my only contact with the game was when it was an extremely difficult side-scroller in the arcades. Sure, Rygar's concept was cool - a barbarian who throws a Yo-yo of Death (okay, it's called Diskarmor, but you get the idea). What's not to like?

Rygar: The Legendary Adventure changed my perceptions of what Rygar was about. Rygar was reimagined as a Greek tale, much the same way that Link was reimagined as a Celtic hero. Being an avid role-player, I appreciated the change.

But there's a lot more to Rygar than just throwing a shield at weird caterpillars. The realm is firmly (if rather inaccurately) rooted in Greek mythology. Echidna, Typhon, Minotaur, Centaur, Sphinx, Cretus, Greek gods...the whole gang is here. And the settings are beautiful - backgrounds look and feel like Greek landscapes and vistas. Even better, Rygar is encouraged to destroy everything in sight and his efforts are rewarded by the massive collapse of pillars, statues, and caverns. It's like Classical graffiti. Unlike Superman: Shadow of Apokolips, you actually feel as if you're hitting hard things when you hit them with your Diskarmor. The Diskarmor sparks and bounces as it hits solid rock.

The princess you have to rescue is a spitting image of Britney Spears. Depending on your opinion of Britney, that's a good or bad thing.

The game revels in its beautiful levels, giving Rygar ample opportunity to explore it all. The Temple of Poseidonia is especially breathtaking, with sparkling waterfalls and glowing seashells. Equally impressive are the Skies of Arcadia, where Rygar must do battle miles above the earth and clouds. Fortunately, if you fall off you don't die but rather start over at the nearest large floating island. This single piece of thoughtful design is what stopped me from completing Akuji the Heartless. It's a compliment to say that Rygar got everything right that Akuji tried to do - take an unusual setting and make it both visually interesting and fun to play.

Like Final Fantasy, there are familiars that can be summoned to unleash even more damage on Rygar's enemies. There are three: Siren, Cerberus, and the not-quote-phonetically-correct Taros (that'd be Talos, but the Engrish translation screwed it up). The Diskarmors can also be improved by gaining experience (er, sorry, "sfaira" which means "sphere" in Greek). By improving the three different types of Diskarmor, Rygar can add mystic stones. Mystic stones enhance the powers of the shield, including the ability to heal, inflict more damage, or defend better. Some people call this a "role-playing element." I don't, but it's still neat.

There are a few things wrong with Rygar. For one, the voice acting is awful. I know voice actors - they have brains, and anyone who speaks English should not be reciting the badly translated crap from Japanese that was foisted upon Rygar. Don't any of these voice actors turn to the guy handing them the script and say, "Nobody would say it like that!"? In one instance, the bad guy is trying to get Rygar's soul. So he states, "I will crush your soul, and steal your body." That'd be "Crush your body so I can steal your soul." The voice acting is bad enough that it detract from the game.

Rygar's plot is nearly impenetrable due to the bad translation. It loosely involves Aristotle (yes, THAT Aristotle), Cleopatra, and Julius Casear (along with his son, Caesarion). Because of the poorly constructed plot, the whole thing comes off as if someone threw a bunch of Greek names in a blender and made a story out of it.

The monsters are strangely out of place in an adventure set in mythic Greece. The rollers are a cross between pissed off centipedes and caterpillars. They move just like caterpillars too. But why is Rygar fighting so many of them? Or the strangely acrobatic Hycanithus (wouldja believe they're killer flowers)? Or the Harpuai, which are floating arms. The only Ancient Greek monster that shows up on a regular basis are the cylcopes, but they're rare. C'mon folks, this is Greek myth, there's plenty of other critters to thrown into the game.

But I quibble. Although Rygar isn't as good as it could be, it's still one of the most beautiful games to ever grace the Playstation 2. I played it obsessively until I beat it. And that's the best recommendation I can give any game.