| Rygar: The Legendary Adventure | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Tecmo Team Tachyon[1] |
| Publisher(s) | Tecmo |
| Composer(s) | Hiroaki Takahashi Takayasu Sodeoka Riichiro Kuwabara |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, Wii |
| Release date(s) | PlayStation 2
|
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
Rygar: The Legendary Adventure, known in Japan as The Warrior of Argus (アルゴスの戦士 Arugosu no Senshi)[3], is a console game for the PlayStation 2 first released in November 2002. It is an update of the original Rygar released for arcade machines and various consoles. The new features are a transition to 3D graphics and portions of the environment are destructible. It was released to generally positive reviews. The game is inspired by Greek and Roman mythology and has many enemies and worlds named after them. This game was ported to the Wii as Rygar: The Battle of Argus in 2008.
Contents |
In Rygar: The Legendary Adventure, the player traverses the landscape armed with the Diskarmor, defeating enemies, collecting power-ups, and so forth. The camera is fixed in one location, but rotates when the player moves around accordingly. The game has many unlockable features, like picture and movie galleries. Completing the game and meeting certain requirements enables the use of a number of special Diskarmors as well as allowing the player to select any level. If certain requirements are met, a secret boss battle is unlocked.
As mentioned above, the Diskarmor is a shield that is the main focus of gameplay. The player can equip special stones found throughout the game to increase its power and so forth. Also, abilities can be found that add other functions to the Diskarmor, such as a grapple ability that allows the player to swing between specially marked icons and pull themselves up to otherwise unreachable areas.
There are three types of Diskarmor acquired in the game, each with their own summon ability:
Rygar: The Legendary Adventure takes place on an island in the Mediterranean Sea called Argus. Rygar is about to receive a wreath from Princess Harmonia in a ceremony for a victorious naval battle, when Titans suddenly attack led by Echidna. After she and Icarus capture Harmonia, Echidna has the Minotaur dispose of Rygar with a pit torn open in the ground. Surviving the encounter, Rygar finds the Diskarmor, a legendary shield of the gods and is given task to stop the Titans in order to rescue Harmonia and bring peace to Argus.
The environment combines elements of the Mediterranean.
The music from the game was composed by Takayasu Sodeoka, Riichiro Kuwabara, and Hiroaki Takahashi. The soundtrack for the game includes 27 tracks, including the main theme "Wish," performed by opera singer Isobel Cooper (Izzy). The song was also available on CD single format, coupled with the karaoke version.
Actual remains from ancient Greece and the Roman Empire were used as a reference to help design the world. At the start of production, in-house staff members traveled to Greece to look at subject matter. Photographs were taken to help create textures. 3ds Max was used to develop the stages and character models. The character models were then converted into Tecmo's original format and imported into Softimage 3D to animate them. Model textures were edited in Photoshop. The opening movie began production before the game sections.[4]
The Wii version was first announced as "Tecmo New Style Action Game" in Famitsu and later as Project Rygar on May 11 at the "Tecmo's Nite Out 07" event.
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 57.21% (Wii)[5] |
| Metacritic | 83 / 100 (PS2)[6] |
| GameStats | 9.0 / 10 (PS2)[7] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B- (Wii)[8] |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 8.8 / 10[9] |
| Eurogamer | 8 /10[10] |
| G4 | (PS2)[9] (Wii) |
| Game Informer | 9 / 10 (PS2)[9] 5.5 / 10 (Wii)[11] |
| GamePro | [12] |
| GameSpot | 7.3 / 10 (PS2)[13] 6.5 / 10 (Wii)[14] |
| GameSpy | 87%[9] |
| IGN | 8.4 / 10 (PS2)[15] 6.1 / 10 (Wii)[16] |
| Nintendo Power | 7 / 10 (Wii)[11] |
| Official PlayStation Magazine (US) | [9] |
| Play Magazine | [9] |
| PSM | 8 / 10[9] |
| GameFocus | 7.2 / 10 (Wii)[17] |
| GameNOW | 9.5 / 10[18] |
| GMR | 9 / 10[9] |
| Kikizo | 9.5 / 10[19] |
| ZTGameDomain | 9 / 10 (PS2)[20] 8.3 / 10 (Wii)[21] |
Rygar was met with fairly positive reviews; criticism was aimed at the poor camera, but the Diskarmor was praised. However, the Wii version received a 1 out of 5 stars by G4 and won Worst Remake in 2009.