Rygar: The Legendary Adventure

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 NA November 25, 2002 JP December 5, 2002 EU May 30, 2003 Wii JP December 11, 2008 NA January 28, 2009 EU July 3, 2009
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single player

Rygar: The Legendary Adventure, released in Japan as Argus no Senshi (アルゴスの戦士), is a console game for the PlayStation 2 first released in November 2002. It is based on 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.

The game was ported to the Wii in 2008, as Rygar: The Battle of Argus, released in Japan as Argus no Senshi: Muscle Impact (アルゴスの戦士 マッスルインパクト).

Gameplay

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.

The Diskarmor

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:

• Hades Diskarmor: This type of Diskarmor is the one used at the beginning of the game. It is good for long-range attacks. Cerberus is the summon used with it.
• Heaven Diskarmor: This Diskarmor is good for medium-range attacks and against groups of enemies, since it has a wide swath when swung. Talos is the summon used with it.
• Sea Diskarmor: The final Diskarmor acquired is used only for short-range, melee attacks. Siren is the summon used with it.

Plot

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.

Setting

The environment combines elements of the Mediterranean.

• The Coliseum — The first area explored in the game.
• Geryon Hill — This acts as the overworld for the game.
• Elysian Shrine — The tomb of great Grecian warriors.
• Arcadia — The city in the skies.
• Tartarus — The realm of the Titans.

Characters

• Rygar — A member of the Argus infantry, chosen to fight the Titans. He has no known memories of his childhood. He wields a shield-like weapon called a Diskarmor that was given to him by Zeus. His name is "Zhn" (ゼーン, Zēn) in the Japanese version.
• Harmonia — The founder of Argus, descended from a line of sea combatants. She was abducted by the Titans.
• Queen Argo — Guardian of the sanctuary of Argus and Harmonia's ancestor.
• Echidna — The leader of the Titans, she was originally a human from Egypt made immortal when the Romans seemingly killed her son. However, learning her son lived and grew into Rygar, Echidna rebelled before Cronus took over her body.
• Icarus — A Titan armed with two swords that Rygar fights two times in the game. Originally the Warrior of Hades Aristotle, Icarus serves Cronus with delight in others' suffering. However, learning that Harmonia is his descendant though his union with Argo, Icarus later saves Rygar from the collapsing netherworld
• Cronus — The infamous titan sealed until Echidna released him. The final boss. He wields two purple swords and can stop time.

Music

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.

Development

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.^[2]

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

Reception

Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (PS2) 82.27%[3] (Wii) 55.97%[4] Metacritic (PS2) 83/100[5] (Wii) 52/100[6] Review scores Publication Score AllGame [7] Edge 7/10[8] EGM 8.83/10[9] Eurogamer (PS2) 8/10[10] (Wii) 4/10[11] Famitsu (PS2) 31/40[12] (Wii) 24/40[13] Game Informer (PS2) 9/10[14] (Wii) 5.5/10[15] GamePro (PS2) [16] (Wii) [17] GameSpot (PS2) 7.3/10[18] (Wii) 6.5/10[19] GameSpy [20] GameTrailers 5/10[21] GameZone 5.8/10[22] IGN (PS2) 8.4/10[23] (Wii) 6.1/10[24] Nintendo Power 7/10[25] OPM (US) [26] Maxim 8/10[27]

The initial release of the game on PlayStation 2 was met with very positive reception. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 82.27% and 83 out of 100.^[3][5] In Japan, Famitsu gave the PS2 version a score of 31 out of 40.^[12]

However, Wii version of the game, released 6 years later, received average reception, scoring 55.97% and 52 out of 100 on GameRankings and Metacritic.^[4][6] It received a score of 1 out of 5 stars by G4 and won Worst Remake in 2009.

References

External links

• Official website
• Rygar: The Legendary Adventure at MobyGames