Rygar: The Legendary Adventure
A Roman-era warrior wields a legendary Diskarmor against Titans.
Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is a 2002 action-adventure game developed and published by Tecmo for the PlayStation 2. Loosely based on Tecmo's 1986 arcade game Rygar and its 1987 NES port, it was released in North America in November 2002, in Japan in December 2002, and in Australasia and Europe in May 2003. The game was remastered for the Wii in 2009 as Rygar: The Battle of Argus.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Takao Ando, Manabu Nagasaki (Wii)
- Producer
- Satoshi Kanematsu
- Keisuke Kikuchi (Wii)
- Kenichi Asami (Wii)
- Programmer
- Yutaka Koga, Taihei Obara (Wii)
- Artist
- Hirohisa Kaneko
- Masafumi Kubo
- Kousuke Wakamatsu
- Composer
- Hiroaki Takahashi, Riichiro Kuwabara (Wii)
- Genre
- Action-adventure
- Modes
- Single player
- Platforms
- PlayStation 2, Wii
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Set several years after the Roman Empire's conquest of Egypt, the story takes place on Argus, a Roman-controlled Mediterranean island. Rygar, a heavy infantryman in the Argus navy, is one of the greatest swordsmen alive but has no family or memories of his childhood, not even knowing his real name. While attending a ceremony in the Colosseo with Princess Harmonia, they are attacked by Titans—evil beings created alongside the gods but banished to Tartarus aeons prior. Harmonia is captured, and Rygar falls into a pit. Revived by a female voice, he receives the Diskarmor, a shield forged by the gods, and is told he must stop the Titans. He encounters Icarus, the Titans' leader, who speculates that Rygar cannot be 'the lion of the man that Cronus talked about.' Cronus, a Titan who led a revolt from Tartarus, created the Gate of Darkness to allow the Titans to return to Earth. Rygar summons the spirit of Cerberus from his Diskarmor, turning it into the Hades Diskarmor, and Icarus flees. Rygar finds the Heaven Diskarmor, capable of summoning Talos, and learns of the War of Cronus: after Cronus escaped Tartarus, the gods forged three Diskarmors and gave them to three human warriors, who defeated Cronus and sealed the Gate of Darkness. One warrior, Argo, founded Argus. Rygar locates the Sea Diskarmor, and the voice who revived him reveals herself to be Argo. Heading to the Gate of Darkness, Rygar is confronted by Echidna, Icarus's right-hand woman, who reveals her real name is Cleopatra. After Rome invaded Egypt, her son Caesarion was killed, so she ate Titan flesh, becoming a Demon. When Rygar says he has no childhood memories and does not know his true name, she realizes Rygar is Caesarion. Icarus, who knew all along, stabs her, explaining he manipulated her to fight Rygar to fulfill Cronus's prophecy.
Development
Rumors of a Rygar remake spread in January 2002 when Tecmo confirmed development of both a new Ninja Gaiden game and an untitled action-adventure game. In April, Tecmo revealed the game would be a PlayStation 2 exclusive and incorporate elements of Greek mythology, citing films such as Clash of the Titans (1981) and Gladiator (2000) as influences. At E3 in May 2002, an FMV and a non-playable demo were shown; at that stage, Rygar could use his fists for combat, but this ability was removed from the final build. A short playable demo was made available to journalists in September. The visual design draws on Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Producer Satoshi Kanematsu stated that early in production, staff members went to Greece to collect reference material, including CG designer Tadafumi Kubo, who photographed materials for texture use. Kubo used Autodesk 3ds Max to design levels and build character models, then imported them into Softimage for animation. The CG cutscene that plays when the game boots up began production before the game itself, produced by Masaru Mayama of Polygon Magic, with Visual Science Laboratory handling day-to-day production. The movie had to be ready for E3 in May 2003; Kanematsu asked for a movie that would make people at E3 stand and watch with their mouths agape. Production began with a director creating a storyboard based on visual data from Kubo, taking about a month, with 3D production taking another two. Softimage and 3ds Max were used for effects, Maya for particle processing, and everything was rendered and combined in Adobe After Effects. The cutscene where Princess Harmonia sings was created similarly.
The Battle of Argus
Much of the gameplay in The Battle of Argus is identical to The Legendary Adventure. The biggest differences are the visual design of the protagonist, some new enemies, and the addition of Gladiator Mode, a 30-level gauntlet mode played with the Wii Remote. The standard story mode, called Conquest Mode, gives players the option of finishing a combo with a swing of the controller. Producer Keisuke Kikuchi addressed the different control schemes for Conquest Mode and Gladiator Mode in a December 2007 interview with Gamasutra. IGN's Daemon Hatfield, in a hands-on preview, called it essentially the same game that arrived on the PlayStation 2 in 2002 with light motion controls and general gameplay tweaks. The game was first referenced in May 2007 when Famitsu listed an upcoming untitled Wii game from Tecmo as 'Shin Kankaku Action Game' ('new-style action game'). At the Tecmo Nite Out event in Tokyo, Tecmo revealed the working title Project Rygar and showed concept art of a new hero: a muscular young man with tattoos, white spiky hair, white and black clothes, and a goatee, along with the Diskarmor and heavily armored enemies. The blurb was 'New Hero, New Enemies, Swing Action.' In July, Tecmo revealed the game was a port of The Legendary Adventure rather than a new game, stressing a new protagonist, new enemies, and a new gauntlet mode using the Wiimote. In September, a gameplay trailer was shown at the Tokyo Game Show, and the Japanese subtitle Muscle Impact was revealed, with a December 2007 release date. In interviews, Kikuchi addressed negative fan reaction to the port, saying once people play it they will 'get it,' and acknowledged the possibility of missing the December 2007 date. When asked why the team was putting effort into a five-year-old property, Kikuchi explained the importance of the Wii itself.
Reception
The PlayStation 2 release received generally favorable reviews, with a Metacritic score of 83 out of 100 based on 30 reviews. The Wii port received mixed or average reviews, scoring 52 out of 100 based on 29 reviews. Play's Dave Halverson scored Legendary Adventure 5 out of 5, calling it his action game of the year and praising the graphics as defying the hardware. Sam Kennedy of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine scored it 4.5 out of 5, praising the Diskarmor, combo system, graphics, and score, while criticizing the fixed camera and lack of enemy variety. Game Informer's Matthew Kato scored it 9 out of 10, praising destructible environments and Diskarmor mechanics but criticizing collision detection and the fixed camera. Electronic Gaming Monthly scored it 8.8 out of 10; James Mielke praised the graphics, score, physics, and controls, Miguel López praised combat and destructible environments, and Sam Kennedy wrote the game is light years ahead of most. All three criticized the fixed camera.
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