Despite many shortcomings Rygar: The Legendary Adventure still provides an entertaining experience.
User Rating: 7.2 | Argus no Senshi PS2
Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is the sequel to Tecmo’s NES classic Rygar. Much like that of its predecessor, Rygar tells a story that is loosely based on Greek Mythology. The Titans, Cleopatra and a winged creature known as Aristotle have kidnapped Princess Harmonia in order to summon Cronus. Rygar who has been training as a gladiator receives a vision from Harmonia pleading for his help. Rygar takes it upon himself to save Princess Harmonia and along the way he learns not only about the Island of Argos but also about himself. The story is not Rygar’s strong point even if Greek mythology interests you. The story unfolds through cut scenes that are poorly written and overly melodramatic. You will also learn small details about the characters and plot through tablets that you will collect along the way. Despite its lackluster story Rygar involves some interesting gameplay mechanics. Rygar’s main weapon is the diskarmor, a circular shaped shield with spikes, which works much in the same way as a yo-yo. You can perform various attacks with different combinations of the square and triangle buttons. As you progress through the story you will come across three different diskarmors. Each allows you to perform a different set of moves as well as have their own characteristics. The initial one you start off with has average speed, strength, and distance. The second one is the most powerful and allows for a longer striking distance but is the slowest. The last one is the quickest but has the shortest striking distance and is the least powerful. Besides basic attack maneuvers each diskarmor allows you to summon a beast. The diskarmors can be upgraded with orbs from fallen enemies and destructible environment. Each upgrade will strengthen the respective diskarmor you upgrade as well as increase the number of slots. These slots serve as a place where you can insert specific orbs that will increase your attributes. The diskarmor is a unique weapon that is fun to use. The learning curve for each diskarmor is small but you will still end up playing around with the various moves. One problem is that besides the default moves you only get to learn two or three advanced moves that I found disappointing. Yet another disappointing aspect of Rygar are the number of enemies you will encounter. There aren’t that many different variations, probably only around 5 actual enemies, so much of the time you will use the same techniques to dispatch your enemies. Many of the enemies are easy to kill with the basic attacks but you will probably use the more advanced ones. Sadly this can’t be said for the boss battles. The only way you will defeat most bosses if by using these basic maneuvers. The more advanced attacks take far too long to complete and will leave you open to some strong attacks. Though Rygar makes them larger than life most follow simple patterns and with some patience and timing they aren’t that challenging to overcome. Though Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is a linear game there is still much to explore. Besides accomplishing the primary objects as you make your way through the game you will also spend time destroying various parts of the environment as well as searching for secret areas looking for orbs, tablets, and other power-ups to increase your stats. You may also backtrack to areas that you previously couldn’t get to because they required a certain diskarmor technique. Like most platformers Rygar requires a certain amount of jumping and at times this can be a difficult task because of the inability to manually control the camera. There are frequent occasions where the camera was out of place but you can still manage to accomplish the task at hand. However, later on in the game where jumping is the main task you have to use trial and error because of the poor camera angles, which becomes frustrating. The best aspect of Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is by far the graphics. There are some absolutely stunning images, especially of Princess Harmonia. I was quite surprised to see some fantastic imagery. The environments are also quite good and each world provides a unique style. The Poseidon Shrine is one of my personal favorites. Most of the entire shrine is in a small pool of water and with the help of the sun shining it is a nice visual. Besides the setting the characters are also well done with a good amount of detail. Another nice thing about the graphics is that it doesn’t suffer from glitches or slowdowns, so everything stays smooth and fluid. The music in Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is good and many of the soundtracks fit well into the game but it’s not incredibly memorable. The voice acting is bad enough especially because it is so melodramatic and poorly written it makes the music stand out even more. Thankfully the conversations aren’t overly long so the game doesn’t force you to sit through much. Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is far from a legendary game. The game has some considerable weak points; the story is not strong, the camera at times makes gameplay frustrating, the dialogue is awful, very few kinds of enemies, and the game is incredibly short at less than 5 hours to beat. Despite these shortcomings Rygar is still a fun game to play. The diskarmor provides for a unique experience, the visuals are impressive and the soundtrack is well done. Those who are looking for a platformer shouldn’t be afraid to give Rygar a try. 
