Rygar: The Legendary Adventure
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.
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.
posted by talien | 6:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home