User Reviews (1 - 11 of 26)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Rygar Returns

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: March 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

"Rygar: The Legendary Adventure," sequel to the classic Nintendo side-scroller, "Rygar," casts you as, well, Rygar (in at least one of his aliases), and trades its earlier setting for one that is supposedly based on Greek mythology - though elements of Greek and Roman mythologies are used, albeit inaccurately, during the course of the game. In another nod to the nonsensical, Rygar is supposedly the greatest swordsman in the land, but instead of a sword he employs a weapon called a Diskarmor, which is essentially a bladed shield lashed to the end of a whipping chain (and resembles a deadly yo-yo). The plotline is very convoluted in an entertaining anime style, and essentially boils down to "good guy slaying bad guy to rescue kidnapped princess," with some twists along the way.

The gameplay is so bloody fun, though, that any gaping holes in the narrative are easy to overlook. Rygar, as the playable character, is a strange amalgam of Indiana Jones and the guy from "Onimusha." In fact, Rygar plays very much like "Onimusha," and even the interface is similar. Those familiar with that game will be right at home here - but they should be pleased to discover that Rygar offers a beautiful 3D engine, a more intuitive combat system, and considerably less frustrating camera angles. Add top-of-the-line production values to the mix, and you've got yourself a standout game for the PS2.

Speaking of those production values, the music is nearly as good (and sometimes better) than what you might hear accompanying a big budget Hollywood feature. The sound effects are noteworthy as well, and provide the appropriate ambience. Best of all, though, are the graphics, which are easily some of the finest yet employed in a Playstation 2 title. The rendered cutscenes adhere to this same pervading quality, creating a gaming environment that is truly cinematic.

It's not perfect, though. "Rygar: The Legendary Adventure" is over too quickly, and doesn't provide much of a challenge until you come face-to-face with some of the final bosses. Experienced players will probably breeze through this one in less than a week, and never even break a sweat on the normal difficulty setting. On top of that, Rygar's short list of enemies is uninspiring (not counting the memorable boss battles), and poses little threat to the Diskarmor-wielding hero. Aside from these niggles, though, "Rygar: The Legendary Adventure" is a satisfying experience, and is even worth several play-throughs. It is one of the best action-adventure games for the PS2 console, and shouldn't be missed.

Final Grade: B (or 4 stars)

Pretty easy but some great visual effects.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: May 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Visually, this is probably the best game on the PS2 and that alone makes it worthwhile. Like most other PS@ games it suffers from the fact that it is just too short and too easy. Dying is a feat is this game. Gameplay is not too dificult and gmaeplay is easy to master but stlll pretty fun if you get caught up in the fanatsy world. Another problem is that the viewpoint sometimes changes too quickly whic can be a little annoying. Like most games today it is pretty good but coould have been better.

Is and Is not an amazing game...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I must first start off this review by saying that I genuinly had a lot of fun playing Rygar on PS2. This sequal to the original NES classic holds up well in some departments, and fails in others, but nothing that would keep this game from well, being any less fun to play.

Now let's start with the goods: The graphics. Yes, the graphics have to be the number 1 thing to mention first because they have got to be probably the most amazing things I've seen in a video game. Now, if you play this you may disagree with me because a lot of the graphics seem more "fantasy" oriented then in a game like Metal Gear Solid, but talking in that point of view I stick with my previous statement. Rygar is created with the upmost detail and his movements flow very well, offering plenty of realism. The levels are monumental, everthing from shadows, to different auras of light are absolutely flawless and breathtaking. I swear some of the levels were just so vast and beautiful I couldn't help but just stare and say "WHOOOOAHHH!" This makes exploration in the game very fun. The controls in the game are also very crisp, responsive and variable. Using your diskarmor (you can knab 3 kinds) you will hack and slash you way through levels being able to use different combo's of moves to destroy your opponents. The diskarmor is truly one of the best and most fun weapons you will use in any video game available today. And third, the soundtrack consists of a very creative and enjoyable symphonic orchestrial type music almost to be able to match wits with Castlevania on PS1. Now, there are other things that make up a good game, like story, challenge, and creativity. This is where Rygar falls.

When it comes to a good story, Rygar is pretty basic but still very tolerable. It's not very fun to follow, it's a little uncomprehendable and sometimes boring where you don't care for the cinematic sequences but just to get on with the action. You come across lot's of different writings which you pick up throughout the game, these are like memo's and such to those who are familiar with Resident Evil or Silent Hill games. You read these to figure out what actually happened to this ancient Greek world, who the bad guys are and what they are doing. Unfortunately for these, they're also not very interesting, and not very easy to follow, so you end up discarding the information as it doesn't seem relevent to the game as a whole. Another dissappointing aspect is the overall challenge in the game. It's too easy. Now, a lot of video games lately have been too easy for the simple fact that games that have too much challenge tend to turn off today's gamers and are seen as unmarketable, so this in turn makes a lot of games nowadays too easy, like this one. The enemies aren't very smart, as they will mostly dance around you and hit you about every 4 or 5 seconds and at the same time, take off very little energy. So all you need to kill these baddies is just the tapping of one of the attack buttons. This is dissappointing seeing as how the diskarmor is such an amazing, versitile weapon but seems never to have to be taken full advantage of. The first couple of bosses add some of a challenge but then as you go further, these guys just become so easy to kill it's almost laughable, it's just too hard to die. Something else that most gamers will find dissapointing is the game's length. I found to not be too long or too short but if you're a die-hard gamer looking for something that'll keep you busy for a while, don't look towards this one. One 5 day rental from this one and you'll most likely be done with it within the first 3 days. Those who don't have as much time on thier hands will find this game a decent length, but will ultimately be unsatisfied with how quickly they got to the end.

Unfortunately due to these downfalls, I had to give this 3 stars, but I do HIGHLY recommemend a rental on this one as it is a whole lot of fun to play without any technical problems like controls to be frustrated with, and if you ignore the bland story and lack of challenge which don't ever hurt the gameplay as a whole.

One of the most beautiful games to ever grace the PS2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Pretty solid adventure game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

To be honest, when I picked this up, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I'm not a huge fan of greek mythology, but it isn't like I think it's awful, either. Anyway, I loved the fact that nearly everything was interactive, that is to say, destructible. If it isn't nailed down, it's very likely you can destroy it.

This game isn't a one-trick-pony, though. The combat presents itself in three different styles that become available as you progress through the game.

The graphics are astounding, and the textures will simply take your breath away. All of the character models look good as well. Amongst the beautiful visuals lie many secrets and other unlockable abilities that aid you as you progress in the game (i.e. sliding, tackling, ect.)

The music definitely fits the atmosphere, and is some of the best compositions I've heard for a video game.

Where this game falls, however, lies in two places. The voice acting in this game is laugh-out-loud funny. I'd swear that they picked up the voice actors from a local McDonald's or something. The other pitfall is the cookie cutter story. Tell me if you've heard this, but it's a story where you save the princess from the bad, bad man! Quite original, huh?

That being said, I couldn't recommend this game more for action/adveture fans, but if you're looking for a deep storyline, look elsewhere.

Weak

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: December 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

As a fan of the original Rygar game, I was really looking forward to this version. The original version had, for the time, great graphics, music, plot, and overall gameplay.

The only thing that's great about this updated version of the game is the graphics.

Unfortunately, there's a lot about it that's not only less than great, but horrid:

- Movement/action/animation is jerky at best; I find it almost feels like the original 8-bit Rygar was superimposed over the beautiful 32-bit graphics.

- User interface is absolutely horrible. I found that attacks were difficult to control (at best) and I often had no idea where I was aiming. There is no "camera control" available, and it's quite easy to navigate Rygar off the screen entirely. Also, game play forces the user to use the analog control, whereas I prefer the cross-bar control; strangely, the options screen only responds to the cross-bar and not the analog. It's obvious that Tecmo spent little time doing usability testing on this game.

- Enemies and fighting sequences are repetative and dull. Yawn.

All in all, pass. Maybe rent it for a night just to check it out... But if you want an entertaining platform game that you can play again and again, save your money.

DON'T buy -- Rent

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

On the outside Rygar looks like a pretty cool game. It has a cool weapon type, the diskarmor, and the screenshots are fantastic. But when you start playing it you find that it is sort of boring. There are only a few different types of enemies and for the most part they just dance around you and hit you onece in a while, not that it matters, because their attacks do so little damage that you could stand their for ten minutes, not doing anything, before they killed you. Their are way to many bosses that you have to fight, 14 in all (I Think), and they are easy to kill. When you are fighting you do not have to do combos to kill your enemies, when you try to you leave yourself open to attack and get interupted, which is a shame because the combos are pretty cool. The worst part about it is the length of the game it is only about six hours long. It does not have that much replay value, to me anyway. The game does have a good side, however. The graphics are excellent and the worlds are pretty imaginnative. The combos are reaaly cool, and the idea of diskarmors are cool to. I like the fact that you can get three of them, one is long range, one is medium range and swings in a horizontal arch to hit multiple enemies, and one is really close range but really fast. You can put "mystic stones" into your diskarmors but I only found three while there are supposed to be over thirty of them. Oh yeah, one more thing, the voice acting is BAD. An example is when Rygar says: "I swear my victory to this feather." Thats right he swears to a feather, corny huh.
All in all this game is an okay rental but not worth your 50 bucks.

The dead shall rise and repopulate the systems.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Ok so the title is really weird, however this is an example of the lack of ideas that companies have anymore. Rygar debuted on the NES, and then died. For almost 20 years the game lied in wait for a sequel and Tecmo eventually delivered, in what is an example of a Badass Character for a Badass system.

The story of Rygar revolves around tha argonian gladiator who at his awards ceremony is attacked by the TItans, evil beings that in some ways look human, but have supernatural abilites. The princess is kidnapped and Rygar is thrust deep into the earth. The gods grant him the gift of the diskarmour and from there the game begins.

The diskarmour is probably the most badass weapon ever created. It is basically a spiked yo-yo that you can use to create some wicked attacks with (and later summon creatures). Although for some creatures only minor combos need apply. But that is not the only thing that seperates this from the average action game. The ability to destroy literally almost every thing you see. And it works because for the most part the items blend into the background thus it makes it more fun.

Overall this game is in the feel of Devil May Cry and overall this is a badass game for a badass system.

I Liked It, But You May Not

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The closest comparison I can make to this game would be to say that it is like French cuisine; it tastes so unbelievably good but is served in unsatisfying portions. Be warned, this game is not for everybody. I'll give you the bad news before I give you the good.

This game is way, way, WAYYYY too painfully short. I read reviews proclaiming this very point and simply didn't believe them, convinced that only big nerds were writing them without the common player in mind. I now humbly stand corrected. It is stigmatizing how short this game is. There simply is not enough content in this game. The monsters are too few and too weak, especially when you consider that Rygar is wielding a weapon as potent as the diskarmor. Most of the enemies simply roll over and die without putting up even a minimal fight, even the bosses.

There isn't enough of a hunt and seek type feel to this game either. Most of the items you need for your quest turn up along the path; you just follow along to the next objective and pick up whatever you need along the way. For an adventure styled game, that just doesn't quite cut it; especially when you consider that Rygar's ancestor for the NES frontiered that type of play.

On a minor note, the voice acting and dialogue is absolutely horrifying and unconvincing. This makes it a little more difficult to get into the story.

Now, on to the good. The visuals in this game are brilliant and stunning. Simply put, they are some of the best on the PS2 for the moment. The level Arcadia, the floating city, is quite a spectacle, the backgrounds are amazing and is truly something to behold. The animation is sometimes a little wierd, granted, but overall the backgrounds, the enemies exploding after being beaten sensless by the diskarmor, and the models themselves are all gorgeous.

Beyond the cosmetic qualities comes the diskarmor itself. This for me was the best part of the game. The diskarmor is awesome. It's one of the coolest weapons I've ever seen any character sport in a video game in a long time, and the combos and attack sequences are really cool and fun to use. You can beat up on enemies in so many ways it's rediculous, from swinging them around as a whip against other enemies to juggling them sensless in the air. The diskarmor was a unique idea that I really was impressed with, I just wish they'd have given you opportunity to use it more.

The soundtrack is AMAZING! The moscow symphony did an entire original score for the game, and it truly must be heard to be believed. It's masterful; if it was released on cd for purchase I'd definetely but it, and I rarely buy soundtracks from games even when they are good.

The general story of the game is pretty cool too. It's not the best in the world and at times it's more than a little cheesy (dialogue is TERRIBLE), but overall it's a fun plot.

Overall, this game has moderate replay value and is actually much better through once you get to the harder difficulty settings; otherwise it's just too flippin easy. If you're a casual gamer it may be right up your alley, but more hardcore players may be left half-empty after playing this. ... However, if you're looking for a more serene, beautiful game with great visuals, a stunning soundtrack, and good character design, look no further than this game. I really enjoyed playing this game and will likely play it again, I just wish there would have been more of it.

Neat weapon, uninspired gameplay.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I just rented this game (and trust me, that's all you'll want to do), and found it to be a bore fest.

There are some cool ideas such as being able to destroy just about all the environments you come accross, yet you seem to do more battle with the buildings and columns than you do with the enemies... why you ask? because there are none! I've just about beaten the game (in less than 6 hours I might add), and I've only ran into 5 types of enemies!

No enemies, anywhere... yet so many cool moves with you Diskarmor...Yet no one to use them on! Oh, and don't even think about using them on a boss, cause it just don't work.

Avoid purchase of this game. It makes a good rental however...

Review Page: 1 2 3 Next 

Actions