Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (PS2 Review)

The gaming industry is a strange animal indeed. In what way the system actually works has passed beyond my meager knowledge to hopefully be understood by more veteran masters. Why some better-than-average titles receive sequel after sequel, while outstanding franchises have one shot at the gold ring, baffles me completely. Now before I lose you completely in my rant over the state of our beloved choice of entertainment, let me redirect you back to the source of my bewilderment. 

 

In the days when the world was young, and 8-bit systems ruled the Earth, Nintendo released a remake of the arcade hit, Rygar. This game brought a unique and innovative gaming style to what would eventually become the defunct genre of side-scrollers. Expanding on everything that was great in the arcades, they reinvented the wheel by taking a basic game, for the times, and turning it into a full-blown action-adventure. Overstuffed with massive boss battles and topdown sequences, Tecmo brought us something much more than a simple port of a cult classic. Considered by many to be a shining star of accomplishments for the era, the game disappeared into hibernation for 15 years, only to stir slightly for a short rebirth on the Atari-Lynx. Now, at the height of the current love affair with video games, the sleeping giant has once again awakened, to the rapture of fans, with a whole new adventure. Welcome to the stage, Rygar: The Legendary Adventure.

Unlike the previous games, Rygar is set within the Greco-Roman time frame. Rygar, a mighty gladiator whose past is shrouded in mystery, witnesses the kidnapping of the lovely Princess Harmonia by the Titans. Their ultimate goal is to use her to free their captive master, Cronus, and regain their reign over the Earth. Led by Icarus (who remarkably resembles Raziel from the Soul Reaver franchise) and the reincarnated form of Cleopatra, they release the denizens of Hades and begin their dastardly plot. Single-handedly, you begin your quest to save the world and free the Princess.

Just like the original, the entire game revolves around the Diskarmor. Most likely to be compared to a yo-yo with teeth of steel, this gift of the gods is both your only means of offense and defense throughout the entire game. Moreover, in the later stages of the adventure, you will also be able to use this pseudo Swiss army knife for your means of travel, by transforming it into a grappling hook. It can also summon elemental assistance and be upgraded with mystic stones and experience points. There are three different versions of the Diskarmor, each with their own unique abilities, and you can switch weapons on-the-fly without risking death or non-defendable injury.

Designed as an action-adventure title, Rygar keeps players on their toes through a wide assortment of methods. To begin with, you have all of the ingredients of a hack-n-slash button-masher with the large amount of enemies that you can be facing onscreen. However, for those that want to be able to proceed with more depth than repeatedly pressing the basic attack button, there are a bunch of combos (some of which need to actually be uncovered in the game) for each of the three different Diskarmors, which adds strategy and challenge to your experience. Every boss battle is unique and requires a different approach, depending on their particular strengths. Simple button-mashing won’t cut the mustard, especially in the advanced difficulty levels, and usually you will have to try a handful of times before success is complete. 

The adventure aspect is two-pronged. First, underneath all of the flat wide-open plains, lays an introverted platformer that would make any Mario veteran proud. Level design is fresh and challenging, without the normal frustration that usually is included. Tecmo felt sorry for all of us less-coordinated folks and didn’t count falling off cliffs as a character death, which would have resulted in restarting at your last save point. Instead, they utilize a player-friendly checkpoint system, which usually puts you back at the last major platform. Nevertheless, the jumping from rock to rock is natural and easy for beginners to master quickly. The other part of the adventure is the utter destruction of just about everything that you find in the game. As it is described in the beginning of the game, the blood of the Titans can infect any object and enable them to continue living in inanimate objects. So, it is up to our hero to yank that ham-bone from their plate and obliterate any chance for returning back to the land. This may seem to get tedious for some players, as there are literally hundreds of columns and rocks to destroy, but I found this avenue personally fulfilling, since I prefer to make sure I leave no stone unturned as I progress through an area. By smashing items, along with monsters, you can uncover upgrade points for the Diskarmor and other helpful items, including health and strength improvements. At least Tecmo came up with a logical reason behind all the wanton destruction, and didn’t leave us in the dark as to why we should care to break everything in sight.

The in-game visuals and the Full-Motion Videos (FMV) are both lush and glamorous. In fact, the final level of Arcadia rivals anything that has been developed by Square-Soft in any of their games. I had to keep stopping my forward progress just to marvel at the beauty presented before me, and was even backtracking through the platforms to enjoy the sights. The use of color is spread around evenly and no two levels have the same appearance or feel. Characters have unique traits and have been developed independently, unlike some games where the faces change but the bodies look identical. All of the environmental effects, including the water, mist and fire, give a realistic appearance and really push the eye-candy meter towards the uppermost limit. Each building has the Greco-Roman feel and has been realistically recreated to mirror that of the ancient architecture to the smallest detail. It is exceptionally hard to come up with any negative comments for this department, since it is evident that Tecmo put their full effort into giving us a great presentation.

The audio portions, however, are not so lucky. Only available in the standard mono or stereo options, one just does not get the opportunity to enjoy a game of this magnitude. If Tecmco would have utilized a surround sound aspect and channeled the sound effects to their respective speakers, I could have truly imagined myself being transported to the land of yesterday. The background music was done by the Moscow International Symphonic Orchestra, and each piece is nothing less than exquisite. The audio effects are true to character and have a very realistic ring to them, especially anything concerning the use of the Diskarmor. On the other hand, the lip-synching of the actor’s voices and their onscreen counterparts just don’t match up well and could have used some more time in the studio. The dialog flows well most of the time, but there are instances when things just don’t seem to mesh properly and it appears that the translation team struggled to Americanize the game.

During gameplay, the frame-rate maintains a steady pace and there is no clipping or draw-in evident. The only negative aspect was the locked camera perspective, simply because I like to look around levels to help me keep my bearings. Camera angles change as you move from room to room, which gives the game a movie-styled presentation and also can account for slight disorientation. Nevertheless, you almost always have a clear view of your surroundings and never once did a lack of vision cause a single death.

The control scheme for Rygar is simple enough for beginners to quickly pick up and play, but has enough depth to keep you coming back after you have conquered the basics. The button assignments feel natural and make proceeding through the game a breeze. Our hero has two different versions of attacking the hordes of baddies that can surround him, and these can be modified by changing the pattern in which you use them. The combo system is expanded by the additional moves that Rygar learns, one of which is a nifty slide move needed to get under low hanging obstacles. Luckily, this gladiator begins the game with the mystic knowledge of ‘jumping’ and doesn’t have to learn how to do this, unlike other games of the genre. By utilizing these attack and evade techniques, most players should be able to lay waste to the attacking mythological beasts and barely break a sweat.

In a nod to the difficulty of the original, Tecmo has included a 30 level mini-game, with various difficulty levels, called the Necromondio Cave. Once you enter, you have to progress through all of the levels without the ability to save your progress. This is only for the seasoned Rygar veteran and will take you about an hour to finish. Proceed with caution and bring a healthy level of supplies, because if you leave the dungeon, you will have to start all over from scratch. 

The main game has four difficulty levels, and only by completing each version will you be able to collect all of the mystic stones and other items in the game. Moreover, each time you complete a difficulty level, you receive a unique, unlockable skin for the Diskarmor. While they don’t help with the next level, they are rather interesting to have attached to your arm. Also, through your travels, you will come across items that will unlock cinema sequences and musical selections along with tons of production and concept art from the game. All of these can be viewed in the gallery located in the main menu.

Tecmo looks to have once again put together a quality product, while offering something old and new at the same time. Revamping a successful old-school franchise to the new generation platforms seems to be child’s play for the company. The introduction of the Greco-Roman environments do nothing but help immerse the player into the game and brings a fresh taste to what could have been just another platformer. Using the city of Argus (known by Clash of the Titans fans to have been destroyed by Zeus) was a brilliant tie-in for children of the 80’s. Every time the city was mentioned, its name brought flashbacks, from my youth, of Medusa and the Kraken. Although not a title for every player, fans of both ancient mythology and action-adventure games should definitely give this game a sampling.

Difficulty: 7

Control: 9

Audio: 7

Visuals: 9

Replayability: 8

Overall: 8.6

Monster Rancher 3 (PS2 Review)

Once upon a time the virtual pet was the biggest thing to hit the scene since the invention of the Pet Rock. In 1997, Tecmo introduced the Monster Rancher series to the public. Although it never received the following that Pikachu and his friends did, it did gather enough of a fan base to spin-off multiple sequels in different game genres. This is the most current installment of the niche series.

 

The storyline starts in the history of the Tochikan people. Monsters were given to these people to help them in tasks and generally make their lives easier. Eventually, the sport of competition came into existence and owners would pit their monsters against one another during festivals. As this festivity become more popular, Monster Breeders were hired to help train the monsters so that they would become better in the arena. Different sections of the world had their own specific time when they would have these contests and ultimately they merged together and Monster Leagues were formed and rankings were created. You begin the game as a fledgling breeder with no experience with the ways of monsters. To help you on your journey to becoming a Master Breeder you are given assistance from Fleria, a Tochikan rookie adviser. While this may not sound impressive on its own, she is related to the leader of the Tochikan people and caretaker of the Monster Shrine, Grandpa Brogma. There are also twenty other characters that you will meet and defeat on your way to becoming the land’s premier breeder.

The Monster Rancher series has always been more about the breeding and training of your monster than about the battles that they are generated to fight in. How you treat your monster has a direct effect on its lifespan and simply feeding your beast the wrong food can shorten their life by years. Gameplay is broken down into weekly segments where you can only choose one specific task from a handful of available options. There are various training jobs that can be done by your monster. Working your monster increases the related statistics and each monster grows at its own speed. Some progress quickly while others evolve at a snail’s pace. Time management is critical to the success of your monster. If you spend too much time training and venturing, you may not have enough time left to move your monster up through the ranks before it passes on. 

There are weekly contests that can be entered with the big tournaments available at the end of the month or season. Even though any monster can enter any contest that has been unlocked by your ranking as a breeder, it is best to keep within their current ranking so that death or injury is less likely to occur. Moreover, if your monster is tired or overstressed it will not do as well. When the seasons change, your monster can go on Ventures where you can find rare items, boost your creature’s statistics, obtain new attacks or learn new training techniques. When your monster dies, you can take its heart and fuse it into a new creature. This option allows you to build on a previous generation which increases the chance of being able to win all of the tournaments within the lifespan of a single monster. With the proper choices, it is possible to sweep the five major Festas in only four generations.

The thing that set the original game apart from the rest of the Poke'-clones was how the player acquired his creatures. When prompted by the game, the player inserts any type of CD into their PlayStation. Each CD has a unique code that the game uses to generate a monster. Some CD’s have such a special code, mostly it is other games designed by Tecmo, that you can only find these rare monsters by using the predetermined discs. Once found, the monsters need to be trained so that they can fight in the multiple tournaments. If your monsters are successful, your rank improves and you gain the ability to unlock more challenging monsters to raise as your own.

Monster Rancher 3 improves the series in many ways. Since the game is designed to run on the PS2, you now have the ability to find monsters on DVD’s as well as CD’s. Although there are a limited number of monster types to be discovered, each disc has a monster with unique statistics. Secondly, the introduction of the Encyclopedia now gives players the option to save one type each of the 230+ monsters in the game. This helps out the player so that they do not have to remember which disc that they found which monster on. Moreover there are bunches of accessories that can be found or bought which can be used to increase your monster’s abilities. Most of these are monster-specific and can only be used on a certain group of monsters. Hats that work for one breed will not work for others. There are some generic items which will are allowed to be used on any of your new pets, but these are far and few in-between.

One additional new effect for the game is the environmental effect. Now, depending on where you train your monster, the area may have some genetic alterations. One clear example is if you spend too much time training your monster underwater, they can evolve to grow fins. These minor effects can have major results in the battlefield, so it is best to train throughout all of the game’s regions rather than just sticking to one specific location.

The game’s graphics are a bit better than your average Saturday morning cartoons. While the backgrounds and character appearances are a step up from previous installments, they in no way push the system to its limits. There is no slowdown in the framerate, nor any draw-in when playing the game. The time it takes to generate a monster can get tedious, especially when you are running through your media library looking for a specific monster type. The sounds and music of the game are average at best. I found myself turning the sound off and listening to the radio most of the time. The text translation can be confusing and sometimes make no real sense at all, especially when it gives you a one-liner about a monster’s preferences or abilities. Nevertheless, these flaws have been in existence throughout the series so they are in no way a step backwards for the current game.

Monster Rancher 3 is the first game in the Sony family to allow picture importation. Something that is just starting to be possible with the new EyeToy originally could have been done using a PictureParadise compatible digital camera in this game. This function allows players to take a facial snapshot and import their image onto a mask which any monster can wear.

The strength of this game is in its replay value. You can lose hours upon hours of your life simply checking your CD/DVD collection for monsters to add to your encyclopedia. Then once you have them, you can try to take each one up the tournament ranks. Overall it is the idea, rather than the game itself, which makes this game worthy of your attention. The sum of the whole is truly more than of its parts. I highly recommend this game for a rental to see if it agrees with you. For those who worship at the Temple Pokemon, it is a must buy. 

Difficulty: 7

Control: 9

Audio: 6

Visuals: 8

Replayability: 10

Overall: 8.6