Nooooooo, why is Simpsons: Hit and Run so low? It is SURELY the gaming pinnacle of 2003!
Sarcastic or not, its secretly in my top 20 of PS2 games, its that low cause its a fun thing to take a break on and can be reviewed when I'm done toppling the giant time wasters. Anyway, its time for my rygar review! I would post youtube examples for the amazing soundtrack, but I have no audio and any means to make sure they sound right.
RYGAR: THE LEGENDARY ADVENTURE
General Info
Rygar for the uninitiated is a hack and slash game, with comparisons to various other games. I will not post them as of now simply because the comparisons are lacking, and I personally feel the game falls in line with a more specific line of games. Anyway, I'll basically be reviewing the game in one big article, no sections or what ever. This is pure thought rambling with some form of serious behavior. Beware of spoilers, but I assume no one minds spoilers for a 10 year old game. If there is a major issue the story portion will go into a spoiler, if not then fine. Lets continue....
As I said its a hack and slash. The combat is simple enough, with complicated button combos, and some pretty decent animation. The gameplay here is akin to God of War and Devil May Cry. It adds flash and flair to something quite middling, but there is an upside. Even if you learn the combos, you still need to learn that little layer of subtlety the game adds, by having various buttons needed to be pressed in a different order to get a different result. For example, you can press [] [] [] Δ and get a cool finisher, or you can hold a 4th square button for this great charged attack. Nothing special, but nice substance.
Even better is the way the game gives you these mystic stone. The stones add effects that you would normally find, knock back cancels, attack boosts and what not. The kicker is this though. You only have 4 slots to use, and quite a few are useful. This adds a certain layer to what you can do however, as certain stones are more suited for one weapon instead of another. The wepaons themselves are all Diskarmors, and they are exactly what they sound like. Disks on chains, that can be used as shields. There is even more of the usual, with the diskarmors being 3, one with long reach and average speed, one with no reach and blazing fast moves, and the usual slow with medium reach but covers a greater radius.
Outside of this however, the gameplay is fairly simple, but this where the games comparisons to the likes of DMC and GoW stop here. And this is where people lose me. See, the game isn't really a Hack and Slash on those terms, but also a Metroidvania and Legend of Zelda clone to boot. There is a fair amount of stuff you gain from going back to previous areas, those aforementioned stones, with newly gained abilities, plus the addition of some dungeon like exploring. The dungeons are simple sure, something like the Forest Temple of Skyward Sword x5, but you are going between several at certain points. It is also a fairly adequate ability user, as it uses the diskarmor itself instead of giving you new items to explore, or like Metroid several new attacks that can open up paths as well as being useful in battle. Although short, there are some truly breath taking moments however. There is this one moment where you are going to the Sky City Arcadia, more later, which is absolutely stunning. Simple platform to platform ziplining and hookshot stuff, but its beautiful. Floating rocks, bass rocking thunder noises, and the vast sky gives justice to the game. Simply experiencing it has been the best feel in the game, even if short lived.
Story wise, its absurd. Argos is moved from Peloponnese to the middle of the Agean, complete with a Colosseum! Also, the princess of Argos, is a resurrected warrior from ye olde mythology days, when the titans and humans were at war. Apparently to protect civilization 3 warriors were summoned to protect mankind, with the 3 diskarmors. Oh yes. The main weapon is the plot point, and its so awesome. The other 2 warriors? Alexander the Great and Aristotle. OH YES. Apparently the original Argos was in love with Alexander, and Aristotle got pissed cause of it. See, Alexander abandoned Arcadia, yep he was given a sky city and not Macedonia to rule, to be Argos' lover, and Aristotle no likely. He is the antagonist of the game, and needs the princess to rise Chronus, master of the titans. Chronus was apparently locked by the three diskarmors, so he needs em too. This is like Zelda on speed, I swear to god. Princess and 3 magical artifacts are needed to unlock the seal on the big bad? Check! Sub-villain to rise the evil master? Check! Puny mortal female that's tricked by him? Check! Oh wait, that's not a plot point of Zelda...
But it is here. Cleopatra, after losing her son, killed herself. Aristotle however decides she is needed, cause she's part of what destiny says. To truly unlock the seal, she needs to die at her own sons hands, or at least protecting him. But he's dead? Nope. He's Rygar! Yep, the game pulls this one on yah. Makes no sense? Sure, I lost myself as well somewhere at the colosseum. But yeah, no more story, cause its confusing. I seriously am going to do an LP on this,cause you need to witness it to believe. A redeeming factor of the game is the music. Its seriously good. Bombast, and adventurous, it helps the game move along. It adds a certain feel to it, and I love warping back to the main field, another Zeldaesque feature, to listen to its theme again. The game is solid overall, even the absurd story. I strongly recommend all who haven't played it yet to try and find it and give it a spin. Its worth it, and you won't regret experiencing some of the madness.
Grade? Its a solid
8/10, offering great replayability, some truly fun moments mixed with awe, and a game story so absurd it needs to be witnessed to be true.
Hopefully I did well and didn't lose you guys, and I hope you enjoyed it enough to want more of my reviews.
