is a 2002 action-adventure video game developed and published by Tecmo for the PlayStation 2. It is loosely based on Tecmo's 1986 arcade game Rygar and its 1987 NES port. It was released in North America in November 2002, in Japan in December 2002 and in Australasia and Europe in May 2003, published by Wanadoo Edition. In 2009, it was remastered for the Wii by Team Tachyon as it was published by Tecmo in Japan in December 2008 and in North America in February 2009. It was released in Australasia and Europe in April and July 2009, respectively, published by Rising Star Games.
Set several years after the Roman Empire's conquest of Egypt, the game tells the story of Rygar, a heavy infantryman in the navy of Argus, a fictional Roman-controlled Mediterranean island. When Princess Harmonia of Argus is kidnapped by a group of Titans, Rygar is tasked by an ethereal voice to save her. To accomplish this, he is given the Diskarmor, a legendary weapon forged by the gods themselves. Believing his mission to be that of a simple rescue, Rygar discovers that there is much more to the Titans' objectives than he initially imagined, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Upon its initial PlayStation 2 release, The Legendary Adventure was well-received, with critics praising the Diskarmor mechanics, the depth of the combat and upgrade systems, the graphics, and the score. Several critics opined that it was the best action-adventure game released on the PlayStation 2. Common points of criticism included the game's short length, a weak storyline, poor voice acting, and, especially, the use of a fixed camera system. The Battle of Argus on Wii met with primarily negative reviews. Whilst most critics lauded the same aspects of the game as they had with the original (score, combat mechanics, upgrades etc.), they were heavily critical of how little effort had been put into updating the title, arguing that it felt dated, and had nothing to attract modern gamers.
Gameplay Rygar: The Legendary Adventure is an action-adventure game in which the player character's main offensive weapon is his Diskarmor, a razor-sharp spinning shield that can be thrown some distance whilst staying attached to him, similar to a yo-yo. The game is played from a fixed-camera third-person perspective, with the camera's position automatically changing relative to the player's current position.
The Diskarmor has two basic attack types; light and heavy, and by combining the two attacks in various configurations, the player can initiate combos, which become more complex but also more powerful as the game progresses. The Diskarmor is also capable of blocking, although players cannot move when blocking. Abilities can be unlocked that add other functions to the Diskarmor, such as a grapple ability that allows the player to swing between specially marked icons, or a pulley ability that allows them to pull themselves up to otherwise unreachable areas.
There are three different Diskarmors in the game (Hades (the default weapon), Heaven, and Sea). The Hades Diskarmor is best for fighting a single opponent and has medium range; the Heaven Diskarmor is designed to fight multiple opponents and has a long reach and moves in a wide circle. The Sea Diskarmor is very short-ranged and not very strong, but is extremely fast. Each Diskarmor is capable of summoning a Familiar; Hades can summon Cerberus, Heaven can summon Talos, and Sea can summon a Siren.
Throughout the game, the player can find numerous pick-ups. These include health replenishments, health bar increases, Icol (magic needed to summon Familiars) replenishments, Icol bar increases, offensive power increases, mystic stones for use with the Diskarmors, Sfaira (power-up points for the Diskarmors), story-related documents, and bonus unlockables such as music, cutscenes, and concept art. Mystic stones can be attached to Diskarmors and have multiple possible effects, such as increasing attack power, increasing defence power, making available new combos, granting more speed, allowing for critical hits etc.
Once the player has accumulated enough Sfaira, the Diskarmors can be leveled-up. Each Diskarmor can be leveled-up twice, and each level-up increases the Diskarmor's strength and defence, increases the strength of the Familiar, reduces the amount of Icol necessary for summoning a Familiar, and opens up one additional slot for a mystic stone attachment.
Plot Set several years after the Roman Empire's conquest of Egypt, Rygar: The Legendary Adventure takes place on Argus, a Roman-controlled Mediterranean island. A heavy infantryman in the Argus navy, Rygar has established himself as one of the greatest swordsmen alive, but with no family or memories of his childhood, he doesn't even know his real name.
As Rygar is attending a ceremony in the Colosseo with Princess Harmonia, they are attacked by Titans, evil beings created alongside the gods, but who were banished to the dungeon of Tartarus aeons prior. Harmonia is captured, and Rygar falls into a pit. He is soon revived by a female voice and given the Diskarmor, a shield forged by the gods. He is then told he must stop the Titans. He soon encounters Icarus, the Titans' leader, who speculates that Rygar cannot be "the lion of the man that Cronus talked about." Cronus was a Titan who led a revolt against the gods from Tartarus, creating the Gate of Darkness to allow the Titans to return to Earth. Icarus tries to kill Rygar, but Rygar summons the spirit of Cerberus from his Diskarmor, turning it into the Hades Diskarmor, and prompting Icarus to flee.
Rygar soon finds another Diskarmor, the Heaven Diskarmor, capable of summoning Talos. He then learns of the War of Cronus; after Cronus escaped Tartarus, the gods of heaven, the oceans, and the underworld forged three Diskarmors, giving them to three human warriors. Using the spirits within each Diskarmor, the three warriors defeated Cronus, banishing him back to Tartarus and sealing the Gate of Darkness with the power of the Diskarmors. One of them, the Warrior of the Sea, was Argo, founder of Argus, and when Rygar locates the Sea Diskarmor, capable of summoning a Siren, the voice who revived him reveals herself to be Argo.
As Rygar heads to the Gate of Darkness, he is confronted by Echidna, Icarus's right-hand woman. She reveals her real name is Cleopatra, and after Rome invaded Egypt, her son Caesarion was killed, and so she ate the flesh of a Titan, becoming a Demon and vowing revenge against humanity. However, when Rygar tells her that he has no childhood memories and is unaware of his true name, she leaves and returns to Icarus, having realised that Rygar is Caesarion. Icarus says he knew all along, stabbing her, and explaining that he needed to manipulate her into fighting Rygar so as to fulfil Cronus's prophecy.
Eventually, Rygar reaches the Gate of Darkness, and confronts Icarus, who explains that the prophecy says when the three Diskarmors open the Gate, Cronus will be resurrected in the body of a "young lion who has killed his mother." The spirit of Cronus then traps Rygar in a beam of light. However, the wounded Echidna is able to release him and toss him the Diskarmor before she is sucked into the Gate.
Icarus flees with Harmonia and as Rygar pursues them, Argo explains that Icarus was once named Aristotle, and was one of the three warriors that fought Cronus, alongside herself and Alexander. After the conflict, the Diskarmors were considered too powerful for mankind and were hidden on Argus. Years later, however, Alexander attacked Argus in an attempt to acquire the Diskarmors. Aristotle defended Argus, but was betrayed by the people and banished into the Gate of Darkness. In Tartarus, he allowed himself to be seduced by Cronus, becoming Icarus and vowing revenge against Argus.
Rygar confronts Icarus, but as they prepare to fight, Argo inhabits Harmonia's body, reminding Icarus that he once loved her. Overcome, Icarus rejects Cronus, creating a protective seal around Harmonia. He is then transformed into Typhon by Cronus. He and Rygar fight, with Rygar proving victorious. Rygar then enters the Gate of Darkness and is confronted by Echidna, who is in the midst of being transformed into a monster by Cronus. Against her will, she attacks him, but he is able to defeat her. He then faces Cronus himself, who he also defeats. As he flees Tartarus, he finds the barely alive Echidna. They reconcile and she dies in his arms. He continues to flee but is caught in an explosion and is falling into the bottomless depths when he is saved by Icarus, who carries him to the Gate, allowing him to return to Argus. There, he sees Harmonia and the two embrace.
Development Rumors of a Rygar remake began to spread in January 2002, when Tecmo confirmed that they were developing both a new Ninja Gaiden game and an untitled action-adventure game. The game was confirmed in April, with Tecmo revealing it would be a PlayStation 2 exclusive. They also revealed it would incorporate elements of Greek mythology, and cited films such as Clash of the Titans (1981) and Gladiator (2000) as influences. Rygar was first shown at E3 in May 2002, when an FMV and a non-playable demo was shown. At this stage of development, Rygar could use his fists for combat as well as the Diskarmor. This ability was removed from the game's final build. A short playable demo was made available to game journalists in September.
The visual template underpinning the game's design are those of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. In a Q&A with GameSpot in September, producer Satoshi Kanematsu said,
Early in production, several Tecmo staff members went to Greece to collect reference material. This included CG designer Tadafumi Kubo, who photographed materials for texture use. Kubo used Autodesk 3ds Max to design the levels and build the character models, as he found this method faster than drawing by hand. The character models were then imported into Softimage to animate them.
The CG cutscene which plays when the game first boots up began production before the game itself. This sequence was produced by Masaru Mayama of Polygon Magic, while Visual Science Laboratory (VSL) handled the day-to-day production. The movie had to be completely ready for E3 in May 2003, with game producer Satoshi Kanematsu asking for "a movie that will make people at E3 stand and watch with their mouths agape." Production began with VSL appointing a director to oversee the creation of a storyboard, based on the visual data supplied by Kubo. The creation of this storyboard took about a month, with the production time for developing the actual 3D taking another two. Softimage and 3ds Max were used for the effects. Maya was used for particle processing. Everything was rendered and combined in Adobe After Effects. The cutscene towards the end of the game where Princess Harmonia begins singing was created in much the same way, using all the same tools.
Music The game's soundtrack album, was released in Japan by Virgin on December 4, 2002. The music from the game was composed by Takayasu Sodeoka, Riichiro Kuwabara, and Hiroaki Takahashi, with the soundtrack featuring 27 tracks, including the main theme, "Wish", performed by opera singer Isobel Cooper (credited as Izzy) and recorded at Abbey Road Studios.
The Battle of Argus Much of the gameplay in The Battle of Argus is identical to The Legendary Adventure. Aside from the visual design of the protagonist, the biggest differences are some new enemies and the addition of Gladiator Mode; a 30-level gauntlet mode that must be played with the Wii Remote. The standard story mode (called "Conquest Mode") gives players the option of finishing a combo with a swing of the controller. Speaking to Gamasutra in December 2007, producer Keisuke Kikuchi addressed the reason that Conquest Mode and Gladiator Mode had different control schemes;