For some reason, I
was drawn towards Tecmo’s NES version of Rygar, a game released in 1987
that is still praised to this day for its use of a permanent form of
strengthening the warrior. He wasn’t
given an actual name in the Japanese game, but it’s best to just assume he’s
called Rygar, because that’s what the English version did.
Rygar started out
as a more colorful and detailed arcade title (degree of fun experienced varies
with player), but, as with nearly all coin-operating entertainment machines, it
was a sadistic, money-gobbling monstrosity that threw everything, except
kitchen sink-shaped demons, at your one-hit-KO’d hero. When it was released on
the NES, however, Tecmo had made a few changes.
Obviously, he’s talking about one of
those 2 A.M. sunsets.
The arcade’s “Go
right!” killing spree was turned into an open-ended half-n-half with some areas
being a side-scroller, while other spots were viewed through a top-down
perspective. Sounds neat, right? Metroidvania gameplay, for me, has always been
a non-cake related lie about providing the freedom to explore. Yeah, I could go
to any poorly-named zone of Argool (Primeval Mountain, Rosla, or even Ragua
Sando) and kill stuff with either my glorified yo-yo (Diskarmor) or a flashing
screen created from using the yo-yo ten times after buffing myself with Attack
& Assail, but to accomplish what exactly? To reach a point where a hermit,
who looks exactly like any one of the five Indora gods (because creating one
more sprite to differentiate them would have taken Tecmo for-fucking-ever and
billions of yen to accomplish), tells you, “Sorry, pal, but you need (item) to
continue.” Essentially, I am given the freedom to run back and forth across the
land each time I pick up an item in order to figure out which area I’ve now
gained full access through. I’m still being forced to accomplish things in a
particular order with only a few deviations along the way. I’d rather have kept
to the side-scrolling throughout the whole game and avoided the headache of
running into dead ends. My toleration of all that backtracking was thanks to
the permanent power-up feature that rewarded me for the excessive fighting.
The story doesn’t
really change in the transition; it just gets a bit longer. Ligar’s floating
palace and his army of wimpy monsters darkened the land of Argool, captured the
five Indora gods, and established the kingdom of EVIL. (Yes, the entire word is
capitalized.) The “Door to Peace”, which symbolized the, you guessed it, peace
of Argool was taken away by Ligar, leaving the people with no other option than
to begin praying for salvation. Apparently, their prayers were so loud and
obnoxious that it literally woke the dead as Rygar popped up out of the ground
to fight. I guess this means Rygar is a zombie, but there is nothing zombie-ish
about him outside of being able to pick himself up again each time he is
killed. Endless continues! Yay!
The last change
made for the NES version involved the monsters. Blue monkeys, flying squirrels,
cave bats, drones and other creatures with simple names are replaced with
kuzeelars, hyokings, garzels, epolcons, kinobles, and whocomesupwiththisstuffs.
There’s also boss fights besides Ligar, but one can tell how lazy Tecmo became
with these sprites, as they did with recycling the one shared by hermits and
the Indora gods.
Belzar and
Deathpigor look almost identical while Ligar’s unique appearance is offset by
his attacking serpent heads that make him out to be another Deathpigor. What’s worse
is that these three bosses have no mobility, and I’m supposed to believe Ligar
is the most powerful foe in the game? How can I take Ligar seriously if he’s
stuck to the floor? If Tecmo had allowed it, I would run around this guy,
recover the door (wait, does that sound right?), and leave the lion man to die of boredom alone in his
palace. I mean, what could he do about it? Yell loudly in protest?
Other things to
nitpick about include the game’s soundtrack. This is especially true of the
looping roar sound the player listens to in each boss area. The sound effect repeats
every other second and continues to do so even when the boss is dead. I don’t
know. Maybe it’s the sound of the monster’s corpse emitting the last bits of
life from its backside. As for the other areas, the only piece with any real
quality to it would be Sagila’s Cavern, which has been remixed more than any
other (from what I could find) on Youtube, though Suero Mountain’s theme will
likely be the most memorable for players, since it’s the first thing we all
hear when we start a new game. Also, feel free to hit the mute button once you
reach the Palace of Dorago. If you’ve ever heard a record player skip for over
a minute, then you already know what this stage sounds like. Using Rygar’s age
isn’t a plausible excuse, either. Koji Kondo has been composing beautiful vg music
since 1984.
Finally, the items
you collect on this journey are not all that impressive (just like this blog
entry). There’s no real indication as to when you need to use the grappling
hook. You just sort of throw it up in the air when you think there might be a
platform off screen. The wind pulley requires a little practice to use, because
if you don’t position yourself properly, then it won’t latch, and your hero
ends up falling off of a cliff. The crossbow’s only use is to create lines for
your wind pulley. Not that I need another weapon, but it wouldn’t hurt to have
it shoot bolts or arrows at enemies from a distance greater than that of the
Diskarmor. The coat of arms is legitimately useful. Take it to a specialized
hermit (or maybe it’s an Indora god cosplayer) and receive a potion than
restores your health whenever you wish to drink it. Then there’s the Indoras’
armor. By the time you receive this item, your tone (offense) and last
(defense) are probably high enough to overcome enemies without the added
protection. I sure didn’t need it to beat the final boss!
IGN places Rygar
at #59 for its top 100 NES games, and they refer to it as a “cult classic.”
Then again, they consider Mega Man 6 to be #58, so I don’t think being on that
list is much of a compliment, and the retro sanctuary places it as #52. I
couldn’t find the game elsewhere on the lists of other sites, but all that
really matters is whether or not you should play it. If you have the system (or
an emulator) and you have access to the game, then why not play it? I own the
cartridge because I bought it as part of a fifty-game lot on eBay. I certainly
didn’t aim to own this particular title, but I guess I’m happy to still have
it. Well, actually, I didn’t think the game was all that fun, but it was simple.
Also, once you have an idea of where to go, the whole journey can be done in
under an hour. Someone who enjoys speed runs might buy this… maybe. As for
myself, being able to finish an NES game always gives me a feeling of
satisfaction… even if the ending was kinda crummy.
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