That’s where the five generals of Ligar come into play. While Rygar has many abilities, flight is not one of them and Ligar isn’t simply going to drop a ladder from his castle to give you a helping hand. It’ll be some time before you get to Ligar’s castle, though. Some of these regions will be of the side-scrolling variety, while others will remind you (somewhat) of the Legend of Zelda and its overhead view. Careful exploration leads you to the grotesque caverns of a gigantic spider, the castle of a demon, floating islands in the sky and the infernal flying castle of Ligar, himself. This new land is the most important area of the game, as it is the hub connecting all the regions of Argool. Pass through the portal and you’ll now get to experience things from an overhead perspective. While you’ll find that a good chunk of this region is off-limits to you at this time, with a little bit of searching, a door leading to a new area will be found. Only moments into the game, you’ll find yourself climbing and descending ropes in a cliff-like area. You’ll begin the game by going through a couple of side-scrolling regions, killing and dodging the many monsters that erupt from the ground in a vain attempt to prevent you from even putting the slightest of dents in Ligar’s tyrannical rule.
Fortunately, like the average big-shot villain, Ligar has his own little posse of subordinates scattered throughout Argool, just waiting to be slaughtered by a brave hero. It takes over 4,000 points to max out Rygar’s “Tone” and “Last”, though, meaning that you’ll have plenty of work ahead of you to make him the all-powerful being he’ll need to be in order to end Ligar’s reign of evil. While Rygar can only take a handful of hits at the beginning of a game, by the time he’s ready to challenge Ligar, he’ll be able to take any foe’s best shot and still be standing. Add enough “Last” points and your hero’s life meter will go up. As Rygar’s “Tone” increases, it will take fewer and fewer hits to kill monsters. The end result was that instead of simply being a pure arcade action-platformer, Rygar also delivers some light role-playing elements (like a simpler version of Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest or The Adventure of Link), leaving players with a bit more well-rounded of an experience than could be gained by playing, say, Contra.īy switching to the game’s status screen, you’ll see numbers labeled “Tone” and “Last” which increase as you kill monsters. While a few aspects of Rygar's console adventure remained true to the arcade game, Tecmo made the decision to add elements of exploration.
With a game such as Rygar, the only thing that truly matters is the play value and Tecmo (a company on the verge of releasing mega-hit Ninja Gaiden) was definitely well-equipped to deliver on that front. Nope, we aren’t concerned with minor questions, such as why Rygar is so intent on protecting a drab land that only seems to be populated by an unlimited number of monsters and several clones of the god Indora, or why his choice of weapon appears to be a bizarre hybrid of a flail and a yo-yo. But such trifling details such as “plot” or “character development” aren’t why players such as myself still fondly pick this game up nearly two decades after its original home release in 1987. Their only hope - the reanimated body of a valiant warrior.Īnd there you have it - the entire plot of Tecmo’s NES adaptation of the arcade game called Rygar. The horrid and demonic Ligar, hidden within a floating castle, had sent his army of beasts and monsters throughout the land to steal hope from the general populace. The fine (if somewhat barren) land of Argool had seen better days. Their only hope - the reanimated body of a valiant warrior." "The fine (if somewhat barren) land of Argool had seen better days.