News: Nintendo Wii Media | New Rygar: The Battle of Argus Trailer Page 1

Mason 22.09.2007#1

Looking pretty good!

Martin_ 22.09.2007#2

Yeah looks really good. Way better than Soul Calibur Legends, which, by the way, needs far more cowbell if it's ever going to amount to anything more than mediocre.

amtrid 22.09.2007#3

this looks a little like its in devil may cry vein. which is good cos i love that series. my only problem is that it might end up a bit ps2 like

but not bad, i d buy it.

tiamat1990 23.09.2007#4

The music is like Pirate of the Carribean...

It's like God of War, except I hate the art style. It's almost like Soul Calibur with the voices and the colour tone. I hate Soul Calibur.

JustJoe 23.09.2007#5

Funny I was think it sounded like pirates, too. I'm pretty sure it won't be as violent as God of War.

jb 23.09.2007#6

Pretty nice, looks like a lot's more going on then SC:Legends as Oni said, not very original but some weird and wonderful looking creatures!

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer

Mandown 23.09.2007#7

The original was the 3rd NES game I bought.

( Edited on 23.09.2007 09:39 by Linkyshinks [LS] )

Crazylurch 23.09.2007#8

This game has a shadow the colossus mixed with Vagrant Story feel to it. Graphics look like between ps2 and psone. lol

Woooooooo!!!

Mason 23.09.2007#9

amtrid said:
my only problem is that it might end up a bit ps2 likebut not bad, i d buy it.

Well, it is a port of the old PS2 game with added Wii controls, so a valid concern. From what I've heard it works quite well, though, and if it's successful there's a strong possibility of an entirely new Rygar being built ground-up for Wii.

Nintendo Lad 23.09.2007#10

Looks like an OK action title, but I don't expect it to top anything other than OK.
Not loving the graphics and art srtyle though - too blocky and dark.

Faust_D 23.09.2007#11

JustJoe said:
Funny I was think it sounded like pirates, too. Im pretty sure it wont be as violent as God of War.

That's because it begins with the same pattern of notes, and, most likely, uses a lot of similar instruments.^^

~Getting on C3's massive tits since 2K5.~

Megadanxzero 24.09.2007#12

Doesn't look to bad gameplay-wise, but it's certainly below par graphically... At least it's better than the original PS2 game though, because that looked shockingly bad...

And the male voice in that trailer really reminded me of the commentator in Power Stone... ^^;;

Still a proud member of the 'omfg amazing water in games' society

MathU 24.09.2007#13

Another damn PS2 port with Wii controls. I'm really getting tired of this garbage. I'll probably buy the game, but damnit, this has got to stop.

Of course, that's just an opinion.

J4K 24.09.2007#14

The music is like Pirate of the Carribean...

Yeah, I bet there's a law suit pending somewhere. Smilie

But anyway, if they nail the Wii controls, it could be a lot of fun. Hopefully they get it right, because the game certainly isn't relying on its graphics to "wow" people.

J Tangle 24.09.2007#15

Oni-Ninja said:
Yeah looks really good. Way better than Soul Calibur Legends, which, by the way, needs far more cowbell if its ever going to amount to anything more than mediocre.

Yeah this trailer does this game great justice with all the action bits. Compared to SCL It may be a tight race since the Soul Cal name will sell it. Rygard's rpg elements seem to make it a bit deeper. I'm wondering what type of character leveling will SCL have Smilie

Mandown 25.09.2007#16

Interview-

When Tecmo first announced a 'new' Rygar game back at a press event in May 2007, gamers got excited thanks to Rygar's edgy new character design and the promise of the franchise's revival. But when word got out that it was primarily a port (with some graphical tweaks and new enemies) of the five year-old PS2 game, not only were fans disappointed, but confused as well. To get to the bottom of this unique development, we spoke at length with Kikuchi-san about why he's using a game that came out half a decade ago as the kernel for his latest Wii effort.

1UP: So, you're aiming for an end of year (December) release for Rygar, but it might get bumped back to Q1 '08. What would cause a delay if there was one?

Keisuke Kikuchi: The PS2 version of Rygar had a lot of complicated features, customization, different things that made it very difficult to bring it to the Wii, so that's pushing our schedule back. It's taking a little longer than anticipated. Plus, we're recreating the Wii control scheme for the Diskarmor control, but the more time we put into it the better it gets, so we're just trying to find a happy medium in optimizing the controls.

And as far as new features, the placement of the new enemies and such are completely finished. From this point forward, more time will be spent matching the graphical quality to the Wii, and that's going to take some time.

1UP: How do you mean 'matching' the graphics? Are you enhancing them so they're better than the PS2, or does the Wii do something with a color palette that makes things look richer?

KK: I mean basically to make the graphics look better specifically on the Wii.

1UP: Does Rygar support the Wii's 16:9 widescreen configuration?
KK: No, it retains the original dimension of the PS2 game.

1UP: OK, so my first major question for you is why are you basing this on a five year-old PS2 game? It seems like you're going through so much trouble to create a new control scheme that lets you whip the Diskarmor using the Wii Remote, you redesigned the character, and you're creating new enemies and bosses, and you're redoing a lot of the graphics. It seems like if you were going to go through this much trouble then you might as well have made a whole new game.

KK: My game-making philosophy has always been to focus on one thing, and build the game around that one main theme. For instance with Fatal Frame it was horror, it was a scary game and the whole game was built around that one big theme. So in the case of a new Rygar, my focus was on how to best utilize the Wii control. Everything is built around the Diskarmor control using the Wii controller. Of course I could have started everything from scratch on a new Rygar project, but if I was to do that it might not have been on Wii, we could have done it for PS3, 360, PS2. However, why we focused on Wii was because of what we could do with the Wii controller. Because of that, even though the game may be based on a five year-old game, as you call it, it will still feel very fresh and very unique on the Wii system. That way I can focus on that one important thing.

1UP: So basically, by using the PS2 Rygar as the core, it frees you up to concentrate on perfecting the Wii controls, since the level design is already there, the animations and physics are already in place, and the majority of the graphic data is already complete.

KK: Yeah, the basic stage design might be the same, but first of all the last game was developed by another person, so I had nothing to do with it, but the previous version was known as an insect-killing game because of those rolling bugs, so you'd kill many small enemies, which all looked like rollers -- because they were -- which was criticized, of course. This time I've created bigger enemies that are human-based. Before you'd slash through many, but this time I want to focus on each impact, the soothing feeling of a big attack.

1UP: I asked in this way because I saw that fan reaction was quite excited when they saw the new character design, but that opinion turned pretty irate when gamers found out that the 'new' Rygar was actually an old Rygar. I figured it'd be worth getting to the root of it so people could understand where you're coming from.

KK: I want this game to be a strong and powerful game, I want you to have to use your muscles while playing this game. The original PS2 version, the Rygar character you saw on screen used to blend in nicely with the background and environment. I purposely made Rygar look the way he does now so he always stands out, whether he's in a dungeon, he always looks out of place. I totally expect some people to criticize our decision to use the PS2 Rygar, but once you play this game and feel how it plays, I'm confident people will 'get it.' Hopefully once you get to play it and people read your opinion, it'll change any negative thoughts there might be on the matter.

1UP: Is the Japanese version coming out earlier than the U.S. version?

KK: The U.S. version is coming out first. In fact, right now, we're not thinking about the Japanese version at all.

1UP: I noticed you toned down the 'Britney Spears' look of the princess in the game. Was that deliberate?

KK: I really haven't done much to it. I'm not trying to criticize my predecessor, but I didn't like the way she looked in the previous game, so I made some adjustments to make her more generic instead of having too much focus on her.

1UP: Who did the Rygar redesign?

KK: It was an in-house designer.

1UP: It's very, very good. I think it ranks right up there with Ryu Hayabusa, actually. It's really cool. What kind of new stuff can we expect in the game?

KK: Basically we have two types of bosses, which are all bigger than Rygar. The smaller enemies that carry Diskarmor-style weapons are faster and will attack you with speed. The bigger enemies -- the knights -- they are challenging to defeat, but it's satisfying to defeat them. I haven't disclosed this information before, but we're working on adding some big bosses to the game. The new mode in the game is called 'Gladiator Mode,' and what's different about this mode is that the power you use with the Wii remote translates directly to the on-screen speed of the Diskarmor.

1UP: Would it be more effective to use short, swift strokes, like you can in Super Swing Golf [Kikuchi's previous Wii game], instead of really long, powerful swings?

KK: That's one of the things that's going to take time to make it right. Because in Japan the subtitle is 'Muscle Impact' I really want to avoid being able to make wrist-y, snappy actions. I want you to really have to use your whole arm to do it, and that's what I'm working on now.

1UP: One of the things we can always count on in your games is a bunch of secret costumes. Do you plan to add that to Rygar for Wii?

KK: I really want to put something in there, especially now that I get the feeling that you want me to put something in there. [Laughs] But first I have to concentrate on getting the controls right, then I can think about what I can add to the game.

1UP: Well, you put secret costumes in the Fatal Frame games, you put them in Super Swing Golf, hell, you put them in Gallop Racer. I think you want to put them in there! That'd make people play through a second or third time instead of selling the game back to the store the instant they beat it.

KK: I don't know if you noticed, but the camera position is over the shoulder, whereas the previous version was set back from a wide angle, third-person perspective. The feeling is to set the camera over the shoulder so that it feels more dramatic.

1UP: One of the things that Japanese game publishers have a tendency to do is to ignore the franchises that make them famous in the first place. Sega does it a lot. They create a new IP [intellectual property] and then if it doesn't sell extremely well, they'll leave it alone for five years or more. Now that you've gone through the trouble to redesign Rygar, create a control system that works for the Wii, can we expect you to keep things going and make an all-new sequel? Or might you do a Rygar on 360 or PS3?

KK: I do agree that Japanese publishers are bad at building brands. They're not very brand conscious and I must take some of the blame, because I like to make new games all the time. In terms of Rygar, I understand the history behind it, it started in the arcade and the NES. So we don't want to treat it lightly, so to me, working on this Wii version is sort of a stepping stone to the next Rygar, whether it's going to be on 360 or PS3, we don't know yet. But I wanted to leave an example to the younger guys on our team to use this as a starting point and go from there. My way of doing that is focusing on the Wii remote, and when they play it, it'll feel like a brand-new experience because of the way it plays. Hopefully we can achieve that.

So the idea is that having the Wii remote&it's like having a very strong player joining a team like the New England Patriots. It's like, sure, it might have already been a very strong team, but this player will take it to the next level. The Wii remote is that strong of a feature that can take Rygar to the next level.

1UP: Are you saying if you do a sequel to this Rygar, that you'd like to do it on Wii?

KK: Yes, if this becomes a successful project, I'd like to do the sequel on the Wii again.

Edit this post:

Interview-

When Tecmo first announced a 'new' Rygar game back at a press event in May 2007, gamers got excited thanks to Rygar's edgy new character design and the promise of the franchise's revival. But when word got out that it was primarily a port (with some graphical tweaks and new enemies) of the five year-old PS2 game, not only were fans disappointed, but confused as well. To get to the bottom of this unique development, we spoke at length with Kikuchi-san about why he's using a game that came out half a decade ago as the kernel for his latest Wii effort.

1UP: So, you're aiming for an end of year (December) release for Rygar, but it might get bumped back to Q1 '08. What would cause a delay if there was one?

Keisuke Kikuchi: The PS2 version of Rygar had a lot of complicated features, customization, different things that made it very difficult to bring it to the Wii, so that's pushing our schedule back. It's taking a little longer than anticipated. Plus, we're recreating the Wii control scheme for the Diskarmor control, but the more time we put into it the better it gets, so we're just trying to find a happy medium in optimizing the controls.

And as far as new features, the placement of the new enemies and such are completely finished. From this point forward, more time will be spent matching the graphical quality to the Wii, and that's going to take some time.

1UP: How do you mean 'matching' the graphics? Are you enhancing them so they're better than the PS2, or does the Wii do something with a color palette that makes things look richer?

KK: I mean basically to make the graphics look better specifically on the Wii.

1UP: Does Rygar support the Wii's 16:9 widescreen configuration? 
KK: No, it retains the original dimension of the PS2 game.