Rygar at the river
The game Rygar for the NES is very challenging, but there are some tips that can help you defeat the Ligar (final boss) and his minions. I actually beat this game about 7 years ago. But I am replaying it again because it is so great. The first thing to realize about Rygar is that this side scrolling action/adventure game has RPG elements. But the RPG elements are very subtle and you wouldn’t guess them if you just picked the game up without a FAQ or previous experience. What you need to know is that when you press start you get some good information. The first thing to notice are two numbers that are called, “TONE” and “LAST.” What those numbers represent is almost a kill counter for enemies you have dispatched. And it counts almost like “EXP” in a traditional RPG. The more kills you get, the higher the numbers. The higher the “TONE” number, the more damage you do per attack of your flying disk weapon. The higher your “LAST” number, the more HP you have and the higher your defensive rating becomes. So it is extremely important to kill monsters as much as you can, because it directly correlates to your damage potential and your survivability.
The problem that many people have in the beginning of the game is that lots of monsters take multiple hits with the “Diskarmor” to be destroyed. Well there is an easy solution to this that makes Rygar one of the most fun action/adventure games of all time.
When you are in the first area, you should see lots of little turtle looking dudes and rolling red pill bug monster thugs. Despite how dull it may seem, kill as many of these as you can by walking back and forth till the sprites reappear on the screen. But all the while, be on the lookout for golden stars appearing where the dead monsters were. If you get walk on top of the stars, or successfully attack them with your diskarmor, you will receive a “MAGIC” point. Also you will hear a pleasant and rewarding sound whenever you collect a star. So to make sure you have a point of “MAGIC” press the start button and look in the “MIND” section. “MIND” equivalent to “MAGIC” in other games.
Once you have collected 3 MIND points, look to the right of the “start” screen. You should see three options under the “POTENTIAL” heading. They are: “POWER UP”, “ATTACK and ASSAIL” and “RECOVER.” So make sure the arrow in pointing at POWER UP and then when you have 3 MIND points press either “A” or “B” I can’t remember. You should notice that your 3 MIND points are gone now. This means you are now powered up like a champ.
Now press start again and play the game. Notice how fast you are attacking and how awesome your weapon is. This is the only way to play. It will make killing enemies much easier and it makes farming up kills enjoyable. The cool thing is that you only can power up once until you die or else after a very long time in the game. I’ve played for 10 minutes without needing to power up again. But if you notice that your diskarmor weapon is swinging slowly, go ahead and farm up 3 MIND points and try to use the POWER UP potential. That should get you back to normal.
Another MUST-HAVE ability is the RECOVER potential. This skill requires 7 MIND points but it refills your health bubbles to the max. So this should be major encouragement for you to farm up TONE and LAST from creature kills, because the LAST number affects the amount of Health Bubbles you have. So the RECOVER ability technically increases in value as the game progresses, if you’ve been fighting a lot of monsters.
The RECOVER ability is great because if you know you are near a boss. You can use your RECOVER to fill up your Health. And then you can fight normal monsters nearby by walking back and forth, until you collect 7 more MIND points from stars. This way, you can use the RECOVER potential during the boss fight once you drop to low health.
There never is a time when you shouldn’t be POWER UP with your diskarmor. Since that ability only costs 3 MIND points there is no excuse to not have it prepped all the time.
The other ability is called, ATTACK and ASSAIL potential. This is a sort of kill everything on the screen, or at least damage everything ability. I personally don’t use this one unless there is an emergency of lots of little monsters that are about to kill me and I don’t have enough MIND points to use RECOVER. This ATTACK and ASSAIL skill uses 5 MIND points. The downside is that you can only use this skill 10 times, and I am not sure if this counts if you die and continue or if it is reset when you die. Overall, this skill should be used in emergencies only.
Speaking of dying, Rygar is a game where you need to adventure and explore the map to a great extent. Don’t be afraid of dying. If you die you can continue by pressing “START” again, even though it doesn’t say “Continue” if you hit start you will have all your Health Bubbles (although only 3 will be full) and you should have your items as well. You also start at the beginning of the area you are currently in. So this means if you are exploring and you accidentally get to a place where you are stuck because you didn’t listen to a bald guru dude and ventured without a grappling hook, it is no big deal because you can just jump to your doom in the water/river/bottomless pit…you get the idea. Just don’t forget to farm up 3 MIND points and get that weapon of yours POWERED UP.
Here’s a hint to playing Rygar that will make your experience quite enjoyable. There are many maps and FAQ’s available that will assist you in navigating the game. I recommend that you do not use these maps at all. Now you may be thinking that the game will be easier and less frustrating if you use a map but it is actually the opposite. Getting lost and exploring parts of the game without the proper tools and information is the most fun part. If you venture far into a stage and get to an impasse, imagine all the experience you’ve gained toward your TONE and LAST statistics. This is making you a much stronger warrior and the boss battles will be more fun and reasonable because of your hard work.
Also, if you play the game without maps and FAQ’s, you will learn the layout of stages, so this will improve your memorization skills and will truly make you a better warrior in real life. Because let’s face it: Everyone plays NES games because they want to be an effective warrior at some future period. If you don’t want this reality for your life then play something 3D that was made later than 1997.
Here’s a hint that is downright awesome. The game of Rygar has many hidden ledges that are actually off-screen. So once you get the grappling hook, if you feel stuck, try grappling overhead and see if you are able to grab ahold of a ledge or platform above you.
Another must-know tip is that the “Pulley” item is very tricky. You will notice in the overworld map there are rivers with white lines connecting two landmasses together. Well, once you get the grappling hook and the pulley items then you can traverse these lines. This is because they are actually Zip-Lines/ropes. They can be very frustrating at first. You need to walk near them, sometimes having the zip-line right above your head is the way to get them to activate. Once you successfully latch on, you should hear a metallic “pa-chink!” sound. This means you are connected and you should be able to move up and down on the line freely.
You can also connect to Zip-Lines in the 2D action areas. They may appear in certain areas over a bottomless pit. The way to get onto these is to simply walk straight into the line. Don’t jump into it or get sassy with it. Just walk right in as if you didn’t have a care in the world. And your faith will connect you the right path.
Getting of a zip-line / rope is easy. Just simply ride the line until it runs out and you will do a small jump to safe ground.
Remember, it is easy to fall into the water and die on the overworld map. So be prepared to swear at the screen repeatedly as you get this routine down. Honestly, getting the knack of the overworld zip-line stuff is the hardest and most tedious part of the whole game. Everything else is pure enjoyment.
Later in the game you will acquire a crossbow item. I think you need to select it from the item screen when you press “start.” You do so by moving right and left with the directional pad. Once selected, experiment by pressing A or B and other stuff and see if you can get the item to work in the situation you want it to. I’m not going to get into a tremendous amount of detail what to do with this stuff here because you need to listen to the bald GURU dudes who live in the shrines/caves. If you actually read what they say, you will be able to apply their wisdom and use your items accordingly.
But just so you know, the grappling hook is the first important item that you need to get in order to get to any of the bosses. And in order to get the grappling hook, you need to walk the long way around the overworld outskirts and check literally every cave. Then you will finally meet a guru who will hook you up. Don’t forget to say thanks to him by jumping in the air and saluting with your diskarmor (this actually does nothing but a warrior would salute at this point).
The Ligar is the last boss in the game Rygar. You want to make sure you have a lot of health bubbles before you fight him.
-Tyler