God of War: A Rip Off of Rygar?

[KanYozakura]

I just recently bought Rygar: The Legendary Adventure for PS2, and after some playthrough I began realizing how much God of War ripped this game off.  The setting, the enemies, the weapons, even the health bar looks the same!  Considering that God of War didn't even begin production until after Rygar was released, this seems like a blatant steal to me.  Has anyone else noticed this?

[Dennis]

As long as it does it better, who cares?

There's nothing new under the sun.

[VideoGameCritic]

[QUOTE=KanYozakura]I just recently bought Rygar: The Legendary Adventure for PS2, and after some playthrough I began realizing how much God of War ripped this game off.  The setting, the enemies, the weapons, even the health bar looks the same!  Considering that God of War didn't even begin production until after Rygar was released, this seems like a blatant steal to me.  Has anyone else noticed this?
[/QUOTE]

I think you make an interesting point!  Rygar even had the titan-sized bosses.  I loved the game, but it seems like it went largely unnoticed. 

Maybe Sony's marketing muscle made the difference.  I mean, God of War was all over every magazine for quite a while.

[JustLikeHeaven1]

Since I was a huge fan of the NES Rygar the PS2 version was a day one pick up for me.  Its a great game for sure, but its not quite the same as God of War.  They are sort of similar, but I don't really think Sony copied Rygar.  I've always thought of God of War as Devil May Cry in Greece, without the guns...

[feilong801]

Hmm. Not too surprising. But not because of any "bad" intentions: I'm not sure David Jaffe and co. were concerned with being original. I just think they wanted to make a dramatic, cinematic experience. Nothing wrong with taking from sources, as long as its good.

-Rob

[JasonhasRSI1]

[QUOTE=JustLikeHeaven]  I've always thought of God of War as Devil May Cry in Greece, without the guns...
[/QUOTE]

Ooh, that made me cringe a bit, but that's a different thread...

[JustLikeHeaven1]

[QUOTE=feilong80]

Nothing wrong with taking from sources, as long as its good.

[/QUOTE]

Yea...even Cliffy B. admitted that Gears of War was a simple combination of Resident Evil 4 and Kill.Switch.  Everybody and their mother thinks Gears of War was the first game to really use a cover system, but Kill.Switch did it several years prior to GOW.  To anybody that wants a history lesson on Gears of War go pick up Kill.Switch for the PS2 or Xbox.

Anywho, back to the orginal posters comments.  God of War was more about being an "epic", dramatic game that focused on the anti-hero Kratos.  The Greek lore it draws from is used and abused to make a some very interesting prose.  God of War is also a furious and brutal game, while Tecmo's Rygar is more beautiful and artsy.  Rygar story was also a jumbled mess from what I remember.  I think something was lost in translation + it had pretty awful voice acting.  Rygar is for those people that seek out the great hidden treasures within a system's library, God of War is for the more mainstream fan.

@JasonhasRSI  - Yes I realize how brutally painful it is to compare God of War and Devil May Cry.  I simply trying to say that the two had more in common gameplay was than Rygar.  Devil May Cry is much harder and technical game than God of War...again this comes down to making the game easier for mainstream fans.  Devil May Cry has some absurdly hard attacks and manuevers that need to be mastered, while in God of War you can get by with mostly button mashing...at least thats what I found.

[JasonhasRSI1]

Indeed, agree 100% on the DMC vs GOW comments JLH.

[KanYozakura]

[QUOTE=JustLikeHeaven][QUOTE=feilong80]

Nothing wrong with taking from sources, as long as its good.

[/QUOTE]

Yea...even Cliffy B. admitted that Gears of War was a simple combination of Resident Evil 4 and Kill.Switch.  Everybody and their mother thinks Gears of War was the first game to really use a cover system, but Kill.Switch did it several years prior to GOW.  To anybody that wants a history lesson on Gears of War go pick up Kill.Switch for the PS2 or Xbox.

Anywho, back to the orginal posters comments.  God of War was more about being an "epic", dramatic game that focused on the anti-hero Kratos.  The Greek lore it draws from is used and abused to make a some very interesting prose.  God of War is also a furious and brutal game, while Tecmo's Rygar is more beautiful and artsy.  Rygar story was also a jumbled mess from what I remember.  I think something was lost in translation + it had pretty awful voice acting.  Rygar is for those people that seek out the great hidden treasures within a system's library, God of War is for the more mainstream fan.
[/QUOTE]

I know that there are several key differences; I was mainly talking about the combat system/gameplay layout.  Kudos to Jaffe and co. for taking an unnoticed but awesome concept and fully realizing it.  I was just curious to see if anyone else noticed the similarities, and why no one ever mentions it.  To me, it's too blatant to NOT notice if you've played both games.

[Alienblue]

I played the original RYGAR for Sega Master System (The NES is MUCH different from the coin-op) and guys, RYGAR itself is a "Rip off" of sorts of PITFALL 2! Every era will see a "Better MOUSE TRAP!"