The player sends the title character through a number of fantastic settings with the ultimate goal of defeating an evil entity named Ligar in order to restore peace to the realm of Argool. To accomplish this goal, Rygar must visit 5 "Indora Gods" which present him with essential items needed for completion of the game. Each of the Indora Gods is located in a different realm, and are almost always guarded by a boss. The player can choose the order in which some stages are played, but since certain items are required to reach new areas, choices are somewhat limited. After playing through the major five realms of the game, Rygar must be sent to Ligar's flying castle for the final confrontation. A serious downside to The NES version of Rygar is that it didn't allow for game saves. The complexity and difficulty of the game, along with the puzzles to solve and special objects needed to progress, require a great deal of time and unlike other complex adventure games of the time (The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, etc.) the cartridge did not contain a battery (Zelda) and was not programmed to use save codes (Metroid, Castlevania). As a result, most players were forced to pause the game and leave their NES on overnight (sometimes going on for days or even weeks) when it became obvious they wouldn't finish that evening.
