06.17.08 – Before starting this section, I had planned to do a whole piece on Miracle Warriors. I may still do it, but I’m going to put the main thing I wanted to say about the game in here instead. I played the original release, and was playing it again recently, when in a fit of nostalgia and obsession, researching everything I could about it, I came to a startling realization. Something that had confounded me for many years became clear. I’m talking, “you realize that Bruce Willis was dead all along” clear.

And then it happened again, with Rygar. Very shortly after the first epiphany. Now, I had two exciting facts and, you know, two facts make an article. So here I am, writing about video game minutia that most everyone won’t give two shits about. But these realizations, literally, took weight off my shoulders. I savored the new knowledge at a nerdy depth that I never knew was possible.

I hope to include many more insights in the future. I don’t expect many hits.

Who was Iason?

The heroes of Miracle Warriors are all descended from Iason. We spend the whole game hearing about how big and cool and fast he was, and how he and the white monks put together some nifty weapons for his descendants to again defeat General Terarin, whom he prophesized to return. I mean, he banished her all by himself, but it will take four of his lowly kin to do it again in a few thousand years or whenever. The man was clearly bad-ass.

But what a strange name for a legendary hero, I always thought. Who starts their name with a diphthong? Is it “eye-AY-son” or “EYE-a-son” or “YAY-son” or what? Fans of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, or students of Greek or Latin, may have already figured this out. “Iason” is an ancient spelling of “Jason”. In fact, this is “Jason and the Argonauts” Jason we are talking about.

Then it all fell into place. Miracle Warriors for the Sega Master System is a port of Haja no Fuuin (“Seal of Evil”) originally released for the MSX2, and in this version, your companion “Medi” is known as “Media”. This is a reference to Medea, Jason’s wife. The first ship you acquire in the game is the Argo and the second is the Argonaut.

Clearly, there was some historical inspiration behind a game that I had always though was pure fantasy. I find this fascinating, truly. Many of the map locations have Greek-ish sounding names. Could there be other references to the mythology of Jason? In the original release, instead of Treo, your third companion is named Tremos. I couldn’t make any connections there. Nor with Guy.

Random aside: a better romanization of “Terarin” is probably “Terralin” or “Terra Lin”, which sounds bit more like a giant green naked devil woman to me. Similar to Phantasy Star’s “La Shiec” becoming “Lassic” perhaps.

Rygar: Friend or Foe?

The manual for the NES version of Rygar would have you believe that you actually play Rygar in the game, that he is the legendary hero. The main villain is the nefarious Ligar, and… wait. Rygar… Ligar… Goddamn it.

The original Japanese title is Argos no Senshi (Warrior of Argos). That is also the name of the hero. Rygar/Ligar is the bad guy! He’s the anthropomorphic lion who’s got all of Argos under his thumb, stealing the door to peace, kicking puppies, etc…

How did this inversion happen? Something like this: the Japanese arcade release had the Warrior of Argos fighting against Ligar (which could also be romanized as Rygar). For the American arcade release, the team dug the Rygar name and gave it to the hero. The last boss became the Dominator. Next, the Famicom port is released, faithful to the Japanese arcade naming. This is localized for the NES, at which point the American Rygar branding is retained, but whoever did rest of the translation didn’t know or didn’t care that the arcade’s last boss had been renamed and instead did a straight translation of Ligar. We end up with Rygar vs. Ligar.

Sources: Japanese Wiki, Arcade Flyers, Kotaku, World of Nintendo