Rayman Legends Retold

[RayGamer99]

Between that and all the levels being renamed, I feel for people who will have to read RayWiki and find out everything now has 3 different names or spellings - and which one is correct depends on the whims of the developers.

Umm, I think all of the levels have their same names. If you mean all of the worlds being renamed, then I understand what you mean; I fear some poor soul will be left wondering if the medieval world is called Teensies In Trouble, Medieval Mayhem, or the Old Teensie Kingdom now.

The fact that they're honoring the original spellings of the Teensies and Livingstones and what have you is actually really nice to me. Someone on the dev team cares about the history and the lore of Rayman.

I don't really care much for the names being reverted to their original spellings (except for Murphy's; hasn't it been spelled with an F ever since his first appearance? ), but I do appreciate the team continuing to go out of their way to subtly tie this game, and hopefully the franchise as a whole, back into the world of the older Rayman games. Never thought I'd see the day, much less that it'd be from a Rayman Legends remake, but here we are.

Side note and this might be a bit of a hot take: considering that Rayman's future relies on this game doing well, I think it was smart of them to do a Legends remake. As much as I personally don't care for remakes in general--this of course being an exception--they are made for a reason. In this case, Rayman needs to grab people's attention with what is most familiar/recent. Remaking Legends is the safe and smart idea if we want to see it do well enough to justify a true Rayman 4.

Honestly, I would agree with you. Despite it not being the game that most of the fans wanted, I think that remaking Legends was probably the best idea from the standpoint of the general audience, something that I feel we can sometimes forget about. While catering to longtime fans is still important, the one providing the bulk of the game's sales will be the average Joe who sees trailers and gameplay for a game, thinks that it's looks really cool, and pre-orders it or purchases it sometime after it's launched.

Rayman Legends is the best-selling game in the series to my knowledge, so most people are most familiar with that version of the franchise. Visually overhaul that game, add some new content, tie it back into the world of previous Rayman games, and pack in another UbiArt game not everyone may have played, and suddenly you have a game that will simultaneously attract new fans and convince older fans that this is worth buying. Add all of that to the fact that this seems to be setting a new standard for the future of the franchise - and say what you will about the game's tone or character designs, but this is a darn good ground floor from where I'm sitting - and I can't help but give the team their flowers.

[Sabertooth]

I'm not following this line of logic...Legends is the most recent game in the series, so it's the game that effectively killed it off for fifteen years. The game that didn't do well enough to justify any further sequels by Ubisoft's standards. Why would releasing the same game now bear a different result?

I don't really care much for the names being reverted to their original spellings (except for Murphy's; hasn't it been spelled with an F ever since his first appearance? ),

Yeah they need to fix that spelling before the game comes out or I'm going to have an anal retentive episode.

[Rsandee]

I'm not following this line of logic...Legends is the most recent game in the series, so it's the game that effectively killed it off for fifteen years. The game that didn't do well enough to justify any further sequels by Ubisoft's standards. Why would releasing the same game now bear a different result?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's completely befuddled why they're doing this.

[RayGamer99]

Looks like the official Rayman Twitter account has released a new bio for Rayman!

It's not breaking new ground by any means, but it's still nice to have, I guess.

[TeensieKing]

Hi everyone! Time to share some thoughts at last.

First of all, I am over the moon that Rayman is finally getting something new, even if it's just an expanded version of the last game. I have already preordered my physical copy with the map, I'll get the deluxe version expansion pack from the PlayStore, and I'm going to play the heck out of it. It's been like 8 years since the last time I played through Legends, so I'm going to have fun regarless of it being basically the same game again.

I'll preface this by stating that I was never the biggest fan of the UbiArt games, not even when they first came out. Already when Origins released, I had been waiting for Rayman 4 since 2003. Getting a new entry in the series that basically flushed all previously-established lore down the toilet was bittersweet. Rayman 2 was my first Rayman game, followed by Rayman 3. So I find it baffling that, to some, the lore and story of a Rayman game is not an important factor. For me, it's what I like the most about the franchise: the characters, the story, the sense of discovery... And that brings me to the exploration. What I've always liked the most about Rayman games is not the platforming or the speed, it's the exploration. As Hunch was saying earlier, getting to explore and mysterious world full of outladish, yet lovable creatures. I enjoy the UbiArt games for what they are, fun 2D platformers with an impressive hand-drawn artstyle. But as Rayman games, they leave a lot to be desired.

The fact that the team at Ubisoft decided that, from a lore standpoint, Rayman Legends was the most diverse version of the Glade of Dreams is, to put it bluntly, laughable. Rayman Legends introduces, as previously stated by Hunch and some others, quite a few world themes oddly connected to real-life humans: Medieval castles, Greek temples, the Fiesta de los Muertos... All of them so lazy and uninspired compared to what came before. And Barbara. Oh, Barbara. Don't even get me started. She sticks out like a sore thumb. How the hell did a human Viking princess spawn in the middle of the Glade of Dreams? I could never imagine her being in the same cutscene as Ly the Fairy.

Now, Retold promises to at least alleviate some of these issues. I like the new 3D look for the game. Specifically there is a night-time level that takes place in a forest, which reminded me of the first stage of The Fairy Council from Rayman 3. Even in the first level, the castle bridge section after the big jump reminds me somehow of Clearleaf Forest, might be the colours and lighting. I feel like it sets a nice middle ground between the older 3D games and the UbiArt games. And "Don't Touch This" looks stunning, with those colours and the disco lights.

But what I'm most excited about is the brand new story. Yes, the only good thing about the original game having no story at all is that we're now getting a 100% original Rayman story. Who knows, maybe that will make me come round. Could we get some background as to who Barbara is and where she came from? Or who all those random pricesses even are? I don't want to set unrealistic expectations. But I am hoping for some nods to events from previous games, or some long-absent characters being mentioned (Clark, Ly, are you still alive?). Oh, also, is this a good moment to bring up the skins? The Hoodmonger Globox and Heavy Metal Fist Rayman skins look incredible! They're the number 1 reason why I rushed to preorder the game immediately after it was announced. And what about Betilla Barbara, the original Rayman, Hunter Globox and Electoon Teensie? They knocked it out of the park with those. Probably the only reason I'd even pick Barbara.

So, yeah, it's a mixed bag but I'm predominantly hopeful about Rayman's future and ready to enjoy this game for what it is. I won't even complain about that suspicious, definitely not AI-generated Betilla the Fairy.

P. S. Did no one think of the new villain being the original Magician from R1? I definitely think it's a new character, but that would be cool too.

[Hunchman801]

I share your exact opinion on the UbiArt games. Great games, but not really Rayman games. The uninspired, generic locations and the presence of actual humans in Legends have absolutely nothing in common with the otherworldly universe populated only by fantastical creatures from the earlier games.

Now, I appreciate the effort to actually add a story to the game, but as a firm believer that no story is still better than a bad story, I'm a bit scared of what they're going to come up with. I still remember the Origins fiasco vividly, after all. But there's no point in being overly pessimistic right out of the gate, so I'm willing to give them a chance.

Did no one think of the new villain being the original Magician from R1? I definitely think it's a new character, but that would be cool too.

This would be the worst possible choice in my opinion. The good old Magician doesn't really do much in the original game, but for someone like me who discovered the series through the educational games, he's a lot more than that, guiding Rayman throughout the entire journey and acting as a genuine fatherly figure. There was even some charm in those corny lines he delivered when you finished a level.

There are countless other options for a new antagonist that don't involve ruining a perfectly good character. Let's hope they go with one of them. After all, making the original Magician the bad guy makes about as much sense as having Luigi suddenly stab Mario in the back...

[Haruka]

Some cool screenshots from the official Rayman account:

I've been thinking about how I'm quite certain these dragon flight segments are going to be the Moskitos from Origins: you'll play at least one of these per Glade region. I fear about the possibility of these being both repetitive and a headache to get the golden cups in the levels...

I'm not following this line of logic...Legends is the most recent game in the series, so it's the game that effectively killed it off for fifteen years. The game that didn't do well enough to justify any further sequels by Ubisoft's standards. Why would releasing the same game now bear a different result?

I'm almost sure it's all about budget and going through the cheapest route to make something with Rayman, especially if the engine they're using transforms 2D UbiArt assets into 3D. They're trying to be sure if people are still even interested in the franchise but honestly, requests of an actual new 3D platforming game go on for over 20 years.

[RayGamer99]

I've been thinking about how I'm quite certain these dragon flight segments are going to be the Moskitos from Origins: you'll play at least one of these per Glade region. I fear about the possibility of these being both repetitive and a headache to get the golden cups in the levels...

You're correct about them being a successor to the mosquito rides in Origins; they serve as a transition from one world to the other, and I'm pretty sure there will be one per world. Hope the dragons can breathe underwater, then...

I don't think they'll get too repetitive - the two we've seen so far already feel pretty distinct with the events that happens in each one - but I do worry about getting all of the Teensies in each of them. Just getting hit once will mean you have to restart the entire level if you want them all; naturally some folks just won't care and will take as many Teensies as they can get, but I can already feel that it's gonna be a real struggle for sickos like myself...

Did no one think of the new villain being the original Magician from R1? I definitely think it's a new character, but that would be cool too.

Not a fan of this idea either. The design of this new guy looks far too different from the R1 Magician to be him, and like Hunchman said, his relationship with Rayman in the older games would make it feel completely out of character for him to just be evil now.

On a random note, is it just me or does the new villain kind of look like the Egg Thieves from the Spyro games?

[Droolie]

I've been thinking about how I'm quite certain these dragon flight segments are going to be the Moskitos from Origins: you'll play at least one of these per Glade region. I fear about the possibility of these being both repetitive and a headache to get the golden cups in the levels...

Indeed, these levels are going to be hell I'm afraid. Especially since you lose a teensy as soon as you get hit once. Fast-paced levels that you're expected to complete hitless and collect all the lums? I fear it's going to be much worse than those Moskito levels, and a huge difficulty spike in an otherwise easy game like Rayman Legends.
By the way, great to see you here again! And some other old members returning too with the new Rayman stuff happening. Makes this place feel just slightly like old times again. ^^

That's kind of what I meant when I said that level seemed like one of the music levels in Rayman Mini.

As it turns out, Pastagames is working on Rayman Legends Retold and a designer from there has confirmed they are handling this music level.
So while this particular person didn't work on Rayman Mini, I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise that we all felt that this new music level kind of resembles the ones previously created by Pastagames.
And looking at his other tweets, I suppose we also already know the new (French?) dub actor for the Dark Teensy.

[Haruka]

By the way, great to see you here again! And some other old members returning too with the new Rayman stuff happening. Makes this place feel just slightly like old times again. ^^

Reading your and other still-familiar usernames after such a long absence brought me a smile, it does make me feel a bit nostalgic about that timeline.

And looking at his other tweets, I suppose we also already know the new (French?) dub actor for the Dark Teensy.

I read that apparently the game will have a Brazilian Portuguese dub for the first time in the franchise (excluding the talking Polokus in the Legends intro cutscene), I'll be both curious to have a listen to this, but also to the French voice cast. It would be cool if they called back some of the Rayman 3 voice actors just like they did for the English cast.

(...)

I'll preface this by stating that I was never the biggest fan of the UbiArt games, not even when they first came out. Already when Origins released, I had been waiting for Rayman 4 since 2003. Getting a new entry in the series that basically flushed all previously-established lore down the toilet was bittersweet. Rayman 2 was my first Rayman game, followed by Rayman 3. So I find it baffling that, to some, the lore and story of a Rayman game is not an important factor. For me, it's what I like the most about the franchise: the characters, the story, the sense of discovery... And that brings me to the exploration. What I've always liked the most about Rayman games is not the platforming or the speed, it's the exploration. As Hunch was saying earlier, getting to explore and mysterious world full of outladish, yet lovable creatures. I enjoy the UbiArt games for what they are, fun 2D platformers with an impressive hand-drawn artstyle. But as Rayman games, they leave a lot to be desired.

The fact that the team at Ubisoft decided that, from a lore standpoint, Rayman Legends was the most diverse version of the Glade of Dreams is, to put it bluntly, laughable. Rayman Legends introduces, as previously stated by Hunch and some others, quite a few world themes oddly connected to real-life humans: Medieval castles, Greek temples, the Fiesta de los Muertos... All of them so lazy and uninspired compared to what came before. And Barbara. Oh, Barbara. Don't even get me started. She sticks out like a sore thumb. How the hell did a human Viking princess spawn in the middle of the Glade of Dreams? I could never imagine her being in the same cutscene as Ly the Fairy.

(...)

You summarise well my thoughts about what made the original trilogy special in the franchise. I do miss the diverse and unique fauna and flora of the Glade of Dreams, which is lacking a lot in the UbiArt sequels. The newer regions are much more inspired in real-world locations and they don't feel as memorable because of that. I wouldn't complain much about the human presence if there wasn't an excessive number of princesses for the sake of skins.

It's really hard to weight what's the "game of the middle" for me because in the latest years it's a juggle between Hoodlum Havoc and Legends. Both have their strengths and their weaknesses, but something I've been truly missing is the original art direction so there's a minor preference for the 2003 title even if I still have my own reservations about how some stuff were handled.

I still look to the Raving Rabbids as the element that changed the franchise forever and created that irreversible border between the classic Rayman and the modern one. Things were never more the same since the 2007 game (that apparently it's canon according to the new map...).

[hoodlumsworld]

I completely agree with TeensieKing, Hunch and Haruka regarding the lore and the setting. I was saying the exact same thing the other day! I used to cope with all the lazy human tropes and medieval castles in Legends by just pretending the whole game was a bizarre dream sequence. But now Retold is slapping a world map on it and canonizing all this generic fantasy stuff as the official reality of the Glade of Dreams. It really does just flush the weird, alien mystery of the original trilogy right down the toilet.

Droolie finding out that Pastagames is handling the new music levels makes so much sense. No wonder they feel exactly like Rayman Mini! I just really hope Héral gets to stretch his atmospheric muscles for the World of the Dead sections and does not just stick to the wacky kazoos and ukuleles for the whole game.

Also, you guys are absolutely right to be worried about those dragon rides. If getting hit once means dropping a Teensie and ruining a perfect run, it is going to be an absolute nightmare for completionists. I love how cinematic they look, but having to restart a fast auto scroller over and over because of one stray fireball is definitely going to lead to some broken controllers lol.

[Haruka]

Also, you guys are absolutely right to be worried about those dragon rides. If getting hit once means dropping a Teensie and ruining a perfect run, it is going to be an absolute nightmare for completionists. I love how cinematic they look, but having to restart a fast auto scroller over and over because of one stray fireball is definitely going to lead to some broken controllers lol.

I'm still not over moral damage of perfecting Origins' Riding the Storm in single-player mode almost fifteen years later...

[MakaryGlobsky]

Why can't they just make it like they did with the Back to Origins Moskito levels? You rescue three and finito. If they don't change it I might just try using my hair to glide off a skyscraper...

[RayGamer99]

That's kind of what I meant when I said that level seemed like one of the music levels in Rayman Mini.

As it turns out, Pastagames is working on Rayman Legends Retold and a designer from there has confirmed they are handling this music level.

Well, that explains a lot.

Rayman Legends introduces, as previously stated by Hunch and some others, quite a few world themes oddly connected to real-life humans: Medieval castles, Greek temples, the Fiesta de los Muertos... All of them so lazy and uninspired compared to what came before. And Barbara. Oh, Barbara. Don't even get me started. She sticks out like a sore thumb. How the hell did a human Viking princess spawn in the middle of the Glade of Dreams? I could never imagine her being in the same cutscene as Ly the Fairy.

(Art by Jukad)

I've always understood why you guys have had this opinion, but at the same time I've always completely disagreed with it being a terrible thing and signifying a total departure from what came before. I mean, human tropes have been influencing the series since the original trilogy!

If we go all the way back to Rayman 1, we can clearly see things like the human-like designs of the Hunters and Space Mama, the Livingstones' names and roles as explorers being a reference to the explorer David Livingstone, and Rayman literally painting the Mona Lisa in the loading screen for Picture City! At least two of Rayman 3's Teensie Doctors are based on human stereotypes, and the game itself (or at least its English dub) has pop culture references out the wazoo, yet we give that game a pass for some reason! Even that paragon of perfection, Rayman 2, isn't above it all! The Robo-Pirates use all sorts of pirate-y tropes, from their hook-handed and peg-legged designs to the Henchmen 800 and 1000's names referencing the Terminator series (and the latter has a Western-like design and speaks Spanish by default). And yet, just because they're robots, they get a pass too?

And don't even get me started on the Barbara argument. You guys mean to tell me that this Viking girl is irredeemable because she's a human, and yet we're all fine with Space Mama, who was a Viking in her first battle, solely because she doesn't have limbs? Nobody bats an eye when Betina strolls by (probably because the Animated Series is generally considered to not be canon, but I digress), but Barbara, her sister, and their cousins are where you all draw the line? The Hunters' redesigns in Origins made it clear that they were humans, but I'd bet that they were meant to be human - or at least that world's equivalent of them - from the start, and if people like Space Mama or the Candy Château clowns ever came back in a future game, I'd guess that they'd be given limbs and called human too! Yet only these girls from this game get all of the hate?!

Listen, it's okay for you all to not be okay with the series leaning hard on human tropes in Legends. I'm just sick of that being all that anyone can say about the game around here and it being bashed so often just because of it. I think that putting a Rayman spin on classic legends was a great idea, and I would love to see things like the history behind the Old Teensie Kingdom or Mount Elysium's statues and temples expanded upon in the future. And with the locations and themes of the game being incorporated into the rest of the Glade of Dreams with Retold, complaining about it every single time Legends is brought up is practically beating a dead horse at this point.

The series might not be the same as it was back in 1999 or 2003, but that doesn't have to always be a bad thing. I've accepted, embraced, and adored the Rayman series for what it was and what it is now, warts and all, and I would encourage you all to do the same. We should keep talking about how the series can be better and offering CONSTRUCTIVE criticism when it doesn't stick the landing, but a little dose of positivity for when it does can't hurt either. If anything, too much negativity for them trying something new will only weigh us down and keep us stuck in the past, unable to move forward toward whatever hopefully-bright future is ahead for the franchise.

After all, it can't possibly be any fun to constantly talk about the bad parts of one of the best 2D platformers of all time, can it?

[Droolie]

I partly agree with you RayGamer99 - I also think many people took the limbless aspect of Rayman 1's NPCs a bit too literally. They're all just humans drawn in a quirky art style. Even Rayman himself, perhaps.

It's Rayman 2 that changed this and defined Rayman's world as a more fantastical one full of nature, weird creatures and mystical wonders. A lot of the human stuff comes from the enemies invading and polluting "Rayman's paradise" (as this world was called internally), with this contrast painting a clear ecological message.
Then the TV series tried to make human cities, houses and transport like cars and trains fit in this "paradise" and partly succeeded in the eyes of fans, simply because how disconnected everything looked from its real-life counterpart. You have guys wearing human clothes, yes, but they're green and purple and have long noses. You have cahhs but they have a nice, warm vibe being made out of wood and they get scrapped by being eaten by a giant monster. Familiar, yet strange.
Rayman 3 is like this as well with places like a witch's house, Stonehenge and the Central Bank Fairy Council all being quite common concepts completely transformed by their crazy designs. And Hoodlum Headquarters once again feels out of place in this world precisely because of its very human structures, makes you want to defeat those hoodlums.

In Rayman Legends however, the human stuff isn't there as something bad from an invading enemy - it's all part of Rayman's world. We get Olympus looking mostly like real ancient Greek ruins but with Globox statues. We get medieval castles that look like medieval castles. And we get Barbara, who is just a barbarian girl, and drawn like one as well. It's like Rayman 1, and... well to be honest I don't fully get either why people complain about this for Legends but not for Rayman 1.
Anyway, even as a big fan of Rayman Legends I have to agree that its locations don't have that particularly odd feeling the art gave them in Rayman 2 and 3. Barbara doesn't have a crazy limbless design or a weird outfit like Ly's - she's just a regular girl. All of it looks and feels like it could be found in 100 other storybooks or movies based on fairy tales. Shrek wouldn't feel that out of place in Teensies in Trouble - that's what people are really complaining about, I think.

So yes, I agree that it's like Rayman has had humans and human culture references since its very first game, but I also completely understand other fans' concerns, and I share their desire to return to "Rayman's paradise", instead of returning to Greece or the Middle Ages - or trying to make these part of the same world, as Retold is doing.
I think if they want Legends worlds I would have preferred them to go all-in on that and tell me this is a completely different world, or even better, a bunch of magical paintings come to life, instead of telling me that Greece is only a stone's throw from Razoff's mansion (wait - maybe this fits with that stupid joke that RayWiki states as lore about his grandmother being Artemis!) or that Teensies built those medieval castles when we've already seen their far less generic ancient architecture in Rayman 2 and 3.
I think this is the reason people are complaining about it right now. Generally it was easy to just separate the older games from the UbiArt games - consider them two completely different franchises. But now, the developers are trying to merge them and people who love the older series have to accept all these elements from the newer series into the world they like.

By the way, let me take this opportunity to talk about Betilla. Unlike everybody else here, I love her new character even on the key art! So she can be either a giant mystical character, a goddess of nature like the ones that were going to be featured in WiLD (1, 2), or she can transform into a bird. It's a fantastic idea and one that fits very well in "Rayman's paradise", I think. But here's the problem. This isn't "Rayman's paradise". This is still the world of Rayman Legends, and this version of Betilla doesn't feel at home to me here from what I've seen in the footage. It's an interesting design decision ruined by the fact that it is still Rayman Legends. A half-measure. Just like how all character designs are literal 3D translations of UbiArt designs made without understanding the liberties that UbiArt's designers took specifically to make them 2D. And just like including the older games' locations on the map without featuring them in the game and thinking about whether these places should even exist in the same universe as the ones from Legends.

That said, it's very obvious that the creators of those worlds from our childhoods either aren't there anymore and/or no longer care about any of this. Just as it usually does with artists touching others' work without fully understanding every intention behind it, it feels a bit icky to see Retold's designers try to stuff these places into the same old worlds created back in 1999-2003. Feels about as "right" to me as all of the fan-made maps of the Glade that exist.
Anyway, I just wanted to say I understand where the complaints are coming from. Though I haven't ever cared about a "series canon" for Rayman so I can just take this changed story/lore for what it seems to be: unnecessary filler content to grab older Rayman fans' attention for what is otherwise indeed a fucking good 2D platformer. One that would almost certainly be better off focusing purely on that and completely ignoring what the fans of that completely different 3D series want, like the original did, rather than trying to find a middle ground that may end up either pleasing fans of both series or disappointing both

[Game Ze 2]

Ubisoft has just released the Chinese-dubbed trailer for RL Retold on Bilibili and Xiaohongshu.

[MrRayblox]

new rayman legends retold i am excited try it but it's not here it will be released on october 1

[Krith99z]

RayGamer makes some really fair points here. The series definitely always had human tropes and pop culture references, even going all the way back to Rayman 1 with characters like Space Mama and the Hunters.

But with Legends, things like the generic medieval castles and Greek ruins are just treated as the normal state of the world. Droolie is spot on that Shrek wouldn't feel out of place in Teensies in Trouble lol. Merging that generic fairy tale vibe with the strange, alien feeling of the older games on one single map just feels like trying to cram two completely different IPs together. It just doesn't mesh well at all.

Ubisoft has just released the Chinese-dubbed trailer for RL Retold on Bilibili and Xiaohongshu.

I think you're getting a full Chinese dub for Retold.

[lyndo64]

At this point I don't really care what Ubisoft does with Rayman, I'm done. In my mind nothing will measure up to the og trilogy, especially not with modern Ubi at the wheel. Even when we're getting Ramon 4 starting Barbara and the Incrediballs, those games will always be there, so that's good enough for me.

[Hunchman801]

I partly agree with you RayGamer99 - I also think many people took the limbless aspect of Rayman 1's NPCs a bit too literally. They're all just humans drawn in a quirky art style. Even Rayman himself, perhaps.

I think you're completely right about this, and it was probably never the intention for even Rayman to be his own species back then. I believe the concept was only introduced in Rayman 2, and the original game is a bit of an outlier in that regard anyway.

As for RayGamer's points, I can certainly agree about all those human tropes in the original trilogy, and especially in Rayman 3. However, the main difference for me is that they were just references here and there, while in Legends, they became the very universe the game takes place in. They are way more prominent, and also way more generic (the Shrek example is a pretty good one). That's a major shift for me, which I believe explains why Legends feels so out of place to so many people.