Rayman Legends

[Rulez]

I agree with Adsolution and Rulez here Sergio, sorry to say

Sorry to say? Brother, you should be proud to side with the superior race!

[Robotic Teensie]

I agree with Adsolution, Rulez and Rayfist (and I believe GNineify too). It's a fact earlier Rayman games, particularly Rayman 2, have a deeper story than Origins. Yes, you're right, we don't know every little detail - such as Razorbeard's life story - but even so the story sure as hell was more than what we got with Origins. I loved Rayman 2's story - the deepest one yet - so I have to disagree with comments such as "the sidestory is just too dramatic for a Rayman game". Some Rayman games may be silly, but there is definitely room for some more serious games in the franchise.

[sergiomonty]

Geez... not again 6_6

Ok... I'll just be there...in the corner... disagreeing with all of you.. *sob*

[Keane]

I actually still don't know what Origins is about. The introduction cinematic shows the livid dead coming out of the ground, giving me the impression that they will be the main villains, but instead you never encounter them again, and when you do, they're back at their home. What is their reason to exist in the game besides having a bloody brilliant level? Better yet, why does Rayman & Co. even go on an adventure? There doesn't seem to be anything informing them that the nymphs have to be rescued. Maybe I'm just missing something.

[sergiomonty]

I actually still don't know what Origins is about. The introduction cinematic shows the livid dead coming out of the ground, giving me the impression that they will be the main villains, but instead you never encounter them again, and when you do, they're back at their home. What is their reason to exist in the game besides having a bloody brilliant level? Better yet, why does Rayman & Co. even go on an adventure? There doesn't seem to be anything informing them that the nymphs have to be rescued. Maybe I'm just missing something.

This is how the adventure starts:
-Murphy tells them to go get some electoons because after being caught by the Livid Dead, the presence of the nightmares apparently made the Bubble Dreamer go nuts. (In Rayman Legends he looks a lot more relaxed).
-They incidentally meet with Betilla who's been trapped by one of those nightmarish creatures who escaped. They probably just assume that the rest of the people are in troubles too.
-The villains are the Darktoons, Psychlops and Darkroots, the Grannies never leave their underworld.
-They meet the Magician again, who asks for some lums.
-On the trail, Rayman must beat all of those nightmarish creatures and defend their people (Electoons, Red Wizards, Teensies, Platformmen and Nymphs)
-When all of the nymphs are saved, they discover a new dark force in the center of the Glade's presumable archipielago. they need the help of the four kings of the area
-The four kings are possessed by the darkness. Time to kick some asses.
-The Magician at the end was evil. And used the lums for bad stuff... he also hired some lividstones and a hunter at the end of the game
-They realize that the entire Glade's archipielago was visited... so they just don't give a fuck and just go to sleep because they assume that they stopped all of the nightmares that they started.
-The Land of the Livid Dead is an optional level. This may sound dark, Rayman probably visits it just to avenge the Glade, since the grannies were complete assholes.
-Incidentally they find a lost Nymph

That's it... apparently, Rayman's adventure is a series of coincidences that simply tie together because Rayman just seems to have a terrible luck. But hey... at least he found a lost nymph!... a nymph that nobody cares about...

[Bradandez]

I actually still don't know what Origins is about. The introduction cinematic shows the livid dead coming out of the ground, giving me the impression that they will be the main villains, but instead you never encounter them again, and when you do, they're back at their home. What is their reason to exist in the game besides having a bloody brilliant level? Better yet, why does Rayman & Co. even go on an adventure? There doesn't seem to be anything informing them that the nymphs have to be rescued. Maybe I'm just missing something.

This is how the adventure starts:
-Murphy tells them to go get some electoons because after being caught by the Livid Dead, the presence of the nightmares apparently made the Bubble Dreamer go nuts. (In Rayman Legends he looks a lot more relaxed).
-They incidentally meet with Betilla who's been trapped by one of those nightmarish creatures who escaped. They probably just assume that the rest of the people are in troubles too.
-The villains are the Darktoons, Psychlops and Darkroots, the Grannies never leave their underworld.
-They meet the Magician again, who asks for some lums.
-On the trail, Rayman must beat all of those nightmarish creatures and defend their people (Electoons, Red Wizards, Teensies, Platformmen and Nymphs)
-When all of the nymphs are saved, they discover a new dark force in the center of the Glade's presumable archipielago. they need the help of the four kings of the area
-The four kings are possessed by the darkness. Time to kick some asses.
-The Magician at the end was evil. And used the lums for bad stuff... he also hired some lividstones and a hunter at the end of the game
-They realize that the entire Glade's archipielago was visited... so they just don't give a fuck and just go to sleep because they assume that they stopped all of the nightmares that they started.
-The Land of the Livid Dead is an optional level. This may sound dark, Rayman probably visits it just to avenge the Glade, since the grannies were complete assholes.
-Incidentally they find a lost Nymph

That's it... apparently, Rayman's adventure is a series of coincidences that simply tie together because Rayman just seems to have a terrible luck. But hey... at least he found a lost nymph!... a nymph that nobody cares about...

Huh...never thought of it that way.

[TeensieKing]

An awesome story makes the difference between Rayman and Mario. 'Nuff said.

[stan423321]

Well, I disagree. Not enough said?

To elaborate: while R1 had little to no awesome events in the story, it managed to present a fantastic world. I would actually say that RO manages to copy this aspect of R1, whether this was intended or not.

[Raven_Guardian]

I totally disagree. Origins did'nt manage to copy this aspect. R1 had far more magical worlds, better musics, challenge and level design. Cages were not in obvious locations. Even if the story was lame, it at least made sense unlike Origins.

[Robotic Teensie]

Rayman 1 had a better level design? Nah, I don't think so. Rayman Origins' levels are brilliant... it's so much fun to play through them. In my opinion Origins has the best 2D level design of the whole series.

I also liked its worlds more... for example, R1's "jungle" is just plain weird, RO's jungle really feels like a jungle. Sure, silliness is part of the Rayman games, but in R1 some things were just too alien. R1's mountain/cave worlds are kinda bland (and they're really similar), in Picture City they overused erasers, etc.

Rayman Origins is also (to me at least) fun to play while R1 is mostly just frustrating, so RO is better in terms of the challenge it offers.

Even though I dislike Origins' story (or rather the lack of one) it was a blast to play through and I think it's a better game than Rayman 1.

[Haruka]

I sadly disagree with almost everything but we need to accept the opinions of others too.

[Master]

I prefer the more alien aesthetic that Rayman 1 had, I prefer Rayman to lean closer to fantastical than cartoony, personally.

[Raven_Guardian]

For the worlds, it's a matter of taste (personnally I loved the style) but anyway, i disagree with everything else.
here's a level from R1:


It's not just running from left to right. You have to change your itinerary. I enjoyed much more than R O levels sorry.

R 1 is not frustrating: it has a decent difficulty while R O is way too easy (except some of the last levels).

In Origins, once you figured out what is the things that hide cages, finding every one in the game is a piece of cake. In R1, you have to explore the level in depht. That's why i think R1 had a better level design and is my favorite in the series.

[Electoon]

R 1 is not frustrating: it has a decent difficulty

I am a massive fan of Rayman 1 and I beg to differ on this statement XD

...in fairness, Rayman 1 would be a lot easier if it weren't for the dodgy continues system. A Rayman game with the difficulty level of R1 but with the (lack of) lives system from RO would be interesting to see.

[TeensieKing]

Well, I disagree. Not enough said?

To elaborate: while R1 had little to no awesome events in the story, it managed to present a fantastic world. I would actually say that RO manages to copy this aspect of R1, whether this was intended or not.

Rayman 1 had a unique story where there were electoons and a Great Protoon that helps stabilise the harmony of the world, with fairies that gave you new powers. That's pretty cool if you ask me. Then in my opinion Origins was FAR from the originality and magical feel of Rayman 1.

[Haruka]

I can guarantee I've played more difficult 2D side-scrolling games than Rayman 1. I'm looking to you, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and Captain Claw.

[Robotic Teensie]

The aesthetics of the worlds are indeed a matter of taste.

Alright, Rayman 1 offers a bit more room for exploration in its levels. Rayman Origins' cages were indeed easy to find, although I did like the special rooms that contained the cages - you had to play a small Moskito level, set off a Lividstone death trap, or whatever - the point is that it was a nice break from the normal gameplay. If Origins' cages were harder to find I wouldn't mind either.

If you like R1's levels, the cages are a good extra bonus. But if you don't like its levels that much (like me), replaying those levels for the cages will only lead to increased frustration.
Origins: "Oh, here's the entrance to a cage room. Ooh look, a Moskito part, nice "
Rayman 1: "*looks all over the place* *dies* *dies* *dies* *dies* WHERE THE HELL IS THAT @#$&$^# CAGE?!"
So if you like R1's levels, you will like hunting for cages in those levels - if you dislike the levels you're not going to have much fun.

I really started to appreciate Origins' level design when I played through the game for the second or third time. I was a lot more experienced than before so the levels were easier. So I started to sprint through the levels as fast as I could... and it worked. Those levels are so beautifully designed you can race through them at high speeds and to me that was a whole lot more fun than just *Jump to platform... helicopter... land. Stop. Repeat.* In R1 you constantly have to slow down and the pace of the game is a lot slower than what's possible in Origins. And I like the faster paced gameplay Origins offers.

I understand that R1 has just the right difficulty for some, but really it's too difficult for most. Did you know R1 was not really playtested at all? The designers, who had hundreds of hours of experience with R1, tuned the difficulty to suit them - rather than the players - which was a mistake. They admitted that and improved on that in Origins, and it's indeed much better. In Origins, new players can get through the levels without too many problems and more experienced players can try to get as much lums as possible, beat all levels in time attack mode, do the Tricky Treasure levels, etc. So Origins caters to a wider range of players. If you still think Origins is too easy, that's fine, but the percentage of people who think R1 was too hard was probably higher.

R1's lives system is crap. I'm sorry but there it is. I HATE having to play an easy Dream Forest level dozens of times to farm tings (and therefore lives). The limited lives is a remnant of the era of arcade video games and I'm really glad it's not in Origins. Players who fail to beat a level should be allowed to try again. The game should not just stop after X attempts. Restarting at a checkpoint after you die is fine - I'm not saying players shouldn't be punished when they fall off a cliff or get hit by enemies - but ending the game after you die too much is stupid.

[El Dango]

The designers, who had hundreds of hours of experience with R1, tuned the difficulty to suit them - rather than the players - which was a mistake.

That's interesting, because I've watched a developer commentary on Ratchet & Clank 2 where this kind of thing is mentioned. One of the developers spent so much time on a level that he ended up making it way too hard, and the others had to tell him to turn it down. It's on Youtube somewhere, although I can't remember which video it was.

[MyBodyIsReady]

In my serious opinion I love both Rayman 1 and Rayman Origins the same. These games are different indeed, but both have great atmosphere (R1 is more magical with some crazy elements, RO is more crazy with some magical elements), awesome soundtrack (Band Land and Sea worlds from RO say hi) and lovable characters. RO is easier, but only playing the main quest, some time trials, Chest levels and LotLD are different story. Classic games are usually hard, so it's normal for R1 to be one.

[sergiomonty]

I like both games. Rayman Origins has better artstyle, Rayman 1 has better gameplay. That's it. I hate the original design of Rayman, with that...80's haircut and those eggshaped eyes. And I find the redesign of Origins really brilliant, not only because of the experimentation with the artstyle of 90's cartoons, but because it manages to find the balance in design that previous Rayman forms didn't find:


(that's what I call a redhead, hehe... also, are his eyes just DERPING?)

Also... Rayman's new design even works perfectly if it's adapted to the more traditional artstyle:



I know Rayman 1's Rayman was intended to look cute... but it looked just...awkward. I think the cutest version of Rayman is this:


(Awww, who's gonna save the Glade? who's gonna save the Glade? :3 )