Saint Seiya: Soldier's Soul Review

Unfortunately, I have to begin this review by holding up my hands and admitting that I am new to the world of Saint Seiya. This new fighting game comes from a popular manga/anime, and it is not the first game in its series, which has been popular in both Japan, Europe and the US. As I understand it, it has quite the following, and I can see from the rich character detail why this game would appeal strongly to its existing fanbase. I have tackled this game as a newcomer to the Seiya world, and I hope that this gives me the opportunity to be unbiased. Have Dimps Corporation - developers of Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Street Fighter IV and many more - made a new fan out of me?

Perhaps not.

I’m not new to fighting games, but I figured I had better off begin at the tutorial, where I take control of Seiya, the main character. A masked woman called Marin is on hand to fix me up with the skills I need to continue on my Seiya journey, and I am faced with an intimidating list of tutorial sections to choose from - everything from basic movements, to activating my Seventh Awakening. Thankfully, despite the lengthy list, Seiya, a 3D brawler, pretty much follows a standard fighting game formula. There aren’t too many combos to get to grips with, and moving around is fluid and easy. The animations are smooth; none of the awkward, jerky movements that can drag so many fighting games down.

There is a bar at the bottom of the screen which fills gradually throughout the fight - this is your Cosmo level. Cosmo is an inner strength, derived it seems from the universe itself, which can be tapped into to execute special abilities. Although it builds gradually, holding the left trigger makes your character focus and quickly charge your Cosmo. You have precious little time to do so, and find yourself snatching quick moments to recharge, while your opponent is floored. Your abilities - special attacks, or a quick dash movement - take large amounts of Cosmo, so recharging is a huge advantage. It’s a nice touch, adding another element to a typical fight - you are not rewarded for button-mashing, as there aren’t many combos to be had with just two attack buttons, so correct use of your Cosmo power forces you to plan your moves a little more.

Each character has different special abilities which can be used with their Cosmo power. The abilities relate directly to them as a character - for example, Shiryu, a dragon knight, can summon a “Rising Dragon” to fling at his enemies.The strongest of these attacks is only available when the Cosmo bar is full, and so must be timed perfectly - if used carelessly, it will miss the opponent, and won’t be available again until fully recharged. Although technically different, every character’s power does pretty much the same thing. I didn’t find any particular advantage to using one character over another, so it largely comes down to preference. When the Cosmo bar is completely full, your character will shine with an aura. Pressing the right analog stick puts you into the Seventh Sense Awakening - doing so at the right time knocks back enemies, and can interrupt special attacks. Being in the Seventh Sense state also greatly increases the damage of your attacks, especially your “grab” move.

You can perform aerial attacks, which is a new addition to the Seiya games, but unfortunately they don’t come into play very much in offline play. Computerised opponents don’t seem to jump-attack very much, so attacking them from the air just results in flying over their heads and getting your butt kicked on landing. In online battles, gameplay becomes much more vertical, and you find yourself and your opponent taking to the air as much as on the ground. Air attacks add a much more dynamic feel, and it is a shame that the story-mode of the game lacks this so much.

Once I feel I have learned all there is to learn from Marin, I take a look at my gameplay options - Battle, Online Battle, Gold Battle and Legend of Cosmo. After glancing at the Battle modes, I realise that almost all of 72 characters are unavailable to me, and need to be unlocked. This can be done by playing the story and by winning fights with good scores - your battles are graded based on the time taken to win/lose and your HP. Some characters are merely the same as those already playable, but with the addition of Gold Armour, a divine golden armour set making for a more powerful character.

In the Legend of Cosmo mode, you can play through the main story. You are free to select a storyline, or arc. Starting at “Chapter Sanctuary” allows you to catch up on the story so far. The first two episodes are cut scenes explaining that the Earth is in constant battle of the gods who all struggle to conquer it. Goddess Athena protects the planet, but falls victim of an assassination attempt. A golden arrow is shot into her chest, and will puncture her heart in twelve hours. Her Saints - young warriors who have spent their lives training to aid Athena in her defense of Earth - must bring her before the Grand Pope to save her life. These five Saints harness powers derived from Greek mythology.

Once you are up to speed with the story, you and the Saints progress through palaces of the zodiac, beginning with the Palace of Taurus, in which you must use Seiya to fight Aldebaran, who is clad in gleaming Gold Armour. Outside of battle mode, the Saint you use to fight is out of your control, and is determined by the story. Story battles take place in bland and repetitive arenas, which vary very little from enemy to enemy. Each battle comes with an optional objective - block 15 attacks, reach your Seventh Awakening, etc. You can switch between Chapters Sanctuary, Poseidon, Hades and Asgard at any time, which are all familiar from previous Seiya games, apart from Asgard, which is an entirely new realm.

Now, I haven’t yet mentioned a key aspect of the game. It is in Japanese, with subtitles. Changing the audio is not an option, and so you must follow the dialogue by reading the subtitles. As an anime fan, this does not bother me - reading subtitles comes naturally to me. And I presume that players of Saint Seiya will have been drawn to the game because of its anime roots and are unlikely to be fazed. However, newcomers to the series who are not accustomed to reading subtitles are going to be massively put off by this. And annoyingly, the dialogue continues mid-fight. You can see tiny subtitles and hear Japanese conversation happening in the background of your fight, and you obviously cannot read the subtitles when you are concentrating on dodging and blocking. The dialogue is thankfully not essential to the story, but it is a shame to be missing out, and the audio can be distracting and annoying at times.

Also, you often find yourself finishing off a particularly epic battle, firing your special attack at an enemy and watching the letters K.O. flash victoriously on your screen, only to watch a cinematic in which the enemy is holding your character’s broken, lifeless body over his head. Often the story insinuates that your character has been beaten, which is when another Saint steps in to avenge you, or you awaken your Seventh Awakening to try again. It makes no sense at all to include scenes in which you are beaten which can only be accessed after you win a fight.

Another unfortunate downside is that the cutscenes between fights are extremely long, and often don’t seem to add a great deal to the story at all. I understand that there is much story to be had in the Seiya world, but the gap between fight scenes is much too big. There are no quick time events or anything to involve the player in these intersections at all, so you’re forced to take a backseat.

If you prefer to jump into a quick fight, there are plenty of options in the Battle modes. You have a great deal of control over your fight, from character selection, unlockable arenas and game types. You can decide for the game to conclude after best two-out-of-three, three knockouts, or even the first to reach a particular objective. There are VS battles, Survival battles in which your HP carries over between fights, and a Galactic War which can involve up to eight players. Battling online is equally simple, and with worldwide play, it takes no time at all to find and join a match.

In Battle of Gold mode, you are faced with a zodiac board. For each sign of the zodiac, you must fight three different battles against opponents linked to that sign. If you achieve high scores in these battles, you may move on to tougher enemies. The Gold Saints - whom you fight, and unlock to play - hark from the Seiya anime, Soul of Gold, and yet again is designed to call out to existing Seiya fans. In order to fight, you must light a torch. You begin with two torches, and more can be purchased using the in-game currency you accrue in other game modes (this can also be spent in the game Shop, on costumes, etc). However, torches are extortionately priced, so progression in this section is exceedingly difficult.

In short, Saint Seiya: Soldier’s Soul falls short. Its animations are smooth, and the graphics are clean and faithful to the anime style, but the battle arenas are repetitive and unimaginative. There is a plethora of characters to play, with little to distinguish between the play styles of each of them. It is fun to play, and there are some interesting aspects of the game, such as Cosmo, and the Battle Modes are plenty of fun, but it doesn’t come close to standing out from other games in the fighting genre.