For all the fans of the best anime ever made, finally there's a decent game of Saint Seiya for the PS3 that we can play.
There were previous games for the PS2 of Saint Seiya that were 3D fighting games, fans were excited but there were things about those games that did not convinced gamers, although they had good charachters models and some acceptable graphics, the feeling of the gameplay wasn't right, for example you couldn't jump.
Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle is different, the gameplay just feels right in order of the style of Saint Seiya, you are there to make the Sanctuary Battle with your favourite 5 characters of the series: Pegasus Seiya, Dragon Shiryu, Cygnus Hyoga, Andromeda Shun, and Phoenix Ikki. That epic story of the sanctuary is very well represented in the Main saga of the game, you have to battle all your way through every one of the 12 zodiac temples and fight the Gold Saints, each part with the character that battled that fight as it happened in the anime. It really feels good to play it while you are in your way to the temple of Athena, after an episode, you character increases experience and earns Cosmo Power Points that could be trade for increasing their special attacks, or their abilities, or even their cosmo and energy. There are 5 initial difficulties, in the harder difficulty you play, your CP earnings will be bigger, but it will take you more sweat to beat the militia.
The gameplay gives you the chance to make big combos, hitting and smashing opponents everywhere, destroying the pillars and surroundings, and if your cosmo bar has enough cosmo accumulated, you can deploy your special attack, for example, if you are with Seiya, you can press circle (just as easy as it is) and you can launch the classic Pegasus Ryu Sei Ken to your opponents. Each character has their own first level attack, second level attack and third level attack, and as I wrote before, you can increase their power later while the character gets more experience in battle.
But the game doesn't finish when you beat the Sanctuary Saga, after that you unlock other side stories sagas of that time, like what happened to Sagittarius Aiolos, or what Marin lived during that battle, all of that side stories are unlocked once you beat the previous one, until you have them all, you can play them anytime you want selecting them from the story mode. And if it was not enough battles, while you are in your first playthrough, you unlock characters once you beat them, from silver saints like Shaina Ophiurcus or Lacerta Misty, to all the 12 Gold Saints, and everyone loves the gold saints right?, so the game gives you the chance to not only battle them, but playing with them as well, so you can start a game in mission mode and use them. Mission mode can be played with 1 or 2 players, and have fragments of the main story that need to be completed, like your way from Aries palace to Cancer palace, but this time you can play it with any character you want, and after you beat it, you can set online times to the network. Mission mode has as well a survival mode, and you can use any character you want too and increase his experience.
So this game has plenty stuff to keep entertained for hours and having fun with your favourite characters of your childhood (at least with for me). It lacks some other stuff like a directly versus fight, or some other charachters, but as a first deliver of the saga, it is OK.
Hope to see a sequel of it, because there is more part of the anime to be made, Asgard Saga, Poseidon Saga, and ending with Hades. Must of the fans will love to see a game like this but with all the complete story of Saint Seiya in it, including all the characters, but I guess that is just another dream in my head.
If you are a fan of the series, you definitely have to get this and try it, it is by far the best Saint Seiya game until now.
Thanks for reading, and have you ever felt your Cosmo??
(had to write that! xD)