Saint Seiya Chapter Sanctuary

By Spencer . September 27, 2005 . 5:13pm

Purchase at Play-Asia

 

Purchase at Lik-Sang

 

Some franchises are just overlooked, for years. Dragon Ball Z gets tons of game deals. Naruto is on practically every future system. Even retro anime like Tetsujin 28 has a game on the PS2. Then there is Saint Seiya, with a fan base all around the globe that had it’s last game in the 80s. Finally, Bandai along with Dimps (famed or infamous depending on your take for the Dragon Ball Z Budokai games) announced that they’re going to make Saint Seiya Chapter Sanctuary. Fans rejoice, but was it worth the wait?

 

Ok if you’ve ever watched Saint Seiya religiously or the US incarnation, Knights of the Zodiac, the intro movie will blow you away. Not because it’s technically eye popping, it’s not. It’s just that it’s so reminiscent of the anime, in full 3D with no cel-shading! Once the initial thrill of the movie is over Saint Seiya Chapter Sanctuary has the usual menu options: a story mode, versus mode and a really cool bonus mode. The bonus mode isn’t available from the beginning, but it’s something that Seiya masters will enjoy. With in are collectable character cards, that are cool to check out. There are also voice bytes and revitalized music from the series featured in the game. What’s really ludicrous is you can unlock images of old toys. This will mean nothing to gamers looking for a good fighting game, but it’s a nice treat to all of those fans out there.

 

The actual gameplay of Saint Seiya Chapter Sanctuary is based on the Dragon Ball Z Budokai engine. Not the engine from the excellent third game, but it’s a reworked version of the first gameplay engine. You have two types of attacks a low attack (cross button) and a high attack (square button). By mashing either button you’ll do a combo. Nothing special here. Most gamers will find that doing a combo doesn’t take any skill. Pressing cross over and over again is sufficient to win most fights. That is if you time your blocks by pressing R1 carefully. While you alternate between mashing X and then hastily pressing block to defend your special bar will fill up. Pressing the circle button allows you to tap into your more powerful abilities like Seiya’s Pegasus shock or Shun’s Nebula Chain. If you really want to cause damage you have to get your special meter filled up to one of the three level markers. When you use a full three bars the screen switches to an anime style execution. You’ll see some powerful attacks like Aries’ Stardust Extinction. If someone attacks you with a super move you can counterattack by pressing either circle, cross or square. The appropriate button will flash, if you’re fast enough and hit it you’ll start a counter move. When both you and another player pull out super moves its a button mashing battle. The winner launches a super move and the loser gets hit.

 

One thing unique to Saint Seiya Chapter Sanctuary is what happens when you run out of life. Instead of starting a new round or having your character just get up to battle, the screen changes to a mini game. The loser will have to rapidly shake the analog stick while mashing buttons. Doing this will cause your character to get back up, so the fight will continue. It makes battles a bit disjoined, like a boxing game, but it’s still a welcome addition.

 

When you start out the game you’ll only be able to play as Seiya, Shiryuu, Shun, and Ikki. The game does feature over fifteen more characters, that you’ll have to unlock through the story mode. Normally battling against a character is significant enough to earn them. For instance after Mu gives you a short tutorial you can play as him. After the first battle with Aldebaran you’ll get him. As you keep entering different temples and battle there you’ll get more characters. The entire story mode can be completed in a day, if you’re really into it. However, to get really sought out characters like Sagittarius Seiya you’ll have to enter story mode again.

 

In story mode you’ll do more than just one on one fights. While they are still the meat of the game there are some interesting Tekken Force like bonus levels. In these beat-em up levels you’ll battle nameless soldiers that can take one or to hits to defeat. All you need to do is defeat all of the enemies and make it to the next temple. This mode is kind of an afterthought. The lock on doesn’t work really well. You can’t quickly switch targets. Also since most of the time you’ll only do a couple of hits it’s pretty much worthless. At times in the middle of battling you’ll move over and enter the next floor, without warning. Other times you’ll feel like you’ve been playing in the same floor for days. What makes them even more ridiculous is the bad clipping. If you use the explode cosmos (cross and square) you can hit a whole bunch of guys at once with a range that is out of control. Since most of the guys only need one or two hits anyway the explode cosmos wipes them out. The bonus stages need more work to be "entertaining".

 

Saint Seiya’s graphics are going to be a coin toss. Some of the fans will really like the 3D models and extra shiny armor. While others will claim that since it’s an anime game it should have been cel-shaded. Style aside, the graphics are mediocre. Not really anything amazing, after you get over watching the Ryuusei Ken in 3D. The models look a bit simplistic compared to say Tekken 5 or even Virtua Fighter 4. Having rigid movement, makes the action feel more choreographed than an actual fight. The backgrounds have some interactive damage. If you hit a column the screen will shake and the column will fall. Kind of cool, but stage interaction has been done in plenty of other games. Most of the time better, too. The music is some good stuff. There’s some tunes from the series in there that keep the game flowing.

 

When Dimps made this game they really designed it just for the Saint Seiya fans out there. It doesn’t even try to entertain those outside of the Saint Seiya universe. There isn’t a real fighting engine. The graphics are fairly basic. Worse of all, is the game isn’t really that fun if you’re not into the series. Even if you’re a fan from the series you got to ask yourself, could this be better? The answer of course is a resounding, yes. With such a popular license Dimps could have made something so much better. It’s not like they’re inexperienced in making fighting games. Even if you’ve waited almost two decades for a Saint Seiya title, it doesn’t mean you’ve been waiting for a mediocre repainted version of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai.

 

Import Friendly? Literacy Level: 1

A few minor menus to navigate through and an all Japanese story are some minor obstacles for importers. Aside from the tutorial in the beginning of the game Saint Seiya isn’t going to challenge your Japanese language skills.

 

US Bound?

Bandai hasn’t announced any plans to bring this to the US. If we’d had to wager a guess we’d say don’t count on it, unless Japanese sales are really high.

 

+ Pros: Fans will like the large selection of characters and the killer intro movie.

 

- Cons: A disappointingly simple fighting engine, that gamers can master in seconds.

 

Overall: Just because its the only Saint Seiya game in town it doesn’t make this a particularly stellar title. Fans will love being able to play as their favorite characters, but that’s about all there is to enjoy.

 

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