Action anime are a dime a dozen these days, especially with the international rise of popular series’ like Dragon Ball Z. Even then, outside of your DBZ’s and Sailor Moon‘s, there were so many popular anime to come out of the late 80’s and early 90’s that still remain firmly in niche status, despite their huge following in Japan. One of the biggest examples of this is Saint Seiya, dubbed Knights of the Zodiac in the West. With such insane levels of action, a huge cast of characters to explore and loads of power ups, it’s following here is smaller, but passionate all the same. With a new anime series debuting, it sounds like the perfect set up for a game, right? We sat down with a hands on build of the upcoming fighting game to see if Seiya’s big return is one to get excited for.
Developed by anime fighting game veteran, Dimps, Soldiers’ Soul looks to cover a ton of ground, so even those unfamiliar with the source material should be able to get caught up quick. Following the Twelve Zodiac Temples arc through the battle with Hades, the game promises to deliver these, and other storylines across the series’ many chapters, its biggest moments will be retold through some fancy 3D cutscenes. Brought to life even further by the original Japanese voice overs, as well as English, Spanish, Brazilian and Portuguese subtitles, now the whole planet can enjoy the narrative! Or at least most of it…
While playing, it’s clear that the cutscenes aren’t the only part of the game getting gorgeous visuals. Watching the game in action looks close to what you would expect from 3D CGI scenes in an anime film. Taking a 3/4ths diagonal perspective that swings to a traditional side view as the fighters draw closer, this fully 3D fighter feels reminiscent to the perspective of the DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi series combined with the special move mechanics of the recently released Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure brawler, and the core mechanics of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series.
Fast paced combos are performed using three of the face buttons, each with varying strength. A tap of the shoulder button will teleport you behind an enemy when you’re stuck in a combo, but this can only be triggered a certain amount of times before you’re stuck with playing defensively. If the course of the fight launches you into the air, new aerial combos and range variation attacks keep the battles flowing smoothly, mirroring the absurd levels of awesome the anime can reach. By building your Cosmo through either fighting or charging up, Seiya or one of the many other fighters will be able to unleash powerful special attacks, which are perfect for finishing off opponents who are on the ropes. Basically, everything you could want from a solid anime fighting game is found in Soldiers’ Soul.
With a varied cast, (complete with their Gold Saint and God Cloth forms,) fast paced fighting, beautiful graphics and a smooth, 60 FPS frame rate on PS4, and it’s looking like we’ll need to be ready to add a potentially great fighting game to our radars.
Any Saint Seiya fans out there? Tell us about your favorite moments in the comments, and look for Soldiers’ Soul when it launches on PS3, PS4 and Steam this Fall.