Burn Up Your Cosmo In This Saint Seiya Mobile Game
Saint Seiya: Awakening is a role-playing and card mobile video game for the classic Japanese manga and anime series, Saint Seiya, by Masami Kurumada. Originally serialized back in 1986, Saint Seiya follows the story of orphan Seiya who ends up looking for his lost sister. In exchange for help on this quest, he’s been tasked to go to Greece and become a Saint—a soldier of the Goddess Athena who must protect her against the other gods who are trying to destroy her. With the power of the magical armors called “Cloths” and the energy of the Cosmo, Seiya—now known as Bronze Saint Pegasus Seiya—and the other Bronze Saints team up under the leadership of the new incarnation of Athena to fight to save the world from the other gods. Here, Saint Seiya: Awakening brings back fans to the nostalgia of the original manga and anime with all-new immersive card battles.
Meet The Saints
Saint Seiya: Awakening brings back all the classic characters that were introduced in the series. From the Bronze Saint protagonists to the Gold Saint villains, you get to meet and use them on the 3D battlefield to gain an edge in combat. Even the almighty gods in the Saint Seiya universe are playable units that you can obtain. The 3D sprites are full-bodied character models, complete with their iconic power moves and beloved voice-overs from popular Japanese voice actors. You can roll for them in the summoning pool and hope you get some beloved characters. This is a real treat to any Saint Seiya fan, no matter how old.
Play Your Hand Right
You’d think that an anime famous for action and fight scenes would let its mobile game do the same and let players fully control the characters, right? However, Saint Seiya: Awakening instead uses turn-based strategy in a card game with animated sprites—but don’t let that stop you from enjoying the game. You may not get to control and wield the iconic characters but you can still lead them in battle, directing when you ought to unleash their powerful abilities like the “Pegasus Meteor Fist” and “Pheonix’s Wings Rise.” Despite the ranking of the Saints, what matters in the game is your strategy.
Blast From The Past
What’s great about this game is that it will take you through the various legendary battles that took place in both the manga and anime. The Galaxian Wars, the 12 Zodiac Temples War, the Battle of Poseidon—you’ll go through these arcs as if you’re reliving the story alongside the characters all over again. Since this is a strategy card game, though, you shouldn’t expect to see much of the world depicted in the anime while you’re on the battlefield. The battlefield itself is pretty cramped for a 6-vs-6 fight with tall 3D models. However, the environment will still immerse you into the game’s universe.
Gacha Hell
Overall, Saint Seiya: Awakening performs well enough as a Saint Seiya adaptation on the mobile. You get to go through the story with the main mission but also do PvP with other players by merely sending out your line-up of Saints. However, it disappoints with its drop rate for the characters and their cards. The game seems rigged to be pay-to-win with this and even when you drop some money to try rolling for the higher-ranked units, you still can’t easily get them. If you’re not familiar with gacha games like this, perhaps it’s best to just try other Saint Seiya games first.
