Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers

If you're looking for a good fighting game this holiday that's accessible, not overly technical, and doesn't require a commitment or previous experience to enjoy, give Saint Seiya Brave Soldiers a serious look. It's hard to beat for the cost.

Solid core gameplay let down by the lack of arena evolution and weak story mode.

As a fighting game, it's a quite simple experience, but the franchise it is based on will make it a very interesting choice for its fans. However, its simplicity may end up boring us.

A decent brawler, even if way too similar to Cyberconnect's Naruto series. Some interesting changes to the mechanics make this a fun fighting game, but it's definitely not a technical one nor amongst the most original.

Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers is easy to pick up for those who've played Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, but it's a game that only Saint Seiya fans will truly like.

A fan-service 3D brawler one-vs-one based upon the Saint Seiya franchise. Fun but limited and not very original.

In the end if you’ve always wondered about the Saint Seiya series and enjoy an easy and simplistic fighting game, you might want to give this game a shot.

With its limited depth, Brave Soldiers can't hold its own against more technical fighters on the market, and the tedium and lackluster presentation of the story mode won't give anyone who's not already a fan of the series much of a reason to become one.

Saint Seiya: Brave Warriors is fun enough for the occasional match, but there wasn't anything that held my attention for too long.

A simple but ultimately enjoyable brawler, Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers is a good attempt at turning an anime license into a solid video game. Fans should enjoy the title's retelling of the source material, while newcomers will find the combat system refreshingly accessible.

The fighting is pretty looking, but very barebones; the music is catchy, but repetitive; and all the extra modes while solid, don’t do much to make this title truly stand out.

Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers is game made for the fans. With around fifty characters to play as, three full story modes to experience and a netcode worthy of the modern age, it’s a title I feel hardcore fans of the series can enjoy.

A decent fan service, nothing more. The great visual representation of the Saints is a good reason for any fan to go for it, but we can't avoid thinking that as fighter or even as a fan service, it could be much more.

Saint Seya Brave Soldiers is definitely not a step further in comparison with Sanctuary Battle. Gameplay is still plain and not much varied, and game modes aren't attractive at all. A game just for enthusiasts.

Brave Soldiers might be somewhat a treat to any true fan of Athena and her Saints, however it's a pretty mediocre beat'em up with more flaws than virtues and some of the worst mechanics we have seen in the past few years.

Our beloved anime series gains its wings with Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers, fans of the anime will like it, other players will stay away from it.

A disappointing effort made even more unappealing when compared to the abundance of quality fighting games currently available for fans of the genre.

Once upon a time, Dimps was known and respected for the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series, that introduced a revolution in fighting games. Since then, the studio has created bad games, up to the point where we wonder if the same team is still working in the studio. Saint Seiya : Brave Soldiers never reaches the seventh sense, stuck with a bad realisation and a gameplay that shows its limits after two hours. Bandaï Namco's Game gained in dynamism and is much more spectacular than the PS2 episodes, but still, as one of the last games of the PS3 we expected better. The fanboys will enjoy the 60 characters and the OST but that will be their only sweet spot.

If you are truly desperate for a Saint Seiya title, then this may work, but you're better off waiting for a better, more polished game to come along.

Saint Seiya Brave Soldiers has little to offer for those who do not like or even know the series written by Masami Kurumada. As "Fighting game" is to shallow to appeal to a broader public, but at the same time, it's like the piece that was missing from the experience fans had with Sanctuary Battle.

Everything in Brave Soldiers is so dull and uninspiring that even fans of the series won't be able to fully enjoy the game.

This decision further cements the idea – given that the 1980s series has been localised in English in the past – that this is a very niche game, for an audience expected to have some attachment with the series, and that it is a very barebones package with all extraneous content cut for more characters and levels. As a result, it is difficult to recommend to audiences outside of fans of the series; nostalgia, or familiarity, will likely forgive many of the shortcomings.

Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers feels like a rushed game with a very small budget.

Sorry Saint Seiya, but your old fashioned drawing style, super cliché dialogues and bad storytelling won't convince us. Neither will a few hours of 'entertainment', a simplistic combat system and repetitive nature. Too bad, because there's something about the simple Japanese storytelling that speaks to us, like Pokémon and Dragonball Z do.

This PlayStation 3-exclusive is long-winded, simplistic and not much fun to play!

Brave Soldiers is the example of how not to make a game. It’s too simple, the differences between the characters aren’t noticeable and the story is too complicated to understand. Even though it offers us a lot of content, it doesn’t impress us in any way.

A weak attempt to suck some cash out of Saint Seiya fans. [02/2014, p.75]

A good narrative could have saved Saint Seiya from bargain bin oblivion. [Feb 2014, p.94]

It’s just a lackluster experience from head to toe, and while I’d like to champion the idea of more unlikely releases making their way to North America, it’s really hard to do so when faced with a subpar release like Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers.

There are a lot of characters here, and the game covers quite a bit of narrative ground, but the presentation and combat engine are just so clumsy that it’s impossible to recommend Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers to anyone but the most desperate fans of the anime.