Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle

Manga fans will enjoy this, but it's too repetitive to keep most playing for long. [May 2012, p.89]

A fun Japanese game, but it feels a bit dated, especially in the graphics department.

The anime that this game is based upon may not be as popular as other Japanese animation, but Sanctuary Battle makes a decent effort to keep up with the true spirit of Kurumada's original vision. The fighting system is great, the art direction beautiful and the overall experience can be rewarding even for those who are not acquainted with the manga/ anime.

Musou-style gameplay strikes again: the game could have been a much better adaptation of the beloved Japanese series, instead we are getting a bunch of long and repetitive skirmishes and excellent cutscenes. Fans will be pleased with the good amount of extra content, despite some technical nuisances.

The game does not excel in its genre and gets repetitive soon, and will only be interesting for series followers.

As every "musou" game, Sanctuary Battle is dull and iterative. Still, you can play with every single character seen in the anime (yes, even with missing Gold Saints): discoverying their moves and made them fight each other in the mission mode is something that fans should not miss for any reason.

There are explosively brief thrills to be had, but makes it really hard for most peeps to give it a chance. [June 2012, p.72]

Saint Seiya isn't exactly a great game. It's a game that suffers from repetition, an awkward camera, and button bashing to beat generic enemies (bosses save this situation).

Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle is the perfect example of a wasted opportunity. Just like most of the games based on popular anime licences, Saint Seiya is graphically awful, but with tons of nice touches aimed to the hardcore fans. If you like the original brand, you could like this game too.

It may not reach the the ultimate cosmos energy state, but Saint Seiya is still unmissable for the fans of the anime or the manga. It works easily around the traps of a too strict adaptation that would hurt the gameplay fun, and offers a beat'em all that may feel very redundant, still, but still a very enjoyable one for the fans. It's pretty, the characters are nicely modelled, and one can play a large selection of the characters, with the attacks and the musics that go with it.

Not really worth bothering with. [Issue#216, p.80]

A dodgily produced cash-in of a chestnut anime. [May 2012, p81]