In 2013, Bandai Namco and Dimps decided to redirect the Saint Seiya license towards accessible and visual versus fighting, with CyberConnect2's Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm as an obvious model. A copy that was a little missed due to very marked technical shortcomings and a terrible lack of dynamism. Two years later, the results have not really changed. Saint Seiya: Soldiers' Soul is pretty much the PS4's Brave Soldiers. Pretty much because this new title still has the decency to make some welcome adjustments, obviously starting with the long-awaited Asgard narrative arc, which is available from the start of the game in the scenario mode. However, as in Brave Soldiers, you will first have to finish the solo to be able to fry with the characters concerned. This is also valid for the whole game: to play with a Knight in all modes, you will have to unlock him in the solo adventure. And as long as you are an extremist, you will need time, a lot of time: many items have to be purchased in the game store, after being unlocked, and the amounts requested are astronomical.BRAVE SOLDIERS 1.1
In terms of gameplay, it hasn't changed one iota. We end up with controls modeled almost exactly on those of Ultimate Ninja Storm: two attack buttons, a button allocated to projectiles, teleportation, Awakening mode, special attacks... To the point that we are looking for the originality without ever finding it. If the result is slightly more dynamic and much more fluid than Brave Soldiers thanks to the power of the PS4, we are still very far from the effectiveness of CyberConnect2 titles. The fault in the first place with a lock system which works in a very random way and which will often lead you to type in the wind, rectifying the direction of a sequence during the combo being impossible. The game arena is both too big not to miss, and too small to be able to really put the opponent at a distance. The method is therefore always the same: wait for the opponent to launch an offensive to dodge him with a side step and smash him quietly behind his back. The parry does not pass and the teleportation will eat your Cosmos gauge in less than two, so you can forget the combo breakers. The result is fights that take place in phases of a few seconds, to the advantage of one or the other of the two fighters, with no real way to reverse the trend. We throw a combo, which we follow in the air with a dash boosted with Cosmos, a new combo then possibly a special move. They have the merit of being well done and visually satisfying for the fans. For the rest, it's quite limited, soft and not innovative for two cents.ASTROLOGY, THIS WAY OF THE CROSS
We told you a little earlier that you had to complete the different chapters of the solo to unlock the very many characters in the cast. We forgot to tell you that getting into this would be a terrible problem. Sure, you can start each of the four story arcs right from the start of the game. Sure, Soldiers' Souls is respectful of how the original story unfolded. And yes, luckily the stills that served as the narration in Brave Soldiers are gone. However, the story mode remains boring and repetitive. Instead of still images, we are now entitled to barely more animated cut-scenes in completely stripped-down settings (we will come back to this later), and the narration is limited to the bare minimum. As for the course of the fights and the chapters, it is about three quarters of the time of facing the same opponent several times, in different conditions (+30% Attack, -10% Cosmos, etc.), which is more or less justified by changes in the course of the scenario. Secondary objectives and S ranks to win ensure the replayability of the whole. If you want to change your mind, you can always try battles with modified rules, online or offline, or even the Golden Battle, which puts you in control of the Golden Knights adorned in their divine armours. But we do not hide from you that weariness quickly shows the tip of his nose.The staging is minimal, and the special moves, which get away with the honors, clash violently compared to the rest
To (a little) forget such a poor game core, Saint Seiya: Soldiers' Soul would have had to be visually stunning. Unsurprisingly, this is not the case. The sets are all duller and emptier than each other. The staging is minimal, and the special moves, which get away with it, clash violently with the rest. The camera movements are also reduced to a minimum, the animations as we said above have been improved but are still archaic and the cel-shading of this episode is light years away from what the last episodes can offer. of Naruto (since that's where Dimps draws his inspiration, let's keep the comparison to the end).
