Saint Seiya: Soldiers’ Soul, despite its fresh announcement and cachet as a sequel to 2013’s Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers, remains an enigma. Bandai Namco was willing to show us a bit of live gameplay and talk to a few of the folks handling development of the game, but its finer aspects remain under wraps.
The most notable facet of Soldiers’ Soul was its willingness to obscure the one player’s point of view. One-on-one fighting games typically position its players on an even field, allowing both an identical look at the action unfolding on screen. In our demo, one player was constantly running in and out of the background, not necessarily in a plane-shifting binary manner, but rather something more akin to complete 3D movement. The slightest shift in depth resulted in a large presence for one character and a reduced amount of screen space for the other, so much that the character in the foreground dominated the screen. It’s hard to tell if this was a potentially strategic maneuver or the result of game still early in development, but it was an intriguing thread.
Soldiers Soul was also something of a coming out party for Bandai Namco’s presence in South America. The game is being localized in neutral Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese in its subtitles and native voice cast. Bandai Namco’s entry into South American countries was a major part of their keynote at Global Gamer’s Day, and the enthusiasm by members of the South American press was palpable from the other side of the room. Soldiers’ Soul will hopefully be the first in a long line of games with greater attention paid to a more diverse (and definitely appreciative) audience.
Beyond that, all we have are brief facts straight from the press sheet. Dimps is heading up development duties, 1080p resolution and 60 frames-per-second is promised for the PlayStation 4 version of the game (though a Steam and PlayStation 3 release are also on the table), a greater number of aerial combos are promised, and Soldiers Soul will boast online fighting with worldwide match making.
If you’re interested in learning more about Saint Seiya: Soldiers’ Soul, hey, you’re not alone. It’s due out this fall, and we’ll surely have more coverage available by the time it rolls around.
