Saint Seiya 2

"Unique and for fans during 80s"

* Introduction

First of all, in order to look at this game, remember that this is from the NES period. Games from those days do not have the graphics, sound, or even volume that we have today. I got this game when it first game out in the late 80s, and it was considered revolutional.

* Gameplay 7 / 10

This is by far the first game that placed action and RPG together but maintaining a difference between real Action-RPG like Zelda. You'll be collecting experience points between boss fights on a 2D action fight game (similar to Contra, in a way). These experience points will then be stored for distributing HP and CP (Cosmo Point). HP is simple Life Point, without it, you'll get wiped out in the 2D fights or worse, during boss fights. On the other hand, CP is similar to MP in most RPG these days, but CP also plays a roll in determining the power of your attacks. The more CP you add to your warrior, the more powerful their moves will be. (or further he shoots during the 2D part)

On the other hand, boss fights are like traditional RPG games where you will be able to choose ''Attack'', ''Talk'', ''Defend'' and ''Flee''. Once you've chosen your attack, your warrior will exchange an attack sequence where you'll have to hit left or right rapidly to avoid being hit by your opponent. (Don't over do the dodge or you will get hit as well)

* Story 10 / 10

This game is made to follow the comic and it stayed true to the story. Therefore, in order to proceed in the game, you must at least know the story or else you'll be stuck! At specific stages in the game, using specific warriors will give you special scenes from the story as well as giving your warriors their ''Final Move'' when in the last four stages!

For a lot of the fights, you'll have to rely on ''backups'' from friends, teachers, and lovers of the warrior. Example: using Shun when fighting Gemini will allow Ikki to appear and using Shuryu in the fight with Cancer will have better chances of winning with ChunLi appearing (No, not the ChunLi from Street Fighter).

The final few stages are the best as you'll be playing the fights to death if you choose the warriors correctly. Even the dialogues are the same, so this is a great plus for Saint Seiya fans.

* Graphics/Sound 3 / 10

The sound is not the greatest, but the theme song still follows the anime.

As for the graphics, well....it's from the NES days, but I have to admit that you can hardly tell which Golden Saint you're trying to fight by their look. Fortunately, at least you can still identify the heroes. The attack animations are just too plain and boring. There is no sense of the destructive power the Saints held within their moves. All you get are the heroes are shooting pebbles at the Golden Saints by rising their hand like rising a stick and the Golden Saints are doing odd poses and firing pebbles back at the heroes. (Add a little color flashing in the meantime) Both your heroes and opponents will not have their armors shattered like in the comic / anime, and there's no background during the boss fights. It feels like you've stepped into some void when fighting. (At least they have backgrounds in Seiya 1!!)

* Play Time/Replayability 5 / 10

As there's no saving for this game, you will have to write down some Jap characters as passwords if you want to continue your game. This game really doesn't take that long to complete, about 4 hours max. It's good to pick up this game and review the game after a while, but this is not something that you will really come back all the time.

* Final Recommendation

If you're a Saint Seiya fan, perhaps you should buy this game as there are only 3 Saint Seiya game that were ever published, 2 on NES and 1 on Gameboy. This is perhaps one of the best classic game in terms of following the story of the comic. But until someone come up with a new Saint Seiya game on GC or PS2, our memory of Saint Seiya games will remain as a pixelated one.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/06/03, Updated 05/06/03