Bandai Namco Entertainment announced on Tuesday that it is developing the Saint Seiya Shining Soldiers iOS and Android smartphone role-playing game based on the Saint Seiya franchise for worldwide release. The company opened an official website for the game and began streaming two trailers that preview gameplay elements, characters, and their special moves.

The game will be free but include in-app purchases. The iOS App Store is listing an "expected" release date of April 23. Pre-registration offering in-game rewards is available now.

The strategy RPG features one-on-one command-based battles. Players choose three characters from a party of six gathered warriors and use them to battle players online worldwide. Each character has one out of five affinity types, each of which have a strength and weakness. As players use Charge Skills, they strengthen their Cosmo, which allows them to use Seventh Sense Art special moves. The game also includes a Cosmo Chronicle Episode story mode featuring four storylines from the Saint Seiya series: The 12 Gold Palaces, N. Europe Asgard, Sea God Poseidon, and Dark Lord Hades.

Masami Kurumada published the original Saint Seiya manga from 1986 to 1990. The manga has inspired various television anime, original video anime projects, anime films, and spinoff manga. The Saint Seiya: Saintia Shō spinoff manga also has an anime that debuted in December 2018. The franchise is also getting a live-action Hollywood film.

Viz Media published the original manga in English under the title Saint Seiya : Knights of the Zodiac . ADV Films released Toei Animation 's anime adaptation with an English dub under the title Knights of the Zodiac , and later released it unedited under the title Saint Seiya . New Video Group also released the series on DVD. Netflix added the first 41 episodes of the 1986 Saint Seiya ( Knights of the Zodiac ) anime series with a new English dub and English subtitles on October 15. Netflix added 32 more episodes earlier this month.

Netflix debuted the first six episodes of Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya , the CG anime remake of Kurumada's original manga, worldwide on July 19. The second part debuted on January 23.

Sources: Email correspondence, Saint Seiya Shining Soldiers game's website, App Store



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