The story of Saint Seiya: The Hades is taken directly from the highly respected manga of the same name that have only recently been made into an anime television series and which are hailed by many fans as the greatest in the Saint Seiya saga. For maximum authenticity, the story of the game is based mainly on the original manga with cut scenes taken from the anime. The story takes places as the Specters, thanks to the awakening of Hades, begin to claim back their powers after being restrained for 243 years by Athena's might. It is your destiny to do battle with the supreme commander of Hell and his armies to overcome the impending devastation.

Saint Seiya: The Hades offers something extra special for all fans of anime and fighting games. The development team have put their hearts and souls into developing a fighting system worthy of this seminal manga and anime with spectacular results.

Features :

• Relive the entire Hades saga from the Sanctuary to the Inferno chapters.
• The tragic story takes place 243 years ago and is based on the manga with cut scenes based on the anime.
• With a European launch far in advance of the Japanese release date, NAMCO BANDAI Games are bringing Saint Seiya: The Hades to European fans first.
• Features the original Japanese voiceover with localised subtitles in English, French, Spanish and Italian.
• 49 playable characters including Hades’ Surplices and Athena’s Saints with their Final Cloth and Golden Bronze Cloths.
• An extra layer of special effects has been added to the battle stage which is used to create an even stronger feeling of the Hades world.
• High quality character rendering using double the number of polygons compared to Saint Seiya, Knights of the Zodiac: The Sanctuary

Developers DIMPS has brought a wealth of new elements and enhancements to the fighting systems of Saint Seiya: The Hades, with technically dazzling rapid-fire battles on a massive battle stage which accommodates a greater breadth of range attacks, counter-attacks and blistering combos. The fighting has been tuned throughout to give the player fiercely dynamic battles where one right or wrong move can have catastrophic effects. The enhanced Cosmo system lets players make the most of the all-new special attacks to inflict grave damage on their opponent.

Cinematic Content :

• Stunning opening movie and story cut scenes directed by the renowned and respected creator from Toei Animation, Mr. Motoharu Katsumata, series director of the original Saint Seiya TV animation, and additionally series producer or director of UFO Robot Grendizer (aka Goldorak in France or Atlas Ufo Robot Goldrake in Italy), Mazinger Z, and Yamato
• Eight major in-game movies, totaling more than 40 minutes running time, are supplemented with many short cut scenes during battles and to mark other story events.
• Sound directed by Mr. Sato, sound director of the original Saint Seiya TV animation
• Sound effects directed by Mr. Konno, sound effect director of the original Saint Seiya TV animation – Saint Seiya The Hades employs the same sound effects as the original TV animation.
• The faces of the characters are very close to the original TV animation including naturally moving hair, with character's mouth movements accurately synchronized with the speech during the cut scenes.

Published by Namco Bandai and distributed in Europe by Atari, Saint Seiya: The Hades is scheduled for release across Europe in autumn 2006.