Saint Seiya Awakening: 2023: Lost Year or Worst Year?

Saint Seiya Awakening:

2023: Lost Year or Worst Year?

The problems with server management, bugs and crashes with the Tencent developed game Saint Seiya Awakening have made this mobile video game almost unplayable. Instead of improving and micro-managing the game, GT Arcade and Tencent decided to scale back and only “update” (change the banner saints and sales promotions) Every 15 days instead of doing it weekly.

That and the 5 first new Knight/Saint Units of the year have been the worst Knight/Saint units of this Gacha-Dueling-Style game.

Virgo Asmita

Asmita Virgo Saint is without a doubt the weakest of all of the Virgo Saints released by Tencent and GT Arcade in this mobile video game. While Shaka silences and lowers attack, and Arayashiki Shaka uses debuffs to power his attacks, Asmita requires several rounds to silcence or debuff the opponent’s saints. Requiring a lot of blue skill books, 24-40 and several rounds (3-4), Asmita’s worth is usually seen late in a duel (if at all). Because he is a squishy (weak in HP and resistance to attacks), Asmita can be handled with one to two enemy attacks without any problems.

Radamanthys 2.0

Basic Radamanthys requires the physical attack of his allied Saints to power up his own wings and attack. This is his biggest disadvantage (requires 4-5 previous allied physical attacks to charge up his wings and be able to attack himself). His biggest advantage is that he requires no energy to attack. Usually being one of the last saints in a dueling roster, the 4-8 energy that each round allows, it is a clear advantage to not require energy to use skills and attack.  The New Radamanthys requires 1-3 energy to attack and having a basic speed of 110, places him close to last in the Saint’s Dueling Rosters. Instead of powering up his wings with allied attacks, the new Radamanthys requires to have his own basic attacks or opponents attack him so as to be able to accumulate attack power. Both Radamanthy’s units require 32-40 blue skill books to function properly making the expensive and not popular to summon or build.

Partita Owl vs Misty Lizard

While maximizing the A Saint Misty Lizard takes only stamina and reaching the Saint Stories up to Side Story 16.2, Partita requires summoning her, being an EX level Saint, and requiring 72-80 blue level skill books to perform all of her skills to an adequate level. EX Saints require the green skill books (2x1 blue skill books) and they require more HP potions to level up, more Awakening Crystals and more Seventh and Eight Sense materials as well.

The Difference between Misty (A Level Saint) and Partita (EX Level Saint) is about 14% of Reflact Damage (at their maximum level) and the fact that Misty “taunts” the opponents into attacking while Partita draws the opponent’s attacks (like the Golden Hyoga Saint).  Misty Lizard’s maximum reflect air shields go up to 36% at the Air Shield Skill Level 5. While Partita’s Guardian Owl Skill (4^th Skill) goes up to 50% of the Reflect Opponent’s Damage.

To Summon Partita you need approximately 620 advanced gem themed summons. To try to summon Partita EX Saint through shards, it has an approximate drop rate of 36%. This means that for every 10 advanced gems summons done in the game, 3.6 shards drop and because Partita Saint is an EX Level Saint, she requires 150 shards to be summoned through shard pieces. Estimates done from researching the 2470 advanced themed summons of 14 SSA Kotz players, their results in summoning Partita and her piece-shards.

Aphrodite DC same as Albafica and basic Aphrodite?

All three Pisces Saints play/duel dead last because of their slow speed. Basic Pisces Aphrodite has a built-in speed of 50 (slowest saint in the Codex). Pisces Saints characterize themselves as rose launching saints that cause poison damage and now with DC Aphrodite (first seen on Albafica) Bleeding Damage as well. Bleeding damage is a damage that reduces additional HP through time. Although DC Aphrodite is probably the best Saint introduced in 2023, it is basically the same Albafica and Aphrodite normal Saint. The blue skill books needed to optimize both Albafica and DC Aphrodite are about 32-40 blue skill books. Their range of damage is 80-120% (Albafica-DC Aphrodite). It is strange that all three of these Pisces Saints were placed by the game developer Tencent in different Saint Temples. Divine Pisces Aphrodite was placed in the Speed Strike Temple, while Pisces Albafica was placed at the Eternal Protection Temple and Basic Aphrodite started out the God’s Guard Temple.

Kaiser Leo

Kaiser Leo has popularity because of his Lion familiar, Goldie. The problem is his low attack power. Even if Goldie and Kaiser attack several times, and have the assistance attacks from allied summoned units (like Gemini Kanon’s Shadow, Deathmask’s summons, etc.) The attack level is still not enough for the current meta attack level in this mobile video game. Tencent promoted improvements but, since launched in China in May 2023, it has not been popularly used in the game.

Kaiser has yet to be introduced to the Global mobile video game version. But already, most You-Tuber players covering this game are of the opinion that Kaiser is a lost cause. They are hoping that the Saint introduced at the 4^th Year Anniversary will be the best Saint (most powerful and useful unit of this year, 2023).

But there are no guarantees. The game developers make very convoluted and complicated skills to use and being a mature meta mobile gacha-dueling-game it is quite complicated to alter what players are already accustomed to. That and the older Saints are already maximized. So, a new Saint has to have skills or bring to the game differences that make it interesting and worth-while to invest-in and summon.

No Real Game Improvement

Tencent and Gt Arcade’s problem in Saint Seiya game is that they are solely focused on merchandising and sales. They pay little attention to tech support and the quality of the items and Saints that they sell. For example, the Cosmo required to strengthen the Saints is usually contradictory in its sub-attributes and SS and S Cosmo (the strongest) commonly only have 3-4 sub-attributes (even the one’s sold at the game stores). With half of the sub-attributes being contradictory, the game developers are actually making the Player’s Saints weaker. The Renovated Armor boxes with Saint’s Names on them do not have Armor Pieces of those specific Saints. That’s like selling a box titled Television and having a toaster inside.

The Maintenances and “Updates” aren’t really game updates. They are more like changes in the items and Banner Saints sold. This Saint Seiya Awakening mobile video game celebrated its 3.5 year anniversary in February 2023 of the Global version of this game (the version being managed by GT Arcade). While Players login-in is at an all-time low (averaging 1.8 – 17 thousand players a day), the game crashes, system bugs and unpopularity of the Banner Saints launched is probably the biggest factors of player desertion.

That and the fact that there is little to no game-balance. To new players, this game filled with veterans and Pay-To-Win players is akin to returning to an elementary school filled with bullies. New players in this game are required to duel with veteran players (20+ levels higher) every day and at every single dueling venue of this game (Field of Honor, Galactic Duel, Jamir, PvP Melee, etc.) Having to duel veteran players is like having a professional boxer fight a baby in a real fight. No contest. The developers Tencent and GT Arcade do little to nothing to balance this game. They believe that they need the new players as “punching bags”/targets for their paying-customer base.

So, after all this analysis of this Gacha-style dueling mobile game, the question becomes, Is 2023 a lost year or the worst year in the history of this video game?