Saint Seiya: The Sanctuary

The gameplay of each level is divided into two parts: Reaching the palace and defeating the Gold Saint. The former is a traditional hack & slash game where the player fights against hordes of enemies. He has the standard move repertoire to his disposal: regular attacks, dodging, blocking and special attacks. For the latter the player needs a certain amount of power in a special energy bar - it decreases with every special attack and increases if the player is hit. When reaching the temple the game switches to a one to one fighting game style.

The basic gameplay stays the same but if the special energy bar is filled to the max the play can use an extremely powerful attack which results in a typical anime cutscene. But it is not without downsides: the enemy can block the attack by mastering a quicktime event (pressing a button in the exact moment it appears on screen). Then he starts an equally powerful counter attack which results in a sequence where both players need to mash buttons - if the counter attack is successful depends on which player is faster.