Namco Bandai released today a large batch of new screenshots and renders of Saint Seiya Senki, that has will be released on the PS3 in Europe next year with the title Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle (there's no info about a possible US release at the moment).

A few characters have been introduced (of course they're already well known by the fans of the anime and manga series): the Gold Saints Shaka of Virgo, Milo of Scorpio and my personal favorite, Shura of Capricorn.

In addition to that the first screenshots of Seya wearing the Sagittarius gold cloth are part of the bunch. 

A few gameplay mechanics have also been introduced:

The mission mode will see the player chose his favorite character of the series to clear the twelve houses of the holy Temple of Athena in the shortest time possible. The selectable characters include both the Bronze Saints (Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga, Shun and Ikki) and the Gold Saints. There will be an online leaderboard for this mode.

Each character can gain experience during battles, allowing him to expand his cosmo, raise the power of his attacks and learn new abilities.

By pressing the Action button (circle on the Japanese version of the game, presumably X in Europe) and R2 at the same time, the player will be able to perform a Cosmo burst attack, increasing the power of his actions. Holding R2 and moving the left stick will then hit all the enemies in the path of the character.

R2+Square will perform a charge attack, while R2+Triangle will attack the enemy with an uppercut blow. In addition to that the Cosmo bar that is used to perform those special attacks can be recharged by holding R2 and by picking up special items.

By pressing L2 the player can activate the ultimate Cosmo technique, the Seventh Sense. It slows down time and allows the character to avoid the enemy light speed attacks. In addition to this it also allows to counterattack without consuming Cosmo energy.

Finally, when the Cosmo energy is at it's climax, the character will be able to execute the ultimate attack, named Big Bang Attack.

Looks like the fighting system included in the game is delightfully elaborate, which is a plus considering that Saint Seiya is one of my favorite series of all times.

You can see the full gallery of screenshots below: