Celestial Beauty: Slot Overview

Anime-themed slots aren’t exactly everywhere, yet they’re gradually, consistently building a small corner of the market. Helping that corner grow is Skywind Group with Celestial Beauty, a scatter-paying slot (a format that’s also gaining traction) that packs in cascades, wilds, wild multipliers, and two selectable free spins bonus rounds with different volatility levels.

When you boot up an anime slot, it’s difficult not to think of the Play’n GO classic Moon Princess. That comparison is made even stronger by how often developers place an anime/manga-style female character somewhere on the screen. In Celestial Beauty, the familiar heroine appears in the expected position, hovering beside the reels. Maybe the repeated use of these characters is tied to the ‘male gaze’ or anyone who enjoys looking at a cartoon woman flashing a peace sign; maybe Skywind Group simply followed the well-worn template. Perhaps one day anime fans will get a slot equivalent of a Levi Ackerman or a Kakashi Hatake, but this isn’t that title.

Putting that aside and focusing on the gameplay, Celestial Beauty comes in with a 3 out of 5 rating and plays as a medium volatile slot, although players can sway this once free spins are activated. There are three possible RTP settings, with the best option sitting at 96.5%, though it may fall to 94.5% or lower depending on jurisdiction. To set your stake, you pick a base bet of 20 p/c to $/€200 per spin and choose whether to enable the Double Chance feature. With Double Chance active, the stake increases by 25% while doubling the chance of winning free spins. Alternatively, players can purchase free spins outright for 100x the bet.

The game runs on a 6-reel grid with 5 rows, and a win lands when at least 8 matching symbols appear anywhere on the matrix, Sweet Bonanza style. Symbol-wise, you’ll see a triangle, diamond, hexagon, moon, a kind of pentagon shape, a winged heart, plus three adorable winged creatures as the standard high pays. An 8-9 symbol scatter win pays 0.25 to 7.5 times the bet, while the biggest 12+ scatter hits pay 2.5 to 40 times the bet. Winning symbols are removed and new ones fall in from above. In the base game, whenever the winged heats create a win, either a regular wild or a multiplier wild valued at x2, x3, x4, or x5 will drop in. Only one multiplier wild can be present at a time, and it stays active for the duration of a cascade chain. Both wild types can substitute for any symbol except scatters.

Celestial Beauty: Slot Features

On top of wilds, wild multipliers, and cascades, Celestial Beauty includes free games where, once triggered, players select the option that best matches the volatility they want. Landing 4, 5, or 6 scatters activates the free spins feature. Players may then pick the lower-volatility Moon Beauty round or the higher-volatility Sun Beauty round.

Moon Beauty

With Moon Beauty selected, the 4, 5, or 6 triggering scatters award 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During Moon Beauty, when the three animal pay symbols or the winged heart symbol produce wins, a regular wild or a multiplier wild with a value of x2, x3, x4, x5, x10, or x20 will appear. As in the base game, only one multiplier wild can be on the grid at any time, and it persists throughout a cascade sequence. The feature can be extended by landing 3 or more scatters to gain 5 additional free spins.

Sun Beauty

If you choose Sun Beauty, the 4, 5, or 6 triggering scatters award 8, 12, or 16 free spins, respectively. In Sun Beauty, when winged heart symbols form a win, a regular or multiplier wild with a value of x2, x3, x4, x5, x10, or x20 replaces one of the removed symbols. Each cascade win increases the multiplier wild by its original value. Multiplier wilds persist until a cascade sequence ends. Landing 3 or more scatters during the feature grants an extra 5 free spins.

Celestial Beauty: Slot Verdict

With anime slots still being relatively scarce, it’s hard not to measure a new entry against the better-known titles in the same space. Two obvious comparisons are the previously mentioned Moon Princess, which has become something of a reference point for this style, and Starlight Princess, effectively a rework of Pragmatic Play’s Gates of Olympus. Celestial Beauty held its own reasonably well, but it didn’t quite edge past either of those games. That said, if you’re really into anime or manga, the visuals, the enjoyably cheesy soundtrack, and the occasional on-theme callouts may be enough to win you over.

Outside of the presentation, there’s a slightly piecemeal feel to how Celestial Beauty plays. For instance, why should only specific symbols in certain phases be the ones that create wilds or multiplier wilds? The answer is likely down to the maths and maybe an effort to stand out, but it can feel a bit awkward at times. The two bonus rounds also feel worlds apart—Moon and Sun, fittingly. After taking a beating in Sun Beauty for a stretch, switching to Moon Beauty was a welcome change, with the game showing more of its strengths more frequently. It’s a tricky comparison, though: after seeing shorter cascade chains in Sun Beauty, we experienced longer sequences in Moon Beauty, yet it was hard not to wonder how those runs might have looked with a growing wild multiplier in play. Still, that’s variance for you, and players can pick the volatility they prefer whenever free spins are triggered or purchased.

Lastly, there’s the win potential, and a top prize of 5,000x the bet places Celestial Beauty in the same bracket as the two rival slots mentioned earlier. It can be a little finicky in places, but anyone with a fondness for anime or manga should find plenty to like in what Celestial Beauty brings to the table.