RadioSEGA Review: Bleach: The Blade of Fate

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Reknoc
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RadioSEGA Review: Bleach: The Blade of Fate

Post by Reknoc »

So last night I was feeling shitty so I didn't feel like playing Sega Mega Drive Classics Collection Vol. 1 or Yakuza 3 so I could get them reviewed. Instead I went to bed and just put something into my DS, so why not a SEGA game I can quickly get a feel for again and do a sort of quick review?

Now maybe you've heard of this little developer called Treasure, certainly if you had a Mega Drive you probably have, but something they're less known for is fighters but way back when they did make a fighter based on an awesome manga called Yu Yu Hakusho. Somewhat fitting as there are some similarities between Bleach and Yu Yu Hakusho, even more so in the games since they used the same mechanics.

If you've read or seen any of Bleach you'll know the story, if you haven't I'm not even sure why you're interested in this game. But basically dude can see ghosts, dude sees monster ghost, dude sees girl who slays monster ghosts, girl gets her ass kicked and stabs dude so she can transfer her powers to him, dude becomes a Soul Reaper, wacky adventures happen while introducing dudes friends and their powers, girl gets arrested because transferring powers is illegal, dude gets the shit kicked out of him, dude decides he wants to save girl. And that's where the games story starts. To save the girl he has to make his way to through the Soul Reapers city and save her but the place is guarded by a bunch of dudes with swords. The game trims it down quite a lot and is presented in a bunch of talking heads before a fight.

So let's get down to what matters, the main menu! It's visually uninteresting and there's the option to get different characters to say which option you're hovering on "this is the story mode" which can get a tad annoying but there's a decent amount of modes:

Story Mode:
Play through the main story first as the main character Ichigo then you unlock to play through it from different character's points of view, with a few original ones as well.

Arcade Mode:
Choose a character and fight through a series of battles.

Versus Mode:
Set your own battles versus whoever you want. It's also where the multiplayer is, either multi or single card wireless or through a Wi-Fi connection.

Training Mode:
... it's a training mode.

Time Attack Mode:
Arcade Mode but you see how fast you can win.

Survival Mode:
Keep fighting til you die.

Challenge Mode:
Finally! Something interesting. Challenge mode has you choose a character and then the game gives you a long combo you have to try and perform on a stationary target. It's really hard and I've barely managed to do any of them.

Deck Construction:
Pretty obvious I'll get into more detail later

Urahara Shop:
Buy cards for your deck or images and sounds for the:

Gallery Mode:
Look at images and listen to sounds bought from Urahara Shop.

Options:
Yo, it's the options.

So I kinda regret listing all of them... oh well! Let's get down to how the game plays. Well it's a pretty typical fighter, you can do double jumps and air dashes but also quick steps which are like small teleportations and line jumps that let you jump into the background or foreground of a stage, though it's only used in 3 or 4 player battles, both of these take up one charge (out of three) of your spiritual power which charges over time. You also have special moves that use typical fighter inputs, though where this shines is how you do it, instead of having to do down to right forward you can just press down then right it's a bit more accessible and easier to do, even easier is that you can just press a button on the touch screen to perform one, though that has its drawbacks like having to move you hand away from the face buttons and also you can perform an RF special, which is done by pressing the heavy attack button instead of the light or medium one after the movement inputs in a special, though RF specials also use spiritual power. You also get super moves which take up a charge of your spiritual pressure which goes up when you're hit or you hit someone. More powerful supers take more charges.

One thing that sets Bleach apart though is the use of cards, these show up on the touch screen and you can use them whenever you want, some will buff your character some will debuff your opponent and some force restrictions on your opponent. It's a cool system but it's not entirely necessary to use if you're playing singleplayer.

For a first game the character roster is kinda big and most of them play differently, there is an exception with one character which is a blatant clone. There are also a couple of joke characters with tiny move sets including the series mascot Kon and some dudes Pig. The joke characters are improved alot in the sequel to almost being usable.

Graphically the game is good, the sprites look detailed but some of the levels can look alittle lacking.

Sound is nice, a few fighting tropes that annoy me are obviously still in there like repetitive special move shouting but the music is enjoyable and suits the games. One thing to mention is that it does have the song from Opening 3 of the series which for a DS game sounds pretty decent, probably because they didn't bother making any animation for the opening and just did a bunch of stills moving around.

Overall it's a solid fighting game based on a manga that at the time was pretty good, certainly if you're a fan you can't go wrong. But really the game right now is a bit redundant unless you really want to play through the Soul Society Arc of the manga as the sequel is out and improves on it in every way imaginable so as such I have to give this a

3/5

Fun but get the sequel.
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Wrath Oskvro
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Post by Wrath Oskvro »

Both this and the sequel are definitely pretty solid for what all content there is available and the fighting system, but I can't get over how sluggish everything is. Both the control and animation to me felt very stiff.
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Post by IvyRave »

I'm gonna start saving up for this game soon
Who's playable in this game?
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Reknoc
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Post by Reknoc »

Alot, can't even say for sure but every captain is available. But like I said, don't get this get the sequal, it has more characters.

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