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IGN Review of Bleach: Dark Souls
We had a lot of good things to day about the first Bleach game on DS, and guess what; we've got a lot more to say about its sequel. Bleach: Dark Souls - also known as Bleach 2nd - is a sequel to developer Treasure's anime fighter from October of 2007. The bittersweet side of it is that while some people out there still might be enjoying the original DS game from last year, Japan actually had Bleach 2nd eight months before we saw even that US release. That means we're now over a year and a half late to the party with Bleach: Dark Souls; a common issue with import games. Still, if it's new to you, Bleach: Dark Souls is once again one heck of a fighter on DS.
It seems like the bar raises on DS on a month-by-month basis, as new games and concepts come along that are unique and inviting, while the tech side of the system is pushed with better and better 3D visuals, 2D styles, and impressive presentation. Bleach: Dark Souls though, breaks that rule, since as we mentioned, it's now over a year and a half old since the last pixel was placed, or the last line of code was written, and it still feels like its performing at the top of its game. Just like with the previous Bleach title, Treasure (known for Sin & Punishment on N64, and Gunstar Heroes on SEGA) has pushed the system's 2D power to the max, utilizing a 3D camera for cinematic zooms, thousands of frames of animations across all the fighters, and some effects animations that challenge anything else on the system. New improvements can be seen from the original as well, with gigantic Bankai attacks showing off even more impressive visuals, better sprite designs (sometimes overhauled for existing characters), and of course the newly-added 17 characters, which bring a lot more to the table in every facet of the game.
With that being said, you'll find a better game overall with Bleach 2nd, but you won't find a very different one. It's still all about using cards to up you character stats on the fly, tapping specials on the touch screen or (in a more skillful manor) executing Street Fighter like combos with the d-pad, switching between two fighting planes, and playing free-for-all, one-on-one, or tag matches. Characters make use of dashes, air dashes, air guards, double jumps, warps, specials, and of course, gigantic Bankai attacks. It's your standard Bleach fighter on DS, which in turn means it's one of the top fighters found on a platform. Oh, and while we're on the subject, Bleach is in fact rivaled by the Jump Superstars brand (we won't go as far as to say it's better, but it's another great offering), but with no US release possible on that one, we've got no reservations in giving the title to SEGA's fighter. Even if you don't dig on the anime itself - I personally didn't watch the show before playing the games - it's a must-play; pure and simple.
There's a huge "more of the same" feeling with Bleach: Dark Souls, but it's also extremely polished, and just as great as its predecessor was. In fact, while everyone will have their own personal preferences in this case, we'd say this is a much better balanced game overall, as auto-guarding isn't as big of an issue, there's now a reset time between using specials, so touch-spamming is pretty much gone (though still possible in a few key instances), a few of the existing characters are nerfed, or weakened, this time around to try and add more balance overall, and in the end it's a better experience. Yeah, we'll miss arrow spamming from across the screen against the AI in earlier arcade battles - picking on computers is fun until the eventual robot apocalypse happens in a couple decades - but as a trade-off for better person-vs-person fighting, we're more than fine with the balance effort made. It was needed.
In addition, the online also plays better. You can hook up via Wi-Fi with your specific name and self-made icon, you can send messages to friends via a simple text system, play ranked matches and watch yourself move up (or down) on the leaderboards, and jump into free battles with friends or random players at any time. In fact, this time around there's a lot less lag to be found as well. When the game released in Japan we were able to play internationally with very little lag from our IGN offices - a few even lag-free completely; nice - and now that we're in the US, we're seeing similar results. Every once in a while you'll get a clunky fight, since it's based on person-to-person connections, but overall it's a much stronger experience than it was last time around.
If you're looking for just a single player experience though, you might be a bit let down. There's a new story mode this time around, and it's a non-canonized affair, so that means you do get sort of a random, disjointed experience from times. While the story itself isn't anything spectacular though, you do get added mission objectives for fights, so rather than just kicking the crap out of people over and over again, you'll need to defeat them with certain conditions; a nice touch. Oh, and story mode is again character locked, so you play as who Treasure tells you to play as. And then of course, survival mode and arcade are back again; both very fun, and you can always jump into a single-card multiplayer match with some buddies, tweak your character cards for battle, go spend your earned points at the Urahara Shop, or check out all the awesome art and music within the game in the gallery area. A lot of this is rehashed from the last game, but it's also still very fun.
©2008-10-09, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
It seems like the bar raises on DS on a month-by-month basis, as new games and concepts come along that are unique and inviting, while the tech side of the system is pushed with better and better 3D visuals, 2D styles, and impressive presentation. Bleach: Dark Souls though, breaks that rule, since as we mentioned, it's now over a year and a half old since the last pixel was placed, or the last line of code was written, and it still feels like its performing at the top of its game. Just like with the previous Bleach title, Treasure (known for Sin & Punishment on N64, and Gunstar Heroes on SEGA) has pushed the system's 2D power to the max, utilizing a 3D camera for cinematic zooms, thousands of frames of animations across all the fighters, and some effects animations that challenge anything else on the system. New improvements can be seen from the original as well, with gigantic Bankai attacks showing off even more impressive visuals, better sprite designs (sometimes overhauled for existing characters), and of course the newly-added 17 characters, which bring a lot more to the table in every facet of the game.
With that being said, you'll find a better game overall with Bleach 2nd, but you won't find a very different one. It's still all about using cards to up you character stats on the fly, tapping specials on the touch screen or (in a more skillful manor) executing Street Fighter like combos with the d-pad, switching between two fighting planes, and playing free-for-all, one-on-one, or tag matches. Characters make use of dashes, air dashes, air guards, double jumps, warps, specials, and of course, gigantic Bankai attacks. It's your standard Bleach fighter on DS, which in turn means it's one of the top fighters found on a platform. Oh, and while we're on the subject, Bleach is in fact rivaled by the Jump Superstars brand (we won't go as far as to say it's better, but it's another great offering), but with no US release possible on that one, we've got no reservations in giving the title to SEGA's fighter. Even if you don't dig on the anime itself - I personally didn't watch the show before playing the games - it's a must-play; pure and simple.
There's a huge "more of the same" feeling with Bleach: Dark Souls, but it's also extremely polished, and just as great as its predecessor was. In fact, while everyone will have their own personal preferences in this case, we'd say this is a much better balanced game overall, as auto-guarding isn't as big of an issue, there's now a reset time between using specials, so touch-spamming is pretty much gone (though still possible in a few key instances), a few of the existing characters are nerfed, or weakened, this time around to try and add more balance overall, and in the end it's a better experience. Yeah, we'll miss arrow spamming from across the screen against the AI in earlier arcade battles - picking on computers is fun until the eventual robot apocalypse happens in a couple decades - but as a trade-off for better person-vs-person fighting, we're more than fine with the balance effort made. It was needed.
In addition, the online also plays better. You can hook up via Wi-Fi with your specific name and self-made icon, you can send messages to friends via a simple text system, play ranked matches and watch yourself move up (or down) on the leaderboards, and jump into free battles with friends or random players at any time. In fact, this time around there's a lot less lag to be found as well. When the game released in Japan we were able to play internationally with very little lag from our IGN offices - a few even lag-free completely; nice - and now that we're in the US, we're seeing similar results. Every once in a while you'll get a clunky fight, since it's based on person-to-person connections, but overall it's a much stronger experience than it was last time around.
If you're looking for just a single player experience though, you might be a bit let down. There's a new story mode this time around, and it's a non-canonized affair, so that means you do get sort of a random, disjointed experience from times. While the story itself isn't anything spectacular though, you do get added mission objectives for fights, so rather than just kicking the crap out of people over and over again, you'll need to defeat them with certain conditions; a nice touch. Oh, and story mode is again character locked, so you play as who Treasure tells you to play as. And then of course, survival mode and arcade are back again; both very fun, and you can always jump into a single-card multiplayer match with some buddies, tweak your character cards for battle, go spend your earned points at the Urahara Shop, or check out all the awesome art and music within the game in the gallery area. A lot of this is rehashed from the last game, but it's also still very fun.
©2008-10-09, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved