"Bleach Fighter II - The Shinigami Warrior"

Bleach is a hugely popular manga/anime series, a tale of death gods vs. evil spirits, and a perfect suit for an arcade-style fighting game. There has already been a couple of videogame adaptations going around as of late, but none of which have been as inspiring as the source material itself. Bleach DS 2nd: Kokui Hirameku Requiem (The Requiem that Comes in Black Clothing) is Sega's second attempt for the DS, and presentation-wise it is a major overhaul from the first. Fan-service aside though, the beat 'em up system still hasn't broken through enough, and if you are looking for a deeply competitive fighter, this still ain't it.

Visuals - 9
Sound & Music - 8
Gameplay - 7
Controls - A
Longevity - A (Lengthy Story Mode)
Replayability - A (Quick Arcade action along with Wireless & WiFi battles too)
Difficulty - Medium

Cast of Characters - 9
VERDICT - 7.5

Bleach is versatile: exciting to watch, fun to play, great for faking super saiyan, and excellent for root canal treatment
Bleach DS 2nd (herein BDS2) looks like your average 2D fighter filled to the brim with officially licensed characters and their individual selections of super special moves. What sets it apart from similar titles such as the Guilty Gear games are some DS-specific features and sadly a lack of depth. There is a card-based power-up system that you can employ to temporarily alter the offense/defense/movement of your own character or your opponent's, gain special abilities such as life regeneration, or other effects like immediate maxing of the all-important Reiatsu & Reiryoka spirit meters. It works well, but luck plays a factor in whether you are dealt a good hand or not, and so in a competitive environment one may see to it that this feature is turned off, and it can!

There is no doubt in my mind that BDS2 is one heck of a ride. The 2D graphics depicting the grand total of 44 characters are a perfect match for the DS. Backgrounds may look static in comparison, but the foreground is where it's at; 4-player battles are hectic and with lots of eye-popping special effects thrown about all over the place, from Ishida's arrow barrages to Sui Fong's crazy multi-hitters, not to mention the gargantuan Bankai releases, so much stuff can happen on-screen at one time with hardly a frame hitch (WiFi definitely excluded here) you probably won't even mind it couple of times when you are insanely juggled by every spirit able to fit onto the screen!

A Bount-y of Character.. but no Bount?
The roster of playable characters has increased a fair bit since the original game, with the likes of Urahara, Don Kanonji and a couple of hollows joining favourites such as Renji (:D), Byakuya and Hitsugaya. However in a competitive environment, only about half of that number are viable fighters. This is one game where there are too many joke characters and just as many badly broken ones. This is a shame because some of them, such as Ukitake, are actually a lot of fun to play as, but when they have pitiful defense or quirky animations that are detrimental to the game (case in point Ukitake's random coughing events), consistent beatings will steer you clear from using them as often as the more stable characters.

String Along With Me
A fighting game requires some solid foundations to be successful in the long-run. Balance has already revealed some loose nails, but the string-system manages to hold this house firm. Just like in the original legend, Street Fighter II, and practically all 2D beat 'em ups that followed, BDS2 is all about linking weak and medium strength attacks to the strongest blows and the myriad signature moves. I had always thought that this system made such fighting games look like straight-out anime battles, and this is the exact case here! Along with skillful use of flash steps, one can evade and guard/damage cancel, both allowing a greater range of movement as well as looking 'skux'. However I can't help but feel that resources would have been better spent going to fleshing out the movelists a bit more rather than pushing out the list of available characters as far as possible (which it still doesn't even come close to achieving.) Quantity over quality is what we get here. Fan-service over hardcore-depth.

Juggling is the highlight of any fighting game for me and whilst BDS2 does offer some aerial action, the moveset limitation hurts it here. Some may beg to differ, but I've seen plenty of crazy floats in my time and BDS2 doesn't quite reach the bar, especially with the 'unusable' characters. 4-player matches are definitely a stronger suit to one-on-one duels. They are much more fun to play through, but again the 'depth' takes a hit to crazy party-stylez; it all really depends on what you are looking for here, a serious fighter or just plain run & tumbles.

Everything You May Want
For soloists there is a lengthy Story Mode to run through, which does require good knowledge of Japanese to get through, although help is available in spades if you fish the internet well. Your typical arcade, versus, training, shop modes make up the rest of the package, and with both local and WiFi battles (with plenty of DC'ers for ya) available, BDS2 is a mighty deal. Playing a fighting game on a portable console does have its merits, but I'd rather prefer heading to my local arcade for these kind of thrills. Enthusiasts of the show will nevertheless love this one, but if you have grown up on a staple diet of 2D and 3D fighting games such as the marvellous Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Tekken Tag/5, this may be too lite for you. Still it's Bleach, it's got Renji, it's got style, it's got a lot of game.

7.5/10 - Better than Shi-kai, but not quite Ban-kai...
How about a DMC-style Bleach game next time guys?

My Score System – a score of 7 from me denotes a good, solid game. Excellence earns a higher grade, whilst 4-6 reflects a below average product; glitchy, unplayable games deserve less.

01/04/07

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/07