Bleach: Dark Souls

"A terrible attempt at a sequel, Bleach: Dark Souls does nothing but unbalances the series despite an attempt at rebalancing it."

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

Bleach: Dark Souls and all prior Bleach DS games are all made by Sega/Treasure. Bleach: 3rd Phantom and 4th: Flame Bringer are not created by Treasure.

Remember the first Bleach DS game, Bleach: Blade of Fate? It was a great game with fun characters and overall balance (not weighing in the game's handicaps). It's Japanese counterpart was a mess of unbalance everywhere, and was pretty much only notable for being the first "true" fighter for the DS. Well, a few years later, Bleach: Dark Souls (U.S. name) was released in Japan, and it was good then because it really only balanced the Japanese version of BoF. However, with Dark Souls being released here after BoF's complete rework and balance, it is nothing more than disappointing, as not only is it inferior to BoF in terms of gameplay, it is also just a translated version of . Where as BoF had a cast in which there were 25, about 18 were useful in competitive play, and even some jokes could have been, too. However, Dark Souls destroys any shred of balance from the BoF's U.S. version, and despite about 43 characters or more, barely half of the game's (or even less) cast is playable to competitive degree, and everyone else are just joke characters.\. There is still the issue that, from the 18 ish truly playable characters, about half of those struggle against the others( Tosen, Momo, and Gin, to name a few), and the others have a group of 6 that are the epitome of broken (Ichigo, Hitsugaya, Hollow Ichigo, to name a few), and thus are rarely used. But hey, let me get done with my ranting here and take it to the classic breakdown. The following breakdown will consist of : Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, Online, Replayability. Here I go:

Gameplay: 4/10

Wow. What's funny was that this was actually an attempt to rebalance the game and just destroyed it. Well, let me start with the positives. Remember that pesky Handicap? Yeah, it's gone, and is non-existent. If someone uses it, laugh, as Handicap actually weakens characters now, so it's only useful to let newbies win a match or two. Some clones, such as Hollow Ichigo, were given a somewhat different playstyle than their counterparts, and others were removed completely.

Now, the negatives. Yeah, I'm done with positives. Short list, huh? Well, that's how bad it is. One might ask why I didn't list how cards were weakened since they are now given startup time. While that would have been great, Treasure ruined the whole point when they added the ability to Line Jump in 1 on 1 battles. Yeah. I don't know what they were smoking either. Any cheap player can simply jump to the other side and activate a card, while you try to get them. Which will most likely fail. The new Flash Step (FS for short) system is no longer invincible, with Reinforced (RF) attacks knock characters out of it. While this is great, it only helps other characters and doesn't do much, if anything, for others, unbalancing the system.

The Character balance is absolutely ridiculous. Out of about 43+ characters, not even half of them are playable to a competitive degree. I'd say about 18. Then, out of that 18, half of them, such as Momo, can hardly stand up to higher tier characters such as Ichigo or Hitsugaya. Hell, the two I mentioned are freakin Gods in this game, and can pretty much destroy any character in this game easily, Hitsugaya especially. This just isn't right.

Speaking about character balance, some characters that deserved to be buffed (such as Gin, Tosen, or Momo) were either nerfed or just remained unchanged completely, while characters that didn't deserve buffs (Ichigo/Hollow Ichigo, Yamamoto) were. Pitiful. Just pitiful.

Combos were toned down in this game, and have become incredibly simple, although still not button masher esque. This is bad because it affected some characters, Tosen in particular, and helped others, such as Hitsugaya.

Sound: 6/10

The voices in this game aren't bad, but some of them are too damn low (such as Urahara) or so damn loud (like Byakuya) that it gets annoying. In game music varies, although most of it is catchy. Although personally, I preferred the first game's soundtrack better.
Sound effects are great, although repetitive, but are nice regardless.

Graphics: 8/10

Ironically the least needed thing in a fighting game is the best about this. Detailed 2D graphics that greatly represent the anime/manga's counterparts, and good, although somewhat lazy cutscenes for Bankais that use standstills, and great visuals for attacks. However, sometimes the visuals will seem extremely pixelated when the cameras zoom out. Treasure's done this in most of their 2D games, although that doesn't make it acceptable. Still, the Graphics are great overall.

Online: 2/10

This thing is just a damn mess. I don't even know where to start. Leaderboards are overrun by a bunch of scrubs who disconnect their routers after they lose. The lag is HORRENDOUS, even worse than the first game's lag, which was already bad to begin with. People can even abuse lag to throw another player off guard or mess up someone's combo. Cards are still just as abuse able as before, with Line Jumps adding to the pain. Get ready to scream a lot in frustration, as you'll face a horde of terrible players with good players being a rarity. Not to mention online is practically dead, as hardly no one goes on it anymore, unless you're part of a board such as this one that still has decent players playing.

Replayability: 6/10

With online, multiple wireless activities, and decent Single Player, this game could last you a while providing you put up with its numerous flaws and hindrances. At the most a player will last about 6 months until they get fed up with it.

Well, there you have it. Short summary for you lazy guys/gals that don't read anything (shame on you):

Pros:

+Fun for fanservice.
+ Great 2D Graphics
+ Sound effects are OK.
+ High replayability if willing to put up with flaws.

Cons:

- Terrible character balance.
- Flawed Gameplay mechanics
- Graphics occasionally become pixelated.
- HORRIBLE online overrun with a terrible and unfair community with a myriad of connection problems. Good players are a rarity.

Overall: 4/10- Poor- game is unremarkable and flawed. Also disappointing. Not an average.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/09

Game Release: Bleach: Dark Souls (US, 10/07/08)