Bleach: Soul Carnival 2 Hands-On

Last year's PSP game Bleach: Soul Carnival represented a different approach for the Bleach video game franchise. Soul Carnival differentiated itself first as a platformer on the PSP--a move away from the traditional fighting games on other handhelds and consoles. The game's art style was a departure as well, and with the overall popularity of the Bleach universe, it should come as no surprise that another Soul Carnival game is on the way. We had a chance to play the follow-up--Bleach: Soul Carnival 2--on the show floor of the 2009 Tokyo Game Show today, and it looks like a close match to its predecessor.

The brief demo we played on the PSP featured the main character, Ichiro Kurosaki, running and slicing his way through a 2D side-scrolling adventure platformer, encountering enemies along the way. The super-deformed character designs are considerably different from the long and lanky characters in the manga and other Bleach games, and we took to the squat characters right away.

The controls were as simple as can be: X to jump, circle for a dash move, square button for a normal attack, and combining the D-pad and triangle button for support attacks. For example, pressing the triangle button and the down button on the D pad would cause a character to fly overhead and rain magic arrows down on a target below. These support attacks are crucial for taking out larger enemies, but they do require some careful timing--it's easy to use them when an enemy is just out of range, which means you have to wait for that support attack to recharge before you can use it again.

We faced several enemy types--traditional gray-garbed ninjas who would hurl projectiles at us, and huge ogre-like bad guys who took multiple shots (and a few support attacks) to be brought down for good. In addition to fighting enemies, there are some elements of platforming in the game--at one point in the demo we entered a cave and could exit it only by double-jumping onto some ledges above us. Once we exited the cave, we found ourselves running across a bridge against the wind, which would push us backward the moment we stopped running. This made the enemy encounters more difficult, since we were constantly fighting against the wind gusts.

Soul Carnival 2 looks to have a lot in common with the original game, which is probably a good thing for fans. Our time with the game was brief, but its unique visual take on the Bleach universe, coupled with some responsive controls, made a positive impression. No release has been set for Bleach: Soul Carnival 2 yet, but we'll be keeping tabs on the game in the coming months.