Bleach: Dark Souls is not only a great Bleach game; it's also one of the best DS fighting games ever made!!!
The story mode starts with the usual training battle, where you're taught on how to play, and proceeds via a more comprehensible interface than the one seen in the first game. Now, after beating a particular level, you gain access to several different paths, which allow you to select your way across the mode. You don't actually need to beat everything that crosses your path, but by doing so, you'll unlock new characters, better cards or a limited amount of money, which you can later use for your purchases. This time, besides the usual and predictable battles, your characters will also face several mini-games, which are held in the battle interface and bear several different targets, such as defeating a particular number of enemies in a set time, healing three enemies before running out of time or even protecting a generic character, among many others.
The vs. mode allows up to four players to have a battle at the same time, either by having them simply fight each other or forming teams. Unfortunately, such choice isn't available in the training mode, and in there you have to stick to the usual 1 vs. 1.
When it comes to the battles, the most important thing in this type of game, they are quite good. As seen in the first game, they usually take place in two different planes, with the characters being allowed to jump between those two, and this can be used for more strategical battles, usually providing you with enough time to reach the stylus and activating one of the four cards, presented in the lower screen. Special moves are now possible to use by unfolding particular combos, which slightly corrects the problem of having to touch the lower screen to use them, but the motions aren't easy, and may be unappealing to less skilled players. The A.I. seems slightly better than before, but still has some flaws.
Cards, this time, play a bigger part in battles, with you being allowed to play as many cards as you want, provided you respect a gauche seen in the lower screen - each card has a certain cost, and you may be willing to use a more powerful one, instead of two or three weaker ones. Their effects range from increasing the speed of your character a bit, up to performing specific attacks, and mastering them is obviously important, since they help you beat the difficult battles that you'll be facing later in the game.
Unlike most fighting games, this one actually has a storyline, and by clicking the first option of the main menu, you'll be sent into an adventure where the plot is actually original and isn't just a re-hashing of the series. There are also smaller events, added for the mere purpose of gluing the many paths of the story together, and fans may be specially happy with those.
Concerning the replay value, I must admit that this game has quite a few. There are more than 40 different characters available in the game, with less than 20 of those being initially available, and there are also lots of cards for you to collect, which put you to fully explore the many paths available in the so-classical story mode, which also takes a good amount of time to complete, unlike it happened in the original game. The Wifi mode adds to the replay value, and provided you have access to Nintendo's famous online service, you'll be playing the game for a long time.
Unfortunately, not everything is good about this game. Sometimes, battles seem to feature some weird things (for example, your character will defend blows even if they aren't facing the opponent) and the Wifi mode has some occasional lag. Despite a well-managed difficulty raise in the story mode, some levels seem awfully out of context (either too easy or too hard). Finally, while you're generally able to pick your path across the mode, particular levels prevent you from going back to levels that you may have skipped. This is a nuisance and may put you to play the entire mode all over again, just for the sake of one or two minor levels.
Graphics tend to be good, but in the middle of battles they aren't very detailed, and some attacks allow you to see exactly that. However, outside of the battles, they are simply amazing and very detailed, with every scene that you get to see probably reminding you of the anime.
Interestingly, sound in this game is awesome, and while you can't hear the voices of the characters in the story sequences, this doesn't happen in the middle of battles, where your characters are complete with all their usual sounds and voices. The available songs are good, they'll probably make you feel like being in the middle of the series, and that's nice, for a game based in such a series.
This is a game that not only appeals to the fans of this particular series, but also to everyone who is searching for a good fighting game, this one being of the few available for this console. Knowledge of the Japanese language isn't usually required, but it sure helps, as such lack may prevent you from figuring out what each card does.
The Good:
- Great anime style visuals
- Alot of variety when it comes to character move sets.
- Original plot line.
- Added content and unlockables
- Neat sound track.
- Easy controls.
The Bad:
- Some doggy animations
- Fighting Hollow opoenents isn't as fun as human opponents.
- Unable to play past locked battles it fustrating