Bleach is one of those anime franchises that is practically made for fighting games. Virtually every single character is a swordsman with flashy moves, with distinctive designs and their own specific transformation. Bleach Blade Battlers 2nd TRIED to take advantage of said rich videogame-oriented designs and somewhat succeeded.
The Game and the Story
If you searched for this game, chances are you are already familiar with Tite Kubo’s Bleach manga and anime franchise, and it’s one of the most popular shonen franchises today so there’s no need to provide the backstory. As for the game, it takes the characters from the Soul Society arc all the way to the first appearances of Grimmjow, Yammy and Ulquiorra, and puts them in a Super Smash Bros-type game.
Let’s get this out of the way first: the game is Japanese, but it’s a fighting game so you can play it even if you can’t read nor understand a single word. Besides, the menu has English text so you will be able to navigate it well enough to get into a match.
It does the characters justice – the moves are true to the series, and this is one of the first Bleach games to have actual transformations (as opposed to transformations that only occur during cinematic super moves ); Ichigo and the shinigamis that have bankais can go bankai, Shinji can use his hollow mask, and Grimmjow can use resurreccion. Of course, around the time that the game was made, many of the characters like Yammy and Ulquiorra have yet to show their transformations so you won’t find it in this game.
The cel-shaded graphics are some of the best you’ll see on the PS2, and does a good job of replicating the anime’s feel, from the character visuals to the stage designs. Audio is also top-notch, with voices sounding like they were taken straight out of the anime and the sound effects are crisp and really impressive as long as you don’t have crap sound system.
Gameplay is where it falls a little bit flat. As mentioned above, it’s a Super Smash Bros.-type game with Bleach characters and stages, so the matches usually devolve into characters jumping around like jelly beans, and the controls can be a bit floaty. It looks good at first but a few matches in, you’re likely to get frustrated that the game isn’t as dynamic as you would expect from a Bleach game. Most likely you’ll spend the rest of the bouts bouncing around while still feeling constricted by the small stages
Buy or Not
If you are more of a fighting game fan than a Bleach fan, you might want to check it out via rental first. Or if you have a beefy enough PC and brave enough, you can go the emulation route via PCSX2. If you are a die hard Bleach fan who is also fond of Super Smash Bros, then you should definitely buy this. Especially if you only have a PS2 at your disposal.
