Bleach Heat the Soul 7 (PSP)

Bleach: Heat the Soul 7, as the name indicates, is the 7th (and possibly the last) installment in the ‘Heat the Soul’ line of Bleach fighting games on the PSP. There’s no need to do an introduction of the earlier installments of the series as the games have mostly stayed the same except for additional content (in order to keep them up to date with the manga/anime) and a few tweaks to the combat mechanics. All-in-all, it’s still a 3D cel-shaded fighting game featuring your favorite characters from Bleach (also, Sado.)

Changes, in a Nutshell

If you’re already familiar with the series and just want a quick rundown of what you can expect with HTS 7 compared to its predecessor, there are minor tweaks to the combat that, sadly, tend to slow down the pacing of the matches a bit. But it’s still enjoyable so don’t fret. It still runs in 30 frames per second - if you want smooth as butter 60 fps, you have to go back to Heat the Soul 4 and older, back when the games still lacked in-game transformations. Speaking of transformations, Ulquiorra now has one, so does Harribel and Ichigo can now turn into full Hollow. Additionally, there are now 4-way free for all (as opposed to 2 vs 2 tag) matches and special matches against giants, namely Allon and Yammy’s ressurecion.

Bleach Blade Battlers 2nd (PS2)

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.