Case Cover
Bleach: Heat The Soul
Case Cover
Game File
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Japan
North America Release: March 24, 2005
Number of Players: 1 - 2
Wi-Fi Mode: Ad Hoc
When I saw some screenshots Bleach: Heat The Soul, I thought the graphics were bad; especially Ichigo's face. I hesitated a bit in purchasing this game because I thought the graphics looked weird from the screenshots. After reading some many previews & reviews about the game, I decided to take a risk & purchase the game.
About the game
Bleach: Heat The Soul is based on the Bleach anime, not the manga. If you have followed the anime series, the game goes up to the point where Rukia returns to her world; episode 16 I believe. Although the game was released when the anime was in the Soul Society arc, the production of the game wasn't made when the anime entered that arc.
The game is the first PSP 3D cell-based fighting game & made from scratch. In other words, not a port or game collection. There are 5 characters in the game & 1 secret character, Renji. Although the game follows the anime's storyline (Ichigo's), each character has their own storyline & ending. Even though the game doesn't heavily follows the anime exactly, it's good to see some of the other characters' story. The game has story mode, VS CPU mode, 2 player VS mode, Survival mode, & Time Attack mode. There is also a Blockon mini-game available when you unlock it.
Graphics
As previously mentioned, I thought the graphics looked bad. However when I actually saw the game itself, it changed my mind. But not Ichigo's face. I still think it looks bad. The opening movie was good with Orange Range's Asterisk song playing in the background. Although it was nice, it didn't give me the motivation to watch it again & again. The background graphics during gameplay was actually good in the 3D environment. As for the characters, movements were smooth. It did give me the impression that the game characters matched well with anime ones in terms of their colour & movements. However, they did look flat when they give their victory stances.
Music & Sounds
The original seiyuus (Japanese for voice actors) from the anime are all here. The music was great & matched the mood quite well. There were times where the music overpowered the voices during Story mode when I was playing it through the speakers. Don't know if this is the case for headphones. The sound effects were good as if you were watching the anime series.
Gameplay
The game is mainly button smashing with no special directional pad movements to perform. You press a combination of buttons to perform combos & there are a lot of possible combos to perform! Looking at the combo list from the game, there are well over 30 combos to perform. But you would most likely be button mashing to find the best combination for you.
The spirit energy bar is unique. You share it with your opponent.. You gain some spirit energy by successfully hitting your opponent. This bar is used to unleash your spirit attack. If you miss your attack, your spirit energy decreases a lot. Even if you don't have any spirit energy in your side of the bar, you can still perform the spirit attacks. However if you miss, your character will get tired out & leaving you defenseless to attacks. Only Ichigo & Rukia has 2 spirit attacks while the others only have 1.
For the Story mode, it was hard for me to understand what was going on. Unless you know how to read or listen to Japanese, you probably won't be touching this mode. It's a shame for me not to be able to figure out what the other characters' storylines are.
One problem with the game is the load times. If you thought Darkstalkers Chronicles: The Chaos Tower was bad, this is worse. The loading time before the start of a match is roughly 10 seconds. Luckily if you retry a match, there is no loading time.
Extras, Bonuses, & Secrets
To unlock the extras in this game, you have to use points to purchase cards. Points are earn from finishing a mode. The VS CPU & Story mode gives you 700 points when you complete them. The rest of the modes varies I think. Each card is worth 100 points & brought from the Card Shop from the Appendix mode. The cards are purchased randomly & there are a total of 134 cards. There is a chance for you to obtain doubles. After a certain number of cards obtained, some items will be unlocked. This includes unlocking Renji & his storyline. There is a Password section in Card mode to allow you to obtain more points to purchase cards.
The Blockon mini-game, which is one of the extras you have to unlock, is pretty fun. What interesting about it is that you can have in 2 player mode using 1 PSP. However, to unlock the 2 player mode, you must have all 134 cards. For one player mode, you need at least 100 cards.
There is also a Movie & Sound gallery. What's interesting about the Movie gallery is that the game includes TV commercials that were used to advertise the game in Japan.
Replay Value
With a limited amount of characters to choose from, Bleach: Heat the Soul will get old fast. Although there are quite a few extras, you can pretty much unlock them fairly quick.
Overall Conclusion
Bleach: Heat the Soul is a fun fighting game, but heavily lacks the number of characters to choose from. Diehard Bleach fans & game fighting fans would probably still pick this up & enjoy it. It has been announced that Bleach: Heat the Soul 2 will be released on September 1, 2005 with 3 new characters. The storyline will probably go into the Soul Society arc. If you can wait, you probably should pass up this game & go for the next installment as it has more characters than currently announced to choose from. If you can wait, you probably should pass up this game & go for the next installment if it has more characters to choose from. In fact, it has reached to part four at the time of updating this review. But if you are a diehard fan of the series or manage to find the game cheap, this is an excellent game to pass the time with. I rate the game 7.5/10 mainly because of the number of combos you can perform & the Blockon mini-game.
Last updated on July 10, 2007
All images shown on this website are copyrighted to their respective companies & owners.