In Bleach: The Blade of Fate you have to first go though the basic Story Mode, which is set during the first time in the Soul Society. Playing as Ichigo you go through levels, fight the people in your way, and then save Rukia, which can be relatively hard if you don’t read the cut scenes . When you’ve completed that, things get fun, and easier. New characters are unlocked for Arcade mode Versus mode. You also unlock some of the Extras and the rest of the story modes. There are a total of 23 story modes, each based on a different character and the last one is the really long conclusion of Episode 1. I quite enjoy the multiple Story modes you unlock and the character available.
Of course, like any battle based game there is Arcade mode. Once you’ve unlocked 22 main characters and the 6 random people, Arcade mode is the best I’ve played. I love the variety of characters to select from and their unique 8 color choices. Unlike most Arcade modes, when playing against the computer you have to complete 5 stages, or battle 5 times.
Training mode has a nice little feature that you can pick the character you train against as well as the one you want to train with.
Survival mode and Challenge mode are a defense challenge. In Survival mode you try to get through as many battles as you can, but you don’t regain HP at all. It is very important to know your character if you want to go far in this mode.
Challenge mode is confusing and can be a bore, but it’s unnecessary to complete it, you won’t further the game in any way really. All you have to do is try to do tricky control combinations. There are 10 combinations for the first 21 characters in the story.
Time Attack mode is the last mode you unlock once you’ve beaten all 23 Episodes. All you have to do is see how long it takes you to loose a battle. You do get a full HP gauge at the start of each battle, so it’s not too hard. It can be tedious though after about 8 battles.
You can buy spirit cards at the Urahara Shop with the kan (in-game money) you get from battles and Episodes completed. These cards go in your battle deck but your deck can only hold 12 cards at a time. Each card can either Reinforce you, debuff the enemy stats or movement, or swap stats. Each card is available from level 1 to 4. The higher the level the better the effect and the more kan it costs. Pretty simple. You can also buy bonus graphics (which are just artwork) and sound clips from the show.
At the Gallery you can either go to the Visual or the Sound Gallery. The Visual Gallery has the artwork you unlock through gameplay and that you buy at the Urahara Shop. The sound gallery lets you listen to the music, sound effects, and character voices bought at the Urahara shop. There are 34 character voices, all of which you can use as the system voice, which is really cool.
Game Play:
The game is mostly battles and cut scenes that you just read. It‘s easy to understand and play. There is a lack of variety in the controls, but the story makes up for it. There is a lot of detail in the cut scenes, but there is the option to skip it. Same goes for the minimal training in the Story mode, you can skip it and the cut scenes. I do have to say the graphics are better then the 2D stuff that is in most GameBoy advanced games.
Why you should get this game:
The extras and unlockables are amazing. From the different colors for the characters to the system voices, they are all really exciting. I mostly find that DS extras are not really worth getting, but in this game they are more then worth getting!
I really liked this game, and I still do. Having previous familiarity with the storyline and whole concept of Bleach really helped my complete enjoyment, but anyone can still easily enjoy this game without it.
ComicsOnline gives Bleach: The Blade of Fate 4.5 out of 5 Zanpaku-To.
