PLATFORM

Nintendo Wii

DEVELOPER

Polygon Magic

PUBLISHER

Sega

GENRE

Fighter

# OF PLAYERS

1-2

Rating

Teen

U.S. RELEASE DATE

October 9th, 2007

MSRP

$49.99

BLEACH: SHATTERED BLADE

OVERVIEW

Characters from the popular Bleach Anime battle for the Sokyoku shards.

REVIEW

Off the bat, I have to say that this game is pretty difficult to review. Not that the game itself is that complicated, there just seems to be a lot that is both awesome and terrible about the game. The Gamespot Review Page is particularly telling. At the time this review was written, Gamespot gave the game a 3.5, the average critic gave it a 6.5, and the users had ranked it an 8.3 (all scores out of 10). In light of the critical reviews, the fact that 39 out of 45 users ranked the game “Good” or better makes this difference worth examining.

So what is it about this game that makes the reviewers cringe, and the players cheer? Well, the answer is simple – while the reviewers seem to focus on specific aspects of the game, graphics and what not, the players only care about one thing: Is it fun?

Well, one of the things I have prided myself in with these reviews is my ability to look past what the usual critic sees when he plays a game, instead focusing on whether or not the game is fun. I am gratified to see that I still have managed to retain that.

On to the game.

Bleach: Shattered Blade is a fighting game, set shortly after Rukia Kuchiki’s rescue from execution (as such, there may be spoilers here for US viewers, so keep that in mind).

The plot is actually a good one as far as fighting games go. The game has an episode mode, in which you take one character through the game’s story. Naturally you will start with Ichigo. In his version, Ichigo finds out that the gateway to the human world is about to be sealed for 100 years, in response to Aizen’s rebellion. In order to reopen the gate and return home, he is told to gather all of the shards of the shattered Sokyoku, which will give him the needed power. Of course, he quickly finds that others have their own designs on the shards, and they are willing to fight for them.

There are 8 episodes, one for Ichigo, Renji Abarai, Toshiro Hitugaya, Kenpachi Zaraki, Bykuya Kuchiki, Hanataro Yamada, Yoruichi Shihoin, and Arturo Plateado (the game’s villain). The basic story path is the same for each – the main character is tricked into thinking they need to collect the shards for various reasons. Once they fight through everyone who has one and gather them all, the combined power of the shards allows the long-imprisoned arrancar Arturo Plateado, who emerges to take his revenge and exterminate the Soul Society. The chapters follow the same basic pattern, except for Hanataro, who stumbled on a shard by accident and is just trying to escape, and Yoruichi, who sees through the ruse all along and gathers the shards just to put a stop to Arturo once and for all. Arturo’s chapter takes place after his successful emergence, and you control him as he rampages through the Soul Society killing all in his path, eventually leading to a confrontation with Head Captain Yamamoto.

Anyone familiar with the show will instantly point out that there is no way in the world that someone like Hanataro or even Orihime would ever stand a chance against most of these fighters, let alone a powerful Captain like Kuchiki. But hey – it’s a fighting game, it isn’t like that isn’t common. This game at least makes some effort to explain the problem by saying that the shards make the wielder more powerful. A weak rationale, but it is good enough.

Fans of the show will really love the fighting styles of the characters. The moves are all accurate, so much so that you will find greater success when you fight as the characters would. Captain Kuchiki is best used by a patient player who is willing to stand in once place until the perfect moment to strike arises. Ichigo is a charge and slash player, while Orihime actually is better if you do minimal damage, and spend the rest of the time running, defending, and healing yourself. Hanataro is a difficult and fun player, as his sword attacks actually heal his opponent. To win with him, you actually have to stumble your way to victory, tripping and falling and using everything but your sword to attack. My personal favorite to use was Ikkaku, fast and powerful, just how I like it.

The graphics in the battles are actually pretty decent. I can’t imagine that they would tax the Wii’s processing power in any way, but they are almost perfect 3D renderings of the show’s animation. I even found the 3D environment easy to navigate, much more so than other 3D fighters I have played in the past.

The controls are unique. As this is probably the first real fighter on the Wii, of course the first question most people would think to ask is how the Wii Remote/Nunchuck combo will work for a fighter game. It actually worked pretty well. It does make use of the motion sensor, but it took me some time to realize to what extent.

After the tutorial (which was pretty good, it could have been a little more comprehensive, but it did its job quickly and efficiently), I came away with the idea that there were three kinds of attacks – swinging the Wii Remote, and doing so either holding the A button or B button. I started to get bored with just three attacks, until I noticed that I would accidentally perform other attacks. Finally I found out that my laziness won the day, and that I totally missed that Beach makes even better use of the motion controls than I initially thought.

The way you swing the Wii Remote matters. You can swing it left to right, Up and down, or with a stabbing motion, making a total of nine basic moves that you can perform. Nine! Can you imagine playing a fighting game on a traditional controller with nine buttons? And the interface is so easy, the minute I realized what I had at my disposal, I was effortlessly performing each of the moves.

There is a weird “Paper-rock-scissors” type exchange when both players clash together with the same move – you play a quick best-of-five mini-game to see who will come out on top in an exchange. It is really fast, and not a big distraction. I can see why some people might not like this, and it wouldn’t be missed if it was taken out of the game, but it doesn’t hurt the gameplay at all.

You can also power-up. By shaking the Nunchuck, you charge your Bankai meter. Now this is usually a bad idea, since it leaves you wide open to attack, and your meter charges anyway as you take hits. Once it is full, you shake your nunchuck again to enter Banai mode (or just power up to their highest level if they don’t have a Bankai – for example, Captain Zaraki just removes his eye patch). In Bankai mode, your Special moves become much more powerful.

Interface is great – unfortunately the AI is idiotic. I turned the game up to its highest level the first time I played, and I was blowing through Episode modes before I even learned how to control it properly. It is still fun – it just isn’t very challenging unless you have a human opponent. The lack of the online multiplayer is felt keenly – the low difficulty level really keeps this game from greatness, and the ability to play online would mitigate a lot of that.

While the graphics during the game are decent, the cut-scenes are woefully disappointing. Often, instead of any animation at all, you are treated to a single image, over which several minutes of dialogue are played. This was baffling – why the couldn’t animate these scenes, or at the very least have the playable models perform the scenes is beyond me. It makes sitting through the story difficult and dull. This was an extremely poor decision on the developers part.

The load time is long but not brutally so. It seems more annoying, thanks again to the cut-scenes. There are really only one or two different ones, and after sitting through them over and over again, the load time between matches becomes insufferable.

There are a lot of playable characters in the game – 32, and well over half need to be unlocked. This adds a lot of replay value to the game, especially for fans of the show who are familiar with the characters they are unlocking. It might not seem worth the effort for those who don’t know the characters, but it is definitely a fan perk.

BOTTOM LINE

The critics of this game have many valid points. The utter laziness when creating the cut-scenes is inexcusable. Staring at a picture for 5 minutes while someone talks to you is never fun, and this isn’t exactly a new innovation. If they weren’t going to animate them at all, it would have been better to leave the cut-scenes out all together. The low difficulty level is also troubling, and a potential turn-off to anyone who isn’t a real fan of the series.

On the other hand, they totally miss one huge factor – the game is fun to play, Plain and simple! The graphics aren’t top-notch, but the game engine is. The look will satisfy fans of the show, and the controls are intuitive and fun. Button-mashing is replaced with stick waving, but as with any fighting game, any skilled player can easily put down a button masher. The same holds true here.

There are two people this game is meant for – Bleach fans, and hardcore fighting game fans who have been dying for one on the Wii. The control style is unique enough to warrant trying out for most players. Unless you fall into one of those two categories, I recommend renting this one, or picking it up used.

At the end of the day – the critics are wrong about this one. This game really shows that there is too much focus on the graphics and the “extras” of a game these days, especially among critics. At its core, this game is fun. And that should be the most important factor in any review. Anyone ranking this game under a 5 (on a scale of ten), especially a reviewer who doesn’t know the difference between “dye” and “die,” shouldn’t be reviewing or playing games anymore. There is no joy in their hearts.

Rating(out of 5):

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