Right from the start you know you have a problem when the free Kon keychain that comes with the game says "LOADING" on the back. The loading times are pretty horrendous, figure 20+ secs to load a fight that lasts 1min maybe. Even just to go between menu options you have about 4-5 secs loading.
Anyhow the intro is pretty nice. Basically it's a collection of clips from the anime + new animation. There's some nice stuff in there like Byakuga starting his Bankai with all the swords, but I don't get why they show like 20 characters if the game has 6 characters total ^^;
There is a story mode, a vs. cpu mode, time attack, 2p (if you have 2psps/2games), and an appendix. In the appendix you can unlock videos (has 5 CMs to start with) and cards from the card game (134 total which cost 100 points each to unlock at random). Beating the story mode once with Ichigo unlocked his ending credits roll in the video room and I got 700points which gets you 7 cards. There are also 3 "?" options in the appendix.
Gameplay is ok. Seriously the game should not be on the fucking PSP. For one it runs like ass, maybe it's 30fps I dunno but it slows down all the time and feels clunky. Basically I would go as far as saying from a fighting game fan's perspective it's unplayable. Next the game is the jaggiest game I've seen in my life, it looks absolutely terrible and only if you hold it quite far away it's ok to look at. This kinda clashes with the really nice HQ 2d stills that make up the story mode and pre-battle screens. Control is decent on the pad but hmm... and the camera feels too close and makes the stages feel really small on the PSP screen.
Basically you have basic attacks (X) and 4-5 special attack with a direction + O. If you've played the GC Naruto games it's just like that. You have 3d movement and Triangle jumps. Holding back blocks, and square releases your reiatsu (soul power?). Anyhow the game is all about canned combos which there are plenty of (Ichigo has 23 in his movelist). But all these combos do like 30-50% damage so the matches are short as hell. There is a tug of war meter with reiatsu and when 100% of the reiatsu is on your side, if you hit O or X while releasing reiatsu you do a super move.
Ichigo kinda sucks because he is the only character without a projectile or ranged move. So since blocking is pressing back, it's a bitch to run forward without leaving yourself open. To make up for this they gave him an air dash but it's not really useful.
Renji is the 6th character but he's not playable from the start and must be unlocked. His sword leaves a trail which I'm not even sure was intentional because the trail made from the PSP ghosting ^^;
Story mode just covers the first 15 or so eps up until the Renji fight. During the credits roll the character you beat it with says some lines from a little later in the anime/manga.
Music is decent. The character select music is some vocal hip-hop that actually fits quite well. The stage music is meh. OP video is the first OP song, ED video is the one vocal song that they play in the show.
Basically shitty framerate, not so great controls, little screen, only 1p for the most part, long ass loading, horribly jaggy, crappy unlockables, six characters total = WTF did I buy this!?
Despite all that I sooooooooooooooooooo want them to make a proper sequel on a real system like PS2 or GC. The fighting engine is not bad and at least as good as the GC Naruto ones, and the cell-shading is pretty nice. If they did a sequel on a system (getting rid of loading/jaggies/control issues) and featured all the taicho/fuku-taicho + the main 6 from this game it would be a really really awesome anime-based fighter. But the PS2 Bleach game coming out is a hollow-fighting action game so....hopefully later this year or next year will see a real system fighter.
Even though Bleach is my 2nd favorite current manga behind One Piece, the game sucks and I can't see myself ever taking it out on a trip.
First Impression is a D-, this even tops the crappy DS games. Only thing saving it from an F is the OP movie.
