I picked up this game at Otakon. Thought I was purchasing it new, turns out it was used. All the characters unlocked/etc. Which is fine with me, I didn’t feel like playing through the story mode at all.
Anywho, I really like this game. When I was at Evo Finals I saw some people playing it (although never when I had my DS on me). The combo system is nice, I’ve found at least one true infinite (although they don’t matter because of the “Damage Break” system… Use 1 stock of meter to do a move like Bursts in GG).
A quick rundown of the game for those who don’t have it/might be interested:
This game is a 2D fighter. The system is reminiscent of MvC2 and Guilty Gear. It features two “rows” where you can jump from front to back. Each character has a life bar, a super meter, and a 3-level “EX” meter that allows you to perform EX versions of moves or Shunpo. Shunpo is teleportation. Not all characters have a true teleport, only the Shinigami (and Ishida, who is a Quincy). This leaves 4 characters (I’m pretty sure… Orihime, Sado/Chad, Ganju, and Tatsuki) with special “Shunpo” replacements.
I do not think Kon and Bonnie (the pig) would be tournament legal. Kon is just so fucking small 90% of the moves whiff on him, and I’m pretty sure the pig can’t be thrown, and also just straight up sucks anyways.
There are three attack buttons.
Y: Light Attack
X: Medium Attack
A: Heavy Attack.
There are three “Function” buttons.
B: Shunpo (teleport, uses one of your EX stocks.)
L: Switches to front or back row.
R: Blocks (hold back does too, but this way if someone crosses you up you still block)
Game System:
Attacks chain up. L -> M -> H. You can also chain from standing to crouching. Assuming you’re still in range, you could possibly do L -> cL -> M -> cM -> H -> cH. I don’t think anyone in the game has the range to do this.
Most standing or crouching Heavy attacks are launcher moves (ala MvC2).
EX stock regenerates over time. Certain actions prevent it from recharging. I believe jumping, air dashing, and while attacking you don not regenerate. I don’t really pay enough attention.
All characters can double jump once. (For some reason Kyoraku can air jump again using EX meters. This allows him to do multiple chains in the air. The combo I use with him looks something like: launch -> L M H -> j -> L M H -> j -> L M H -> j -> L M H -> j -> L M H -> HCF H (EX version) HxxQCF QCF H (any button, I just hit H because that’s what I’ve been hitting). You can repeat with another HxxQCF QCF H if you’re spaced right from the wall.
All characters can air dash. (Except maybe Bonnie. I haven’t even played her in training mode, so I don’t know.) Technically all characters have 8 way dashes since you can Shunpo in the air in any direction (at the cost of an EX stock).
The first attack landed grants 1 stock of meter. This is useful in gaining the lead obviously.
Characters can perform a “Damage Break” when getting hit at the cost of one stock of meter. This move is similar to “Burst” in the GG series.
All special moves and supers can be performed as guard cancels. This includes Shunpo. Remember to hold the direction you want for Shunpo, or it will go where you’re facing (which might be backwards).
Certain characters have level three supers. Sometimes these are “Ban Kai” which grant special properties to the character. For instance, Ichigo’s level three super activates his Ban Kai, in which Ichigo’s sword turns from giant to normal (but the blade is black) and his outfit changes. Also the hilt of his sword is a swastika or something. He cannot walk, but his dash is insanely fast. He also cannot be knocked down during this mode, and he only has one attack string regardless of the button you push. His first standing normal is a projectile, and his air normal is a projectile. I believe he cannot perform any specials during this, but his normal attack string does lots of damage. I’m not sure if he can be thrown. Some Ban Kai are like this, power ups for the character. Others are just full screen moves that do lots of damage.
I haven’t counted, but it seems like the average life for characters is 300. The average chain combo into launcher does around 30. Most supers do between 20->70 (depending on the super). Level 3 supers vary, but many of them do upwards of 100+ damage. Some characters have less life (Tatsuki for example, she has like no life.)
As you play the game, you’ll notice your touch screen has two faces on it. These are either buffs or debuffs (too much WoW for me!). So far what I’ve figured out:
Sad faced guy: Balances life between all characters. Don’t use this unless you’re behind because if you’re ahead it’ll make all your life bars equal. I assume it just totals all the life points and redistributes them.
Happy faced guy: Gives your character a “Genei Jin” like effect. No, it’s not as good, but all of your hits hit 2 or 3 times (there are varying levels to this, 2 and 3 that I’ve seen.)
“Hollow” Ichigo (the character Ichigo but all white and evil looking: Gives you 3 levels of meter regardless of how much you had. Lasts for 2 seconds. After those 2 seconds are up you go to 0 meter. Use it or lose it.
Chick with black hair: Heals you for a certain amount.
I haven’t figured out the rest. I don’t really use the cards. I’m sure you can find a FAQ if you’re really interested in them.
Also, you’ll notice a “Change” button. This allows you to pull up a menu with blue bars that have letters on them, and a few (1-3) red ones with letters. Touching these performs your special (blue bars) or supers (red bars). This is a neat idea, but it doesn’t allow you to control the strength of the moves you do. It will always do an EX or if you’re out of EX meter or the move is not EXable, it’ll do the Medium version. There are 3 strengths of special moves, Light, Medium, and EX. If you do not have EX meter hitting the touch screen or using the Heavy button performs the one you’d do with the medium button. There are exceptions to this: Ukitake throws out these glowing balls with his DP+Button move. The heavy one goes forward, Medium goes up/forward, and Light goes straight up.
Almost all normals are special/super cancellable. Most specials are super cancellable.
Many throws can be comboed off of. Some of them only in the corner. In the case of Yoruichi and Aizen this is extremely obvious; their throws put the opponent in a “paralyzed” state (that is, they are stunned and have yellow stuff around them) For some reason when Yoruichi has her “Genei-Jin” super active, sometimes her throw just throws them instead of stuns them.
Um, that’s about all I can think of right now. Oh. I know. Settings.
Default time is infinite. I generally set it to 3 minutes when VSing the computer (that’s all I have to play as I’m not even in the US! And no, I can’t play online, I use satellites for my internet, which give me extreme latency.)
The “Demo On/Demo Off” option allows you to skip Ban Kai activation scenes (a small scene will play when someone performs one. Usually they say something in Japanese, and then say “Ban Kai” and then it cuts back to the game. These are fun the first couple of times you see them, then they get annoying.)
As far as Vs Computer, you can set their AI (AI 8 is still pretty dumb, but they do decent combos). For some reason setting the computers handicap to Maximum results in them doing extreme damage to you, but when you hit them you gain MASSIVE amounts of meter. We’re talking a full bar from one chain -> launch -> chain -> jump -> chain combo. Normally this gives you varying amounts depending on the number of hits (some characters jumping Heavy moves send the opponent to the ground instantly, which kills further comboing.)
Well, I’m about tapped. I really like this game and hope other people are still playing it when I get back to the US in December. As I understand it, a Bleach DS 2 is coming out soon… at least Play-Asia is advertising it.
Any questions? I’ll answer them when I wake up unless someone else has gotten to it. I might post some combos/strats I’ve developed with the characters I play (not yet tested on humans though, but I play enough games I think I know when something is going to work good on live people. Maybe you guys with comp can be my guinea pigs!)
