Bleach The 3rd Phantom – DS Review

Reviewed by Sam Atkins on March 9, 2010

Bleach The 3rd Phantom - DS Review  | read this item

The Bleach series has been a videogame staple for the past few years, popping up on near enough every console to deliver its unique brand of anime swordplay. Usually reserved to a fighting game format, Bleach: The 3rd Phantom marks the series’ first foray into Strategy RPG territory. What hasn’t changed though is the convoluted and ultimately unnecessary story based progression, so prevalent here that 75% of the game is cut scenes; and Hollywood quality this is not.

To be realistic, Bleach is less of a Strategy Game and more of a slow and painful lesson in why Bleach is not to everyone’s fancies. As a TV series, the anime fights and over the top dialogue works, but on DS developers Sega have decided to create hours of talking head style cut scenes that feature no fighting, but plenty of over the top dialogue. I would find it near impossible to explain exactly what The 3rd Phantom is about as well, with cut scenes that reach up to 25 minutes in length, and one of these before and after every battle in the game (one each chapter), your sanity is tested throughout. This is a real shame, as the few times you are not trying to skip past some horrendous dialogue, Bleach can actually be enjoyable.

Standard SRPG fare when in battle, you have an array of moves you can perform when fighting enemies on an isometric grid. Reminiscent of the fire emblem series, once you engage with an enemy, the action switches to a side on view where you can choose to either guard or counter oncoming attacks. Being able to see your characters react to attacks makes the game much more like the anime, and the tactical edge the counter feature gives is well implemented. You don’t ever have much choice of attack though, beyond the simple slashes, magic and special abilities far too exclusive to extremely high level characters to have much effect on your tactical choices. The combat works well, and does everything right that it needs to.

The only other place you’ll find any enjoyment in Bleach: The 3rd Phantom is in the ‘Free Time’ you get in most chapters. Similar to the story mode in Dissidia: Final Fantasy, you move across a board covered in various power ups and items, careful use of your character’s AP used to move onto these spaces. Little more than a way to get extra trinkets to use in the next battle, it’s yet another decent, but ultimately disappointing aspect of the game that prevents you from actually engaging in real SRPG battles.
Aesthetically pleasing, Bleach does a good job of retaining the trademark style of the TV Show, but when compared to other SRPGs, the battle screens can be a tad dull and empty. Detailed character designs are welcomed though, as are the expressive effects when characters square up to each other. A boring and repetitive music score isn’t appreciated though, although the lack of audible speech from the various characters you encounter can only be a good thing.

If you are new to the world of Bleach, avoid The 3rd Phantom at all costs. The well developed combat system and battles are not enough to warrant the effort it takes to plough through the cut scenes. For Bleach fans, this will be a positive though, and for those people, this will be a worthwhile story led SRPG. For others, stick with the excellent Final Fantasy Tactics A2 or Disgaea DS for you SRPG fix.

Tags: 3rd Phantom, Bleach, DS Review, RPG, Sega, SRPG, Strategy