Knack

When the PlayStation 4 was going to come out, one of the games announced for its launch lineup was a new IP called Knack. This was a game that caught my interest, mainly due to its concept and the promise of Katamari-style gameplay (I even played a demo at a recent Comic-Con). After recently receiving a PS4 for my birthday, I went with my brother to buy a few games to play on it. However, when Knack came up, the store clerk offered up a used copy of the game, in case I didn’t like it, due to the general consensus of the gameplay. Taking them up on the offer, I tried to play as much of the game as I could within the time that my schoolwork would allow; needless to say, while I did find it interesting at first, I ended up returning the game after all.

Humans are at war with goblins, and a group of people have gathered to figure out how to stop the goblins after they invade a human city. While a billionaire named Viktor offers up his security robots as protection, a scientist named Dr. Vargas reveals that he has been working on an experiment named Knack, a being made up of relics (used by humans and goblins alike) that can increase in size by absorbing more. After Dr. Vargas demonstrates Knack’s capabilities, at which point Knack reveals himself to be sentient, it is decided that Knack would assist in fighting back against the goblins. After a raid on a goblin village in search of answers, it is revealed that there’s more to the goblin attacks than the humans think.

The introduction of Knack.

I’m not sure I can say much about the story, mainly since I got to somewhere past the halfway point before I stopped playing, but from what I saw of it, it wasn’t terribly written. The voice acting was also actually pretty good and the music well-composed, so it gets praise from me in those departments. The graphics are also really amazing, as the more cartoonish art style allowed the characters a wide range of emotion and they didn’t clash at all with anything more realistically rendered. Another thing that impresses me about the game is how it uses features of the PS4 to its advantage, primarily the use of the DualShock 4’s built-in speaker; whenever Knack absorbs relics or anything else into his body (more on that later), sound not only comes from the TV speakers, but also the speaker in the controller, creating more of a sense of immersion (though admittedly I was weirded out at first by hearing sounds from my controller, as I wasn’t quite used to that and I had forgotten about that feature).

The gameplay itself is pretty simple, though this isn’t always a bad thing. The camera is fixed, but Knack is able to absorb relics (and eventually other objects) into his body to grow bigger, giving the game sort of a Katamari Damacy feel, and smashing Sunstones grants the ability to take down groups of enemies more easily depending on what move (of three) is selected; the right analog stick can also be used for a quick dodge, much like in God of War. At certain points in the game, Knack can also grow in size by absorbing other elements into his body, such as ice or wood, in order to gain an advantage during that section.

Knack can eventually absorb other elements, among them ice.

There’re also hidden secrets you can find within a level, often in the form of Sunstones, relics and other absorbable items, or chests that contain collectible items which can be combined to receive some gameplay benefits. These can range from absorbing more Sunstone energy than normal to a Combo Meter and even special Knack skins that have their own special quirks. These hidden items, particularly the chests, can provide some amount of replay value, and, once collected, the different Knacks can create a challenge on multiple playthroughs.

However, what ultimately led me to stop playing was that, after a while, it felt like the gameplay was getting a bit repetitive. While there was some amount of variety present, it seemed a little sparse as most levels feel kind of the same, with your options being simply to punch enemies when you have too little or no Sunstone energy left to pull off special moves. When you die, you do keep whatever Sunstone energy you had before, but filling up your energy can take a while, with each special move taking up one section of it, and, sometimes, dying after using some of it can feel like a waste. Otherwise, a level can often feel like long stretches of doing the same things over and over again, with little variation, and can at times feel like padding. This got to the point to where I personally was drawing comparisons to Blinx: The Time Sweeper in terms of its repetitiveness (though Knack isn’t quite as repetitive as Blinx, it is certainly a far cry from that of the disaster that is Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don’t Know!).

A typical goblin encounter.

Knack isn’t that bad of a game, all things considered, but it can feel repetitive after a while if you don’t take enough breaks from it during normal play. Though I didn’t end up completing the game, I would still recommend that people give this one a shot if they don’t feel like playing a more hardcore game (of which there are plenty) on their new system. The graphics are amazing for what they are, there is some enjoyment to be found in some of the gameplay, and it does a good job showing what the PS4 is capable of. I will likely return to this game sometime in the future to get some closure on the story, as well as to see if I can’t make one thing from the hidden chests, but it probably won’t be immediate.

Puppeteer - All The World's A Stage

I have discussed games that I became interested in because they belonged to a particular franchise (ex. God of War, Sly Cooper) and some original IP’s that drew me to them by their ideas, general reception, or concept alone (ex. Dust: An Elysian Tail, The Stanley Parable). Puppeteer is a game that falls under the latter, though it was a case where I became curious about it with little information, though admittedly I can’t remember exactly what drove to want to play it. Regardless, this, like Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, is a game I got as a Christmas present, and so I wanted to get to it as soon as I possibly could. While I thoroughly enjoyed the game, I must say it has a couple of tangled strings.

The game is presented as an in-universe puppet show, presented by a Professor Gregorious T. Oswald (but you can call him “G”), titled “The Perilous Journey of a Boy Named Kutaro”. The show opens by explaining that there was once harmony on the Moon between light and darkness, but the Moon Goddess was weakened when a small bear named Little Bear became corrupted by the Black Moonstone, becoming the evil Moon Bear King, and shattered the White Moonstone into several pieces. Regularly, the souls of children from Earth are brought to the Moon, specifically to Castle Grizzlestien where the Moon bear King resides, where they are turned into puppets, some of which become monsters if they are really unlucky. One such child is the titular boy named Kutaro, who gets his head torn off by the Moon Bear King, after which a flying cat named Ying Yang tells him to wear a new head for the time being. On a quest from the witch residing in the castle named Ezma Potts, Kutaro is sent to acquire a pair of magical scissors kept by the Moon Bear King called Calibrus. Once Kutaro obtains Calibrus, he must retrieve the shattered pieces of the White Moonstone while fighting off the Moon Bear King’s army of 12 Generals, who have taken over various areas of the Moon.

Kutaro wearing his normal head while holding Calibrus and
the Lion head.

The concept behind the game being presented as a puppet show is very unique, and I think it pulled this off rather well. It does not forget for a moment during the story that it’s set on a puppet stage and this is used to great effect. The objects and characters on stage have the appearance of being made from certain elements, such as cardboard scenery and cardboard/paper foreground objects, not to mention characters being typically made of wood and occasionally metal (though without any visible strings, which I think allows for more fluid movement from the puppet characters). This, combined with the side-scrolling and constant narration, creates minor LittleBigPlanet vibes, though not in a bad way. Adding to this are audience chatter and reactions, plus if you take too long at certain screens, Professor Oswald will tell the audience about what’s available in the lobby (not to mention the Pause screen is called an Intermission). In short, when this game goes for presentation, it really goes all out.

The presentation of the game is complimented by the graphics and art style of the game, which do a good job of realistically portraying each of the different elements that make up everything on the stage. Not only that, the game also displays a variety of color palettes, from bright and colorful to dark and dismal, neither of which overtakes the other. The voice acting also adds to the puppet show display, since the characters , especially the pixie/daughter of the Sun Pikarina, play around with the fact that they are putting on a show for the audience, both in and outside of the game itself (including Pikarina conversing with Professor Oswald and a scene involving a character trying to remember their lines); the voice actors themselves do a good job portraying their respective characters, including adding certain vocal traits such that they are (mostly) not annoying (ex. Ying Yang has a habit of altering certain words to fit cat noises, such as “Moon” to “Mewn”). The background music also adds to atmosphere of the game, depending on the setting of each level, without being intrusive on the experience.

The controls are simple at first, however there is more complexity added over time, but in just the right way that they’re still fairly easy to grasp. The primary game action you can perform is using Calibrus to cut things, though there is some variety to prevent this from becoming monotonous. Not only is cutting necessary when facing enemies and obstacles, it can also be used to traverse gaps if something is provided (such as smoke, leaves, banners, etc.). While most actions are tied to Kutaro, you (or a second player with a Dualshock 3/PlayStation Move controller) are also able to control a second, floating character that follows you (Ying Yang at first, but mostly Pikarina), who is able to explore the environment to look for Moonstine shards or extra heads. Collecting 100 Moonstone shards over time (this is cumulative throughout the game) grants you an extra life, and some levels may require you to use up a number of lives depending on the difficulty of the area (there are checkpoints, though admittedly some deaths in the game can be attributed to player error). You can carry up to three heads at a time, which you can scroll through with the D-Pad, and losing three heads takes up a life (though if you lose one head you have a few seconds to retrieve it), at which point you are resurrected at the last checkpoint along with your current arsenal of heads. Heads can be found throughout the environment, mostly inside floating Head Pots, and some are earned after defeating bosses or completing hidden objectives.

Kutaro jumping on a burger in an early level with the Burger head equipped,
while Ying Yang follows behind.

Heads are actually the core mechanic of the game aside from Calibrus. Each head has a unique action, which can be activated by pressing “Down” on the D-Pad, in the form of an animation. When you activate the head’s action at specific points (usually denoted by an image of the required head), something special will happen, mainly causing a roulette wheel to appear or Kutaro to be transported a Bonus Stage, wherein you must gather Moonstone shards before time runs out (or in some cases you fall down). There are a wide variety of heads that you can come across, such as a Lion, a Burger, or a Train, and that’s just scratching the surface. Throughout the game, you also gain heads from a group of fallen warriors, each of which can be accessed through assigned buttons and whose abilities are required to progress or access hidden areas (some of which can also be found through the second character). All this adds a good amount of variety to the gameplay so it never quite feels monotonous.

There are also a couple of unlockable items in the game, one of which is a gallery where you can view the heads you have collected for Kutaro, as well as view the unique action each head has; this is a good way to see them up close without having to try and view them through gameplay. The other unlockable is a number of viewable storybooks in the game, one unlocked for completing each Act (each consisting of three levels, or Curtains). Each of these storybooks tells a story that expands on the plot of the game, including character backstories and how certains events in the main plot came to be. While at least one or two things shown in these stories may be a little questionable (mainly why Little Bear became the Moon Bear King in the first place), they do a good job of providing context in certain parts of the story and fleshing out the game’s world.

The Moon Bear King, the primary antagonist of the game.

As I mentioned previously, there are a couple of snags I found that sort of affected my experience, albeit in minor ways. As I played Puppeteer, I had the feeling that this could be a timeless tale…or at least it would be if not for a scene within the last few sections of the game that makes an indirect reference to Twitter, which, like with Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, I fear might eventually date the game at some point (at least it wasn’t name-dropped). As also mentioned before off-handedly, there is a 2-player function in which the second player can use another controller or a Move peripheral to control the second character. This, to me, is a rather interesting use of the Move, and since I happened to own it, I had my brother volunteer to test out its effectiveness. While it ended up being very responsive, it took us a while to think about looking at the Digital Manual for the game to find out it was a feature meant for player 2, since the game itself didn’t really make that clear. You might also have to be careful during the calibration process (since your movements with the controller seem to matter) and maybe have to recalibrate the Move at least once or twice to get a good feel for it, but the feature otherwise works really well and what we went through didn’t really impact the experience all that much.

While not a complaint, I did make one observation while I was playing, namely that the game is very, very Japanese. This only goes as far as certain cultural things, though one particular level stands out in that it contains many things that would make more sense to a Japanese player or someone knowledgeable in Japanese culture, such as the inclusion of Kappa (a creature from Japanese folklore), taiko drums, and Japanese shrines, among other cultural items from the region. Again, this is not a complaint, just an observation I made about the game. Also, once you know that one of the game’s reasons for its ESRB rating of an E10+ is “Suggestive Themes”, you will begin to see why within some of the dialogue (mostly from the narrations).

With a premise so unique, Puppeteer manages to pull it off very well. The gameplay mechanics work well, the presentation is amazing, and the story is rather interesting to watch unfold. Though a couple of problems hamper the experience a little bit, it is not enough to make this game not worth your time. Fans of LittleBigPlanet might get some enjoyment out of the presentation of the game, but I would also recommend Puppeteer to fans of platforming games, since this game contains a whole lot of it and adds some interesting ideas to the formula. If you happen to own a second controller or a PlayStation Move peripheral, I would also suggest grabbing a friend or family member and have them join in on the fun.

Gravity Rush - Shift This Game To Your Vita

As I had only received a Vita this last Christmas, I have missed out on giving reviews of certain games upon their proper release. However, since I'm a PlayStation Plus member, I was able to download a number of games for free on the system (have to be careful with space though, since I only have a 4GB memory card for now and Vita cards are expensive). Since one of them happened to be Gravity Rush, a game released in June 2012 that I had heard some good things about, I decided to give it a try while waiting for a replacement copy of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Since completing it, I think I can now consider myself a fan of this game, despite some burning questions I have left.

Gravity Rush follows a mysterious young woman who has woken up in the cloud city of Hekesville with a case of amnesia. She sees a strange cat and decides to follow it, only to have to rescue someone. In desperation, the woman gains the ability to shift gravity from the cat and saves a boy, at the cost of losing his house. The woman then runs into an officer named Syd, who gives her the nickname Kat because of her cat, who she decides to name Dusty. She then learns of a woman named Raven, who has similar abilities thanks to a crow. As Kat goes around Hekesville, she comes to realize that there are many mysteries surrounding the town, but has yet to realize that she is a part of something much bigger than herself.

I enjoyed the story, which has plenty of twists and turns that have some sort of emotional impact. Mysteries are introduced at moments that make you wonder what will happen next, essentially driving you forward to try and learn the answers. It presents itself through initiated dialogue and cutscenes, which come in the CG and paneled varieties. The latter is in an interactive comic book style, where turning the Vita will change the viewpoint, albeit in a limited fashion, and swiping the screen provides one way to advance the scene. Naturally each panel contains a hand drawn representation of the events, complete with written sound effects, and they look fantastic. Presenting the next mission this way is more expressive and I'm glad that they decided to go this route, especially since I can easily read the speech balloons.

As I said in the last paragraph, the story presents mystery after mystery to keep the player going. While this is an effective narrative device, I came to a realization as the credits rolled that I don't think a lot of these got answered. Some of my burning questions are: "Who exactly is Alias?"; "What are the Nevi and where did they come from?"; "Who or what exactly is Kat?"; "What did she see in her vision and what is in the photo the man is looking at at the end?"; "Where did these animals come from and why can they bestow gravity shifting abilities?"; and "Is there a larger significance to the Creators?" All of these and more will likely be brought up in a sequel if that ever gets made, or hopefully (yet doubtfully) in the available DLC. I sometimes enjoy complexity in a story, but I also like it when these plots wrap themselves up in the same span of time or even save one of their bigger mysteries for a sequel hook. This doesn't mean I don't care about the plot in Gravity Rush, but it does mean that I would have liked to have more closure on the events.

The various story missions are designed very well for the most part. While the objectives vary, they usually involve going to a specific location in the area to interact with something, defeat enemies or carry someone somewhere. There is always a marker telling you where to go in space, which is actually extremely helpful due to the gravity shifting mechanic potentially occupying all 360 degrees. The main mechanic of the game is extremely easy to handle and brings a large element of satisfaction from its use. Gravity Shifting is triggered with a single press of the R button, with access to related abilities depending on what you press next, such as using another press of R to "fall" in an intended direction or Circle (O) to pick things up in a small circular field. The length of time you can do this for is represented by a blue gauge, which can be increased through upgrades. Pressing L will reset Kat to normal gravity, which has an added advantage of letting the gauge recharge. Sometimes while flying somewhere I would juggle between usage of both buttons to keep the gauge full for my purposes and it worked out really well.

By using the Vita's gyroscope functionality or the right analog stick, you can aim Kat in midair to determine where you'd like to fall. This also allows you to aim a Gravity Kick, which is an alternative to holding X to fall quicker as well as a move to use in combat. It is also essential to use the gyroscope to aim when performing a Gravity Slide, which requires pressing opposite ends of the touchscreen to activate; taking a thumb off the screen while doing this will allow Kat to slowly drift in one direction. While it takes some getting used to for the Gravity Slide to be any fun, the initial curve when figuring out can put you off using it for a bit and stick to your regular gravity powers.

Combat in Gravity Rush is also a little hit and miss. Aside from Kat's main move of kicking, just about every gravity power has some application to fight against Nevi, a species of indeterminable origin. I had a bit of fun with this, especially when I used certain special moves to get rid of them quicker, but in the later missions I started to get a little annoyed with it. Eventually the Nevi decide to spawn in increasingly larger numbers to drag the encounters out as long as they can, getting bigger and stronger each time; this isn't something to complain about too much, but that also means more points to try and hit on the Nevi each time, which becomes a little frustrating when you consider that they mostly have an odd geometry that requires you to constantly aim in different places while a bunch of red orbs are being fired at you. What also didn't help was that the enemy variety eventually sort of stopped outside of bosses. New Nevi are introduced at a pretty good interval, but then at the end the stronger ones are introduced as brand new enemies except now they have some kind of bone armor of sorts protecting one of their weak points. It felt a little uncreative and just made fighting them a little more tedious. Sometimes the special attacks didn't do what I wanted either, with the Spinning Claw, the one I leaned on the most, sometimes spiraling away from the action when it clearly hit once rather than continue to another weak point. Basically, the hit detection seemed a little off at times, but overall the combat system isn't broken and is tolerable to some degree.

Gravity Rush also has some RPG elements, at least in the form of leveling up your skills. You do this by collecting Precious Gems and purchasing upgrades at will. Precious Gems can be found either in the game world or by completing unlockable challenges. These challenges are unlocked by using some of the gems you have collected to repair some function of Hekesville, which can even serve as a means to get to parts that are much further away. I enjoyed this aspect and actually used the upgrade screen whenever possible to get more competent in combat. I'd even go around Hekesville just to see if I could find even more gems that I had missed by exploring even the underside of the city.

In terms of appearances, Gravity Rush is a very beautiful game. The art style is fantastic and really gives the game its own identity, down to the environments. I like the way the characters Kat and Raven are designed, straying away from stereotypical anime female designs and actually letting them be attractive while still wearing clothes that seem appropriate for the world. The cat Dusty was also designed in a way that it looked cute to me, even with the star pattern composing its body. Other characters that are important to the plot also have memorable designs without feeling out of place; everyone seemed to naturally fit in. I also liked the score and minimal voice acting, which actually felt like an interesting combination to keep the player fully involved in the setting.

Gravity Rush is a very strong title for the Vita. Its story is very engaging despite the lack of complete closure, the characters and setting are unique and interesting and it takes advantage of the system's capabilities very well without getting in the way of enjoying the experience. Combat may not be the best, but its actually quite fun and even a little tense when the setup is right. Although I downloaded it for free off PSN, I would still actually buy the game since I feel it really is worth the money. If you own a Vita and want a good start, make it Gravity Rush. Its setting will really draw you in and I can almost certainly guarantee that you'll have a good time.

Bleach: Soul Resurrección

Unlike the art, this game actually does have backgrounds.

Bleach, for those who are unaware or don't want anything to do with any anime/manga series for any reason, is a manga series created by Tite Kubo and serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan as well as two American publications, both the recently defunct monthly Shonen Jump print magazine and its replacement, the digitaly released Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. To briefly describe it, it's about a High School student named Ichigo Kurosaki who can see ghosts. A Soul Reaper named Rukia Kuchiki drops by his home one night looking for a rogue Hollow (an evil spirit) that subsequently attacks. Rukia fights the Hollow while trying to keep Ichigo out of the conflict, but due to his determination to protect his family, which is strong enough to break magical bonds, she gives him some of her powers to defeat the Hollow, which he successfully does. However, it turns out that he had absorbed all of her power by accident, so he is forced to cleanse Hollows as a Deputy Soul Reaper while she recovers.

I'm sorry for the long explanation, but I feel that even for a popular franchise such as this, a lot of people might not really know what it's about. It's also a lead-in to mention that I am a fan of Bleach, which is to say that I keep up with the manga as best I can, including through Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha, and have been watching the anime on Cartoon Network following the revival of the late night Toonami anime block. While I still haven't read all that has been officially published in English for the series, I do know enough to understand a general idea of what has happened thus far. Because of my status, I will be approaching a review of this game as a fan of Bleach, but, rest assured, it will not affect the neutrality of the review (at least not in any way that I will be aware). Besides, I'm not exactly a mega fan of Tite Kubo that believes he hasn't done anything wrong (and boy has he made mistakes). Now, with this lengthy opening done, let's take a look at Bleach: Soul Resurrección and see whether or not it's worth playing.

First off, the story of the game itself. The framework for the story is the overarching Arrancar Arc, which includes the story arcs that involve the main antagonist, Sōsuke Aizen, more specifically the Hueco Mundo, Fake Karakura Town and Deicide Arcs. Basically, Aizen has kidnapped Orihime Inoue so that he can take advantage of her regenerative powers for his scheme. In response, Ichigo, followed by Chad and Uryū Ishida and later Rukia and Renji Abarai, travel to Hueco Mundo to get her back and defeat Aizen and his Espada (powerful Arrancars (Hollows with powers of a Soul Reaper) that he created). The Story Mode, which uses this framework, is a loose representation of it, using text recaps before each Episode to explain where in the story the Episode takes place. Personally, I felt that the recaps were sufficiently efficient, allowing players to just jump right into the action while being given a refresher for context. There are also some advantages to this style of retelling the arc: You don't have to wait an ungodly amount of time between important battles (as is the case with Tite Kubo's pacing problems in the source manga), it explains certain events in a way that makes the source story sound a bit better and it condenses the plot to only contain the most important elements.

Then there's the gameplay, which integrates the plot to a certain degree. Each Episode in the Story mode has you playing from the perspective of a single character based on who the final boss fight is against. Each character plays a bit differently, taking advantage of each of their unique abilities. Special attacks are performed using the Circle and Triangle buttons, while normal attacks are done with Square. The special moves use up Spiritual Pressure, a blue segmented bar below the character's health. Depending on which button you press, the Spiritual Pressure bar will deplete quicker, limiting you to normal attacks while you recover your lost energy. You can also guard to block attacks, which can be extended into a dodge move known as the Flash Step by moving the left analog stick at the same time, as well as lock on to enemies and dash to get through a level quicker. An Ignition gauge also exists on the side, filling up as you perform an extended combo. Fill it up enough and your attacks become more powerful, plus you gain access to a one-shot attack specific to the character. This simple control scheme sets the groundwork for the experience, allowing one to play for a good period of time while still letting the characters use their established powers.

As for the characters themselves, it becomes clear right away that they all suit a different play style; this is a good thing as it gives the game a great amount of variety and each one has their own distinct array of moves and personality. Though a lot of their attacks share certain ranges, they all have a different area of effect and operate differently, an example being Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho being released in a wave versus Rukia Kuchiki's Byakurai operating similarly to a bullet. Two of the more unique characters are Gin Ichimaru, with the ability to change his attack depending on what two-button combination you press, and Uryū Ishida, who has a separate system in place for his Circle moves. Finding out how each character operates, including how their Ignition attacks work, can be fun and inject more variety throughout your play, but you'll definitely find one you're comfortable with and focus on strengthening them over the rest (I personally focused primarily on Ichigo).

Once you beat the story to unlock most of the characters, which will only take a little over four hours, there's a Mission mode where you can play to unlock more missions, characters and stuff for your collection, as well as a Soul Attack mode that serves as a quasi-multiplayer mode with a leaderboard. Depending on your performance during the different game modes, you gain Soul Points, which are used to level up your characters by buying them new abilities and stat boosts. When your character is stronger, completing certain modes becomes easier, so fortunately there are multiple difficulty levels to keep things from getting stale.

I must say at this point then that this game is designed with the sole purpose to suck as much time out of you as it possibly can...and it works. To unlock more missions, you must complete a certain set of missions, and eventually get a good enough performance grade on previous ones, requiring your character to be strong enough to get all the right bonuses while still meeting the requirements. If you want to get some practice in the Soul Attack mode, you have to complete a certain amount or combination of missions, which won't kick in until about halfway through your progress in that mode.

But wait, remember when I said that powering up your character requires you to buy stuff? Well, you do your leveling up on a grid-like structure, each new character adding a new section to the structure until you have all of them. They all have their own grid and can't advance past a certain point, limiting your potential to level up, as each new upgrade you buy contributes another level. However, if you level up your character to a specific point, you unlock access to more parts of the grid, increasing your potential; you must do this with every single character if you want to get the one you use the most up to full strength. Then you run into the problem where some abilities are a bit too expensive for this to work, which means you'll find yourself playing through more missions to get more soul points to get more upgrades and so forth, repeat ad nauseum. This is definitely the meat of the game, and it can definitely get a little tiring after an extended play session, so I would recommend playing in bursts to avoid this feeling.

That said, the actual level design is very structured, with at least one to two areas of Hollow fights before you actually get to the boss encounter, an obvious way to get your Ignition gauge maxed out for the end. It's fortunate then that there is a diverse enough range of enemies that will actually put up a fight. The Mission and Soul Attack modes have the most variety, but even then you're still reaching the same goals most of the time. The variety is enough to keep you going, but again, you'll still run out of steam from the gradual monotony (so take breaks). The good thing about it though is that it distills Bleach to its base element, fighting, while still staying true to the events. I'd like to mention here that the Story mode actually operates close to continuity, which includes a certain restriction in the final Episode; makes sense to me.

Technically speaking, the graphics on the environment and character models are incredibly faithful and serve as perhaps the best 3D representation of the franchise. The voice acting matches this devotion to the product, using the same voice actors to reprise their roles from the source anime to make it more consistent. I also liked the soundtrack, which uses a heavy metal style to accentuate the action and help the immersion with the music style of the anime, though I'm sure some will disagree with me on this. Sound Effects are also used and mixed properly so that they aren't particularly annoying.

I do have a couple of complaints about my experience, one of which is a lot more major than the other. The most major regards the lock-on feature, specifically the fact that it's a little broken. To be quite honest, I have almost no idea how it picks what enemy you want to focus on, but it might not actually be the one you really want to strike. It's helpful that it picks enemies that are behind you when no one is in front, but even if you adjust the camera so that you get to the one group you want to kill, it will reorient itself back again to target someone else, a move that can cost precious time and your combo. As a result, I used it much less when I had my target in my sights or I tried to fool it to point where I wanted. The more minor complaint moreso comes from me as a fan, specifically the unlockable character Kōkuto; it's not that he's bad, it's just that I have absolutely no idea who he is. He and Skullclad Ichigo are from the fourth Bleach movie, but the movie isn't available in English yet and the game provides absolutely no context or explanation, which will surely confuse existing fans that haven't seen the movie in Japanese.

Overall, Bleach: Soul Resurrección is an interesting anime licensed game, with solid gameplay and a great dedication to detail. However, some may be turned off by the amount of time you'd need to devote to access everything (I've done over 18 hours and still haven't seen it all) or, for some inexplicable reason, the fact that it's an anime licensed game. It's definitely made with fans of Bleach in mind, so I would tell outsiders that if you want to start somewhere with Bleach, do not make it this game. The loose representation of the story won't completely fill you in on the events, so I'd say to read the original manga first. For everyone else, consider a discount purchase.