BLEACH: Heat the Soul 6 – Get Heated Yet Again

My first introduction to importing Japanese-only BLEACH fighting games came with BLEACH GC: Tasogare ni Mamieru Shinigami on the GameCube in January 2007. It was fun to start but got old quickly, even while playing with friends. Despite importing the game (and the Freeloader disc required to play it) I knew about the BLEACH: Heat the Soul series on the PSP. At the time I didn’t know Heat the Soul had been around since 2005 and games in the series were released once or sometimes twice a year. It wouldn’t be until December 2007 that I got a PSP to call my own, and a few months later I bought BLEACH: Heat the Soul 4. Thankfully Heat the Soul 4 was much more entertaining than BLEACH GC could ever hope to be. When it came time to buy the fifth installment in the series I actually passed it over in favor of BLEACH: Heat the Soul 6. While the sixth installment was quite different from Heat the Soul 4 I found it to be just as entertaining.

BLEACH: Heat the Soul 6 closely follows Tite Kubo’s manga along with some bonus material from the three movies. The story begins with Ichigo Kurosaki’s initiation as a Soul Reaper and continues up to the content of the “Turn Back the Pendulum” story arc. Like any fighting game series the plot is revealed through multiple character fights. Story mode is also a clever way of introducing the game’s two character tag system (similar to Marvel VS Capcom 2 — obviously with two characters instead of three) and getting players to learn how special attacks work. Mindless button mashing won’t always help you in this game. Sixty one individual fights are split up into ten chapters that cover seven major manga story arcs and the last three chapters cover material from the movies. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how much like you a serious challenge), completing story mode’s 61 missions and unlocking all 74 characters isn’t always as simple as just beating an opponent.

This can only be described as the sucker punch from Hell.

All matches are ranked on how well you complete each mission’s objective within a fight. Matches are ranked from S to D with S being excellent and D being below average. In order to unlock every single mission, and thus getting 100 percent in story mode, you must complete a match with an A or better. Each objective is stated before a match starts and includes objectives such as only finishing off an opponent with a special attack, a tag team special attack, finishing off an enemy within a certain time limit, or just surviving a match until a timer reaches zero. Attempting to get an A (especially in horribly mismatched fights) requires saintly levels of patience at times. Additionally, the lack of an English translation for the said objectives makes the game more difficult than it should be. Thankfully, it is easy enough to guess an objective based on a storyline fight if you follow the anime or manga. For objectives that are a bit more ambiguous, or if you barely follow BLEACH there’s always trial and error or a walkthrough.

While story mode is Heat the Soul 6’s main attraction there is still plenty to do within the game. Arcade mode, Training, Soul VS (two player versus), Soul Championship and Soul Customization are the game’s other major attractions. While every mode can be played without ever touching story mode the other modes aren’t much fun before the character roster is filled out. Soul championship is new to the Heat the Soul series. Championship mode is split into four major tiers and you must start at the lowest tier. Each tier has 12 different tournaments and each tournament has its own elimination brackets. Soul customization is also new to Heat the Soul 6. As the name implies it is the ability build a custom technique set for any particular character not normally found in the course of the game. Such techniques include the ability to deal more damage when attacking from behind, inflicting block damage, an auto block, a long range dash, the ability to switch characters in tag mode while blocking, and lots more. This section of the game is so comprehensive that using it without a guide is impossible unless you’re up to date on your Japanese.

I don’t know why but I didn’t enjoy any of my fights against her. Could have been all of those near game overs?

Graphically, Heat the Soul 6 is nearly identical to previous installments. The cel-shading comes off very crisp and stylish at times, but the game doesn’t even come close to pushing the PSP to its limits. Other than a few mild changes to the graphical interface 6 looks pretty much like the original Heat the Soul did in 2005. If you’re a stickler for graphics BLEACH may or may not please you. Surprisingly, the Heat the Soul series looks much better than the GameCube and Wii games–neither of which I recommend over the PSP titles. As for voice work it’s hard to find any faults with the Heat the Soul series. All of the voice actors from the anime have reprised their roles and the J-pop group Porno Graffiti performs the excellent opening song, “Koyoi, Tsuki ga Miezu Tomo.” While on the subject of music, the game’s soundtrack gets the job done despite some tracks being completely recycled from prior games. It works for the context of the game but you’re not likely to put the music on your favorite playlist.

Beyond the soul championship mode and soul customization Heat the Soul 6 isn’t very different from Heat the Soul 5. This latest Heat the Soul game simply refines the tag team feature that was already introduced in 5, making it more of an upgrade. If you’ve already played Heat the Soul 5 I can’t fully recommend importing this $50 dollar PSP title, unless you’re hell-bent on having every new BLEACH game. A new sweeping system probably won’t be introduced until Heat the Soul 7 is eventually released. Of course, if you haven’t played a Heat the Soul game since 4, 6 is going to feel really different with the introduction of the tag team system. And if you’ve never played a Heat the Soul game 6 is a great place to start, particularly if you’ve played one or both of the BLEACH DS fighting games. A lack of an English translation, difficult mission objectives, and repetition aside, Heat the Soul 6 is a fun and well-rounded game that any BLEACH fan should at least try. It’s just a shame that Sony refuses to publish the series outside of Asia.

Images shamelessly taken from the official Heat the Soul 6 website. Additionally, parts of this review would have been impossible to write without HolyDragonFire’s comprehensive walkthrough on GameFAQs.com.