As soon as you boot up Bleach: Heat the Soul 2 you can immediately see the beauty of the game. The intro is very flashy and pretty, cycling through pictures of characters, followed by the true game intro that is made up completely of anime footage. The presentation of the game is gorgeous. As soon as you go into the menus, you see lovely calligraphy styles with character pictures, and cherry blossoms perpetually falling across the screen. It really is pretty, and that is only the menu. Start up a battle and the in-game graphics do not let you down. The anime style is done quite well and the graphics are crisp. This game belongs on maybe a top 10 of best looking PSP games. Animations are fluid and smooth. There is an occasional frame rate dip, but it is rare enough that it should not be a bother. Character models are great and colors are lush. The only downside is that while the battle arenas are pretty good looking, they are quite empty. Albeit, the environments do a good job of capturing Bleach’s setting. Overall, this game is quite the looker, and it is Bleach, so fans will love it that much more.

The biggest problem with good graphics is that if it does not play well then what the hell is the point? Well this game is no slouch in the fighting department. Controls are slick and clean. Fighting is a little on the basic side, but very enjoyable. There are plenty of specials, but not too many to make it ridiculous. If you use your special too much your character gets tired and is left wide open for attack. Each character has some cool moves and specials that make you remember the TV show. Nevertheless, this is where the biggest negative of the game surfaces, in that word “characters”. Remember all those characters I spoke of flashing on screen during the intro? Well you only get to use 10 of them off the bat, and there are only 2 unlockable ones. One of these unlockables is just Ichigo with his original soul slayer. You get all your favorites: Ichigo, Rukia, Ishida, Orihime, Sado, Byakuya, Urahara, Gin, Renji, and Hitsugaya, plus the unlockables of alternate Ichigo and Yoruichi. Twelve characters in all, that’s it?! Yup, that is all you get. There could easily be 30, but all you get is 12. All those characters you saw in the intro, most of them are not here. This is the biggest downfall of the game because it will make the freshness wear out faster than you would want. There are some bonuses like Galleries and a mini-game that is like Arkanoid but it is not enough.

Final Grade: 6.9

Bottom Line: Great game, not enough replayability to warrant importing it (unless you’re a HUGE fan and have the money), and I am sure there will be a #3 eventually.