
The Heat the Soul series on PSP were met with fan excitement, thanks to their diverse rosters and impressive graphics. However, with five iterations in less than five years, it was clear that Sony had milked that franchise a bit too much. With Soul Carnival, the Bleach series moves away from being a serious fighter, to a cute 2D sidescrolling brawler.
Well, we approve of the transformation. While the chibi Bleach characters will be love/hate amongst series fans, we have to say that these new cute interpretations of series favs looks rather charming on the PSP's small screen. They style works very well with the gameplay as well. The intuitive beat-em-up controls make the game instantly accessible -- an aspect crucial in good portable games design.
The controls are incredibly smooth. Moving Ichigo through the stages is never troublesome on the PSP D-Pad. Simple attacks are quite easy to perform, and button mashing will easily make do with many of the game's initial enemies. However, there is a bit more depth to the combat than just mindless button mashing. Ichigo's assist characters can be used for a variety of purposes, and all are readily accessed at the press of a button combination (which is seen on screen). For example, you can summon Orihime to heal Ichigo. Or, you can summon Rukia to get an additional attack, which can be added into your combos. There are recharge times for all of these assists, but they're fast enough to encourage the player to use them as often as possible.
Ichigo can also throw enemies into the air, creating opportunities for some fancy mid-air fighting. There seems to be a rudimentary leveling up system in place as well, making us believe that Ichigo's moveset will continuously expand throughout the course of the game. A trick we didn't use too much: hitting the L button will allow Ichigo to slow down time. Perhaps it'll be of more use when the game gets trickier.
The build we played at TGS was solid fun, even if it wasn't quite innovative. But, the impressive graphics, quick load times, and fun controls really made us quite interested in Soul Carnival. With no real release outside of the US planned, it looks like players may have to stick with importing this one -- at least it should be available for download on the Japanese PlayStation Store.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-16-2008 @ 6:15PM
Gurbinder said...
it reminds me of that game called maple story. Cept its not an mmorpg. What ever happened to maple story anyways i used to play it like 3years ago. I wish i had the time but im too busy
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10-16-2008 @ 6:21PM
Jeff28 said...
I've considered getting a psp, but it looks like too many games are not going to make it out of Japan. No games in america = no thanks.
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10-19-2008 @ 10:15AM
Mazrael said...
Try Europe.. they're nothing.. nothing.. PSP is a complete flop over here.. most people here are too proud to admit it (a bit like the PS3 pad occassionly 'drops' signal briefly..
I have a PSP slim.. in 10 months I can't say I've switched it on 30 times.. when ever I fancy a play, the battery has discharged so I need to charge it first, by then I've moved on - I've played it more than my DS lite, but that would still switch on after 6months on non use..
I have Tekken (which is too unbalanced for my liking), Warhammer 40,000 Squad Command, Myst & Final Fantasy: War of the Lions.. and the demo of Phantasy Star Portable, which got boring quick, because I've played the maps before on the 360's PS Universe.. one thing I really wanted was Gran Turismo (which is 2 or more years away)..
Even the UMD's have all but dissappeared, the store I work for recently had to return any we had to head office to be wrote off & destroyed.. they were even selling phat PSP's off for £50 ($85), where the slim is £130, about $220, at full price..
Made me laugh at E3 when Jack Tretton said PSP was 'successful'..
If you go into a shop here & ask for PSP games, they look at you as if you have the plague..
10-16-2008 @ 8:23PM
cafecito said...
Considering the series is going strong again (since that POS filler arc ended) I'm sure fans wouldn't mind at all if there's a 6th Heat the Soul game :P
This looks great too, of course!
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10-16-2008 @ 11:23PM
burandon said...
I'm actually really looking forward to this. In this world of 3d platformers I often miss 2d platforming goodness...
Thanks for the preview guys, I'd been wondering about it ^^
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10-17-2008 @ 8:48AM
yashamaru said...
I'd drop the y, but that's me
"They style works very well with the gameplay as well."
hope that helps.
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10-17-2008 @ 11:49AM
Joe said...
Hey Andrew does Sony make the Bleach games?
If so why have none of them ever came out of Japan.
I would love to buy this game even if the only way it could come out of Japan is by buying the game off of PSN I would be all for this game.
So do you know why most of the great PSP games only stay in Japan. Even good ones like Monster Kingdom and Brave Story SCEJ made yet third party members bring out of Japan.
Then great third party member games like Suikoden I + II stay also in Japan.
So I want to know seeing as you just got back from TGS how is Sony handling third party members. Will they be pushing them to bring more games out of Japan or not.
Also there was a rumor that Yoshida is pushing SCEJ to start upping there game. Because years ago SCEJ was the best dev Sony had making great games like The Legend of Dragoon, Legend of Legaia, Alundra and many more great ones and now they arn't as big as they use to be.
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10-18-2008 @ 4:37PM
Kiltedbear said...
Damn it Sony! Get these out in the US! Think OUTSIDE your own country's borders for once other than for selling systems. Look at the following Squeenix has in the US. Just do it!
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