God, I played the shit out of these games as a kid.
Of the two Bleach fighting games for the Nintendo DS, it is usually the second – Bleach: Dark Souls – that is remembered fondly. And not without good reason! It’s overall a fairly solid fighting game experience (far moreso than you’d expect from the DS, sasuga Treasure) with well thought out controls, approachable systems and a huge cast with tons of fanservice. But this often means that its predecessor, Bleach: The Blade of Fate gets overlooked. Which I think is a shame, because if you ask me, The Blade of Fate is easily the superior fighting game.
There are a handful of reasons why, most of which relate to system changes that occurred between the two games, the most egregious of which being changes to throws. Throws were changed from a one button, proximity-based affair in The Blade of Fate to a two-button bespoke option in Dark Souls, which includes a whiff animation. All totally fair and above board – except they also increased throw invulnerability after leaving blockstun, to such a degree that tick throws are practically impossible.
https://gayrobot.club/notice/AQ8As4vyFBcHBnHrNo
The other big change was that grounded normal attacks became blockable in the air in Dark Souls, which meant that grounded anti-airs became significantly weaker. Maybe this is a slightly more fair change given how many characters have access to instant overheads which lead into full combos (boy is Flash Step a mechanic), and it’s somewhat offset by the introduction of universal air throws, but it still feels like there are just precious few ways to open people up on defense in Dark Souls, which probably contributes to why space control/zoner characters like Hitsugaya and Ikkaku are so strong in this game.