Some games based on franchises such as anime or movies can be enjoyed whether you're familiar with the source material or not, as was the case with Treasure's excellent Bleach fighting games. Does Bleach: The 3rd Phantom fit in this category with its slower strategic pace?

Bleach fans may be turned off immediately when they notice that the story doesn't cover any anime/manga arc, after all it's impossible not to let the mind drift immediately to the agonizing fillers. Thankfully the story is a pleasant surprise, written by the author Tite Kubo itself, it takes place during various periods, starting before the events of the show when the 5th Squad was lead by Captain Seigen Suzunami with Aizen serving as his lieutenant. Eventually the story catches up and you will meet with Ichigo and his crew.

The characters are actually very endearing and it's interesting to see their interactions with the ones you know from the show like Kaien, Urahara or Soi Fon, specially their younger versions. Good thing that the writing is up to the task because you'll spend the majority of the game reading what seems like an endless amount of dialogue and when you're done pressing A over and over, you'll actually be able to do something! That doesn't mean you're going to battle, often you'll go into a of mini-game representing the main characters' free time where you can choose which characters to talk to, unlocking further story sequences, raising stats or getting new items. This mode is actually good, it works as a of board game where you have a number of spaces until you reach the end and each dialogue panel makes you move X positions, which means you'll have to think ahead in order to speak with the biggest number of characters and grab all the items along the way. It probable involves more strategy than the battles themselves.

On the rare occasions when you get to do some fighting, like many other anime/manga based games before it, The 3rd Phantom is a by the numbers Strategy RPG (SPRG) with an isometric view, grid based map, cute sprites and rock-paper-scissor battle system. Think Final Fantasy Tactics with a bit of Advance Wars, you move your characters along the map, line them up with an enemy and attack, triggering a new viewpoint where you can view the battle unfold. You level up, learn new skills, unlock the Shikai and Bankai and all the things you would expect from the genre. An interesting mechanic is that you can form a partnership with a character standing next to you and attack or defend as a team, making good use of the bonds you formed during those hours of texts you had to put through.

Still, the battles take way too much time to become even slightly engaging or challenging, requiring very little strategy and just like the rest of the game, they're mind numbingly slow. This can't be stressed enough, everything moves in torturous slow motion. There are loadings before and after battles, you have to see every single movement of every single enemy and nothing can be skipped. Coupled with the infinite story sequences, Bleach can be a painfully sluggish experience, although later on it gets a bit more engaging with the appearance of certain characters and the use of Bankai.

The sprites used outside of battle are pretty good and distinct and the ones you see when fighting resemble the ones in the previous Bleach fighting games for DS with very cool and fast animations. Asides from that, the opening and a few drawings here and there, there wasn't a lot of care with the overall package. The game does a poor job of explaining its mechanics and the developers seem to have forgotten that the DS has a touch screen, using only the buttons and while the user interface does its job, but it's very bland and even the fonts leave a lot to be desired, looking like a pixelated mess at times. The sound department isn't bad with a great opening song, some nice (although heavily repeated) tracks and featuring English voice clips for every character's special attacks and such. If you can fathom it, the game lasts you a while even if it's mostly due to the cutscenes and there is a multiplayer mode where you pit your team against a friends', so there is some value to be found if you're crazy about Bleach.

Bleach: The 3rd Phantom has its good moments, but unless you're a really big fan of the franchise, the cool story and characters and passable battle system probably won't make up for the horribly slow pace and huge emphasis on storytelling.