Bleach: Dark Souls

Bleach: Dark Souls, known in Japan as is the second Bleach game for the Nintendo DS. The game introduces new characters, adds new moves for the older characters as well as introduces new game modes. Bleach: Dark Souls also includes Hollows of varying sizes, for players to fight. The number of Reifu cards in-game are also increased from the original, and more cards (4 cards, instead of the previous game's 2) will be displayed on the touch screen during battle. The Wi-fi battle mode has been improved to make it easier to play online. The game's theme song is "Resistance" by High and Mighty Color. Nintendo Power announced in its April 2008 issue that Bleach DS 2nd will be released in Europe and North America on October 7, 2008 with the name Bleach: Dark Souls.

Story
The game takes place between Sōsuke Aizen's betrayal of Soul Society and Ichigo Kurosaki's departure from Soul Society. It reveals more storyline of Ichigo and his friends in Soul Society, which is corrupted with Hollows, seemingly by Aizen. A Mod-Soul attempts to destroy all of the Shinigami because the Shinigami feel that Mod-Souls have no right to exist. The same Mod-Soul attempts to collect all soul candies that were dropped at the beginning of the game. At the end, he is convinced by Ichigo to live his life and that he is not alone. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto promises that all existing Mod-Souls will be allowed to live their lives. The ending shows where Ichigo bids farewell to Rukia Kuchiki as in the end of the Soul Society Rescue Arc.

Gameplay changes from Blade of Fate

 * The Auto setting disables the ability to cancel into anything else, save for launching normals that can be jump-cancelled. Auto Guarding also has a different special effect from the manual setting whenever it's triggered.
 * Characters gain new moves and/or may lose old moves, as well as gain new animations (such as Hollow Ichigo and Kenpachi Zaraki having new/altered sprites). Changes overall have effectively either buffed or nerfed characters from the previous installment.
 * Some characters' Hohō that use the armored-dash now have more invincibility frames, though they can no longer use that very form of movement in the air.
 * RF Specials can now hit characters through their Hohō, preventing characters from using their Hohō to dodge through them either out in the open or through guard cancelling.
 * All attacks can be completely air blocked.
 * Throws are performed with pressing two attack buttons in any direction, though this now can result in a miss animation; said miss animation also occurs if trying to grab/throw an opponent in hitstun or blockstun (though missing an attack or special will reset this immunity to throws).
 * Air throws are also possible, where most of them will plummet the victim to the ground.
 * Deck construction is now greatly expanded to also include stat enhancing setups in the place of card decks.
 * As compensation however, a new startup-channeling animation is used for any activated cards during a battle, which varies for each card used; this allows an opposing fighter to interrupt the card user before their card's effects go off.
 * Line jumps no longer cost a Spiritual Power stock, and all one-on-one battles allow for both planes to be accessed by default. Characters can no longer be hit on all planes at once by all of the specific moves that used to do so in the prior installment.

Playable characters
All characters from the previous game return with 17 new characters added to the roster. There are a total of 44 playable characters in the game.

Returning Characters

 * Ichigo Kurosaki (Shinigami, Inner Hollow)
 * Rukia Kuchiki (Gigai)
 * Orihime Inoue
 * Uryū Ishida
 * Yasutora Sado
 * Ganju Shiba
 * Renji Abarai
 * Byakuya Kuchiki
 * Gin Ichimaru
 * Kenpachi Zaraki
 * Tōshirō Hitsugaya
 * Momo Hinamori
 * Kaname Tōsen
 * Sajin Komamura (Masked and Unmasked)
 * Mayuri Kurotsuchi
 * Shunsui Kyōraku
 * Jūshirō Ukitake
 * Suì-Fēng
 * Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto
 * Yoruichi Shihōin
 * Sōsuke Aizen
 * Nemu Kurotsuchi
 * Yachiru Kusajishi
 * Kon
 * Tatsuki Arisawa
 * Bonnie

New Characters

 * Kisuke Urahara
 * Ururu Tsumugiya
 * Kūkaku Shiba
 * Yūichi Shibata
 * Don Kanonji
 * Ririn
 * Shūhei Hisagi
 * Izuru Kira
 * Ikkaku Madarame
 * Rangiku Matsumoto
 * Hanatarō Yamada
 * Menos Grande
 * Grand Fisher
 * Shrieker
 * (Shrieker spawn)
 * Goteitaishi (generic 11th Division member)
 * Kyugohanin (generic 4th Division member)
 * Kai (Game Original)

Game Modes

 * Story Mode: Play through a non-canonical story. Battle Shinigami, hollows and play mini-games.
 * Arcade Mode: Standard Arcade mode.
 * VS Mode: Single player vs CPU or multiplayer vs humans via Wi-fi
 * Time Attack Mode
 * Survival Mode
 * Training Mode: Train with any unlocked character.

Trivia

 * In this game, Ichigo manages to meet all captains except for Kaname Tōsen in person.
 * Yoruichi Shihōin has blue hair in the game and a darker skin tone.
 * Like before in the previous DS installment, Gin Ichimaru's eyes are colored yellow instead of red (in the anime) or blue (in the manga).
 * The character Menos Grande's selectable colors are glitched; colors 5-8 are a palette of red and black colors in battle, and colors 2-4 are different colors than what you select.
 * Don Kanonji and Ganju Shiba can have their own attacks fail against them. In Kanonji's case, at low HP, he can K.O. himself, though via his special "ratings" mechanic it is possible to have all of his default special moves damage himself.
 * Akin to Ukitake's coughing in the previous game, Yachiru in this installment is able to have her actions hindered by periodic tripping.