Completion Time: 8h:49m:00s
Rating: 7/10

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The Bleeding of the Chaos

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I have little to no familiarity with "Buffy" as a concept, outside of seeing an episode here or there way back when it was first airing on WB. But I have more understanding of this particular game, which was the only game I could ever get my mother to play on the PS2. She was a fan of the series, and so the game was mainly a gift from my father to her, and I would watch enthralled as she played. This was a woman that I had never really seen play a video game outside of this (and the occasional "Frogger" on PS1). My dad even printed out 50 or so pages from GameFAQs to help get through it. What a wild time. Well, when I found out this was on GameCube recently, I had to dive into the experience technically for the first time at the helm, but I surely would recognize plenty of characters, locales, and lines.

It's her! She's arrived!

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Slayer Style

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The name of the game is action adventure, as you play as Buffy and the rest of the "Scooby" gang in some kind of demented game between different demonic entities in a play for power. Sound about right? Hopefully those words all mean something to somebody. To me, it means it's finally time to jump into action! You travel across an alternate reality version of Sunnydale, California for the most part, locales like the mall, zoo, high school, and so on. All in the name of finding pieces of Cassandra Rayne, an original warrior of light, to put a stop to the machinations of the evil entity "The First" once and for all. Or, at least to disperse his atoms across time and space for a number of centuries. That means Chaos Bleeds 2 in 2403!

Zombie Gorillas. Why did it have to be Zombie Gorillas?

Most characters handle roughly the same, with different combo attacks performed through the A and B buttons, and a variety of weapons scattered about that you can pick up. Use these to pummel and vanquish vampires, gargoyles, little.... spider things? All in the name of light. Willow as a character is interesting, as instead of physical attacks she primarily operates with magic spells. These can take a bit to master, as hit a button too soon or too late and you'll end up firing off a spell that you didn't intend. But most of these do the job all the same, things like fireballs and sonic waves and that sort. There are also briefly playable sections in a hospital zone with Sid the dummy, who can do a few standard attacks, though he primarily is used to open the way for your player character as he can squeeze into tight spots. Aside from that, the likes of Buffy, Xander, Spike, and Faith all play pretty similarly to one another and they all wield a stake the same way. And it's fun! At least I think it is. Creatively solving boss fights and throwing punches and kicks in interesting ways are more than enough for me, and make up for the slight follies I think come across here.

No better weapon for a vampire-hunting vampire than a flamethrower

I can certainly see why my parents printed out a guide back in the day (well, maybe not specifically the printing part), because some of the puzzles in this game are insanely small and hard to see. Oh sure, looking for a few items and combining them to make gunpowder or something isn't hard and the items are directed towards. But for others, unless you can see the small glint of a button on the side of a forklift you'll be running around for days trying to find what to do until you just break down and look it up. I stretch to even call that a puzzle, and I guess it isn't. The "puzzle" solutions are easy, but the ability to find and locate what you need to use and do can be difficult and at times absurd. Perhaps a more useful map system could rectify this, just so I know where I'm going? And the objective system is objectively terrible, as it doesn't give hints or even tell you where your next task is, but often just what the overall goal of the level is. I'm not asking for much I don't think, not hints or a babysitter, just anything more robust and fleshed out than what those systems ended up being.

Ope, there it is, I caught it with the camera mid flash, you can see it in the back right. Maybe I'm just blind

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Completing the Game

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Aside from the standard "beat all the levels" that you can expect by now, there are also roughly 2-4 secrets that can be found in every level. These secrets are just additional healing items and ammunition really, but the methods of finding them can be pretty obtuse. Occasionally, you can just go between bushes or climb up a collection of boxes to find what you're looking for. Other times, you have to beat a specific lamp multiple times before it'll drop it, or you must interact with an item that you already figured yourself finished with to unlock a secret door. Thankfully, a level select exists to keep you semi-sane, and few of these could be considered missable during standard play. At least until you get to the boss of the stage, that'll lock you out from the earlier parts of the level. Each of these will unlock various extras, such as new characters for the multiplayer modes or bonus videos of cast recordings. They even have the entirety of the tie-in comic book, albeit in your expected compressed quality. A decent amount here worthy of unlocking!

Compression! Glorious, glorious compression

For what it's worth, I think this is a decent entry into a series I have next to no familiarity with. It's rough around the edges for sure, and the voice acting for most of the characters is weaker than weak, but the different playstyles and the button combo attacks that actually work manage to carry me through some of the doldrums here. I hear tell that the console predecessor to this is better, though it's only an XBox exclusive. Maybe I'll have to give that a go some time?

This is another entry in a series where I go through and complete every GameCube game, as it is the largest part of my video game collection. GameCube Games: 46/652