Released: iOs/Android January 2016 (Japan 2015), Ps4 March 2022
Bleach: Brave Souls is an Online action Gacha game based on the manga and anime series Bleach made by Tite Kubo. The game was developed and published by Klab Global in June 2015 in Japan and January 2016 for the rest of the world. With the end of the original animation and the end of the Manga
Bleach had nothing for it's fans other than Novels and arts. Brave Souls originally developerd for the Android and Ios devices and the game was kept alive for 5 years, constantly receiving updates, original art by Tite Kubo and plenty of stuff that kept the fans close with the game. In fact the game was among
Japan's most used apps. Anything new related would first be seen in the App than anywhere else. Fun fact, the game presented stuff and characters not seen in the Anime/ Manga such as Hisagi's Bankai. For the game's Six year anniversary the game was ported to the Ps4 in March 2022 and is available to
download for free and people will receive alot of log in Bonus, presents and others.
What is Bleach?
Although the name Bleach is more assosiated with a cleanning product, Bleach is also a japanese franchise created by the Mangaka Tite Kubo whose work was published by Shonen Jump. Bleach was an instant success as a few years after the first chapter became public the series were soon serialised with a television Series.
The manga series were long and succesfull as the series run for 15 years, with a total of 74 Volumes. As for the series, the first episode aired in 2004 and the final one was released in 2012 allowing the series to last a total of 8 years with a total of 366 episodes and 4 animated movies. The animation however was cut
"short" as the final arc A Thousand year Blood war was never animated. The series popularity was shown as Bleach at some point was considered one of the big four behind Dragonball, One Piece and Naruto. The series, received a hand some of games for various platforms with it's more succesfull being Bleach Brave Souls
for Android and Ios. In Jump Festa (Dec 2021) one of the major announcements was the return of Bleach with the final arc finaly getting animated. The story focusses on the main character of Ichigo Kurosaki who was born with the ability to see ghost. Ceratin events and interactions allowed Ichigo to become a Soul reaper which
allow him to protect spirits and help them pass on. The story of Bleach focusses on the journey of Ichigo and his friends after his new gain powers. Events occur that forces Ichigo to act based on reactions alone without ever considering the consiquences. With his given powers he spent time saving ghost and spirits, but he soon
finds himself iniltrate the Soul Society (home of Soul reapers to prevent the death of his friend as punishment for giving her powers to Ichigo). The events of Soul Society lead to the appearance of a new Villain who then proceeds to be the main focus for the next arc which is where the game takes place.
Story of the Game
The story of the game follows the events of the Manga/ Anime series from the first arc all the way to the end of the original anime. In other words all the arc from the moment Rukia met Ichigo up until Aizens attack to Harakura town and Ichigo receiving his abilities back thanks to the events that occur during Ginjo and his crew
arc. It is also worth mentionning how the game not only has all 366 episodes as playable but also alot of other things. For example, the anime run of the Show had alot of episodes that are considered Fillers, such as the Bount arc and ofcourse the 'fan favourite' Zanpakuto Awakenning (Muromasa) arc are also included under the Extra
mission. Furthermore, the game went out of it's way to include characters and side stories that were heavily inspired by the four Bleach Movies. Moreover, the game side content also includes missions that were inspired by story pieces found in the Side Novels written by the writer himself. Additionally side content includes
Episodic fillers which are fillers that last 1-3 episodes, unlike the Filler Arcs that lasted 20+. Last but not least, the Game developers also included alot of their own unique stories for the characters. The game has a total of 13 Mission maps that make up for the anime Story events and a total of 25 Side missions. DO NOT
assume that it's only 38 missions as 1 mission might require a total of 20+ missions to be cleared before unlocking the next one. There is over 500+ levels each including their own 3 side missions for each.
Thoughts on the Story
This is the only Bleach game that tells th story the franchise from start to finish, including alot of side content. Since this was a game designed to be availble only on smartphones it should be expected that there are little to none story cutscenes. The plot of the game is given by placing a frame that represents the background
a still frame of the cast talking and finaly a box containning the dialog. Once the dialogs are done or if the player skipped the game proceeds to it's gameplay. Additionally in some cases the dialog may stop, reveal a picture taken from the animation and then proceed to more dialogue. Furthermore there are missions that simply show multiple
pictures from the anime and explain what occured. These ones appear when a major boss was defeated or when the player enters/ finishes a chapter. Once again it's important to keep in mind this was and still is a Smartphone App ported to the PS, so do not have high expectations for it's story telling
Gameplay
Gameplay
The game's main gameplay is very simple. At the start of each level, the game will always begin with certain characters sharing dialogue with the cast, or a narrator setting up the player for the events that will occur. Once the cutscene is over or if the players skipped the player will have their team walking in the area. The player can set a team of up to three
characters, however they can only control one at a time whom they can swap in the fly or let their character to die in order for the new one to appear. The playable characters move around in a linear level and based on their levels (which will be mentioned below) have a number of special abilities. The Goal of the player is to simply clear all of the rooms
until they reach the boss room with the final enemy. Along the way the players can collect items by defeating enemies and breaking interactable items. Game over can only occur if the entire squad of the player is eliminated. The final boss room will always have a random player(who currently plays the game) to join the player. If any of the two die, it won't matter
as long as the other one is capable of defeating the boss.
User- Interface
During a run of a level the player controls the hero they set as squad leader. On top left, the player's squad is availble with the character currently on use having their healthbar shown. Undreneath the healthbar, the player has 3 slots of fire that indicate the ammount of specials the hero does. When the flames are colored pink, it indicates that the ultimate attack can be
used. Underneath the hero currently in use, the other two squad members are shown alongside a keypad button which is the one the player has to tap in order to swap to that certain hero. In the bottom right, there are varous circles that indicate the characters attacks and specials. The main Attack of each hero is always the one in the bigger circle. All of the heroes have
that attack. Two more attacks are placed around the basic attack that indicate a more powerfull attack. These two attacks vary from hero to hero, and based on how powerfull they are the longer their cooldown will be. There is no MP bar, so whenever the coundown is finished the player can use them. Weak cards might only have one extra than two. Furthermore, powerfull cards have
a special heavy attack which adds another circle attack. Last but not least, once again powerfull cards have unique cinematic attacks that are placed within a pink circle and can only be used by consumming a pink flame. These attacks indicate the finisher/unique of each hero and all of them are different in the sense that some are AoE, others are giant explosions, others are projectiles
and others are close range melee. There is a grey circle with the word Auto, which allows the players to let their team be controlled by an AI while they sit back. Keep in mind the AI is not that smart, it wont change heroes in order to prevent their deaths and will walk in areas that might damage the hero, with that being said, always pay attention if losing a teammate is not
an option(mainly for a misssion Quest). The game does not have a block button for defence but the heroes can flastep away from upcomming blows.
The most important detail to keep in mind is the Card Element. Each card/hero has their Lv(level)shown and a medal of a certain color. The color represents the cards attribute which represents who is better againts who in each level. Next to the player's heathbar, there are 5 elemental medals withpointing arros. These arrows indicate who will win over who, or atleast who will receive
less damage when fighting which and who will be the most effective. For example, a card with the color Blue, will deal double the damage when fighting a red attribute enemy but it will receive great damage when being hit by a green elemental. Fihghting a blue,green,orange or purple will deal the same damage as usual. For this reason is important that the player will have atleast 5 heroes
maxed out in order to always have a counter when entering a mission. Between the attributes and the pause button there are two icons, one of a present and one of a coin. The present indicates the fact that when the player finishes the mission they will gain a special item (potentialy the hero card listed as potential rewards) while the coin represents the ammount of money the player gained.
Hub World
The hub-world of the game is a straight board with various levels along the way. There are three different 'bullet points' that represent levels. Normal circles, represent the levels where it's just narration of the plot with pictures from the anime with zero gameplay. The second type have the same symbol as the one found in the heroes attribute medal and they represent normal levels. Normal
levels do not have a main boss but instead a generic Ghoul for the player to defeat. Next to these levels, there's an attribute medal that represent the attribute of the enemies found within that level. The third and final symbol found in hte hub world are the same medals as normal levels with a giant skull indicating a serious boss fight. Some are straight up boss levels, while others begin as
normal ones and a boss at the end.
When a level is select the players are free to update their team squad (if a there's a possible change), give items to the heroes and read the side missions to fully complete a level. These mission are easy, as some require the level to be cleared within a certain time, have a certain hero for the mission, do not lose a squad member or achieve a certain ammount of combos.
Other Gamemodes
The game has been out for six years now, and thus it goes without a saying that the game has more to offer other than the already big mission roaster. And thus the following game modes are available:
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Vs Battle Mode:
The player chooses three heroes (Top 3 Strongest). The menu of Battle will display various enemy teams of 3 owned by other players with their own attributes, buffs and power level. The player chooses which team they wish to fight and the game loads. During battle, an AI posseses both teams and the strongest team gets the victory. The player siimply watches the battle (which is sually 10 seconds long)
The player is then awarded rank points.
Arena Mode:
In Arena mode, two teams of three players are placed in a big arena. The player can choose to control one character or let the character be controlled by an AI. The arena will spawn various AI controlled enemies including the three heroes the other three player has. Each time the player defeats an enemy they gain points for their team. The goal is to eliminate as much enemies as possible in order to gain
more points than the enemy team by the end of the timer. In this game mode the enemy teams do not fight each other directly.
Raid Mode:
The game mode allows the player to play a level within a given time stamp. Enemies are more powerfull than the typical encounters found in the level selects.
COOP Mode
In this mode the player can join or be joined by three more players in order to clear a certain level. These are extended levels(not story ones) where there are alot of enemies to kill.
Event-Senkaimon Mode
These are modes whose missions swap often as they re time event. As mentioned each time the events stay temporarilly and swap. The players play small mission with higher difficulty than the main story/ sub-stories.
Obtainning and Empowering Heroes
There is a couple of ways to obtain heroes however the main way is summons. However for the sake of simplicity , let's take the easy ways out first. The first way is by playing the story/side missions. As mentioned, each map has rewards that might be unlocked (represented by a present) by simply defeating enemies or breaking interactable items. These level cards are usually low level cards that will most
likely be used for sacrifice. The second way to obtain heroes, is by completing Quests. Certain quests, especially in the beginning reward the player with the option of selecting a certain Hero card to obtain. These cards are usually strong 5 star heroes. Last bu not least the main reason to obtain a hero is with the usage of Summons.This is where the Gacha element comes to play. First things first,
what is a Gacha? A gacha game is a video game that implements the gacha toy vending machine mechanic( the Machines were you place a coin, flip the handle and receive one random (sphere) package containning something). Similar to loot boxes, gacha games induce players to spend in-game currency to receive a random virtual item, or spent real money, to obtain virtual currency to spent on the game. In order to
summon in Bleach brave souls the players requires to have rainbow orbs. Rainbow orbs are obtained through quests, clearing a level for the first time, random log in reward and by spending real money. The ammount of orbs owned can be seen in the middle of the home screen. To spent them, the player will have to open the shop and select buy heroes. The game will present the current set of bundles (they change
after a certain ammount of time ) that the player can access. Before summonning the players have the option to open a list of all(strong) possible heroes that the player can obtain. Certain bundles are quarantee to have a powerfull drop while others specify that for example after 5 summons the next one will guarantee a lvl5 summon. This does not mean that within the first five the player will not obtain a lvl5.
These are all based on luck. Furthermore the player players are given the option to Single Summon or Multi Summon. Single summons require a small ammount of orbs and summons one hero whereas Multi summon summons 5 heroes with one lvl4 quarantee with extra cost. Its important to store orbs in order to spent them when a bundle of the hero you prefer becomes available. Once again its important to state,
this is a gacha meanning that luck plays a crusial role each time. Nevertheless, the game will reward the player with the hero if the failed a huge number of multisummons. Eg. when multisummoning there will be a 1/N(N being a random number between 20-30) . If the player reaches the number N then the game will reward the player witht he rarest Summon card of the bundle.
Empowering a Hero
The player can choose to empower a certain hero and keep him relevant even in higher levels. To do that the player will have to open their hero gallery and find the character they wish to empower. By selecting them the hero will appear on the screen as his in game avatar and have two options. The first one option will lead the player to a drop down skill tree where the player can spent their points to power up the
character. The items required to power up the characters are mostly given through out the quests of the story or even found when breaking items inside the game. In the same Drop down skill tree, the player can also level up their characters by spending EXP crystals. They can instantly upgrade a character from lvl to possible 100 given that the player has the coins and exp stones. As mentioned, all characters have an
attribute and stars. In the menu prior the second option is to ascent the hero by unlocking more stars. When accessing the menu with the card, the player can sacrifise doublicates / weaker card heroes in order to empower their main ones. By doing so the characters get upgrades and power up. Each Hero in the menu have a locked ball appearing next to the two bars. These indicates that the player will have to aleast be awaken
that ammount of times in order to gain a new star. Each milestone though does allow the hero to be upgraded by alot.
Overall Synopsis
Overall The Bleach franchise had a few games that are good, some mediocre, and some poorly design. Bleach Brave souls is a game thats been out for 6 years and it was the main thing that kept the Bleach fandom throughout. The game is an android application that was ported tothe console and thus some stuff may seen questionable. The game introduces alot of what if scenarios, characters and plenty of stuff that were either
included in the anime or from other Bleach media. The gameplay of the game is simple and might feel abit repeatitive as pretty much level 1 and level 900 are pretty much the same with the exception of having more monsters. The game does have an auto function which pretty much when playing online missions with other players, they ll 90% of the time have their game in Auto instead of them playing the game. The game is a gacha
which means it will require the player to spent real currency in order to get better cards, yes they do reward the player alot but eventually it will become a hustle. To many this game, may be seen as a huge dissapointment given thats
The series do not have a main game since 2011
The game was designed for Android and it's just a console port
Is a Gacha game
It's Extremely repeatitive
however as mentioned ago this game kept the fan base alive, allow the developers and the Author to introduced concepts and forms shown in the manga and other stored or rejected ideas. It shown the cooperation that the Bleach fanbase still exist and still supports the only Property that brings earnings to their establisments.
