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 excluding the fillers. Ichigo is a young teenager with the ability to see ghost and spirits. Ichigo tries to help them but he hates how powerless he feels in terms of helping people who truly need him. One night he comes across a Soul Reaper name Rukia
who tried to protect him from a Hollow(monsters who eat souls). In her attempt to rescue him Rukia gets injures and decides that her only solution for survival is to tranfer her powers to ichigo in order for him to fight the Hollow and save both. Alot of things happen and Ichigo has to rescue Rukia who has been sent to Soul Society in order to be executed for the taboo of transferring her
abilities to someone else. Ichigo and his friends invade the soul Society in order to prevent this from happening. Soul Society is dealling with its own internal problems and the assassination of a captain. Without spoilling much alot of battles occur and the main Villain makes his debut for the rest of the seasons/ game chapters.
The chapters the game covers are:
Despite its popularity there are not many games that covered the story of Bleach. Most of the games re usually fighting games or have their own original story. Soul Resurreccion began mid way through the Espada arc (Hueco
Mundo) and concluded before the Fullbring Arc. The only game that covered the main story was none other than Bleach Brave Souls which as we know is an iOS/Android game that uses mainly text and images from the show. Personally i believe
Rebirth of Souls is the only game that uses cutscenes and voice acting to narrate the story. Most of the cutscenes are done quite well but some others are very simple where the character models are simply placed in a room and the characters simply talk.
A great implementation of the game was how they used drawn Manga panels(with Kubos Art) when delivering flashbacks or things that the game decided to skip. The Original voice Actors are back delivering their lines on point and the music escorting them may not be
the Bleach OSTs but none the less they re very good and of different genre.
Bleach is a 3D Anime fighter that blends in with the Arena fighter Genre. The player can choose one out of the 33 available day one heroes and jump into battle. To be precise 32 heroes are unlocked when the game is first booted booted with only one of them requiring to be unlocked by finishing the campaign of the game. Upon
entering the game, the player can go through the campaign(story mode & secret episodes,) jump into Online battles, Offline Battles( P1 vs CPU, P1 vs P2, arcade), go through the Tutorial of the Video game, buy crystals and cosmetics from the Store, change the settings or even head into Extras where they can
listen to the OSTs, read terminologies/ hero profiles and watch unlocked cutscenes etc. Customizing heroes with power crystals and the player's Soul Reaper License(this game version of Player card) can also be accessed from the main menu.
Bleach in my opinion is a unique fighting game, that makes the battles long whilst also progressing in power similar to the anime. The main objective is to fight againts the opponent and the first one whose Konpaku drops to 0 first loses. On the top of the screen the player will see each characters Reishi(Health Bar) with a
number attach to it. near the centre. Each time a player gets hit, his Reishi colored white goes down, around 30% it turns red and it represents Critical. If a player gets hit whilst in critical the opponent can complete a combo which will result in an Ultimate Attack that will cost Kompaku. Each Character deals its own ammount of damage,
some do 2 whilst others deal 3. When the Konpaku number decreases, the Reishi is restored back to full. If the enemy is in a criticl state and you combo them, you can choose to not end the combo with an ultimate and fight until the Reishi drops at 0%. If an opponents Reishi drops at 0% an atomatic ultimate will be trigger which will deal +1
kompaku Damage(for example a 2 Konpaku damage will instead trigger 3). Under the Konpaku number theres a significantly smaller bar that appears when guarding. The bars color represents its Energy, white-pink-red. When a red shield breaks the player gets stunned.
Each hero has a light and a heavy combo. A Light(Square) combo deals less damage but builds reverse gauge whilst a heavy(Δ) attack deals more damage. A unique attack is attach to another button(O) that is usually a projectile(eg Getsuga tensho), a counter, or a buff. Moreover, theres a button(X) that can be used to close in the distance when held down
and it can also be used in close combat to side step away from the enemy. Holding down Guard can defend againts all attacks and punish the enemy when the opportunity is given. Grab can punish guard which can be activated with a atap of a button. Holding down the grab will allow the player to travel closer to the enemy. Grab can be punish with any type of attack.
To sum the combat up, Attacks>Grab>Guard>Attack(Wins>Loses). At the bottom of the screen there are 2 bars. A gold bar for Spiritual Preassure and a white one representing Reverse Gauge. Every in game action(dammage/block) slowly builds spirit preassure. The player can spent the bar to cast Unique attacks by combinning the two
appropriate buttons. Reverse gauge also charges slowly during combat and has its unique usage. Half the reverse Gauge can be used to extend combos, after pulling a successfull combo, using X the player will flash step behind the opponent and the combo can be exxceeded. Additionally holding the special button and combining it with flash step will allow the hero
to teleport behind the opponent AKA Hoho. If its activated during an attack, the hero will trigger a cinematic counter before placing the deffender behind the offender. When the reverse bar is full, the hero can spent the entire bar and enter the Reverse state. There are three actions:
I personally really enjoyed the gameplay of Bleach, i found it fresh and unique for an anime game. Usually most of the Anime arena fighter follow one of two patterns. They will either go down the Naruto Ninja storm way(like Demon Slayer, my Hero Academia) or they will go down the Jump Force way(One punch man, Jstars, Kill la Kill.). Bleach as mentioned tried to make a more traditional 3D fighter with the heroes always being locked on opponents and the gap between them relatively short. The game's hero roaster(33) is very good and most of them are relatively fairly balanced and unique. As im pretty sure many will say picking a hero is starting from 0 again. Characters like Uryu fire arrows whilst characters like Byakuya send their cherry petals from afar. Its mechanicks once you undestand the basic are easy to pick up. Oppenings can be found with patience and counters can be trigger when noticed.(eg a grab glows pink thus making it easy to counter). The longer the battles last the more destructive they get and can easily turn the tables around. A strategy can be to let Kenpachi drop a few Konpakus before Awakening and dealling 5 Konpakus with one Ult. Its an enjoyable and certaintly fun game which i believe depicts Bleach for what it is. Some battles start slow but eventually become chaotic. The team seems to be accepting feedback and i believe this will be a new start for more Console Bleach releases down the line.
Bleach rebirth of souls is a fighting game that unlike sparking Zero tried to draw in the "fighter gamers". It did a good job on having a decent size Hero Roaster with each of the Characters feeling unique. It also made all of its heroes(but one) available from the
moment you boot this game. This is because this game wants the players to jump straight up into Online and Offline Battles from the get go. The people who will play Story are most likely the Bleach fans or people who might be intrigued by the characters or people who
met the secret character online and decided to unlock him. With this in mind Bleach Rebirth of Souls is a PVP focussed game and it will most likely be played in Versus. Unfortunatelly its release came out without a Competitive Mode something that was heavily critisized, as
fighting games need a competitive scene to thrive/survive.
Another mode the players can invest some of their time is Mission Mode. Mission mode is the iconic Arcade mode we ve seen in many other games. The player select a hero and they embark on a Boss rush mode. However the ammount of HP/ Reverse and Hoku are all saved and continue to the next one.
For example if the player loses a huge ammount of Konpaku(HP) in round no2, in round no3 they ll continue with the same ammount they had by the end of round2. However unlike any games, if a hero receives an awakening, that awakenning also moves to the next round. For example if a hero unleashes a Bankai,
the hero will start the next round in his Bankai state. There are 3 different Levels of Mission Mode.
For story enthusiasts, Secret Missions are here to please you. During your walkthrough on the main campaign, there will be missions with extra objectives that when cleared will grant you extra items and is some cases access to secret episodes. For example, being a hollow Ichigo and flash step during Byakuyas attack
will unlock an episode of Byakuyas secret mission. These act as a small extra 15-20 mins story arc with the main protagonist being the hero of the narrative. Some stories are canon taken from the Manga source whilst others are original. For example Urohara's story dives to his past as an ex-captain whilst Byakuyas is his
quest to see what people think about him. Their quality is once again debatable as all three type of cutscenes return. Everyone will have 1 manga style cutscene, some will have a CGI cutscene and all will have the in game cutscenes with the character models acting. All secret episodes arre fully voice acted.
Last but not least the players can purchase items from Urohara Kiske's store. There the player can purchase items that will help them customize their Player Cards with different Character Stickers and sentences. Additionally and more importantly, the player can purchase Soul Crystals. Soul crystals can be
used to buff a character. Different Crystals buff different status, such as power, defense, spirit energy etc. These same crystals can also be updated when fused with another resulting into a better crystals. The crystals can be equiped to characters and can be taken to online fights however the majority of player prefer using
no battle items making the waiting Queue longer for those who want to use them.
Bleach Rebirth of Souls is the best looking bleach game till date. Obviously this is not something hard to achieve as the competition is decades olds, but still the game models look very good and detailed. Additionally, the creators went out of their way to create various attires
that will only be visible during the story mode. For example, Ichigo during story uses 5 different Zanpakutos(swords) before setteling with the actual Zangetsu. However in PVP/Online only the final form is visible. Additionally Characters get different clothes such as casuals or even battle damaged.
A great example is Renji, who we see without his Bandana, a torn bloody Gi and heavily damaged. A Number of hollows and characters have models that will not be seen or used outside of the story mode. Cutscenes themselves are seperated into three categories, well made cutscenes filled with action and use of CGi,
in game cutscenes with the models standing still while dialog is being exchanged and colored Manga panels with Tite Kubo's Art. During key battles in the story there are triggered cutscenes which appear before going back to battle. During battles, the battle effects and everything else are clean for players to be able
to react and response. Additionally, landing a finisher can sometimes create explosions on the map which will force the heroes to escape into another one. My only visual problems were Motion Blur, which is something you can turn off and the visuals of some scenes during story.
On the sound department the game doesnt dissapoint. It may not have or use any OSTs from the anime but all the new songs are fresh and they have that "Bleach vibe". Its hard to explain but listenning to them whilst playing or watching the cutscenes work perfectly. Original Songs like "Die for Love ", Wager of the Soul or "Chasing Lights"
went straight into my playlist. They re simply THAT good and some even have music video clips that appear at the start/finish of given Chapters. The original cast is back repricing their roles. All pf them doing an excellent job as expected. Although some cutscenes really do them dirty. For example, during Uryu's and Ichigo's back to back
conversation during their competition, in the anime it made sense why Uryu's delivery was calm, but in the game since you see the model shooting arrow, it makes you wonder why is Uryu delivering the lines whilst being way to calm. Despite that during compat the game simply delivers battle cries and nice delivery on Attacks or transformation.
Moreover, OSTs change based on the players actions. For example, releassing a Bankai or transformation will change the OST to that heros track unless the players select a specific track from the menu.
In conclusion, i really enjoyed my time with Bleach Rebirth of Souls. The game manages to tell the narrative of the first 4 arcs of Bleach from Subtitute Soulreaper all the way to the fake Karakura town. The game is being told through 3 types of cutscenes and its fully voice acted. The story alone can take up to 30+ hours. During the story missions the player can unlock extra episodes by completing the criteria. Each character has secret episode which can add an additional 8+hrs. The gameplay of Bleach rebirth of Souls is unique as the more a player loses the more powerfull he becomes helping him change the odds. The basic game is fun, chaotic and easy to "read". There is a satisfying ammount of 33 heroes(on release) each being unique and very different. Its worth praising the fact that some heroes awakening(Bankai,Ressureccion) plays completely different than their normal state. Players can test themselves in Arcade or Offline Mode and when they feel ready they can phase off againts players Online or Offline(P1 VS P2). The games art style is very stylish in the menu selection and the graphics are overall very good. In story Various Models were created and plenty of characters(with almost complete movesets that are not playable) to satisfy the narrative. For example not all the Espada are playable, out of the 10 Espadas, half of them are playable but you fight em all during story mode. The soundtrack of the game is the same as the series. Staright up fire. Plenty of unique OSTs were created that i personally have on repeat. They add to the games charm during combat with songs also interfiing over others during combat. For example an awakening can trigger that Characters OST to take over. A decent ammount of customization is available for the players card and crystals to boost characters(even though 90% online dont use them.) Despite all the praises i gave the game, i have to say that the developers made a mistake launching the game without a competitive scene, and the sorry state of the PC launch(which they patched since then) . The devs did say comp will be comming but damage has been done for many. Overall this is a pleasing game and in my opinion a good start for the Bleach games on Consoles.
This is a video of me reviewing the game
This Video Consist of the Ichigo Vs Grimmjow whilst triggering the Story objectives.