Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is a 3D fighting game based on the hit anime Bleach. It has a brilliant story and amazing characters, but does this transfer to the game? Developed by Tamsoft Corporation and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, it is all about engaging in thrilling battles with powerful swords abilities iconic to the franchise and characters from this legendary anime franchise. With 31 different characters to choose from you have plenty of variety.
Now let me start by saying, out of the Big 3 (Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece), Bleach was my favourite. However, after sinking many hours into this game, I must admit, I am a little bit disappointed. I love to go back through the story mode, and this is where it majorly fell short. The story mode begins with Ichigo Kurosaki’s journey from the Substitute Soul Reaper Arc to the climactic battle against Sosuke Aizen in the Arrancar Arc, so there is a lot to do, but it is just very underwhelming. There are way too many cutscenes, and it can be a bit slow to get us into the actual gameplay; five-minute cutscene, one battle, ten-minute cutscene. I felt I was more watching than playing. It unfortunately takes the flow out of things and I don’t want to start getting to a point where even though I know the story and watched the anime a few times I am skipping cutscenes to get to the next fight (Also I am still have trauma from when I skipped a cutscene once in a different game and the next scene everything was on fire and my character was very injured).
The gameplay itself is decent, with fluid combat mechanics and a variety of characters to choose from. Each character has unique abilities and moves that stay true to their anime counterparts, which is a plus for fans. However, the repetitive nature of the battles and the lack of innovation in the combat system make it feel like it is missing something, unless I haven’t fully understand how some of the mechanics work which could be a possible, I feel like it takes too long to take someone out or transform into your next stage. It does seems it pushes you more and more to transform to your more powerful form through the variety of transformations each character may have. Also messing around with all of the characters I have found that some characters are either just way to overpowered and some are just way too difficult to use. Don’t get me wrong, I had fun with a lot of the characters and my favourites and watching them transform, but I feel like something is missing from the gameplay and I can’t quiet put my finger on it.
The graphics are impressive, capturing the style of the anime with vibrant colours and detailed characters. The transformations are visually beautiful espically the Bankai transformation, do allow a change up from your character to make it much stronger. One thing that was done well is the voice acting, featuring the original cast from the anime which adds to the authenticity of the experience. However, these positives are overshadowed by the pacing issues and the lack of engaging content outside of the main story.
Conclusion
Bleach: Rebirth of Souls had the potential to be a great game for fans of the anime, but it falls short in several key areas. Way to many cutscenes disrupts the flow of gameplay, and the combat, while solid, lacks the depth and excitement needed to keep me wanting more. It’s a game that might appeal to die-hard Bleach fans just to try it out, but for others, it may not be worth the time. Watch the anime instead, it’s so much better!
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
