The release of Bleach Rebirth of Souls ends a long drought of games for the Bleach anime series, as it’s been 14 years since Bleach: Soul Resurrección, the previous Bleach game specifically designed for consoles, was released. In that time, Tite Kubo wrote the entirety of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc in the manga, and it took a decade for the anime to return in October 2022. Those years were somewhat brutal as a Bleach fan, but it all led to this moment in Bleach Rebirth of Souls. This game is a dream come true, and although it’s not perfect, it’s exactly what I needed in an anime action game.
Bleach Rebirth of Souls is a 3D action fighting game developed by Tamsoft, the team responsible for games like Senran Kagura, Oneechanbara, and many other niche games over the past decade. I was thoroughly surprised when it was revealed that Tamsoft, with the help and production capabilities of Bandai Namco, would be on board to develop this game. I was even more surprised when I experienced how satisfying and rewarding combat feels in this game, as it’s easily Tamsoft’s highest-quality game to date. There’s so much more than just the gameplay, aesthetics, and overall quality of Bleach Rebirth of Souls, however. This game radiates aura and resonates with the identity of Bleach, one that I’ve been familiar with for more than 15 years.
Bleach Rebirth of Souls Respects and Celebrates the Anime
There’s really only one place to start with Bleach Rebirth of Souls, and that would be the story mode. At first glance, I expected the game to only cover the most pivotal moments of each arc, similarly to Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4. However, I was surprised to see the story mode delve into each arc of Bleach with great detail.
The story mode covers the very beginning of Bleach with the Substitute Soul Reaper arc and runs all the way through to the end of the Arrancar arc, with the Substitute Soul Reaper arc serving as a tutorial. It essentially covers everything notable from the arcs, with the exception of the anime filler arcs, of course. The mission structure is fairly straightforward, with side objectives to complete, but I’ll delve deeper into this later. You’ll not only fight Soul Reapers and Arrancars, but also Hollows.
From the get-go, there’s so much attention to detail with the story mode, from the menus to the actual in-game cutscenes themselves. Bleach Rebirth of Souls oozes in style, and the story arcs even have narrated recap sections and unique openings. It feels like an extensive rewatch of the anime at times, similarly to a compilation film, while still being substantial. Personally, I’d recommend playing this game over committing to a rewatch of the original anime.
Despite some stiffness with character models, the cutscenes are great, and all dialogue is voiced by returning cast members from the Bleach anime, with some recasts along the way. For instance, Aleks Le voices Shinji Hirako now, and I’m really pleased with his performance. Johnny Yong Bosch, Stephanie Sheh, and Richard Epcar are among the many returning names, and it’s incredible nostalgic.
A Sharp and Striking Combat System
Progressing through the story is a blast thanks to Bleach Rebirth of Souls’ great combat system, which slightly reminds me of Dissidia Duodecim. I struggle to call it an arena fighter like Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles or the Ultimate Ninja Storm games, since Bleach Rebirth of Souls offers much more depth, like a fighting game. It’s a blend of arena fighters and 3D fighting games, and Bleach Rebirth of Souls stands out even further thanks to some of its unique mechanics.
Players control their favorite Bleach characters in intense one-on-one battles where the main goal is to deplete their opponent’s Reishi gauge and Konpaku, a measure of one’s life essence. The Reishi gauge can be seen as a health bar, but it’s more like the shielding around the Konpaku, the actual character’s health, which is represented by a number. Reishi can be whittled away by landing combos, Spiritual Pressure moves, and other maneuvers like Breakers and counters.
Combos and attacks build up Spiritual Power, which can in turn be used for the aforementioned Spiritual Pressure moves, and Fighting Spirit. There’s also the Reverse Gauge, which can be used for Hoho moves and Reverse Actions. Hoho moves allow you to teleport closer to the enemy, extend a combo, or dodge attacks, while Reverse Actions are essentially “Bursts,” or temporary powers to Spiritual Pressure, speed, and other parameters.
One of the most impactful moves is Breakers, which act similarly to throws. Well-timed Breakers can literally break stalemates and open up your opponent to a high-damage dealing combo or Kikon move, but it can leave you vulnerable as well. Overall, Bleach Rebirth of Souls emphasizes risk-taking for the reward, as the battle can sway either way at any moment. It just takes a single opportunity.
Now or Never, Risk or Reward
When the opponent’s Reishi is in the red, that’s when the opportunity to unleash a Kikon move presents itself. Kikon moves are heavy attacks that are designed to destroy an amount of Konpaku when the meter is red. Combo ender can transition into Kikon moves, and you’ll notice it by the red aura around the attack. On its own, Kikon moves can be quite useful at depleting Reishi quickly, but it can leave you vulnerable to a counterattack if you aren’t careful.
When your opponent’s health is red, you have the option of landing a Kikon move to quickly deplete some of their Konpaku or take a risk by depleting their Reishi completely, resulting in a Soul Break, which depletes more Konpaku when compared to a standard Kikon move. In both scenarios, you will notice the “Now or Never” prompt, in which your character performs the Kikon move with cinematic flair that only Bleach can pull off. Fighting Spirit can be used to unleash a Kikon Special Move, which is a more powerful variant of the Kikon move with a different cinematic.
If the battle lasts long enough and you’ve built enough Fighting Spirit, you’ll be able to unleash a character’s Bankai, or Awakening, once “Evolution” is displayed on the screen. This powers up the character’s attacks and abilities with some risks. Characters like Renji Abarai and Sajin Komamura can unleash a Special Awakening, which shifts the stage and grants special attacks for a limited time. The risk in doing this involves being left in a temporarily weakened state.
Straightforward but Fun Offerings
The bulk of my playtime came from the story mode, which is quite long if you’re attempting to reach 100% completion. You will be revisiting many battles from the Bleach anime while attempting to complete Real Moments and Secret Missions, which are objectives that players can complete in each mission to earn additional rewards. You will also earn Soul Points, which can be spent in Urahara’s Shop to unlock stickers, titles, and other items for your Konpaku Certificate—your calling card for online play.
As I teased briefly, there are a lot of missions, so you won’t be missing out on getting your money’s worth from the single-player content. There’s also Secret Stories, which are dedicated scenarios for several of the characters from Ichigo’s world, the Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo. You can unlock Secret Stories by reaching the aforementioned Real Moments and Secret Missions.
While completing these missions and objectives, you’ll level up and earn items like Fragments, Spirit Talismans, and Soul Crystals. Spirit Talismans grant buffs in battle if certain conditions are met, such as reaching a certain health threshold, and up to three may be equipped. Fragments may be used to upgrade or create Soul Crystals to gain buffs to Defense, Attack, Spiritual Pressure, and Special attributes. Up to four Soul Crystals can be equipped, so characters can be powered up greatly by up to seven equippable items.
Online Woes
The gameplay loop of Bleach Rebirth of Souls mostly involves completing missions and Secret Stories in story mode, strengthening Soul Crystals, and playing online matches. There’s also a tutorial mode to brush up on techniques and skills, an Extra menu featuring unlocked videos and music, and a Missions mode in the Offline menu, which lets you complete a series of increasingly difficult challenges to earn more Soul Points and rewards.
Unfortunately, Bleach Rebirth of Souls becomes another game in Bandai Namco’s long list of anime fighters that doesn’t really hit the mark with its online component. There are no Ranked Matches, even after a month following the game’s release, and the netcode is delay-based, which means you will likely run into network issues. Free Match lets you play against others online just for fun, and Room Match lets you play with your friends online and configure custom settings to your liking. Local play is also available, allowing up to two players to enjoy some intense Bleach battles from the couch.
If you’re a fighting game fan, you can get plenty of time out of Bleach Rebirth of Souls in online matches and labbing in Training mode, but you’re probably going to need to wait a while for Ranked Matches and other features and adjustments that would make the online experience better. While other fighting games have gone down this same road, this certainly means that the player base can dwindle if the right moves aren’t being made by the developers, and those first few weeks and months after launch can be the most crucial. I don’t play fighting games online as much as I used to, so I will admit that I sort of checked out of playing Bleach Rebirth of Souls online due to the issues and lack of incentive.
Bleach Rebirth of Souls is a Really Great Game in Almost Every Aspect
From the incredible menu designs and aesthetic, to the brilliant music composed by Takeharu Ishimoto and simple but addictive combat system developed by Tamsoft, Bleach Rebirth of Souls is a really great anime fighting game that caters to Bleach fans the most. There’s so much single-player content that doesn’t skimp out on quality, including the impressive and immersive art style, with full English and Japanese voice-overs. I love Bleach Rebirth of Souls for what it brings to the table for anime fighting games, despite it repeating some of the mistakes that other anime games didn’t fix.
The lack of a robust suite of online features holds this game back from being one of the best anime games ever developed, in my eyes at least. If online play isn’t up your alley, and you want to refresh yourself on Bleach and have some great fun, Bleach Rebirth of Souls is perfect and surpasses all other Bleach games before it. You can easily get 40 to 50 hours out of this game from the single-player content alone.
I’m hoping that Bandai Namco and Tamsoft continue to update Bleach Rebirth of Souls and make the online modes more engaging. I’m also curious to see the four DLC characters from Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War bring to the table as well, but I’m not counting on any new TYBW-related story content coming to this game. If anything, a sequel with this content and more improvements could be the right move.
Disclaimer: Bandai Namco provided Final Weapon with a PlayStation 5 copy of Bleach Rebirth of Souls for review purposes.
