REVIEW: ‘Bleach: Rebirth Of Souls’ Is As Frustrating As It Is Entertaining

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls, developed by Tamsoft Corporation and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, retells the beloved franchise’s early tales up to the Arrancar Arc. Following Ichigo (Johnny Yong Bosch, Godzilla Singular Point) and his friends, players can experience the classic battles firsthand or square off with each other in this 3D fighting game.

Making a great fighting game is a tricky proposition. It must reward skill and strategy while not scaring off its fanbase. This is doubly true for franchise games, where many potential players may want to experience the hard-fought battles of their favorite heroes without the lightning-quick reflexes and memorization skills that come with many games in the genre. Bleach: Rebirth of Souls tries to create a challenging experience that will be accessible to players who are more interested in the IP than the gameplay, with mixed results.

A basic rock/paper/scissors mechanic is at the gameplay’s core. The three basic moves are attack (quick or flash), guard, and breaker. Guard beats attack, attack beets breaker, and breaker beats guard. There are other techniques, like spiritual pressure moves (super attacks) and signature moves unique to each character, but the basics are the root of gameplay.

This simplistic approach makes Bleach: Rebirth of Souls an approachable proposition but at a price. Due to the incredibly simple options, making the right choice of action during battles can often feel like a guessing game. The opponent just blocked and you think he’s going to counter, you can guess his next action will be an attack and block, but it could be a breaker, in which case you should attack again to beat them to the punch. At any given moment, what you should do feels like a fifty/fifty chance.

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls feels great when you’re doing well and feels a bit cheap when you’re not.

Needless to say, when you guess right, stringing attacks into blocks and following up with a breaker into a flashy combo, it feels great. You feel like a shonen protagonist to a degree few games exceed. When you seem incapable of guessing right, it quickly devolves into feeling cheap. The frustration isn’t helped by the way the game structures its fights.

Rather than doing the best of “X” matches, like most fighting games, players win by draining their opponent’s konpaku (health) bar. To deplete an opponent’s konpaku, they land attacks that wear out their opponent’s reishi (stamina). Once their foe’s reishi bar drops below 30 percent, a kikon (finisher) move can be activated. If activated before the reishi bar hits zero, it will do less damage to an opponent’s konpaku. After a kikon attack lands, the receiver of the blow has their rieshi restored and the match continues. This is repeated until one player runs out of konpaku.

The continuous nature of the fights in Bleach: Rebirth of Souls leaves no break to breathe and refocus before continuing a battle. Frustration can build fast, leading to more ill-conceived actions. With standard fights seeing both combatants have 9 konpaku, and most kikon attacks doing two to four damage depending on circumstances, a hard battle can be not only frustrating but repetitive. As kikons fire off repeatedly, their lengthy animations go from entertaining to annoying, with no way to skip them. This feels like a punishment if you decide to main a single character.

There is a bit of depth to the kikon system. Tracking how many kanpaku an opponent has left can inform the choice of whether or not completely draining a foe’s reishi is worth it. For example: if an opponent is at four kanpaku and your kikon does either three or two damage, landing the two is just as profitable as forcing the three.

Not all characters are made equally in Bleach: Rebirth of Souls.

Certain characters ‘ particular skill kits are the final frustration that can crop up with the gameplay. Wanting to capture some of the scope of the franchise, battles take place in large arenas, with some attacks launching opponents quite far. Characters can flash across such spaces if they have a flash meter built up. If they don’t range characters like Uryu (Steve Prince, Bubble) can become a headache to approach.

In contrast, being knocked away from a speedier character like Yoruichi (Wendee Lee, Cowboy Bebop) can be equally frustrating when not playing a ranged character. Her long dash attacks make her difficult to predict, forcing guard stances prematurely and leaving characters open to breakers.

As fights progress, the fighting spirit gauge fills. Once filled, a character can awaken, allowing for more powerful konpakus to be used. A few characters also gain additional changes after awakening. Renji (Wally Wingert, Wasteland 3), for example, gains his bankai, wielding the huge, serpentine version of his sword till a timer runs out or his reishi is reduced to zero.

While the combat can be frustrating, the visual presentation Bleach: Rebirth of Souls utilizes to deliver the speedy dodges and hard-hitting attacks does a good job of bringing the action to life. Explosions, after images, and solid camera work bring the big attacks to life, as well as make the smaller, moment-to-moment exchanges pop visually as well.

You don’t have to be a Bleach watcher to enjoy the story in Bleach: Rebirth of Souls.

Happily, the journey in Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is reasonably enjoyable, even for players who have never watched the anime. At least, once you get past a slower opening chapter. Things like training periods are minimized or omitted entirely, helping to keep the plot feeling smooth. The game emphasizes the action and drama of the series, as some portions of the story seem to be skipped over entirely.

Further streamlining the narrative is the choice to make some story elements optional. Side moments involving the Soul Reaper captains during the Soul Society Arc, for example, don’t have to be played through. So if you already know, or don’t care, you can keep pushing forward without viewing every cutscene and fight.

As a newbie to the franchise, I found the handling of the story enjoyable. Its brisk pace kept me engaged once it got going. When elements came in from a skipped part, the story would fill the missing pieces in when plot beats allowed or when they became narratively important. One of the biggest examples of this would be the introduction of Yoruichi and Ganju.

Yoruichi is only seen for a single shot at the end of the first arc, without explaining who the cat is. When the second arc starts, both Yoruichi and Ganju are suspended in a bubble above the Soul Reaper HQ with Ichigo, Uryu, Chad, and Orihime, and no explanation of how they got there or who they are is given. Monologues fill in the gaps later, though, so the confusion doesn’t last long.

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls Cutscene’s visual presentation is lacking, except during flashback scenes.

Another tool that Bleach: Rebirth of Souls does an excellent job of delivering is its flashbacks. These narratively crucial moments come with visual flair. Shown through still images that form with a watercolor-like effect, the scenes look striking as various characters divulge the secrets of their past. These moments would always be noteworthy, but they come to stand out even more next to the shortcomings of most of the story’s visuals.

Except for the flashbacks, all of Bleach: Rebirth of Souls‘ visual presentation for its story feels half-hearted at best. The character models used during gameplay are the same for cutscenes, and except for talking, the animation feels loathe to show them doing anything they don’t do under player control. Characters are frequently cut away from if anything complicated is about to happen, and even some not-so-complicated things. Actions as small as coughing sometimes mean cuts to black, avoiding showing the character’s action.

This goes double for any clashing of swords. While approaching a brief exchange with a black screen sliced by a cut of color isn’t unheard of, it can be used with great effect to show speed or surprise. It is used so much in this game that it’s clear its only purpose is to mask what is happening. This cheapens the drama because you know what should have been seen but wasn’t.

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls also sports a challenge mode, training, and secret story mode. These side activities hold to the same standards as the core elements and give the game some added content for those enjoying their time with it. The secret stories are of particular note. Unlocked by accomplishing certain tasks during the main campaign, these stories each focus on a particular character, fleshing them out for those interested.

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is an ok game. When it’s at its best, it’s delivering exciting battles and retelling a story many love in a streamlined and sometimes overly simplified manner. When it’s at its worst, it can be a frustrating affair that leaves you feeling a need for a more polished experience and nuanced.

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is available now on PlayStation 4|5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC.