Bleach, one of many keystone manga and anime franchises of the early 2000s alongside Naruto and One Piece, has lastly been given one other probability at carving out some form of legacy within the online game house.
Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is a one-on-one preventing recreation that is simple to select up and… nicely, reality be advised, it is pretty simple to grasp, too. Whereas it is not fairly on the identical stage of general simplicity as your typical anime-based area fighter, it is nonetheless missing the required depth to maintain anybody exterior of hardcore Bleach followers hooked past the 20-ish hour mark.
Now look, that is not essentially a nasty factor. The truth that we have really obtained a brand new Bleach recreation is trigger for celebration in itself, and developer Tamsoft (of Senran Kagura fame, hilariously) has achieved a incredible job of adapting the type and tone of Bleach as an entire.
If, like us, you have been ready on a correct Bleach recreation for what looks like an eternity, Rebirth of Souls will scratch your itch. The loopy visible results, the sizeable 31-strong character roster, the rocking soundtrack… it is only a blast to be again in Ichigo Kurosaki’s world.
And once more, for round 20 hours or so, the honeymoon section is nice. You will play by the story mode, which does a surprisingly respectable job of retelling the important thing plot factors of the supply materials, and you may work your manner by the playable characters, gawking at their super-cool assault animations.
However you quickly realise that there is simply not a lot meat to the sport. Past extra, unique story situations of various consequence and a neighborhood versus mode, there’s little or no for offline gamers to sink their tooth into.
So that you flip your gaze to on-line matches, however that aspect of the discharge is disappointingly barebones as nicely. Bizarrely, there isn’t any ranked match possibility — simply casuals and player-made lobbies — which means that any sense of on-line development barely exists.
And to make issues worse, the dearth of rollback netcode ends in some noticeably laggy encounters. A recreation like Rebirth of Souls does not strictly want cutting-edge netcode to be playable given its simplistic nature, however you will usually discover your inputs being eaten, and it turns into extremely troublesome to react to particular assaults and conditions.
Which brings us to the fight system. Basically, there are some attractive concepts right here, like how matches revolve round taking lives away out of your opponent, reasonably than profitable particular person rounds. Principally, as soon as a life bar runs out, you carry out a flashy ending transfer, which strips away a lot of ‘lives’.
Extra of those lives are depleted in case you’re in a powered-up, woke up state, which then locations an emphasis on comebacks. In the event you’re getting hammered, you will often attain that awakening sooner than your foe — and so lots of matches characteristic a enjoyable, virtually cinematic high quality to them the place the underdog fights again with every thing they’ve.
Some characters change fairly dramatically upon activation — and seeing the entire transformations play out is undeniably hype. If there’s one factor Rebirth of Souls will get proper, it is that the roster feels simply as various and attention-grabbing as what you’d anticipate of the supply materials.
Having mentioned that, the precise mechanics that underpin every character are so primary. There’s little or no room for issues like combo expression or extra superior defensive strategies, as a result of repetitive three-button strings and the easy act of blocking negate a lot of what is on provide.
You’ll hope that the sport’s 3D motion — full with directional dashes — would offset a few of these criticisms, however it’s simply not potent sufficient. It is really easy to get caught in strikes that cowl big distances, to the purpose the place shifting can really feel counterproductive when you may simply turtle up behind a guard gauge that takes ages to interrupt.
After which there’s the sport’s steadiness, which borders on being comedic at launch. There are infinites, ridiculously overpowered particular assaults, and sure characters who make others totally redundant. We definitely do not go into anime fighters anticipating competitive-level balancing, however Rebirth of Souls nonetheless beggars perception at instances.
It is a disgrace, in the end, as a result of there is a distinctive ebb and circulation to matches that may set the title aside from its friends. One of the best fights actually do really feel climactic, such as you’re watching a season finale from the anime; there is a pacing right here that is objectively fairly sluggish, however it creates stress as battles rumble on, characters awaken, and the stakes get larger and better.
Conclusion
There’s one thing actually compelling on the core of Bleach: Rebirth of Souls, however it struggles to emerge amidst half-baked mechanics and a common lack of depth. The sport wows over the primary few hours with slick visuals and a various character roster, however it simply does not have the content material to maintain anybody however probably the most hardcore Bleach followers hooked. Whereas it is nice to see Tite Kubo’s edgy blockbuster again in motion, Rebirth of Souls will go down as a flashy fighter that by no means realised its potential.
