With all the adulting that life requires now I rarely find time to watch anime, but as a teenager it was all I ever wanted to be watching. Shows like Dragon Ball, Naruto and Gundam really helped shape those formative years of my life, but I always wanted to branch out more. I thought that it would be Bleach that helped me continue my anime education, but as life and my priorities changed it became the one that got away. Thankfully I’ve now had the chance to (sort of) right this wrong, by experiencing the classic story of Ichigo in BLEACH Rebirth of Souls.
At first I was under the impression that Rebirth of Souls would be a straightforward fighting game with some anime flair, but that’s not at all the case. One-on-one battles take place in a 3D arena, and attacks have an impactful and deliberate pace. The less frantic speed ensures that you’re able to focus much more on blocking and countering attacks with the right abilities, which for someone who has never really managed to Hadouken his success was much appreciated.
It will take a while to work out how BLEACH Rebirth of Souls’ mechanics work though, because they’re all named after anime nonsense words. You essentially have a stock of lives in battle, and every time you drain someone’s health bar you can unleash a special soul attack to take out some of them. How many lives you take out depends on the sort of attack you use when you get the opportunity, and when a fighter loses all their lives the battle is over.
Before you worry about lives though, you’ll have to get an enemy’s health low with your regular attacks. There are a few different attack types you can use to do this, which can be chained together as you’d expect from a fighting. There are also different attack types that counter each other that you can use to swing fights in your favour, and special moves that you slowly build which can turn the tide of battle. More than anything though it’s the teleportation that I couldn’t get enough of in Rebirth of Souls, because simply nothing feels better than appearing behind your opponent and stabbing them in the back.
It’s more than likely that you’ll start the game playing as Ichigo (especially if you jump right into the story mode) but BLEACH Rebirth of Souls has a wide array of characters who play completely differently. My favourite (Uryu) for example uses a bow and arrow in combat, and because of this has ranged attack options that make combat play out completely differently. With thirty one different recognisable faces to choose from this is but one of many fighting styles you can try to master, and I can’t pretend I managed this for everyone.
You get to play as a whole host of them though in the Story mode, which serves as a wonderful learning tool. Moves are revealed to you slowly in this mode, which takes you from the start of the anime through to the Arrancar arc while showcasing all sorts of key battles. You’ll face all sorts of generic demons and beloved characters as you progress through this lengthy campaign, and if you’re like me will learn all about the story of Bleach.
It would have been enough for this game to just repeat anime scenes that Bleach veterans will remember, but Rebirth of Souls also features unlockable Secret Stories that showcase famous series moments from different never before seen perspectives. If you love Ichigo and the gang this is likely a huge draw, and even as a relative outsider I found these both interesting and entertaining.
Not content with just featuring battles and cutscenes, the campaign of Rebirth of Souls also features things like talismans you can equip to buff stats and optional objectives in fights. Rushing to take down an enemy in a short time or carefully trying to avoid losing any lives at all adds an extra challenge to the battles, which I appreciated especially in earlier scraps.
One element of BLEACH Rebirth of Souls that I really want to mention is the style it has, which is immaculate. Menus and selection screens are wonderfully designed with such flair, and the overall package almost feels Persona-esque (which I don’t say lightly). The visuals of the actual combat are equally impressive, and when coupled with great voice acting (which includes an English option) that tells the story of the fight it adds an extra layer to the swordplay.
I was really impressed by the whole package of BLEACH: Rebirth of Souls, but it does have a few things holding it back. The cutscenes in story mode are a bit stilted, often just featuring characters standing still and talking to each other for extended periods of time. This is especially noticeable because you’ll spend so much more time watching these scenes than actually fighting, which not everyone will appreciate. Learning the anime terms for everything is a chore too, and makes the learning curve of the game much steeper than it needs to be.
BLEACH: Rebirth of Souls is an arena fighter that’s simple enough for fighting game newbies to jump into, but there’s also plenty of complexity lurking under the surface. It’s a great way to experience the BLEACH story too, and even features new content fans will love. Not all anime adaptations are created equal, and Rebirth of Souls is absolutely one of the good ones.
