Bleach, one of many keystone manga and anime franchises of the early 2000s alongside Naruto and One Piece, has lastly been given one other likelihood at carving out some type of legacy within the online game area.
Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is a one-on-one preventing sport that is simple to choose 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 mandatory 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 bought a brand new Bleach sport is trigger for celebration in itself, and developer Tamsoft (of Senran Kagura fame, hilariously) has executed 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 sport for what appears 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 via the story mode, which does a surprisingly respectable job of retelling the important thing plot factors of the supply materials, and you will work your method via 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, authentic story eventualities of various consequence and a neighborhood versus mode, there’s little or no for offline gamers to sink their enamel into.
So that you flip your gaze to on-line matches, however that facet of the discharge is disappointingly barebones as nicely. Bizarrely, there isn’t any ranked match possibility — simply casuals and player-made lobbies — that 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 sport like Rebirth of Souls would not strictly want cutting-edge netcode to be playable given its simplistic nature, however you may typically discover your inputs being eaten, and it turns into extremely tough to react to particular assaults and conditions.
Which brings us to the fight system. Essentially, there are some attractive concepts right here, like how matches revolve round taking lives away out of your opponent, fairly than successful particular person rounds. Mainly, 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 when you’re in a powered-up, woke up state, which then locations an emphasis on comebacks. Should you’re getting hammered, you may often attain that awakening quicker than your foe — and so numerous matches characteristic a enjoyable, virtually cinematic high quality to them the place the underdog fights again with every little 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 different and fascinating as what you’d count on of the supply materials.
Having mentioned that, the precise mechanics that underpin every character are so fundamental. 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 straightforward act of blocking negate a lot of what is on supply.
You’d hope that the sport’s 3D motion — full with directional dashes — would offset a few of these criticisms, nevertheless it’s simply not potent sufficient. It is really easy to get caught in strikes that cowl big distances, to the purpose the place transferring can really feel counterproductive when you can simply turtle up behind a guard gauge that takes ages to interrupt.
After which there’s the sport’s stability, which borders on being comedic at launch. There are infinites, ridiculously overpowered particular assaults, and sure characters who make others totally redundant. We actually do not go into anime fighters anticipating competitive-level balancing, however Rebirth of Souls nonetheless beggars perception at occasions.
It is a disgrace, finally, as a result of there is a distinctive ebb and circulate to matches that may set the title other than 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 gradual, nevertheless 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, nevertheless it struggles to emerge amidst half-baked mechanics and a normal lack of depth. The sport wows over the primary few hours with slick visuals and a different character roster, nevertheless it simply would 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.
