Bleach: Rebirth of Souls was the perfect announcement to coincide with the anime’s triumphant return. The animation has never been better than in its current revival, Thousand Year Blood War, adapting the final arc of the epic manga and fixing all the side effects that came with rushing Kubo Tite to that finish line ten years ago. A brand new video game adapting the series up to that point was just what the doctor ordered, for fans of a series that abruptly faded into the background.
Twenty years ago I fell in love with Bleach, with its defiant protagonist, its unique cosmogony, and all the batshit-crazy sword fights a shonen fan could hope for. Despite being ripe for video game adaptations, it remained an untapped well. I was left importing the likes of Heat the Soul or the DS games before they were finally localized, and the series hasn’t seen a proper video game since 2011’s adequate Soul Resurrección on PlayStation 3.
So, the fact that we have a new game that isn’t designed for a smartphone is already cause for celebration in itself—but unfortunately, it doesn’t quite live up to the high quality of the Thousand Year Blood War anime.
Unlike that last PS3 game, Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is a proper fighting game that retells the story from the beginning of the series to the end of the Arrancar/Fake Karakura Town arcs—from Ichigo Kurosaki becoming a Substitute Soul Reaper, to his climactic battle with the dastardly architect of all Soul Society’s woes. The bulk of its experience is the Story mode, a retelling where players re-enact the biggest battles of the series (and seek to fulfill certain requirements in the process).
“At its core, Rebirth of Souls is a competent weapon-based fighter with a core rock-paper-scissors mechanic between regular attacks, guards, and ‘breaker’ moves.”
The game’s engine is built to catch the lightning of Bleach‘s unique mythology, where Soul Reapers unleash the power of their personalized swords and surpass their limits to defeat ever-stronger enemies, turning the tables with the clever reveal of a new power. To this end, the usual fighting mechanics are supplemented with special states that reflect the escalation of combatants’ powers.
At its core, Rebirth of Souls is a competent weapon-based fighter with a core rock-paper-scissors mechanic between regular attacks, guards, and “breaker” moves. Regular attacks themselves come in three varieties: quick, flash, and signature, and special movement techniques allow characters to close gaps quickly.
Where it gets more complex is the variety of gauges that bring the series’ special techniques to life. There are Spiritual Pressure moves, which require differing amounts of energy to perform; very personalized Reverse Actions, which can grant a temporary advantage and grow stronger as your situation worsens; and Awakenings, which often reflect a Soul Reaper character’s Bankai forms or similar transformational benefits.
I almost feel bad for anyone whose first experience with Bleach comes through this game, thinking it’s just another anime fighter. All of these mechanics make a lot more sense if you’re familiar with the series, but without that context, the user interface feels almost overwhelmed with gauges and bars to monitor during fights.
All of this hinges on Bleach: Rebirth of Souls’ most distinctive feature: a stock-based system, where a combatant must deplete all of their opponent’s “lives” to win the round. The game wraps this concept in the series’ sometimes obtuse terminology, but ultimately, the goal is similar to Super Smash Bros.’ approach.
More often than not, this stock is depleted with special “Kikon” attacks—bombastic and cinematic moves that reduce the opponent’s “lives” by two or more at a time. Kikon attacks vary depending on the character’s current state, so a character benefiting from their Bankai state will deplete more stock with one of these finishers than a character in a base condition.
Depleting the opponent’s gauge to about 25 percent becomes crucial, as they can be left vulnerable to an unblockable Kikon attack. One of Bleach’s strongest aspects is the sense that fights can go in any direction, and the Kikon attacks truly capture this dynamic, with comfortable leads suddenly undone by a full-strength combo.
Unfortunately, outside of combat, there are several other aspects that Rebirth of Souls can’t quite pull off. Story Mode’s presentation especially leaves something to be desired. The in-game engine isn’t quite sophisticated enough to pull off many of the most important moments in convincing fashion, so many major plot points are either told with the grace of a drunken puppeteer, handled off-screen, or omitted entirely.
“Clunky cut scenes aside, revisiting where it all began was a worthwhile trip down memory lane.”
It doesn’t help that the mode feels disjointed in the earliest chapters, jumping from vignette to vignette. The writing choices are puzzling, leaving in scenes with minimal impact while trimming out more pivotal moments, like the restoration of Ichigo’s powers after his first defeat. Often, an animated cutscene steps in and does a far more compelling job of recapping, leaving me wishing the developers had been able to do more with them—or even just include clips from the show.
Nor does it help that the voice performances seem held back. The English localization brings back many of the issues I’ve had with Viz Media’s adaptation of the Bleach anime over the years. Some actors don’t match the original vibe of their characters, while questionable translations of certain terms make the dialogue feel stilted and prevent the actors from truly shining. All of this is present in Rebirth of Souls, prompting me to switch to the Japanese dub—something I almost never do in games.
Even the Japanese audio struggles to convey the game engine’s physicality and suffers from a generally clunky adaptation of the original story. Fortunately, this improves as the story progresses, but there are still moments where the lack of polish is evident, like characters “sliding” across the screen to imitate quick movements.
Likewise, Story Mode struggles at the outset when fighting Hollows. The combat engine is noticeably better when facing humanoid opponents, with all the mechanical bells and whistles available. Early fights in the series pit one-dimensional characters against massive, uninspiring monsters, so similarly, it’s not the most engaging experience to revisit the “slap fight with one hand tied behind your back” phase against hulking foes.
There is plenty of content in Story Mode, with most of the confrontations from Bleach’s complex storylines recreated, and some even retold across multiple stages. Getting through these stages is one thing; completing their specific goals, which aim to recreate the “authentic” moments of those fights, is another challenge entirely. Meeting these Real and Secret conditions unlocks even more story in the form of Secret chapters, which spotlight side storylines and supporting characters. Fans with completionist tendencies could immerse themselves in this amusement park for a long time.
“While the combat pulls off the anime’s flashy action, everything around it feels bland—a sin I would never have applied to Bleach outside of its over-used filler content.”
Under the hood is a simple yet effective equipment system, featuring equippable accessories that can be customized individually across the roster, as well as one-use boosts that offer buffs in specific situations. The long-term items can have a significant impact, and you’ll need all the coins you can earn from story chapters and Mission mode to optimize your best loadouts.
Speaking of the roster, Rebirth of Souls has an impressive range of playable characters—yet, much like the pacing of the story, there are a few puzzling choices. Fans could debate this aspect and the powers assigned to each character all day long, but I’ll leave it at this: it’s a bit odd that Ichigo’s Hollow side doesn’t have its own unique build in the game while Kaien is fully available. (Omitting Orihime for once makes sense, though—previous games have shoehorned her in for a token appearance even when she’s not much of a fighter.)
Several issues could have also been easily appeased if more of the anime had been used. Literal clips from the series would’ve suited Story Mode scenes much better, and the original music is generic at best, aching for a well-applied rendition of “Number One.” While the combat pulls off the anime’s flashy action, everything around it feels bland—a sin I would never have applied to Bleach outside of its over-used filler content.
At the end of the day, Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is more proof that the average anime game hasn’t really evolved much since the PS2 days. Beneath the updated particle effects, they’re trying to recreate poetry in motion with Crayola markers. But, they’re a fun way for fans to live the experience of their favourite series, and that’s a worthwhile endeavour in itself. While I’d hoped for more (especially in the wake of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba-The Hinokami Chronicles, what’s here is a capable celebration of a franchise that resonated with me many years ago.
Clunky cut scenes aside, revisiting where it all began was a worthwhile trip down memory lane. I’d be curious to see what this engine could do with more refinement, perhaps in a follow-up game after the final batch of TYBW episodes. For now, I’m still enjoying the novelty of playing these characters in a brand-new game in 2025.
