Just another arena fighter or perhaps there will be a bit more… soul
Despite being part of the “big 3” for manga / anime in the early to late 2000’s, Bleach never really got the same amount of attention as Naruto and One Piece for video games, especially over the past decade or more.
Bandai Namco is looking to change that up, however, with the announcement of the new Bleach: Rebirth of Souls fighter last night at their Summer Showcase, so what’s up with that?
So far we only really have the reveal trailer and official website to go on, but it does seem to offer up some answers.
Visually, Ichigo, Rukia and the rest of the crew are looking pretty nice and detailed with a lot of visual effects going on, if not maybe a little too shiny on the actual character models.
That’s probably not why everyone is here though.
We’ve seen a multitude of different outlets and pages refer to Rebirth of Souls as a fighting game, but what does that mean exactly for this new title based on Tite Kubo’s manga?
Bleach: Rebirth of Souls has been announced as a new 3D fightinggame by Bandai Namco for PlayStation, Xbox and PC. pic.twitter.com/EWKp96Tvpz
— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) July 6, 2024
The big worry is of course that Bleach is just going to be another anime arena fighter like Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, My Hero: One’s Justice, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm and like a dozen others churned out from Bamco.
From what little gameplay we see in the initial trailer, it certainly looks like that could be the case, but it may not be quite that simple or cut and dry.
On the official site, Bleach is listed solely under the genre of “fighting” while supporting 1–2 player battles online and locally.
While that may not sound like much, the other aforementioned anime arena fighters listed above all list “action game” as well in their genre — and Jujutsu Kaisen doesn’t even say fighting.
This could imply more of a focus on the actual battles and systems in Rebirth of Souls though it’s something that could also be easily changed in the listing later.
That’s not all that has us a bit intrigued either, however.
Bamco lists Tamsoft Corporation as the developer for the Bleach game, which may sound familiar to some longtime fighting game fan out there.
Tamsoft were the developers of the weapons-based fighting game series Toshinden / Battle Arena Toshinden on the original PlayStation, so they certainly had the experience with more traditional fighters.
That is if any of the original team is still there considering the last Toshinden game came out almost 25 years ago.
Since then, Tamsoft has leaned more into that hack and slash style with less depth plus a few arena fighters, especially with series like Onechanbara and Senran Kagura.
All that being said, they apparently haven’t completely abandoned traditional fighters either because Tamsoft was listed among the studios that helped develop Melty Blood: Type Lumina a few years ago.
Despite the well of Bleach games having dried up over the past decade (outside the mobile space), the manga series does have some experience with fighting games from the past.
There was Bleach: The Blade of Fate all the way back on the Nintendo DS as well as the Heat of Soul games on PSP though they had more arena and action games too.
At least Rebirth of Souls should probably have substantially more depth than Bleach: Shattered Blade on the Wii if anyone remembers that oddity.
This certainly won’t be Toshinden or Soul Calibur with our best guess being the new Bleach title will likely fall under the category of an arena fighter, but there is some it could offer more than the usual fare.
The best case scenario may be something along the lines of the Gundam Extreme VS. games that are developed with a competitive nature in mind on top of trying to just capture the more casual anime audience for some quick money.
Whether or not that actually comes to pass remains to be seen until Bamco reveals more information, but I’m still holding out hope that we can get a strong Bleach game on console — even if it never becomes an Evo mainstage title or anything.
There is a line in the official description that does make it seem like Rebirth of Souls will at least lean in on comeback mechanics with transformations and powerups.
“The more desperate the situation, the more powerful you become. Overturn the tide of battle and unlock new forms and new blades in the heat of battle to bring victory from the edge of defeat!”
So far, it looks like the confirmed characters include Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, Uryu Ishida, Yasutora Sado, Orihime Inoue, Renji Abarai, Byakuya Kuchiki, Yoruichi Shihoin and Kisuke Urahara.
We’ve yet to see confirmation that Rebirth will go all the way through to tie in with the ongoing Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime adaptation, but it looks like it’ll at least go through the end of the Arrancar arc.
Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is currently in development for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and PC with no release date provided yet.
You can check out the trailer if you missed it before.