Once every couple of years or so, an anime video game comes along that completely blows away everyone who plays it, from the hardcore fans to the casual gamers. Bleach: Soul Resurreccion isn’t that game. The PS3-exclusive title serves up some decent fighting action, but ultimately, the overall experience is a bit flat.
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Published by NIS America, the $59.99 Bleach: Soul Resurreccion starts in the middle of the Bleach “Arrancar Saga” when Ichigo Kurosaki invades “Hueco Mundo” to retrieve the captured Orihime Inoue from Soul Society traitor Sosuke Aizen and his group of Espada and Arrancars. The game follows the same path as the manga itself, removing any filler portions to allow for straightforward action with little to no stopping in between the story mode sections. That’s a welcomed addition.
Bleach: Soul Resurreccion features three playable modes: Story Mode, Mission Mode and Soul Attack.
Story Mode follows the Bleach arc from the time Ichigo invades Heuco Mundo and ends when he defeats Sosuke Aizen. There really isn’t much more than that. You play as different characters within the Bleach universe such as Ichigo Kurosaki, Uryu Ishida and Rukia Kuchiki (as well as plenty others), but there isn’t any NPC interaction or open world traversing. There are 14 “episodes” and they follow an extremely linear path. You start here, go there, kill enemies, and defeat the final boss. You don’t even have to fight any enemies aside from the final boss if you don’t want to either. The game allows you to run past all forms of enemies unless you are in a trapped room with them and it is required that you kill them in order to escape. This was the one major problem within the game. The action and battle sequences that make the game just fall apart when you don’t have to engage in them. The only purpose of fending off enemies are for the Soul Points they drop, but what’s the point if you don’t even need to fight? The episodes where enjoyable to see different characters fighting styles and getting filled in on the story, but that is where the Story Mode fun ends. You can finish this mode in about 5 or 6 hours, even faster if you don’t fight anyone.
Mission mode is pretty much the same as Story mode aside from the fact that it doesn’t follow the Bleach storyline. It has the same mechanics and linearity as story mode (combat is still optional), but the difficulty increases as you play unlocked missions.That difficulty curve is actually where fighting for Soul Points becomes necessary. Higher levels in Mission Mode will put an objective that you must follow, such as you can not jump or use your special abilities, and the final fight will contain two or more bosses at once. While Bleach: Soul Resurreccion is a one player game, it does contain an online component in Soul Attack Mode. Soul Attack Mode contains a specific set of missions which purpose is to track your score and then upload the results online. Soul Attack missions are locked initially, but open up as you complete missions in Mission Mode. The game also contains a Collection Mode in which you will be able to grab some character models during your progression through the different modes.
Gameplay wise Soul Resurreccion is reminiscent of Dynasty Warriors, but with an added RPG level up element. Light and heavy attacks become close and ranged here to suit the characters. All characters can dash, but unlike Dynasty Warriors they can dash until the end of time. The have normal, super and ultimate attacks/techniques. The game allows players to level up characters with the “Soul Points” that they have obtained through the story and other missions; the only reason to fight enemy waves is to obtain points needed for leveling up characters.
The level up system is on a grid, similar to Final Fantasy games, and through spending the points, players receive different attributes or new techniques for the character they choose. Combat itself is quick paced with waves of enemies making themselves cannon fodder for your weapons. As an action game it’s mostly attack and block, though you have the option of “Flash-stepping” which is the Bleach equivalent of dodging. Characters can gain the ability to counter enemy attacks when they purchase it in the level up menu, though it’s easiest for Ichigo because his grid section starts extremely close to this attribute. Other abilities include doing more damage to certain enemies or even getting an attack or defense boost when your health falls past a certain point. Bleach: Soul Resurreccion is an anime-based video game and in turn deserves an anime soundtrack.
That is exactly what you get with this game. The music is fast-paced rock which is enjoyable at least, but all the moments seem to revolve around the same music. The songs are basically menu music, level music, encounter music and it cycles throughout the entire game. Character voices are the same as in the English anime dub, but hearing them repeat the same phrase after finishing their combos is seriously irritating. Along with sound, the game graphics don’t do much to satisfy anyone looking at it. It’s flashy and fast paced, but when you take your time to look at it in its entirety; there is absolutely nothing truly polished about it.
Bleach by itself is an excellent anime and in the past went on to produce some great fighting games for the PSP. It’s a wonder that NIS didn’t put in some type of 1-on-1 fighting portion into the game. It wouldn’t have been unsuspected with all of the success that the previous one’s had. Bleach: Soul Resurreccion definitely satisfies in the action department and tells part of the Bleach story as it should have. It’s not the best game, but it’s not terrible, either. Consider it a game designed for diehard Bleach fans only.