It's funny, at first Bleach Rebirth of souls felt kind of too slow and not well done but it turns out I either just wasn't getting the tutorial as well as I should have or it sucked, I will give it the benefit of the doubt and say it was the former, in the end it was a real fun time, it has it's issues as most anime fighters do which I can see being the usual big issue for online competitive play but otherwise it gets a thumbs up from me dood!
Okay full review times, so as is typical of anime based games it focuses on the story of the anime itself, in this case it focuses on Ichigo's start in the human world, the main parts only with art sketches of parts for important characters going forward, (such as Chad and Orihime) the soul society, Hueco Mundo and the original finale after that against Aizen, if you want a refresher to the series that get's to the point with some fun visuals and gameplay then this is a great way to do it along with some unique? "Secret stories" dood.
The gameplay is interesting, so you have square/X as light hits, (which builds up spiritual pressure a little faster and is the safer starter attack) triangle/ Y for heavy hits, these do a lot more damage but leave you a lot more vulnerable to reprisal, you can start with light hits and go into heavy for a safer start but more damaging than just light hits and then you also have signature moves, (Circle/B) each character has a unique one, sometimes kind of multiple based on movement or another factor I will mention in this review dood.
Okay let's move on to other aspects of combat, you can fly towards enemies if you hold X/A or hop forward, backward or to either side depending on what direction you are pressing, this if timed well also works as a free iframe dodge, you also have a block (hold L1) which can be broken leaving you entirely defenceless for a while or a grab by pressing R1 or holding it for a slightly ranged dash grab to get through it and get yourself a free combo off dood.
Of course it doesn't end there, I mentioned spiritual pressure, this is a meter that goes up to 150 for one of two special attacks by holding L2 and pressing triangle/Y for a 50 cost move and circle/B for a 100 cost move, these can change along with signature moves once you unleash your shikai/bankai/other using L3 + R3, this builds up from taking hits, dishing out hits (even if blocked) or finally with one more mechanic dood (Yes it's crazy there's that much!?)
The final mechanics I will talk about are reverse and flash step, reverse is interesting because there are three types and uses to reverse, all are activated by holding L2 and pressing square as long as you have enough meter, they have names but I will refer to them as colours lol, first is white, this is as long as you are not attacking or being damaged, it's effect charges up spiritual pressure automatically as well as slight health regeneration, (and also along with all of them has an aura burst that can knock an enemy off balance) blue is activated while being hit, this one I have no idea what it did other than that XD but it's great for escaping a combo you really can't afford to take and finally there is yellow, this can be activated mid combo and let's you get another whole combo in which is great if they are just short of dying off and you want to use a flash step after that combo for even more damage still to finish them off dood.
Flash step is interesting, in that there are two ways to use it, the first is and most immediate use is L2 and X/A, this will teleport you behind an enemy, time it perfectly and you'll perform a counter which gives you a cool cutscene, character line and a free combo, this costs a whole bar of reverse meter though so be careful (Although in awakened zanpakuto form L3 + R3 you can build up a third piece of meter) and the other way is by pressing X/A to teleport behind them after a combo finisher to extend your attack combo, this will actually get you half of the one piece of meter back once you hit them dood.
Okay there was one more thing I missed that I'll describe about how combat plays out, so there's actually two types of health bar, yeah crazy right? They have names but I'll just call them numbers and meter, the aim is to lower the meter to red and press R2, this launches a knockback attack normally (totally useless honestly for normal use) but in red it let's you perform a finishing strike that lowers the number portion of the health anything from 2-5 (this can be done from a combo which makes it undodgeable) at a time based on certain factors, if you lower their health bar fully you will automatically use your finisher attack but also do one more number of health, awakening also not only changes your finisher (and sometimes spiritual pressure and signature moves) but adds another point on top and finally there's another meter that fills while in awakening called sublimation, this adds one more damage and depending on the character again changes the finisher move dood!
Whew I really went a bit much on that last one but there is a little more so stay with me if you're interested! There is also an offline mission mode of three difficulties, these unlock as you level up which increases what's in the store too, (I'll get to that lol) these give you three to five fights back to back, no healing depending on the difficulty, they aren't really missions but eh you get a fair amount of money and materials and possibly seals if you beat it, all great stuff so mega worth it dood.
So the store as I mentioned sells a few things, most importantly are these soul orbs, you can equip a red, brown/gold, blue and green one, they all have various effects of which can be upgraded, some being muuuch better than others, red is offence, blue is spiritual pressure based, brown is defence and green is special (focuses on a few things, has one of my faves in there even) these can help give you an edge against the opponents you face, the same goes for the second most important thing, the seals, these are useable one time only things (unless you buy or get more) of which you an equip three that will give you various effects such as say 20% more damage for 60 seconds from the start of the fight, super handy dood!
The store also has titles and character cards and such for online play which is nice, word of advice for achievement hunters, focus on buying 80 of those orbs and only upgrading 1 of each type because they are priiicey dood!
And that's it all I really have to say now is some characters are more broken than others but that will only really effect online play, the visuals and how the game plays offline are a blast, great combat music too, nooot so much the casual music but it's not horrible dood.
Thank you for reading and if you buy it I hope you enjoy it a whole lot dood! ^-^7
