Bleach: Rebirth of Souls First Impressions

Article at a glance:

• The game nails Bleach’s iconic style, has a well-designed UI, and offers solid fighting mechanics with character kits that feel authentic.
• Covers the anime/manga up to the Arrancar arc, providing a familiar yet exciting experience for fans.
• Poor optimization, stuttering, and crashes make it hard to recommend on PC right now. Console versions might be better.

I have been looking forward to this game for a while now. We don’t really have a good modern Bleach game unless you count Brave Souls, which is a mobile game. I’m serious, Dragon Ball gets some fantastic games like FighterZ or Sparking Zero, but Bleach never got that kind of treatment with games. So when Bleach: Rebirth of Souls was announced, and then they showed us that gameplay, suffice it to say all of us Bleach fans were hyped. So now the question is, did the game live up to the hype?

Welcome back to a different kind of first-impressions article. Tod, ay we are talking about Bleach: Rebirth of Souls, the video game, and my thoughts about it so far in the few hours I spent with it. So let’s get started,

My Thoughts on Bleach: Rebirth of Souls

So let’s start with the good.

The art style looks fantastic. The game effectively captures the iconic look of the Bleach characters and transitions them well into 3D without making it look weird like Jump Force did. And whoever was in charge of designing the posters and stuff for this game did a great job, they all ooze personality. The game’s UI design keeps up the same feeling as well. The story mode is just a retelling of the anime/manga story. It starts at the beginning and goes up to the end of the Arrancar arc.

The gameplay is solid as well. As with all fighting games, lots of combos to be learned, and lots of frame data to consume if you are into all that. If you have played other fighting games before, Rebirth of Souls will come naturally to you; if you’re new to fighting games, it will take some time to get used to it. The characters feel good to control, and the people who designed the kits understood the characters really well. So all the specials, combos, or fate reversals that is perfectly in line with their personalities. I love it.

But if the game is so good, then why is it sitting at a 58% mixed rating on Steam at the time of writing? Well, since this is 2025, you can probably already guess the answer. Terrible optimization. I don’t know how good the console versions a, but the PC port is rough. Constant stutters and even CTDs despite having a fairly decent system for this game. And we all know how lags can feel in a fighting game where timing is everything.

That is all for now

So, do I recommend Bleach: Rebirth of Souls? No, I can’t, not right now, especially for PC. If the console ports are good and you have a console, then go ahead and buy it. The game itself is awesome. The game understands the cool factor of Bleach and leans heavily into it. I am not recommending it right now because the PC port is just busted. Wait for a few months for the performance to be ironed out before buying it on PC. But yeah, that is all for now. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. I will take my leave here. See ya!

Also, check out our full guide for the next season here!