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Publisher: NIS America
Systems: PlayStation 3
Release Date: 8/2/11


     Bleach: Soul Resurreccion is the newest Bleach game to hit America in a while. It is a single player hack and slash game based on the Bleach anime. It covers the beginning of the Invasion of Hueco Mundo arc to the end of the Aizen vs Ichigo battle from the manga/anime Bleach.


     Soul Resurreccion has three major modes: Story, Mission, and Soul Attack. Story mode is 14 missions where you play through fights based on the story. Mission mode is 28 missions with special requirements, and is where the bulk of the game is. Soul Attack mode is a challenge mode  where your do 9 special missions and your scores for those 9 missions are posted on the leaderboards. Story mode was a little disappointing, since this game left out fights and characters that should have been in there. (Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, Aaroniero Arruruerie, and Szayelaporro Grantz, the Vizards, Yamamoto and Tozen, the Vice Captains, even more Captains are all left out AND YET RUDOBON IS IN THIS GAME. What the hell?) Overall it just rushes you through the story, only touching what seemed like the most important battles. It's more of an intro into the game then an full fledged story mode. (Although it is where you unlock all but 4 of the playable characters, so that's nice.)

     Mission mode is where this game shines. This is what you will spend the most time on, since theses missions are more fun than the story missions, especially since you get to choose which character, out of the 21 in this game, you use for each mission. You unlock more missions by beating story mode and previous missions. The mission add special challenges like no jumping, permanent damage, etc. (Harder missions even have you fighting multiple bosses at the same  time)


     Soul Attack mode consists of missions like...Soul Attack...where you try to get as much exp (Soul Points) as possible within the time limit, Time Attack, where you try to beat the level as quickly as possible, and Beat Attack, where you try to defeat as many enemies as possible within the time limit. Each one of these has different difficulties that are unlocked by completing missions in Mission mode.

     The game controls reminded me of Sengoku Basara at first, but have some major differences. Square is used for regular combos, which you can chain into air combos, Triangle is usually a projectile attack, and Circle is for super attacks. Triangle and Circle attacks take up sections of your Spiritual Pressure gauge (which is the blue bar below your health that regenerates quickly over time), with Circle attacks taking up more than Triangle attacks. Most characters also have a different Triangle and Circle attack for when they are in the air. You can Dash with R2, guard with R1, and lock on with L1. The Soul Ignition bar on the left fills up as you combo enemies and once full, you can press L2 to go into a super mode where you gain super armor and your attacks become stronger, while some change slightly (become larger, go further, etc). As long as you continue to combo, the gauge will stay up. At any time that Ignition Mode is active, you can press L2 again to launch an ultimate (and very devastating) attack at the cost of emptying the Soul Ignition gauge.

     The controls are clunky at first, but once I started using the lock on, things became much more fluid. Lock on is a major plus for this game, so much that when playing other hack and slash games, I was missing the lock on feature. When your characters are low level, things feel a bit slow since all the cool attacks deplete you Spirit Pressure gauge quickly since there are only three segments at first. Once you get more segments however, things become a lot quicker and flashier.


     This game has a level up system that, when paired with Mission mode, presents hours of playability. The level up system is pretty much the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X. Each character has their own grid, with all of them connected. The paths between each grid are locked until certain characters reach the required level. Each sphere that you buy adds one level to that character. There are Attack, Defense, and Health upgrades (with better upgrades having + after the name) There are also Spirit Pressure Gauge increase, which increase the gauge by one segment, and also character spheres. Each character sphere has a special effect. Some character spheres have the same effect, like multiple ones with extra damage against Hollows or Soul Reapers, and some are more unique, like the ability to counter by pressing Square while blocking an attack, cancel Triangle attacks with Square ones, cancel attacks with a dash, or even add on an extra health bar ala Kingdom Hearts bosses. The more you level up your characters, the more they can do, even if they don't learn any new combos.

     The max level for each character is 175. With 19 characters that you can level, this means there is A LOT of leveling to be had in this game. (Ichigo has three versions that all share the same sphere grid changes. There ARE 21 characters, not 19) The only solid incentive to level up all the characters this game gives you is  with trophies, like clear every Mission mode mission with every character, or Max out all character levels. Speaking of the trophies, this games trophy titles consist entirely of Bleach quotes or references, which is a freaking blast for a Bleach fan. Each character also plays very differently. I've fallen in love with almost every character in one way or another, because they each have something uniquely awesome about each of them. (kinda like Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes!)

     Also, this game concentrates on combos to the extreme. The only way to S rank missions is to keep the combo count up since getting 100, 300, and 1,000 hits would boost the amount of exp you get is double, triple, and quadruples respectively, and your grade is based on how much experience you get. Once you start getting the hang of cancelling attacks and keeping combos going, you can continually get a ton of exp. The better you are at combos, the more fun it gets. (unless you use the same move over and over and over)


My Verdict:

     When looking at this game, I honestly don't see some new amazing, ground breaking hack and slash game. I'll give it credit though, it doesn't just copy and paste other popular hack and slash games, it's unique enough to put itself apart from other hack and slashes and it fit the source material well. There are a lot of things that are missing that should've been in it though. There is a lot of story and characters left out, which for an anime game is very odd, and the lack of a Co-op option was very disappointing. There's no DLC planned for the game either, so there is no hoping for new characters that way (although that may be good since a lot of DLC is getting ridiculous). Despite the flaws it may have though, this game has something major going for it. It's addicting as hell. I didn't expect it to, but the sphere grid begs you to play "just one more mission" before going to bed, which turns into you staying up four hours past when you wanted to go to sleep. The sphere grid is cheap enough that once you get good with combos, you're leveling up multiple times each missions. It just keeps making me want to play. It most likely will drag on once I fully level more characters, but for now, this game is still addicting and fun, even if it's not a great game.

Buy It: If you are a MAJOR fan of Bleach and really like hack and slash games. This game gets repetitive, but the Bleach flavor keeps it from getting too dull too quickly for die hard fans.

Rent It: If you like Bleach at all, and will at least stand hack and slash games. It's definitely worth a try, just be sure to stay with it for a little bit since it starts slow.

Skip It: If you don't like Bleach or hack and slash games. This is pretty obvious.



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