Bleach: Soul Resurrección Review - 8.0

Game	Platform Played On	8.0/10
Bleach: Soul Resurrección	PlayStation 3

Before I get into the review I would just to apologise for the delay in getting this review up. I had hoped to have it online by Friday, the games release day here in the UK, but I was unable to. So I apologise to my readers and to Temco Koei who were kind enough to send me a review copy of Bleach: Soul Resurrección.

The Good

• Characters look great
• Plenty of replay value
• Easy Controls
• Moves look powerful and destructive

The Bad

• Main game is a bit short
• Loading times a tad long
• Game is a bit tough

Review Summary

Bleach: Soul Resurrección is a hack and slash game, in a similar vein to Dynasty Warriors, but it shouldn't be dismissed for it. Bleach: Soul Resurrección is a great looking game, it successfully brings the Bleach Anime/Manga to the PS3. Whilst the Story mode is short, with only 14 story levels, there are 28 Missions and 9 additional levels in Soul Attack. These extra levels, combined with how the game dishes out trophies and the various difficulty levels, do mean there is plenty of replay with Bleach: Soul Resurrección. The game can get a bit tough in places, but levelling up characters isn't hard. The overall story that is told via the game is pretty lacking, but for Bleach fans who have seen the Anime this is never a problem and it covers most of the main battles and fights. I had fun playing this game and happily recommend it to any Bleach fan, Hack And Slash Fans, or PS3 gamers looking for a fun challenge.

Full Review

Bleach: Soul Resurrección doesn't have a mandatory install, or any install, so your able to go straight into the game. The main menu is pretty animated, with characters flying in from the side as you scroll through the options. The menus you can choose from are Story, Mission, Soul Attack, Level Up, and Collection. You can access the game options by pressing triangle, here I had changed the voice track to Japanese from English as I personally preferred it this way.

There is no tutorial, or a demo for Bleach: Soul Resurrección and all you can do initially is play the story mode. The first level isn't really a tutorial level, but its easy enough for most to complete it and learn the controls. Before you start each level, you are given the control scheme for the character your playing as. Each of the 4 shape buttons has a specific move, with combos created by pressing an individual button several times or moving from, for example, triangle attack combo to a circle attack finisher.

The Main Story mode consists of 14 individual missions that take place from when Ichigo, and the gang, enter Hueco Mundo to when he faces off against Aizen in the real Karakura Town. You have the choice of playing the game at either Normal or Hard Difficulty, with Very Hard becoming available when a story/mission is finished on Hard. The story being told does lack depth, not just in general but also in comparison to the Bleach Anime/Manga. Each mission has a brief introduction to what's happening at that point, but it lacks detail and the game doesn’t cover all the battles or story from this part of Bleach. It doesn’t detract from the gameplay, and for those who know what's happening its easy to fill in the blanks, but for new players they may not understand much of the story or characters.

The 14 missions can take a few hours to play, with the average length of a mission around the 8 minute mark. some of them can be a bit difficult so a few play through may be needed, until you level up your character enough. This feels short and not completely satisfying as I know there are other big battles during this period I would like to have played. Once you have completed a few levels you unlock the mission mode, and when you complete certain missions you unlock new Soul Attack Levels. You also unlock collectables in Mission mode which can be viewed in the Collection section, from the main screen.

Mission mode consists of 28 missions. There are none unlocked when you start, but as you progress through the main story you unlock a couple of missions, and more unlock as you complete a group of missions. The first missions are simple and consist of you defeating a boss. the third mission introduces other factors like a time limit. Other limits include not being able to use the Ignition Gauge, unable to Jump, and one hit deaths for everyone. After a certain amount of Missions have been completed you unlock modes in Soul Attack. This section is split into 3 different types of attack, Soul Attack, Beat Attack, and Time Attack. Soul Attack has you trying to complete a section in a given amount of time, Beat Attack has you trying to defeat as many enemies within a set time, and Time Attack has you trying to complete a task as soon as possible.

The Difficulty of Bleach: Soul Resurrección is definitely worth mentioning. I do recommend playing the game on normal first. It will make the game easier, but it helps later on as the experience you earn is carried on to other modes and other difficulties. You should be able to play through most of the normal difficulty without much trouble, but the harder difficulties will require you to level up your character. Missions start out easy but they also get hard and require a high level character. You get to choose which character you want to play as during missions and in the Soul Attack modes, whereas you can only play as a certain character in the Mission Mode. Playing the story mode on Hard does require you to level up your characters and the game does become a bit of a grind. I personally didn't have an issue with this as replaying levels gave me the chance to try things differently and using different characters in the missions gives you the chance to experiment and find characters you play well with.

Each of the characters have their own play style. They look great, much like they do in the Anime, not just when you start but also when you get damaged as it is shown on their clothes, and if your Ichigo using your Hollow powers you can see how damaged he is by how much of his mask is left. The game starts with Ichigo in his Bankai form and it is a great first impression. Ichigo is powerful and a very useful character throughout the game. You get to play as Rukia, Ishidia, Yoruichi, Soi Fon, Byakuya, Shunsui, Toshiro, and Kenpachi during the main story. When you unlock mission mode, your able to play with the Main Story characters as well as Espadas Stark, Barragan, Halibel, Ulquiorra, Nnoitora, and Grimmjow. You also have the ability to play as Gin, Aizen, and Kokuto, the main character from the latest Bleach Movie, Bleach: Hell Chapter.

You level up these characters by collecting Soul Points. These are green orbs you get by killing enemies, combos, and destroying the environment. You can also earn more by completing the level and earning a high rank. To level up you are taken to a grid where you use them to unlock tiles on the grid. All the characters are on this grid and each character can use the other characters grids to help them level up. Collecting Soul Points is really easy which is handy for when you have to grind during later levels/missions.

The characters are not the only thing in the game that looks good. Bleach has a unique art style, set by the Manga, and the game does a great job in putting it into 3D. The characters look like they do in the Anime as do the enemy Hollows. Some of the Hollows look like they have been created specifically for the game and do not look out of place. The levels also look great. The Manga/Anime kept their worlds a bit sparse, but this is very appropriate for this game. Hueco Mundo looks open and barraon, whilst Seireitei is narrow and tall. Karakura Town is also tall and narrow but really does look like a city, whether your fighting on the streets and roads below or flying up with the skyscrapers.

Technically the game doesn't suffer from Anti Aliasing issues and looks really good. The loading screens when you begin a Story, Mission, or Soul Attack look great as they have character button controls on the right and a moody black and white character on the left. As the game finishes loading, this black and white shot gains colour and the camera spins round and you begin the level right from the loading screen. This is a great touch, but I feel it would've been more effective if the loading times were a bit shorter. There are also loading times as you move from a section of a level to another but these are a black screen with the Hōgyoku. These loading times are short, but the game through has several of these short loading times. I personally would've been happy if the game had an install that took care of these. Bleach: Soul Resurrección is a bit tight with trophies. They are tied in with replaying the game and unlocking Mission and Soul Attack levels. I only had 22% of them after completing the story on normal and hard. Several of them are also hidden, which I personally am not a fan of.