izigame.me

I could ask anyone I know, and they would all tell me that I am THE biggest Bleach fan they know. To say that I ADORE this series doesn't even begin to encapsulate my feelings towards it. I try constantly to share it with others because I think it's THAT damn good. Frankly, it hurts to say this game doesn't deliver in any regard. Not to Bleach fans, not to newcomers, not to people wanting a "competitive" fighting game, nor a casual one either.
For starters why is that a title made to run on the PS4 and Xbox Series X in 2025 can't run on a PC this well above the specs recommended...? These are consoles that are over a DECADE old now. What do you mean people with rigs well into what many would call an enthusiast tier build can't play this game smoothly? Perhaps we simply live in an age of awful optimization for PC ports in general but my god does it fucking suck to know people are paying upwards of 100 dollars to support this IP and can't barely manage to play it.
Moving on to the Story mode, the pros are that the additional content is an ABSOLUTE treat for fans who are well aware of the characters and their backstories. Byakuya dropping to his knees as Shuhei tells him a hypothetical of his sister running away in an announcer's voice all because Mayuri rigged a game of 'Shoots and Ladders' is GENIUS writing and there are plenty of other small treats like that in the standard story. I haven't personally touched the secret story yet but again, the fact that it is even there is a nice little love letter to fans at home though. They didn't have to do that at all, but that said it feels like that's where all the effort went as even the English VAs sound more like themselves during the additional content than the actual big story moments.
Getting into the negatives... which is everything else. Load times feel about as long as the fights themselves. The story is HEAVILY abridged and altered in some cases to tell the story without having to have more modeled characters (despite them using drawn cinematics as well throughout story mode) Mind you, there's nothing wrong with things being shortened, it's just not a plus for new fans of the series hoping to get into it via this game. This is by no means Bleach's version of a Ninja Storm title.
In addition to that, the story mode doesn't do a great job teaching you how to play either as most of the non-humanoid opponents function off of a different ruleset. These fights fun are not fun either mind you. You just spam attacks until their guard is broken and that's it. Until they are in a guard-broken state they have hyper armor... fun right? Also due to story reasons, ei. Ichigo not wanting to use his hollow mask at certain points, story mode straight up restricts you from using certain mechanics for HOURS at a time making the game's slow and clunky combat even more limited and boring as you can only spam light and heavy over and over again until getting MUCH further along.
Online is online. It's about what you would expect from an anime fighter these days and not a damn thing more. The net code while could be better, isn't done right awful. The game does feel like it suffers from latency issues though. Dashing to evade attacks feels next to impossible off or online. The same goes for reversal type moves like Rangiku's counter stance and wasting your hard-earned meter only to wiff completely and be fully punished feels ABYSMAL. For everyone wanting to bash the game for not having a ranked mode on release, please remember Storm Connections didn't have functioning lobbies on release, and that is by far worse. Sure, no ranked sucks but are you being honest with yourselves if you think this game is "competitively balanced?" Aizen and Dangai Ichigo exist lol.
In summary. the game needlessly over complicates some things while dumbing downs others to a point it's almost insulting ESPECIALLY for long time fans of the series let along someone who has played a fighting game before. It might be the best bleach game in 15 years, but its rough to say you should even bother coughing up the money unless you just want to support the IP.