Bleach Brave Souls - Early Impression

Coming to my attention only recently, Bleach Brave Souls is an all new title based on the Bleach manga and anime series. While the game is free to play, there is a lot more value than the others I have seen.

The game offers up a range of gameplay types, story mode, missions, online and more, so far the bulk of my time has been spent on the story mode and I am happy with that. The gameplay is a lot like Double Dragon, a side scrolling hack and slash adventure, while each of the levels are small in size, they work perfectly for a game that is meant to be played on the go. In order to get into a mission, you will be given a series of story elements that provide context to the events that transpire, while the game is following the story that has already been set, it does take some liberties with the gameplay itself.

Having Ichigo talking to Rukia about one Hollow on the street causing trouble does match up with the source story, but when you play, there are many smaller hollows to be found. I can forgive that as without them, it would be quite boring. The actual gameplay is pretty straight forward, but does have some smart ideas in play, you move by simply touching the left side of the device anywhere and dragging your finger if the direction you want to move, on the right side are your basic attack and skill attack buttons. There is also an auto button, which will make the character move on their own, leaving you to concentrate on the fight.

You never actually go into a fight alone, you can use the in-game currency to summon assists and other team members, allow you to pull them into the fight as needed. The assists are only for use that next level, but the team members are always with you and as you level up they level up. Swapping out for them is pretty easy, just tap on their picture and they are in, of course, as you can build your team up of more advance soul reapers, they have extra abilities, which you can use as well.

The game is small to download, but needs a fairly lengthy additional download once you are in, but while that is happen, you can read up on a range of characters from the series, great if you are a newcomer and happy if you know the series but want a refresher, which is understandable as there are a lot of characters.

So far, my experience with Bleach Brave Souls is positive, I have yet to fully tackle the online side, but the single player is fun enough on its own to keep me playing.