Bleach: Soul Resurreccion (resurrection in English) (BSR) has a bit in common with a game series with the initials “DW” as they both follow a fairly repetitive gameplay experience that is topped-off by lots and lots of button mashing. Where it separates itself is in its accessibility; BSR almost does everything I’d like to see from a game where both hearing and visually impaired gamers would benefit. Do I think it’s worth buying, no. I don’t think it’s really a must-play title either, but if you’re in the mood to play what is currently unfolding in the anime Bleach on American television and don’t mind a lot of repetitious button mashing, Bleach: Soul Resurreccion might just be worth the price of a rental to you.

What it does right are subtitles, which are close to what I’d like to see from subtitles. They sport an average sized white font on a dedicated black background not unlike those you might see while watching the news or a sporting event on television. The font could use to be a bit larger, but that’s about it. Most of the time when a character is speaking, their picture will appear to the left of the dialogue box, but if only the character the player is playing as is speaking, no indication of who is speaking will appear.

Captioning leaves a bit to be desired as there is none. This is fine when nothing is happening off-screen, but as is the case, swarms of enemies can surround the player and attack without giving the player any kind of warning.
Visually impaired players might be interested to know that BSR is very much a high contrast game that doesn’t often have more than a few colors appearing on-screen. The game takes a less is more approach across the boards in all facets of the games various settings.

It isn’t just during gameplay that this strategy is employed; all menus follow a white on black theme making the game very easy to look at whether mashing buttons or deciding how best to distribute Soul Points to level up your character.
Where the red flag flies is in BSR’s not quite varietal combat; square > square > square > triangle with the occasional tapping of the cross, circle, or any of the shoulder buttons gets old fast – possibly “third stage cleared” fast. To make matters worse, the controller configuration is set and players are just expected to deal with it. No re-mapping, no presets, it’s just one and done. Oh, and at times, players will be asked to vigorously wiggle the left stick, too.

If players are able to handle the repetitiveness of the game, it really shouldn’t make a difference that there are only two difficulty settings to be found within the story mode of the game (Normal, Hard). There aren’t many options outside of this that aren’t turned on by default, though one of note due to it being something of a mystery to me is “Input Assist” which can be found in the options menu accessed through the game’s pause menu.

At a glance

Visual:
~Game in all aspects is easily seen.
~Camera is not fixed and at times acts a little weird when player is on the receiving end of an attack, though it doesn’t usually affect gameplay. (-0.1 point)
Recommended score of 9.9 out of 10

Hearing:
~Events can take place off-screen that affect the player’s character. (-0.5 point)
~Subtitles follow a white font on dedicated black background throughout the game.
~Characters not shown on-screen are identified by picture to the player.
Recommended score of 9.5 out of 10

Mobile:
~One button configuration – No re-mapping, no choice of presets. (-1 point)
~Lots of button-mashing. (-1 point)
~Stick jiggling to free character from certain enemies. (-1 point)
~If unable to clear a stage, finishing the game isn’t possible. No failure limiter, even after characters are fully leveled. (-1 point)
Recommended score of 6 out of 10