Many have tried and all have failed to present to me any viable counter arguments to anything that was stated or shown here in this video by myself. Instead, besides some reasonable responses, most of what I've received on here are from shills in the Bleach fanbase making excuses for why the marketing in this game has been terrible by outright dismissing basic numbers, throwing words in my mouth that were never said, making stupid assumptions about my channel when they haven't even clicked through the videos that's been uploaded on this channel, spamming the useless dislike button not just on this video but on other Bleach Rebirth of Souls related content I've uploaded including the most positive videos on the game which doesn't at all hurt the channel or myself, making up ridiculous arguments not based on facts but opinion, and/or simply not responding at all when I confront them with counter arguments because they know they're full of it. We have people trying to raise stupid arguments like how manga sales apparently don't indicate how popular an anime IP is which is false. We have people that claim wikipedia isn't a good source when numerous other articles have reported the same exact information that's on that wiki article which I showed one of them in this video. We have people that are saying this game somehow by magic because a niche anime fighting game based on Bleach of all things is somehow this sacred unicorn and therefore won't be competing with other games released on the market between now and whenever this game releases which includes Sparking Zero, AC Shadows, Avowed, Monster Hunter, and other 2025 games coming out early next year where Bandai Namco has set the release window in. We have people trying to argue absurd talking points that Reddit somehow doesn't indicate how big a fanbase of a particular game is when I mentioned nothing of the sort in this video. The list of stupid continues to pour in and yet none of it actually debunks anything I've stated. I've had one person raise somewhat of a decent argument regarding the character trailers but it doesn't change anything I said that's wrong about them here in this video. It doesn't change the fact that the discussion surrounding Rebirth of Souls has been relegated to a small niche community that is the Bleach fanbase and even within that small niche audience, not everyone is happy with what's been shown of this game. Try as you may, the facts surrounding this game with its subpar marketing strategy and red flags have not changed.
I get the concern with this game flopping but to me if the game is fun then it will still have a devoted community that will enjoy playing. At this point as a bleach fan im still hyped that we are getting a console fighting game.
@ibrahimdragon Fair enough but if the game flops, there won't be much of a devoted community left to engage with the game assuming you're referring to online competitive multiplayer.
@@AvidAlchemist think about soul ressureccion. Some may say it flopped but I had alot of fun playing it. Bleach fighting game is super niche and so to me the numbers reflect that. Brave souls from what I hear is very popular so I think based off of that this game will have a decent community that will play it. The only problem is that will also be competing against sparking zero
@ibrahimdragon Brave Souls is a free-to-play mobile gacha game that was later ported over to other platforms. That's why that game is popular. This game isn't going to see those same numbers.
@ibrahimdragon Well to that point, I agree. The question is how big will the base roster be because a small roster will definitely cause the game to die quickly which is part of what happened to the Demon Slayer game.
I don’t think any Bleach game has sold that well in the West, hence why we don’t get many Bleach games, and the best games are Japan-exclusive. I'm going to buy it. But this could be the last Bleach game we ever get. That's why I hope we get the whole story from chapter 1 to final chapter of manga.
@thelightseeker94 The game covers the beginning of the show all the way through the Arrancar arc. The Fullbringer and TWBW arcs are not going to be in the game unless they're somehow added through DLC which is wishful thinking.
Tbf most of them haven't even been released in the west. A lot of them like Heat and Soul was exclusively sold in Japan (maybe Asia too Idk). The only really BIG bleach game we got here in the west was Soul Resurrection and maybe Shattered Blade, but both weren't well distributed. I never saw any Bleach games in my country in Europe when I was younger, meanwhile Naruto and Dragonball were being sold everywhere.
Apologies, but I'm gonna be a little long-winded on this. 😂 Something to note about the character trailers is that they are a perfect length to go on TikTok/UA-cam shorts. As it gets closer to its release, I wouldn't be surprised to see vertical versions of these trailers popping up as ads on those platforms. Plus Kubo mentioned he was fond of the principle of "If it is hidden, it is the flower." taken from “Fushikaden (The Flowering Spirit).” basically meaning the secrets are the most beautiful/alluring things. Kinda feels like Tamsoft took that to heart with the marketing by hiding a lot of things like moves and abilities in plain sight with some of the footage, which is why you see so many folks disceting each frame of these stupidly short videos. Straight up, I'm expecting this to end up with an 8/10 rating at the highest, and I don't expect it to reach the popularity of Storm or Demon Slayer. That's for a couple of reasons. The first "uncut" footage (there were actually a lot of cuts outside the prerecorded match) was played by the VAs who had never touched the game before the event; only Kubo and the MC seemed to show skills comparable to the initial prerecorded fight. Not the best way to showcase what the game is capable of, but for Kubos Bleach podcast it's pretty appropriate. Then, Tamsoft isn't known for being a AAA developer. They occupy a very specific niche and tend do very well with those fans. They have also said that they want RoS to be a competitive game, and that it's a "Hybrid Arena Fighter" which is why the gameplay seems to be breaking a lot of the traditional arena fighter rules. This includes the previous Bleach games which it is seeming to draw some inspiration from, and this is going to rub some folks the wrong way. Its already cause some long back and forth discussions within the small community it does have over some small things. The Awakening mechanic for instance seems to be to easy to reach or is available too early in the match for some, and to them this means there no reason to play in the Unawakened state. Without being able to play the game though it's hard to tell. My last point is just a focus on the popularity of Bleach as a whole. For whatever reason Bleach just has this staying power and a lot of fans I've known talk about how they just didn't like Bleach at first or it was "meh." Then some time down the line it just clicked and they really enjoyed it. (Annecdotal but just an interesting thing I've noticed.)
@sharogengaming7716 No need to apologize. I want thoughtful responses on here. Thus far, I've gotten maybe a handful of responses that make sense. The rest have been nonsense. Your point about the character trailers is an interesting way of looking at them. They do fit a Shorts format but I personally expect a bit more from them and I'm certain I'm not alone on that front. I agree about the reviews. An 8 score is likely what this has the highest potential to receive but what it does get I believe will revolve around how much content the game actually has. The more characters it has, the stronger the story mode is, the more variety the gameplay modes have, the better the final score will be for this. The marketing as I emphasized here in this video hasn't been good. The character reveals have been completely random and the devs have not stated exactly around what number of characters are going to be in the final product. That's another problem with the character trailers. There's also other problems the game will have with the way it's been designed. One example you mentioned is the Awakening mechanic which is something I've noticed myself along with the constant pauses/small cutscenes in battle constantly interrupting the pacing of the fights themselves. The health system also seems to be needlessly complicated which could easily turn off the casual players that the game needs to reach. Your last point about the fanbase is likely due to the fact that Bleach as a whole never reached its full potential as a series. The quality of the franchise dropped off in quality thanks to a number of different factors. The series has also been severely underrepresented in other forms of media especially when it comes to videogames. That's why there's been less than a handful of Bleach videogames that have been released outside Japan. The ones that have been released in the US bombed critically. Rebirth of Souls may be the last chance the series gets to deliver a satisfying modern triple A fighting game. But with Tamsoft leading the project as a smaller studio which you mentioned and the haphazard advertising for it, the game may not live up to expectations. I'm waiting to hear more information on the story mode, the other gameplay modes, and the final character roster size and who's included on it before I make a final decision on whether or not the game is worth a day 1 purchase.
@AvidAlchemist I'd disagree that the health system is complex, but it differs from what we're used to. It's just Smash Bros with an HP bar instead of percentages, and you hit with a "Final Smash" to break the stocks. Now, in terms of the number of stocks, there's very little to go on, but Globku had a good speculation video, and I'd pretty much come to the same conclusions he did before watching it. I like the uniqueness of it, and with the leaked video for Ulquiorra, it looks like they're not afraid to create some unique character-specific meters/moves. Still, overall, I think this will also come down to personal preference. The pauses seem to coincide with special moves; now, whether this means those moves are uninterruptible is an interesting point that would be devastating to the game, in my opinion. (It already looks like you can't stop Awakenings, which would be a step in the wrong direction if that were the case) I also really don't think reasonable folks are expecting an AAA experience. Even the ones who are excited about the game point to Cursed Clash and the MHA game when trying to make a comparison. And the references to Tekken and SC that have been made, usually just to point at the movement system and how RoS seems to be trying to mix things up a bit. It's still using the Light/Heavy button system, so I don't think we should expect a fight-stick-quality game by any means. It'll be interesting to see how things shape up after Sparking Zero releases, as that game is just casting a massive shadow over everything anyway.
@sharogengaming7716 When I said the health system is overly complicated, I meant for the casual gamer. It might work better in practice than what's been shown of it. I haven't played the game so can't speak on it personally. It's not just the special moves with the pauses, there're also pauses when a character loses stocks for their health. There're pauses when the characters go into awakening which is to be expected but from the more critical comments I've read, the awakening animations are too long. Seems to be a matter of opinion but that's what I've seen. I don't believe the special moves can be interrupted but have no facts to say so either way. If comparisons are being made to Cursed Clash then that's not good. Besides Tekken and Soul Calibur, I've seen comparisons to Naruto Clash of Ninja with regards to the movement. Basically it appears to be a hybrid type of game as you mentioned. The possible problem with that is related to the biggest complaint that I've seen from other commenters on various videos, that the game overall seems to move too slow. These comments are likely from people expecting a Storm or Tenkaichi equivalent which makes it difficult to determine what the consumer reception to the game will be. It's not just Sparking Zero that this game has to contend with but also whatever games that's coming out around it as I mentioned in the beginning of this video. If it releases around February through March, it'll likely be overshadowed by far bigger releases, Monster Hunter, AC Shadows, and Avowed all release in February. A February release for this game will be a death sentence. A January release date may make the most sense to avoid those larger games but that puts into question just how big the roster is going to be since they're only releasing one character trailer a week and will only have around 25 by the end of the year with that continued pattern. Maybe an April or May release date could work but it's too early to tell at this time.
@@AvidAlchemist exactly! Not having a hands-on experience is incredibly frustrating right now. I know demos aren't a thing anymore, but this is a game that would benefit from it.
@154Mamba Ulquiorra as I stated in this video was completely expected to be in this game since the dev team stated months ago around when this game was announced that the game is covering the Arrancar arc. As such, every espada and about a dozen or more Fraccion Arrancar should be playable in this game and if they're not, the fanbase should be vocal about it with their wallet by not supporting the game when it releases. They're already losing fans because of the absence of later arcs like Fullbring and TWBW neither of which will be in the final game.
Besides Bleach fans i do think this game won't do that well in the mainstream, the reason is also due Bleach being the black sheep of the trio, paired with this being the first game after + decade, not to mention it being an arena fighter, we got many that didn't perform that well. Storm and Budokai are a lightning in a bottle, which also brings the competition with S0, the result is inevitable, Tamsoft are more niche and they got no ground from previous Bleach games to work with, literally the opposite of S0. I think we should take this for what it is and it's gonna be, aka not the Storm/Budokai of the Bleach series. Ignore the insane people saying the opposite, this game will flop in any case compared to S0. What it needs is to be good, just enough for DLC's to keep its life span a bit. Edit: 80% of this can be fixed or worsened with a demo, which i'm still waiting for.
@Super-7327 I agree, they should release a demo. Doing so would certainly give those interested in the game a concrete idea of what the game actually is because there's plenty that still don't really get exactly what kind of style the devs are going for.
Yeah the advertising sucks I think they are too keen on bleach as an IP, I hope that the game itself is great tho to make up for it, same for Hunter x Hunter. But since they are planning to release it in early 2025 is cuz they want to rely on the popularity of Bleach cour 3,
Should’ve compared the Bleach trailers to Naruto, Demon Slayer, JJK, My Hero, Etc trailers. No anime game is touching sparking zero. The game will do fine bruh
@GinFushigoro Why would I compare the Bleach trailer numbers to Naruto when Naruto is vastly more popular than Bleach? Naruto is basically DBZ 2.0. I compared Bleach to Demon Slayer because it's closer to where Demon Slayer is on the scale of popularity. Not only that, you just strengthened my argument by saying "no anime game is touching sparking zero". That's kind of a problem for this game. "Fine" isn't good enough. It needs to perform at numbers that are more than fine to even be relevant.
@GinFushigoro Doesn't mean the game itself will do better than Storm. It's highly unlikely to reach anywhere near 10 million lifetime units. Storm 4 sold well over 10 lifetime. In order for this game to sell those numbers it's gonna have to reach a mass casual audience outside the Bleach fanbase. Good luck doing that.
5:42 I feel you're largely ignoring the content creators that cover these trailers so most dont go back and watch the official. Just look at globkus views
@XdarksoulX1129 I'm ignoring commentary based channels because they each have a heavily skewed audience that's biased in favor of whatever the content creator thinks including the person you just named. And since these types of channels don't actually influence whether a product succeeds or not regardless of how big they are which I can point out a clear prime example of, if need be, it actually fits my argument better to use a channel that doesn't upload biased commentary of gameplay footage for an unreleased game like the one that's seen in the video. The responses on that video aren't skewed in favor of the content creator. They're real genuine responses to what people think about the game.
i'm just not sure what audience this is game is for it looks too complex for the average anime arena fighter player to get into the graphics look great but aside from that there isn't much appeal for people who aren't already diehard bleach fans
@ShelbyCrowley-b4g And as I showed in this video both in numbers and in various comments, Bleach fans are clearly not as interested as one would suspect they should be for a game like this. If they were, the reception to the gameplay wouldn't be mixed, they would be universally positive. Not only that but in order for this game to sell in mass numbers, they cannot just target Bleach fans. The game needs to appeal to non fans as well and this dev team clearly has failed on that front already. Your argument makes no sense. Zero. You can claim what the characters have used in the gameplay videos all you want, you can speculate what the mechanics are and how they've been designed all you please, you haven't played the game. None of us have. The fact is it's the developers that have to market their own product. It's the developers that have to explain how the game works. Not you. Not anyone else. Thus far, they have failed to do so and general interest for this game as a result is low. The small numbers for each trailer, the lack of discussion on this game on other gaming related forums across multiple sites reflect just that.
@SonplaysMinEcraft They haven't done a good job of explaining how the game actually plays as I stated in this video. What you're saying is 100% correct. This game from the low view counts on the trailers to the general lack of discussion and interest to the mixed comments on the gameplay, is clearly not appealing to anyone outside the hardcore Bleach fanbase and that's a problem. These days if a game can't manage to grab the interest of a large casual audience, it's not going to survive past the first few months if that. That's just the reality of the industry.
Just to correct two statements made in the video, the Gameplay Overview Trailer is the only other trailer thus far that's gotten above 300K views for Rebirth of Souls. The Demon Slayer game sold 3 million in its first 2 years on the market as of April 2023, not the first few months. That number includes both physical and digital sales. So it's actually far worse than what I stated. Any comment that's not in proper English will not be post on here.
@Moon_Sama_0 They do make a lot of sense actually. Whether this is sarcasm or not, I couldn't care less. The facts surrounding this game aren't going to change.
@@AvidAlchemist I know I wasn't trying to be sarcastic XD (people tell me I often come across as such) I was just laughing at how correct you are and there's nothing that can be changed for a course correction
If BROS releases in February it is cooked. MH Wilds, AC Shadows (might flop though), Civ 7, Yakuza Pirates. Maybe it'll still do well because it's the only anime game, Idk. I feel like MH Wilds will devour any competition. The numbers on the Bleach trailer aren't actually bad. Naruto Storm Connections did worse on their announcement trailer, but their release date trailer did as well as Bleach's announcement trailer. Dragon Ball is just the exceptions as if you look back at anime game history DB is the only one that manages to get millions of views on pretty much all their games and the vast majority of their big trailers. Naruto not even close. One Piece only seem to get good views on live action trailers. Anything else anime related like fairy tail struggles even more. Even Attack on Titan can't break into 1 mil on their trailers. Dragon Ball is just a HUGE exception. Literally no other anime IP games gets close. It has always been like this, every DB game gets insane views. Demon Slayer only has like 2 trailers that got 1mil+ views. The odd big trailers are 600-800k and other announcement trailers and such are around 200-300k views. Then lesser views for other smaller trailers. But despite the views that are far worse than DB games it sold 3 mil copies.
@paledrake I didn't say the numbers on the Bleach trailers were necessarily bad but they are just okay numbers which is concerning because the series isn't on the same level of popularity as Naruto or DBZ. Naruto Connections is from an already established series that technically already ended with 4. There wasn't any real interest in another Storm game because 4 covered the end of the series and did so in a satisfying way. Outside that point you raised, the issues for Rebirth of Souls goes well beyond the trailer view counts for reasons I discussed at length in the video. There's a clear lack of interest in general on this game and the responses to what's been shown for the gameplay are mixed. The Demon Slayer game sold 3 million in 2 years. That's not exactly a winning metric. Videogames sell the most when they first release. The game sold 1.3 million in the first 2 months and quickly fell off after that before it went on sale. That 3 million is lifetime sales not launch sales. Bleach is less popular by comparison and it already has a poor history of representation in the gaming industry outside Japan. The game is fighting an uphill battle regardless because of all these things I've pointed out. For this game to succeed, it's going to need to have a strong story mode that doesn't skip over important events from the show and it's going to need a large character roster to avoid one of the key issues that the Demon Slayer game had. Since the game is covering over 300 episodes of source material, it's best that they put in as many characters as possible of which the number should be around 60. I'm not expecting that but that's what it should be and actually it's possible based on the source material alone to include way more than that. If they launch this at around 40 characters or far less, it's done, this game is finished. Even if they release this game as the best it can possibly be from a quality perspective, it could still fail depending on what games are released around it.
@@AvidAlchemist Storm 4 had similar if not worse views than Connections, so my point still stands. DB is the only exception, every other anime game gets around Bleach's numbers or less. 3 million lifetime sales for an anime game is pretty good as they're generally more niche and have lower production costs than western games and AAA Japanese games. Bleach had gotten a small resurgence, but I agree that it's not as popular as it once was. 40 characters is plenty tbh, you'd be surprised by how many important characters you can fit into that number. I don't think people will complain with that if the characters are mechanically different and deep, as most fighting games usually have smaller roosters than 40 or the ones that do have expanded their rooster over multiple entries. Now the story mode...I'm sorry but I think BROS story mode will suck ass. They'er very hesitant in showing us any cutscenes and we've not seen any impressive animations from a cutscene as of yet. Like 99% of all the action we've seen is from the gameplay or special move cinematics. I hope I'm wrong here, because having a bad story mode might actually kill this game no matter how fire the gameplay is.
@@paledrake Not really because Storm 4 is a sequel entry to a long running series and represents a much more popular franchise than Bleach. So that game was expected to sell and move mass numbers of units by default. Rebirth of Souls is different. It's not from a long running established series and it represents a far less popular franchise by comparison. So the trailer numbers are still relevant. Not only that but as I also responded to another commenter on here, I brought up way more than just trailer view counts to emphasize that there's a general lack of discussion and lack of interest with this game in this video. Your point was debunked. 3 million lifetime sales for an anime game is decent but not for an arena fighting game based on a popular license like Bleach. Sales also aren't the only factor that contributes to a videogame being successful. It's also player retention and review scores that publishers take into account when deciding if an IP is worth continuing. Days Gone sold decently but it received weak reviews and therefore wasn't continued. The opposite happened with Returnal with strong reviews but weaker sales and consumer reception. Rebirth of Souls will have the same factors apply to it that every other game released in the modern industry has. It needs both strong reviews and sales to be considered a success and even then if its player base drops off quickly then none of those other factors will matter much. 40 characters in your opinion is plenty. In mine, such a number would be pathetic especially since the game covers over 300 episodes of source material. The Fraccion Arrancar alone would take up nearly a 3rd of the roster if they were added. 40 characters means there would be certain events that would be cut from the game which means less content. I don't advocate for less content in a game unless it would be to the product's benefit. And those people you mentioned that wouldn't complain are clearly from the hardcore Bleach fanbase. They'll blindly buy the game anyway because of a combination of low standards and just being ecstatic that the game even exists. It's the casual fan that the developer needs to worry about. If casuals find the roster limiting, they'll drop the game quickly just like they did with Demon Slayer. I won't comment on the story mode because we don't know anything about it, how long it is or what it has to offer.
@AvidAlchemist I mean storm 3 sold 2 mil and fairy tail sold like 400k and still got a sequel. My point still stands. I find views and sales data more reliable than reddit numbers. I'm not gonna discuss non-anime game sales because we'd be here forever. I'll just say that days gone sold like 10mil and still got canned despite turning in huge profits. Playstation has just been retarded since the PS5 release and relocating to California. Though I think you're overestimate how well BROS needs to do as My hero OJ 1 sold like 2.5 mil and got a sequel. FT got a sequel with less than a mil sales. OP Warriors sell less than 2 mil, Oddessy didn't even reveal its sales. Even Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm had sales in 1-3mil until Storm 4 tripled their sales. DB, however, has always sold well. If you've played the Naruto Storm games you know less is more. It has like 100+ characters, and they all play basically the same with few exceptions. a proper fighting game like tekken, soul calibur, blazblue, etc have way less characters, but they all have their own playstyle to master. You don't see people complaining over their rooster sizes (unless it's less than 20, then people get mad). For example DB FighterZ had 24 characters on release. I'm not saying BROS will be more complicated than an arcsys fighter, but it doesn't seem as basic as ninja storm at least. If they make their characters deep and unique enough I think fans will be satisfied. Also real talk who the fuck cares about the fracciones or the majority of the vizards? I literally see no one hype up the fracciones and most of them don't even have enough moves or screen time to make a proper fighting character out of. Tesla literally just transformed into a boredude and got one shot by Kenpachi. Same thing with most liutenants. Nanao doesn't do shit until TYBW, used as an assist even there. Nemu same thing, her big moment is in TYBW. Yachiru same thing, TYBW. Momo will forever remain useless. Kira my poor boy only got a moment to shine in TYBW and in a short novel. Choijiro... lmao, maybe a younger version in BROS 2:TYBW. Most of the fan favorites and big plot characters can be fit in a 40-character rooster. The less important ones can be put into DLC. Having huge roosters was way more popular, like 10 years ago. Now it's less of a sales pitch, probably due to naruto storms homogenous and bloated rooster.
@@paledrake It depends on what their internal projections are regarding if a sequel is greenlit. I'm not going into the discussion of a potential sequel when the first game hasn't even come out and we don't know how the final product will turn out. You're missing the point. My talking point regarding Reddit is that the game doesn't have any sort of a massive dedicated community to discuss it before its release which is a problem. It's one of the reasons why I've decided to make content for it although I'm not going to blindly praise the game and pretend as if there're no red flags with it based on what's been shown. Less is more from a certain point of view. The Storm games weren't made to be deep. They were made on purpose to be simple because their selling point was the fanservice and even then, those games added more depth with new mechanics introduced later in the series while retaining a 3 party system so it's not as if they're just completely casualized. Perhaps I am overestimating what the game needs to make but again, since we don't have Bandai Namco's internal projections for the game and won't have that information ever unless it's leaked through a memo or a hack which is highly unlikely to be the case, we can only speculate and I don't like speculating on any topic. You can say the same thing about the Tenkaichi series yet the characters playing the same or similar doesn't really matter because these games ultimately live or die based on how much fanservice they provide which is something that both the Tenkaichi and Storm series excels at better than nearly any other licensed based games. DB Fighter Z was made to be a competitive game and the conversation surrounding it was framed as such from the beginning. It was a dream project, an outlier. That's why no one complained about that game's character roster. It's only been speculated just how deep Rebirth of Souls will be. They're already overcomplicating the health system among other things which appears to drag out the matches longer than any other standard fighting game. The game could have some depth to it but still fail to resonate with its target audience because of other elements they threw into the game that could be seen as tedious or annoying such as the constant brief cutscenes appearing in every match that people have already been complaining about. Your point regarding the Visoreds and the Fraccion is highly subjective. A lot of these characters could be described as lacking to where they wouldn't make for good fighting game characters. That's what the developers are there for. It's their job to be creative and make these characters work in a fighting game. Characters like Konohamaru, Karin, and Kushina Uzumaki shouldn't work in a fighting game yet they're playable characters in the Storm series. Removing the Fraccion characters would also render some of the main characters like Rukia, Uryu, and Chad nearly useless in a story mode scenario. Ichigo only has a little more than a handful of characters that he fought through the Arrancar arc. The story mode can't work just focusing mainly on him alone. Rangiku barely engaged in any battles in the series through the Arrancar arc yet she's playable in the game. They could've cut her out going by your logic. It's an anime fighting game. It's going to live or die by how much fanservice it has by default regardless of what they do with the gameplay. If the game was a 2D game made by Arc System Works then I'd agree with you but it's not. It's a 3D arena fighting game made by a smaller mostly unknown studio. If that was the case that having huge rosters was more popular a decade ago then Sparking Zero wouldn't be receiving the hype and marketing campaign that it's gotten. Regardless of what they do with the fighting system, there's no way that this game is going to be a Tekken or a Soul Calibur in terms of depth. Even long time fighting game franchises have been criticized for becoming more casual friendly with recent entries which includes Tekken and Street Fighter so having some depth alone isn't really going to help this game move units.
Many have tried and all have failed to present to me any viable counter arguments to anything that was stated or shown here in this video by myself. Instead, besides some reasonable responses, most of what I've received on here are from shills in the Bleach fanbase making excuses for why the marketing in this game has been terrible by outright dismissing basic numbers, throwing words in my mouth that were never said, making stupid assumptions about my channel when they haven't even clicked through the videos that's been uploaded on this channel, spamming the useless dislike button not just on this video but on other Bleach Rebirth of Souls related content I've uploaded including the most positive videos on the game which doesn't at all hurt the channel or myself, making up ridiculous arguments not based on facts but opinion, and/or simply not responding at all when I confront them with counter arguments because they know they're full of it.
We have people trying to raise stupid arguments like how manga sales apparently don't indicate how popular an anime IP is which is false. We have people that claim wikipedia isn't a good source when numerous other articles have reported the same exact information that's on that wiki article which I showed one of them in this video. We have people that are saying this game somehow by magic because a niche anime fighting game based on Bleach of all things is somehow this sacred unicorn and therefore won't be competing with other games released on the market between now and whenever this game releases which includes Sparking Zero, AC Shadows, Avowed, Monster Hunter, and other 2025 games coming out early next year where Bandai Namco has set the release window in. We have people trying to argue absurd talking points that Reddit somehow doesn't indicate how big a fanbase of a particular game is when I mentioned nothing of the sort in this video. The list of stupid continues to pour in and yet none of it actually debunks anything I've stated.
I've had one person raise somewhat of a decent argument regarding the character trailers but it doesn't change anything I said that's wrong about them here in this video. It doesn't change the fact that the discussion surrounding Rebirth of Souls has been relegated to a small niche community that is the Bleach fanbase and even within that small niche audience, not everyone is happy with what's been shown of this game. Try as you may, the facts surrounding this game with its subpar marketing strategy and red flags have not changed.
I get the concern with this game flopping but to me if the game is fun then it will still have a devoted community that will enjoy playing. At this point as a bleach fan im still hyped that we are getting a console fighting game.
@ibrahimdragon Fair enough but if the game flops, there won't be much of a devoted community left to engage with the game assuming you're referring to online competitive multiplayer.
@@AvidAlchemist think about soul ressureccion. Some may say it flopped but I had alot of fun playing it. Bleach fighting game is super niche and so to me the numbers reflect that. Brave souls from what I hear is very popular so I think based off of that this game will have a decent community that will play it. The only problem is that will also be competing against sparking zero
@ibrahimdragon Brave Souls is a free-to-play mobile gacha game that was later ported over to other platforms. That's why that game is popular. This game isn't going to see those same numbers.
@@AvidAlchemist I'm just pointing out how there will be a devoted community that will play. Especially if roster size is good.
@ibrahimdragon Well to that point, I agree. The question is how big will the base roster be because a small roster will definitely cause the game to die quickly which is part of what happened to the Demon Slayer game.
I don’t think any Bleach game has sold that well in the West, hence why we don’t get many Bleach games, and the best games are Japan-exclusive. I'm going to buy it. But this could be the last Bleach game we ever get. That's why I hope we get the whole story from chapter 1 to final chapter of manga.
@thelightseeker94 The game covers the beginning of the show all the way through the Arrancar arc. The Fullbringer and TWBW arcs are not going to be in the game unless they're somehow added through DLC which is wishful thinking.
Tbf most of them haven't even been released in the west. A lot of them like Heat and Soul was exclusively sold in Japan (maybe Asia too Idk). The only really BIG bleach game we got here in the west was Soul Resurrection and maybe Shattered Blade, but both weren't well distributed. I never saw any Bleach games in my country in Europe when I was younger, meanwhile Naruto and Dragonball were being sold everywhere.
Apologies, but I'm gonna be a little long-winded on this. 😂
Something to note about the character trailers is that they are a perfect length to go on TikTok/UA-cam shorts. As it gets closer to its release, I wouldn't be surprised to see vertical versions of these trailers popping up as ads on those platforms. Plus Kubo mentioned he was fond of the principle of "If it is hidden, it is the flower." taken from “Fushikaden (The Flowering Spirit).” basically meaning the secrets are the most beautiful/alluring things. Kinda feels like Tamsoft took that to heart with the marketing by hiding a lot of things like moves and abilities in plain sight with some of the footage, which is why you see so many folks disceting each frame of these stupidly short videos.
Straight up, I'm expecting this to end up with an 8/10 rating at the highest, and I don't expect it to reach the popularity of Storm or Demon Slayer. That's for a couple of reasons.
The first "uncut" footage (there were actually a lot of cuts outside the prerecorded match) was played by the VAs who had never touched the game before the event; only Kubo and the MC seemed to show skills comparable to the initial prerecorded fight. Not the best way to showcase what the game is capable of, but for Kubos Bleach podcast it's pretty appropriate.
Then, Tamsoft isn't known for being a AAA developer. They occupy a very specific niche and tend do very well with those fans. They have also said that they want RoS to be a competitive game, and that it's a "Hybrid Arena Fighter" which is why the gameplay seems to be breaking a lot of the traditional arena fighter rules. This includes the previous Bleach games which it is seeming to draw some inspiration from, and this is going to rub some folks the wrong way. Its already cause some long back and forth discussions within the small community it does have over some small things. The Awakening mechanic for instance seems to be to easy to reach or is available too early in the match for some, and to them this means there no reason to play in the Unawakened state. Without being able to play the game though it's hard to tell.
My last point is just a focus on the popularity of Bleach as a whole. For whatever reason Bleach just has this staying power and a lot of fans I've known talk about how they just didn't like Bleach at first or it was "meh." Then some time down the line it just clicked and they really enjoyed it. (Annecdotal but just an interesting thing I've noticed.)
@sharogengaming7716 No need to apologize. I want thoughtful responses on here. Thus far, I've gotten maybe a handful of responses that make sense. The rest have been nonsense.
Your point about the character trailers is an interesting way of looking at them. They do fit a Shorts format but I personally expect a bit more from them and I'm certain I'm not alone on that front.
I agree about the reviews. An 8 score is likely what this has the highest potential to receive but what it does get I believe will revolve around how much content the game actually has. The more characters it has, the stronger the story mode is, the more variety the gameplay modes have, the better the final score will be for this.
The marketing as I emphasized here in this video hasn't been good. The character reveals have been completely random and the devs have not stated exactly around what number of characters are going to be in the final product. That's another problem with the character trailers. There's also other problems the game will have with the way it's been designed. One example you mentioned is the Awakening mechanic which is something I've noticed myself along with the constant pauses/small cutscenes in battle constantly interrupting the pacing of the fights themselves. The health system also seems to be needlessly complicated which could easily turn off the casual players that the game needs to reach.
Your last point about the fanbase is likely due to the fact that Bleach as a whole never reached its full potential as a series. The quality of the franchise dropped off in quality thanks to a number of different factors. The series has also been severely underrepresented in other forms of media especially when it comes to videogames. That's why there's been less than a handful of Bleach videogames that have been released outside Japan. The ones that have been released in the US bombed critically. Rebirth of Souls may be the last chance the series gets to deliver a satisfying modern triple A fighting game. But with Tamsoft leading the project as a smaller studio which you mentioned and the haphazard advertising for it, the game may not live up to expectations. I'm waiting to hear more information on the story mode, the other gameplay modes, and the final character roster size and who's included on it before I make a final decision on whether or not the game is worth a day 1 purchase.
@AvidAlchemist I'd disagree that the health system is complex, but it differs from what we're used to. It's just Smash Bros with an HP bar instead of percentages, and you hit with a "Final Smash" to break the stocks. Now, in terms of the number of stocks, there's very little to go on, but Globku had a good speculation video, and I'd pretty much come to the same conclusions he did before watching it. I like the uniqueness of it, and with the leaked video for Ulquiorra, it looks like they're not afraid to create some unique character-specific meters/moves. Still, overall, I think this will also come down to personal preference.
The pauses seem to coincide with special moves; now, whether this means those moves are uninterruptible is an interesting point that would be devastating to the game, in my opinion. (It already looks like you can't stop Awakenings, which would be a step in the wrong direction if that were the case)
I also really don't think reasonable folks are expecting an AAA experience. Even the ones who are excited about the game point to Cursed Clash and the MHA game when trying to make a comparison. And the references to Tekken and SC that have been made, usually just to point at the movement system and how RoS seems to be trying to mix things up a bit. It's still using the Light/Heavy button system, so I don't think we should expect a fight-stick-quality game by any means.
It'll be interesting to see how things shape up after Sparking Zero releases, as that game is just casting a massive shadow over everything anyway.
@sharogengaming7716 When I said the health system is overly complicated, I meant for the casual gamer. It might work better in practice than what's been shown of it. I haven't played the game so can't speak on it personally.
It's not just the special moves with the pauses, there're also pauses when a character loses stocks for their health. There're pauses when the characters go into awakening which is to be expected but from the more critical comments I've read, the awakening animations are too long. Seems to be a matter of opinion but that's what I've seen. I don't believe the special moves can be interrupted but have no facts to say so either way.
If comparisons are being made to Cursed Clash then that's not good. Besides Tekken and Soul Calibur, I've seen comparisons to Naruto Clash of Ninja with regards to the movement. Basically it appears to be a hybrid type of game as you mentioned. The possible problem with that is related to the biggest complaint that I've seen from other commenters on various videos, that the game overall seems to move too slow. These comments are likely from people expecting a Storm or Tenkaichi equivalent which makes it difficult to determine what the consumer reception to the game will be.
It's not just Sparking Zero that this game has to contend with but also whatever games that's coming out around it as I mentioned in the beginning of this video. If it releases around February through March, it'll likely be overshadowed by far bigger releases, Monster Hunter, AC Shadows, and Avowed all release in February. A February release for this game will be a death sentence. A January release date may make the most sense to avoid those larger games but that puts into question just how big the roster is going to be since they're only releasing one character trailer a week and will only have around 25 by the end of the year with that continued pattern. Maybe an April or May release date could work but it's too early to tell at this time.
@@AvidAlchemist exactly! Not having a hands-on experience is incredibly frustrating right now. I know demos aren't a thing anymore, but this is a game that would benefit from it.
Well all the bleach fans could do (including me) is pray lol
I agree They gotta amp up the marketing
Also the Ulquiorra showing up was completely unexpected
@154Mamba Ulquiorra as I stated in this video was completely expected to be in this game since the dev team stated months ago around when this game was announced that the game is covering the Arrancar arc. As such, every espada and about a dozen or more Fraccion Arrancar should be playable in this game and if they're not, the fanbase should be vocal about it with their wallet by not supporting the game when it releases. They're already losing fans because of the absence of later arcs like Fullbring and TWBW neither of which will be in the final game.
@@AvidAlchemist Oh I thought you meant as in expected his trailer to drop that recent
Besides Bleach fans i do think this game won't do that well in the mainstream, the reason is also due Bleach being the black sheep of the trio, paired with this being the first game after + decade, not to mention it being an arena fighter, we got many that didn't perform that well. Storm and Budokai are a lightning in a bottle, which also brings the competition with S0, the result is inevitable, Tamsoft are more niche and they got no ground from previous Bleach games to work with, literally the opposite of S0.
I think we should take this for what it is and it's gonna be, aka not the Storm/Budokai of the Bleach series.
Ignore the insane people saying the opposite, this game will flop in any case compared to S0. What it needs is to be good, just enough for DLC's to keep its life span a bit.
Edit: 80% of this can be fixed or worsened with a demo, which i'm still waiting for.
@Super-7327 I agree, they should release a demo. Doing so would certainly give those interested in the game a concrete idea of what the game actually is because there's plenty that still don't really get exactly what kind of style the devs are going for.
Yeah the advertising sucks I think they are too keen on bleach as an IP, I hope that the game itself is great tho to make up for it, same for Hunter x Hunter. But since they are planning to release it in early 2025 is cuz they want to rely on the popularity of Bleach cour 3,
Should’ve compared the Bleach trailers to Naruto, Demon Slayer, JJK, My Hero, Etc trailers. No anime game is touching sparking zero. The game will do fine bruh
@GinFushigoro Why would I compare the Bleach trailer numbers to Naruto when Naruto is vastly more popular than Bleach? Naruto is basically DBZ 2.0. I compared Bleach to Demon Slayer because it's closer to where Demon Slayer is on the scale of popularity. Not only that, you just strengthened my argument by saying "no anime game is touching sparking zero". That's kind of a problem for this game. "Fine" isn't good enough. It needs to perform at numbers that are more than fine to even be relevant.
@@AvidAlchemistbecause some the bleach trailers are doing better than demon slayer and storm 😕
@GinFushigoro Doesn't mean the game itself will do better than Storm. It's highly unlikely to reach anywhere near 10 million lifetime units. Storm 4 sold well over 10 lifetime. In order for this game to sell those numbers it's gonna have to reach a mass casual audience outside the Bleach fanbase. Good luck doing that.
5:42 I feel you're largely ignoring the content creators that cover these trailers so most dont go back and watch the official. Just look at globkus views
@XdarksoulX1129 I'm ignoring commentary based channels because they each have a heavily skewed audience that's biased in favor of whatever the content creator thinks including the person you just named. And since these types of channels don't actually influence whether a product succeeds or not regardless of how big they are which I can point out a clear prime example of, if need be, it actually fits my argument better to use a channel that doesn't upload biased commentary of gameplay footage for an unreleased game like the one that's seen in the video. The responses on that video aren't skewed in favor of the content creator. They're real genuine responses to what people think about the game.
i'm just not sure what audience this is game is for
it looks too complex for the average anime arena fighter player to get into
the graphics look great but aside from that there isn't much appeal for people who aren't already diehard bleach fans
@ShelbyCrowley-b4g And as I showed in this video both in numbers and in various comments, Bleach fans are clearly not as interested as one would suspect they should be for a game like this. If they were, the reception to the gameplay wouldn't be mixed, they would be universally positive. Not only that but in order for this game to sell in mass numbers, they cannot just target Bleach fans. The game needs to appeal to non fans as well and this dev team clearly has failed on that front already. Your argument makes no sense. Zero.
You can claim what the characters have used in the gameplay videos all you want, you can speculate what the mechanics are and how they've been designed all you please, you haven't played the game. None of us have. The fact is it's the developers that have to market their own product. It's the developers that have to explain how the game works. Not you. Not anyone else. Thus far, they have failed to do so and general interest for this game as a result is low. The small numbers for each trailer, the lack of discussion on this game on other gaming related forums across multiple sites reflect just that.
@SonplaysMinEcraft They haven't done a good job of explaining how the game actually plays as I stated in this video. What you're saying is 100% correct. This game from the low view counts on the trailers to the general lack of discussion and interest to the mixed comments on the gameplay, is clearly not appealing to anyone outside the hardcore Bleach fanbase and that's a problem. These days if a game can't manage to grab the interest of a large casual audience, it's not going to survive past the first few months if that. That's just the reality of the industry.
Just to correct two statements made in the video, the Gameplay Overview Trailer is the only other trailer thus far that's gotten above 300K views for Rebirth of Souls. The Demon Slayer game sold 3 million in its first 2 years on the market as of April 2023, not the first few months. That number includes both physical and digital sales. So it's actually far worse than what I stated.
Any comment that's not in proper English will not be post on here.
your arguments make a lot of sense XD
cheers to the first and last Bleach game in 14 years😂
@Moon_Sama_0 They do make a lot of sense actually. Whether this is sarcasm or not, I couldn't care less. The facts surrounding this game aren't going to change.
@@AvidAlchemist I know I wasn't trying to be sarcastic XD (people tell me I often come across as such)
I was just laughing at how correct you are and there's nothing that can be changed for a course correction
If BROS releases in February it is cooked. MH Wilds, AC Shadows (might flop though), Civ 7, Yakuza Pirates. Maybe it'll still do well because it's the only anime game, Idk. I feel like MH Wilds will devour any competition.
The numbers on the Bleach trailer aren't actually bad. Naruto Storm Connections did worse on their announcement trailer, but their release date trailer did as well as Bleach's announcement trailer. Dragon Ball is just the exceptions as if you look back at anime game history DB is the only one that manages to get millions of views on pretty much all their games and the vast majority of their big trailers. Naruto not even close. One Piece only seem to get good views on live action trailers. Anything else anime related like fairy tail struggles even more. Even Attack on Titan can't break into 1 mil on their trailers. Dragon Ball is just a HUGE exception. Literally no other anime IP games gets close. It has always been like this, every DB game gets insane views.
Demon Slayer only has like 2 trailers that got 1mil+ views. The odd big trailers are 600-800k and other announcement trailers and such are around 200-300k views. Then lesser views for other smaller trailers. But despite the views that are far worse than DB games it sold 3 mil copies.
@paledrake I didn't say the numbers on the Bleach trailers were necessarily bad but they are just okay numbers which is concerning because the series isn't on the same level of popularity as Naruto or DBZ. Naruto Connections is from an already established series that technically already ended with 4. There wasn't any real interest in another Storm game because 4 covered the end of the series and did so in a satisfying way.
Outside that point you raised, the issues for Rebirth of Souls goes well beyond the trailer view counts for reasons I discussed at length in the video. There's a clear lack of interest in general on this game and the responses to what's been shown for the gameplay are mixed. The Demon Slayer game sold 3 million in 2 years. That's not exactly a winning metric. Videogames sell the most when they first release. The game sold 1.3 million in the first 2 months and quickly fell off after that before it went on sale. That 3 million is lifetime sales not launch sales. Bleach is less popular by comparison and it already has a poor history of representation in the gaming industry outside Japan. The game is fighting an uphill battle regardless because of all these things I've pointed out.
For this game to succeed, it's going to need to have a strong story mode that doesn't skip over important events from the show and it's going to need a large character roster to avoid one of the key issues that the Demon Slayer game had. Since the game is covering over 300 episodes of source material, it's best that they put in as many characters as possible of which the number should be around 60. I'm not expecting that but that's what it should be and actually it's possible based on the source material alone to include way more than that. If they launch this at around 40 characters or far less, it's done, this game is finished. Even if they release this game as the best it can possibly be from a quality perspective, it could still fail depending on what games are released around it.
@@AvidAlchemist Storm 4 had similar if not worse views than Connections, so my point still stands. DB is the only exception, every other anime game gets around Bleach's numbers or less.
3 million lifetime sales for an anime game is pretty good as they're generally more niche and have lower production costs than western games and AAA Japanese games. Bleach had gotten a small resurgence, but I agree that it's not as popular as it once was.
40 characters is plenty tbh, you'd be surprised by how many important characters you can fit into that number. I don't think people will complain with that if the characters are mechanically different and deep, as most fighting games usually have smaller roosters than 40 or the ones that do have expanded their rooster over multiple entries. Now the story mode...I'm sorry but I think BROS story mode will suck ass. They'er very hesitant in showing us any cutscenes and we've not seen any impressive animations from a cutscene as of yet. Like 99% of all the action we've seen is from the gameplay or special move cinematics. I hope I'm wrong here, because having a bad story mode might actually kill this game no matter how fire the gameplay is.
@@paledrake Not really because Storm 4 is a sequel entry to a long running series and represents a much more popular franchise than Bleach. So that game was expected to sell and move mass numbers of units by default. Rebirth of Souls is different. It's not from a long running established series and it represents a far less popular franchise by comparison. So the trailer numbers are still relevant. Not only that but as I also responded to another commenter on here, I brought up way more than just trailer view counts to emphasize that there's a general lack of discussion and lack of interest with this game in this video. Your point was debunked.
3 million lifetime sales for an anime game is decent but not for an arena fighting game based on a popular license like Bleach. Sales also aren't the only factor that contributes to a videogame being successful. It's also player retention and review scores that publishers take into account when deciding if an IP is worth continuing. Days Gone sold decently but it received weak reviews and therefore wasn't continued. The opposite happened with Returnal with strong reviews but weaker sales and consumer reception. Rebirth of Souls will have the same factors apply to it that every other game released in the modern industry has. It needs both strong reviews and sales to be considered a success and even then if its player base drops off quickly then none of those other factors will matter much.
40 characters in your opinion is plenty. In mine, such a number would be pathetic especially since the game covers over 300 episodes of source material. The Fraccion Arrancar alone would take up nearly a 3rd of the roster if they were added. 40 characters means there would be certain events that would be cut from the game which means less content. I don't advocate for less content in a game unless it would be to the product's benefit. And those people you mentioned that wouldn't complain are clearly from the hardcore Bleach fanbase. They'll blindly buy the game anyway because of a combination of low standards and just being ecstatic that the game even exists. It's the casual fan that the developer needs to worry about. If casuals find the roster limiting, they'll drop the game quickly just like they did with Demon Slayer.
I won't comment on the story mode because we don't know anything about it, how long it is or what it has to offer.
@AvidAlchemist I mean storm 3 sold 2 mil and fairy tail sold like 400k and still got a sequel. My point still stands. I find views and sales data more reliable than reddit numbers.
I'm not gonna discuss non-anime game sales because we'd be here forever. I'll just say that days gone sold like 10mil and still got canned despite turning in huge profits. Playstation has just been retarded since the PS5 release and relocating to California. Though I think you're overestimate how well BROS needs to do as My hero OJ 1 sold like 2.5 mil and got a sequel. FT got a sequel with less than a mil sales. OP Warriors sell less than 2 mil, Oddessy didn't even reveal its sales. Even Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm had sales in 1-3mil until Storm 4 tripled their sales. DB, however, has always sold well.
If you've played the Naruto Storm games you know less is more. It has like 100+ characters, and they all play basically the same with few exceptions. a proper fighting game like tekken, soul calibur, blazblue, etc have way less characters, but they all have their own playstyle to master. You don't see people complaining over their rooster sizes (unless it's less than 20, then people get mad). For example DB FighterZ had 24 characters on release. I'm not saying BROS will be more complicated than an arcsys fighter, but it doesn't seem as basic as ninja storm at least. If they make their characters deep and unique enough I think fans will be satisfied. Also real talk who the fuck cares about the fracciones or the majority of the vizards? I literally see no one hype up the fracciones and most of them don't even have enough moves or screen time to make a proper fighting character out of. Tesla literally just transformed into a boredude and got one shot by Kenpachi. Same thing with most liutenants. Nanao doesn't do shit until TYBW, used as an assist even there. Nemu same thing, her big moment is in TYBW. Yachiru same thing, TYBW. Momo will forever remain useless. Kira my poor boy only got a moment to shine in TYBW and in a short novel. Choijiro... lmao, maybe a younger version in BROS 2:TYBW. Most of the fan favorites and big plot characters can be fit in a 40-character rooster. The less important ones can be put into DLC. Having huge roosters was way more popular, like 10 years ago. Now it's less of a sales pitch, probably due to naruto storms homogenous and bloated rooster.
@@paledrake It depends on what their internal projections are regarding if a sequel is greenlit. I'm not going into the discussion of a potential sequel when the first game hasn't even come out and we don't know how the final product will turn out. You're missing the point. My talking point regarding Reddit is that the game doesn't have any sort of a massive dedicated community to discuss it before its release which is a problem. It's one of the reasons why I've decided to make content for it although I'm not going to blindly praise the game and pretend as if there're no red flags with it based on what's been shown.
Less is more from a certain point of view. The Storm games weren't made to be deep. They were made on purpose to be simple because their selling point was the fanservice and even then, those games added more depth with new mechanics introduced later in the series while retaining a 3 party system so it's not as if they're just completely casualized.
Perhaps I am overestimating what the game needs to make but again, since we don't have Bandai Namco's internal projections for the game and won't have that information ever unless it's leaked through a memo or a hack which is highly unlikely to be the case, we can only speculate and I don't like speculating on any topic.
You can say the same thing about the Tenkaichi series yet the characters playing the same or similar doesn't really matter because these games ultimately live or die based on how much fanservice they provide which is something that both the Tenkaichi and Storm series excels at better than nearly any other licensed based games. DB Fighter Z was made to be a competitive game and the conversation surrounding it was framed as such from the beginning. It was a dream project, an outlier. That's why no one complained about that game's character roster. It's only been speculated just how deep Rebirth of Souls will be. They're already overcomplicating the health system among other things which appears to drag out the matches longer than any other standard fighting game. The game could have some depth to it but still fail to resonate with its target audience because of other elements they threw into the game that could be seen as tedious or annoying such as the constant brief cutscenes appearing in every match that people have already been complaining about.
Your point regarding the Visoreds and the Fraccion is highly subjective. A lot of these characters could be described as lacking to where they wouldn't make for good fighting game characters. That's what the developers are there for. It's their job to be creative and make these characters work in a fighting game. Characters like Konohamaru, Karin, and Kushina Uzumaki shouldn't work in a fighting game yet they're playable characters in the Storm series. Removing the Fraccion characters would also render some of the main characters like Rukia, Uryu, and Chad nearly useless in a story mode scenario. Ichigo only has a little more than a handful of characters that he fought through the Arrancar arc. The story mode can't work just focusing mainly on him alone. Rangiku barely engaged in any battles in the series through the Arrancar arc yet she's playable in the game. They could've cut her out going by your logic. It's an anime fighting game. It's going to live or die by how much fanservice it has by default regardless of what they do with the gameplay. If the game was a 2D game made by Arc System Works then I'd agree with you but it's not. It's a 3D arena fighting game made by a smaller mostly unknown studio.
If that was the case that having huge rosters was more popular a decade ago then Sparking Zero wouldn't be receiving the hype and marketing campaign that it's gotten. Regardless of what they do with the fighting system, there's no way that this game is going to be a Tekken or a Soul Calibur in terms of depth. Even long time fighting game franchises have been criticized for becoming more casual friendly with recent entries which includes Tekken and Street Fighter so having some depth alone isn't really going to help this game move units.