Bleach, one of the classic big three Shonen Jump series, is currently airing one of its most-loved arcs: The Thousand-Year Blood War. This new adaptation of the arc brought many old and new fans in to watch the struggles of Ichigo and the Soul Reapers. Like One Piece and Naruto, Bleach inspired its fair share of spin-off video games. Unfortunately, the majority of them never received an official English version, but in this piece I’ll dive into the ones that did.
Image via Sega
Bleach games on handheld systems available in English
The majority of Bleach game titles that made it from Japan to the West are only officially available on the Nintendo DS. This makes a lot of them hard to find. If you happen upon one, they are usually more expensive than they were when they first came out.
The biggest gap here involves the Bleach: Heat the Soul series which ran from 2005 through 2010. Released on the PSP, this series resulted in an impressive seven titles that never made it out of Japan.
Most of the Bleach games that got Western releases were 2D fighting games with the exception of The 3rd Phantom being a turn-based tactical game.
- Bleach: The Blade of Fate (2007 – Nintendo DS)
- Bleach: Dark Souls (2008 – Nintendo DS)
- Bleach: The 3rd Phantom (2009 – Nintendo DS)
Image via NIS America
Bleach console games available in English
Unfortunately, due to there being fewer Bleach games available on home consoles, that resulted in fewer chances to get English versions. Like the handheld games, the majority of these titles were only ever made available in Japan. The console releases at least aren’t limited to a single console.
Also, although it’s not exclusively a Bleach title, there are also J-Stars Victory VS and Jump Force with characters from the series.
- Bleach: Shattered Blade (2007 – Wii)
- Bleach: Soul Resurrección (2011 – Playstation 3)
- J-Stars Victory VS (2015 – PlayStation 3)
- Jump Force (2019 – Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch)
Image via KLab
Bleach Mobile Games Available in English
There are two Bleach gacha games available on mobile devices. Both are fairly linear games and are of course free-to-play. However, Immortal Souls is a step below Brave Souls. Both feature chibi art styles and have a range of characters the player can collect, some even from the Burn the Witch spin-off.
- Bleach: Immortal Soul (2020 – iOS, Android)
- Bleach: Brave Souls (2016 – PC, iOS, Android, Playstation 4)
