[UPDATED] The BLEACH: Rebirth of Souls Roster Might Be Worse Than I Thought

UPDATE: Kurotsuchi has been confirmed as of November 25 so, thankfully, I was wrong. Bandai’s press release seems to have been strangely worded.

When BLEACH: Rebirth of Souls was first announced, I made a video detailing the past of the developer Tamsoft, and how their experience makes them a great fit for BLEACH. In the video (around the 15:20 mark), I said I expected the roster to be between 30 and 40 characters.

When Rebirth of Souls was confirmed to release in “Early 2025,” I calculated the roster size based on the latest date the game could release: March 28, 2025 or April 25, 2025 depending on what the cutoff for “early 2025” is. If Bandai releases a character trailer every week—excluding Christmas and New Years’, we’d be at 35 by the end of March or 39 by the end of April. I thought that was a respectable size for the first game, but 40 might not be enough. Bandai’s recent press release may have hinted that the base roster will be worse than I first thought.

“Bandai Namco recently released several trailers for BLEACH REBIRTH OF SOULS which reveals gameplay footage and move sets for the remaining members of the Thirteen Court Guard Squad, fearsome warriors of the Soul Society, and the introduction of the Arrancars.”
Bandai Namco’s press release that came with the Nel trailer

“The remaining members of the Thirteen Court Guard Squad.” Excuse me, what? If Soi Fon, Renji, and Kira are “the remaining members,” that means we won’t get the following:

Yamamoto
Komamura
Kyōraku
Ikkaku
Kurotsuchi
Ukitake

I want to operate on the assumption that this was worded poorly and I’m wrong about this, because the implication is insane. However, it does make sense (the logistics, not the omissions). Using the March estimate, if there are no other situations to double or triple up, we’re halfway through the roster. If we look at the remaining Espada, you can easily whittle down those choices.

Ulquiorra has already been shown
No Kyoraku = No Starrk
No Kurotsuchi = No Szayelaporro
Do we really even need Zommari and Aaroniero?

Four of the remaining five Espada’s inclusion can be implied either by another character or by common sense. Nel soft confirms Nnoitora, Soi Fon’s Bankai almost confirms Baraggan, Hitsugaya—along with the developer’s history—almost confirms Harribel, and leaving out Grimmjow would be as bad as Dragon Ball fighters’ treatment of the Buu Saga from Burst Limit to Sparking! ZERO. Yammy’s a toss-up since he could easily be relegated to a boss fight, but I’ll keep him in for now.

With those 5 characters in, we’re down to 12 left. Those 12 can easily be filled with:

Ichigo (Final Getsuga Tensho)
Pre-release Ichigo or Zangetsu (both have been shown in the announcement trailer, but it’s a 50/50 on if either one’s actually playable)
Aizen
Aizen (Hogyoku Transformations)
Orihime
Isshin
Shinji
Love
Rose
Kensei
Rudbornn (to give Rukia something to do, but he could be substituted for Aaroniero)
Luppi (Seems like a waste, but his inclusion would flesh out the second Karakura invasion)

Again, I really hope I’m wrong. Unlike Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash, no character count range has even been announced so they could easily pull a Sparking! ZERO and announce a bunch of playable characters in a trailer close to release, followed by putting out multiple trailers on various Mondays. Only time will tell how this goes.

BLEACH: Rebirth of Souls releases in early 2025 for PlayStation, Xbox Series, and PC.