Bleach: Shattered Blade nowadays has been pretty much forgotten about even by fans of the series, and I can't say this didn't happen for no good reason. The story is absolutely nonsensical and relies on dumbed down versions of the characters to progress. The presentation overall is just very washed out and shabby. Aside from some characters and the special attacks, nothing is enjoyable to look at and the same can be said about the sound design, which really messes up the usually well casted and energetic dub voices. And my god these loading screens. The gameplay can't save Shattered Blade either. It's not broken like a rushed, glitchy game would be, but in the same way button mashing can get you through a basic hack and slash game, simply moving your controller left and right, up and down, and occasionally in a stab motion is more than enough to get you through fights, and it's not even close. As a fighting game it lacks the very basis to be enjoyed competitively, it's simply not engaging.

The only things that can be considered positives here are the roster and the movesets of the characters. The movesets are one of the things I would genuinely praise in this game. While it takes a blow due to the poor gameplay, the characters' moves all at least look distinct and they're taken directly from their source material. The specials, the different bankai, I think most of them very much suit their respective character and can be entertaining to watch. That is the closest to fanservice this game has to offer (aside from, you know, the usual Bleach-esque fanservice).

I also appreciate how the roster is anything but limited. Pretty much any canon character who has combat experience, plus the Shattered Blade exclusive antagonist, are all playable. It shows they at least bothered to consider different options and included everyone just in case, even with some very fitting alts. It manages to not feel excessive as well and I can't say any special moves look copy pasted here, which given the amount of characters is quite a feat. The only ones who do feel out of place are Ulquiorra and Grimmjow. As much as I love them, they really do not belong here, regardless of whether or not they appear in episode mode. It feels strange to see them in a game that's basically an epilogue to the soul society arc, where they had yet to be introduced in canon. Their movesets are also underwhelming if you know their characters, since the game released before any of them got to show off the full extent of their abilities, hence why they didn't have much to work with.

This is probably one of the shortest games based on an anime and manga series I've yet to play, and despite that I don't think I can recommend it to anyone who isn't a fan of Bleach and merely interested in adding the game to their collection.