Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-24826159-20160106183509/@comment-11051098-20160107020949

As we learned when Nimaiya forged Zangetsu with an Asauchi base in this arc, the Quincy side of his powers were suppressing his Shinigami powers because it originally wanted him to become a full Quincy.

FGT in which Ichigo became the Getsuga itself, I understand that as Ichigo becoming one with the Getsuga Tensho, and reaching a state where he had the full power of it, un-suppressed by his Quincy powers.

I think that level of power could be close to what he will have now in Bankai, the full unlimited power of his combined Shinigami/Quincy powers. We already saw him easily fending off against 4 Sternritters at once without even using Zangetsu until Candice attacked him for real.