Beast of Reincarnation Review – The Beast Unleashed
Game Freak, a name we all recognize as the studio behind the highly successful Pokémon franchise. They’ve almost entirely been defined by their flagship monster-battling juggernaut, though it’s not to say that they’ve attempted to break from the IP since Pokémon made its debut in 1996. But who outside of perhaps the most die-hard of fans can honestly name titles like Drill Dozer, HarmoKnight, Tembo the Badass Elephant, or more recently, Little Town Hero? The reality is that Game Freak has been living in the massive shadow of Pikachu ever since the franchise took off.
I suppose that has its ups and downs, though it has come under heavy scrutiny from fans with some of the recent Pokémon entries, so much so that many rallied behind Palworld, a game that plays nothing like Pokémon but clearly draws inspiration from it. But Game Freak isn’t entirely at fault, as the Pokémon franchise is co-owned by Nintendo and Creatures Inc., operating within a multibillion-dollar media machine that demands new games, anime seasons, merchandise, and trading card sets on a strict, unrelenting calendar. It’s a franchise where control and creative differences are undoubtedly butting heads, and for Game Freak, that has clearly placed them into a development cycle where playing it safe is all they can really do.
However, with the announcement of Beast of Reincarnation, it’s been made clear that Game Freak is finally ready to take things to the next level, no longer wanting to be defined by their single-franchise identity. Beast of Reincarnation feels like a first real look at what Game Freak is capable of when they’re allowed to make games without the tight constraints of annual Pokémon release schedules. It’s not to say it is without issues, but Beast of Reincarnation is proof that Game Freak still has that raw creative ambition that started it all.
Finding the Beast Within
Perhaps the weakest part of Beast of Reincarnation is its story. The tale they tell is one we’ve seen in many other games before, with a clear draw of inspiration taken from the Nier franchise ( Yui Ishikawa, who was the Japanese voice for 2B from Nier: Automata, also voices Emma) and even Stellar Blade, but being “unoriginal’ isn’t much of a problem, or even a complaint. I’m always down to see a studio giving their own take on a story I’ve seen elsewhere, and for the most part, the world-building in Beast of Reincarnation is one of the game’s big highlights. But the story is only as good as its cast of characters.
With the story centered on Emma, the main protagonist, and her companion wolf, Koo, the emotional heart of the journey relies heavily on their bond. This is portrayed through many of the cutscenes, as well as the optional dialogue and the lines that play out while roaming the world, but I can’t say I really felt much of a connection between the characters. It’s clear that Game Freak wanted to emulate the same emotional hit that 2B had with 9S from the Nier Automata franchise, but perhaps her line of deliveries and the build-up to said moments just never hit as well as they should. This is partly due to how flat her overall personality is, which is used as a plot device in itself, but at the same time, it’s also how every other character in the game comes across too. It wouldn’t be so much of an issue if the other characters balanced her personality, but since that’s not the case, most of them come off as the same characters. I can’t say anyone was much of a standout here to make me feel invested enough to care for them.
But where it lacks in story, it’s more than made up for in the gameplay department, which, in my opinion, is undoubtedly the main draw. It’s not quite a classic action hack-and-slash in the vein of Devil May Cry or God of War, but I also don’t want to downright call it a Soulsborne type of game. It can be brutally challenging, but because of the whole combo system it has going for it, as well as Koo’s command system, there’s a lot more you can do here to combat that Soulsborne difficulty that goes beyond that traditional dodge-and-punish loop, giving players a much more dynamic, aggressive toolkit to control the pace of battle.
I do think comparisons to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are very fair, given how parry-focused it is and how difficult it is. In fact, it’s probably the closest game we’ve gotten so far to Sekiro, and if Game Freak did a little bit of tuning around stunlocks and parry windows, I would argue that it may even be better, but that’s mostly due to the movesets and abilities that Emma has. Where it starts to turn more into Devil May Cry or God of War is once you begin unlocking different combos and abilities. She has a very large level skill tree and moveset to play with, and the fact that you can just use it all without limitation was a fantastic design choice. I know it’s a bizarre thing to bring up, but there are so many games with skill trees that go, well, if you want to use this, then you have to give that up. Not the case here with her skill tree; everything you unlock in it, you can freely use, and the number of combos that you can pull off and chain into other ones does give it that Devil May Cry and God of War feel.
It’s seamless and feels absolutely fantastic. I know I was really getting into the combat, because my fingers were starting to hurt just from stringing all the combos and flurries of parries I was pulling off. It’s definitely more along the lines of a classic RPG than it is a Soulsborne, but there are clear inspirations from the genre, such as “bonfires,” enemies respawning after resting, and a few other things. But to drive home that this isn’t a Soulsborne, when you die, you don’t lose anything in terms of character progression, so you don’t have to go back to the place you died at to retrieve any leveling material. It’s much more forgiving and lets you play and progress at your own pace, rather than slamming you into a brick wall until you perfect your run.
Emma does have equipables too, like new swords (each with different effects, and even elements), gems with bonus stats and effects, and even armor. I’m not too big of a fan of the armor, only because it visually does nothing. I always hate when a game does that: give you different types of armor, yet you can’t actually see what that armor looks like on your character.
For Koo’s combat, it’s more of a command-and-go type of gameplay. Koo will move and attack on his own, and as you parry attacks, you’ll earn points to use Koo’s commands. Once you have enough, you can initiate a command, which slows down time, allowing you to select from your equipped attacks for Koo. It definitely has a bit of that Pokémon DNA sprinkled in it, but these commands aren’t so much meant for dealing a large amount of damage, but more so as a way to further complement Emma’s combat. Some of them offer healing; others will bind enemies up or put some sort of status on them, opening up crucial windows for you to step in, execute your heavy combos, and such. The better you play as Emma, the more commands you can perform with Koo.
It’s a pretty balanced system, but do bear in mind that in the first few hours, the gameplay will be more parry-focused due to the lack of skills.
Additionally, Emma can also use stealth to her advantage, and thanks to her unique blight abilities, she can extend her hair to form tree roots to reach high places and get the drop on enemies. These abilities also come in handy during combat, where she can use her hair for grappling points, with other gap-closing moves available.
Dodging is probably the biggest area of combat that I wish were improved. It’s slow, and this game feels like the kind of game that wants to keep momentum going during combat. I almost got to a point where I am exclusively parrying and blocking because dodging gets you trapped in a stunlock that feels like it takes ages to wear off.
Beyond combat, players will traverse a new world handcrafted by Game Freak. Being set in a future post-apocalyptic Japan, where robots and wild beasts have overtaken the land, there is a lot of beauty to be seen in Beast of Reincarnation. But there’s also plenty of repetition, where the 20-plus-hour adventure may start to feel very samey. Location-wise, a good portion of the game takes place in forested areas, and outside of some of the gorgeous backdrops, there’s not much in terms of variety or things that really stand out.
The same can also be said about the enemies and the giant beasts you fight. I actually like the robots’ samurai-like designs, but at the same time, it’s all we really get from them. Same with the giant animal beasts. I thought they all looked great, but as I progressed through the game, their design grew tiring simply because of their repeated use. Bosses especially get reused a bunch of times, to the point that it felt like I was just repeating the same chapter again, in a slightly different layout.
More enemy variety, especially in a game that took me about 22-hours to beat, would have gone a long way in keeping the momentum going and preventing the back half of the journey from feeling like a retread. I still enjoyed playing through each area, but it came with an eye roll every time the boss was shown off, and it was one I had already fought earlier. I like the world Game Freak crafted, but it certainly could have used a lot more variety in its fantasy setting.
In terms of performance, running on a rig equipped with an AMD 9800X3D CPU and an RTX 4090, aiming for 4K at 60 FPS (by my own choice), it ran surprisingly smoothly. Seeing what Game Freak delivered with their last Pokémon game, I was expecting this to run like a complete mess. Now, it may not be the most graphically demanding game out there, but neither were Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and we all know the many technical issues they had. Performance isn’t exactly Game Freak’s forte, but I am glad to see it wasn’t much of an issue on my rig, aside from occasional hitches that didn’t detract from the experience. I did scale down to my other PC, which is equipped with an RTX 3080 and a much weaker CPU. That meant lowering the visuals and resolution, but I was able to keep it running at a smooth 60 FPS on that machine. Of course, this will be very different for everyone, but the early signs are very promising.
Taking Root
Beast of Reincarnation may not be the massive standout title I was hoping to see, but as Game Freak’s first non-Pokémon title in years and a completely different genre, it demonstrates incredible promise for what the developer can achieve when given room to experiment. It is without its issues, but as a first in what is hopefully many, Beast of Reincarnation builds a very strong foundation, one that Game Freak can refine, expand upon, and build toward something truly special with what may be their next big franchise.
Pros
- Excellent gameplay, especially those wanting a Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice-like combat system
- Flexible skill tree that doesn't limit you to pick and choose builds
- Forgiving progression loop - Despite clear Soulsborne inspiration, it is far more forgiving.
- Solid PC performance
Cons
- Weak narrative, with a forgettable cast
- Boss recycling and a lack of enemy variation
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