Beast of Reincarnation Review

Game Freak has long been one of the developers that has intrigued me the most. The studio pumps out Pokémon like a factory. And yet, every time Game Freak has branched off to do something else, it's been utterly divergent and experimental, to mixed results. Beast of Reincarnation is, ironically, in a way, Game Freak's least experimental offshoot yet — but it's by far the best game the studio has made in years. Despite some early stumbles, Beat of Reincarnation manages to be an intoxicating mixture of Sekiro, NieR, and Pokémon, all blended into something that hammers out its own charming identity by the end. 

Beast of Reincarnation is a post-apocalyptic action-RPG, taking place in the year 4026, when Japan has seemingly been overtaken by a sort of parasitic plant infestation known as the Blight, turning animals into dangerous beasts known as Malefacts. A young woman named Emma is the Sealer, a rare person who can absorb the Blight and wield its power as a weapon — tasked with taking down elite Malefacts known as the Nushi, absorbing their power, and using it to kill the Beast of Reincarnation, which will keep the world safe for another century. Emma is joined by a stray Malefact she's befriended, a wolf named Koo, as the two quickly develop the unbreakable bond of companionship. 

Beast of Reincarnation is a surprisingly story-dense game that really takes its time to delve into the pathos of each character, grow their relationships, and build out the stage with a staggering amount of lore and history. Much of this story is delivered through simply static dialogue scenes with little animation, I imagine due to budget restraints, but my biggest surprise with the game was how invested I quickly found myself in Emma's story. 

I want to reiterate that Beast of Reincarnation is quite obvious about its inspirations. The post-apocalyptic setting is quite clearly inspired by Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke, while the general vibe heavily draws from NieR's style. But to me, it felt from the very beginning that Beast of Reincarnation wore those inspirations proudly, and the further you get into the game, the more it becomes clear that it isn't just trying to ape what's come before, but bring something distinct to the table. This is partially because of how character-focused the game truly is, delving deep into Emma's relationship with Koo and two other traveling companions, the dejected young girl Kagura and the grizzled pilot Brad. While I can't say too much without giving things away, there are some interesting themes Beast of Reincarnation touches on as well — the nature of grief and letting those who've passed on go, the idea of extending our lives with technology, and whether dulling our emotions would really solve our problems. 

But Emma and Koo, and their relationship, are the beating heart of the game, both in terms of narrative and the crux of gameplay. This is where the game heavily draws on Game Freak's experience with Pokémon, giving you an astoundingly robust set of options for building Koo out as your combat partner. And as much as I genuinely enjoyed the story, the two aspects of Beast of Reincarnation that really sealed the deal for me were combat and exploration. 

Before launch, I've seen quite a few people refer to Beast of Reincarnation as a Soulslike, and having played through the whole game now, I absolutely would not call it a Soulslike, but I get the comparison. Structurally, it's similar. You navigate Emma and Koo through a variety of different areas, some open zones and some more linear — all while finding "campsites" that let you rest, spend experience to upgrade stats, buy skills, improve weapons, and more. There's a similar kind of cadence in how you're exploring the world, but traversal is much more of a focus here than your typical Soulslike. Emma can extend her hair to make a plant bridge to cross gaps and use it as a sort of spike to lift her through the air for long jumps. She also has a grapple where you can latch on to certain objects and points to fling yourself forward. 

There's a similar focus on exploration, but Beast of Reincarnation is much more about fluid movement and freeform exploration of wide areas, rather than picking around more closed zones. And there's a kind of quiet solitude to the exploration aspect of the game that I came to adore. This overgrown apocalyptic version of Japan is shockingly beautiful, and taking the time to explore can yield a cornucopia of rewards: upgrade materials, new weapons, hidden bosses, shrines to give you more healing items, and much more. 

But what I like even more is how that contemplative exploration is juxtaposed against a truly bombastic combat system that puts the focus on split-second reactions and smart utilization of different weapons and skills. On its face, Beast of Reincarnation plays a lot along the lines of something like NieR, a combo-based action game where you need to take enemies down quickly before being overwhelmed. But the absolutely crucial addition here is the parrying system, which is so crucial to the game that if you don't like parrying or at least can't put up with it, this might not be the game for you. 

The entire combat system is built around the idea of parrying; it's your primary means of defense, although you can block and dodge as well. But even more important is that parrying restores Koo's FP (Florescence Points), which are used to execute his Bloom Arts. By pressing triangle, you can slow down the action, Final Fantasy VII Remake style, and pick one of Koo's Bloom Arts, each of which can have wildly different attacks or effects. One might spray a group of enemies with acid, damaging and inflicting status ailments. Another might hold them in place momentarily with giant roots, opening up a window for a combo. And yet another peppers the enemy with seeds, boosting their stagger gauge while also restoring Emma's health. Success in combat means perfectly balancing Emma's attacks, parrying, and Koo's Bloom Arts. Although it's not super present, there's also a hunger system you'll need to keep track of, that can affect your strength in combat. 

Across the game, you also unlock ranged weapons with a wealth of different ammo types, from explosive darts to poison darts. And a massive skill tree can grant you new attacks, new mods to alter Koo's Bloom Arts, abilities like a dodge roll, and much more. This is an absurdly systems-heavy game, so much so that the initial hours can be extremely overwhelming as you come to grips with the sheer amount of options and demands. But as you get the hang of those systems, Beast of Reincarnation's combat blossoms into something truly special — a cacophonous ballet of destruction as Emma blasts apart enemies with roots and Koo rips robotic golemns to shreds with his teeth. Like the best action games, there's a real sense of flow to Beat of Reincarnation's battles, a rhythmic dance that eventually becomes second nature.

The interplay between Emma and Koo is absolutely fascinating here, and for all intents and purposes this feels like an extension of the action systems found in recent Pokémon games, like Legends Z-A. Managing Koo while trying to keep yourself alive is thrilling, and Koo's own AI is remarkably well implemented, making him feel like an active participant in battle at all times. Combat also grows in some remarkable ways across the experience, constantly layering in new skills and options that keep things fresh, while still letting you develop Emma and Koo how you see fit. 

Apart from the actual combat skills, there's a whole host of other advancement systems. Koo can conduct research for new combat skills and crafting items, which advances as you defeat enemies. Similarly, Kagura cooks for you while you rest aboard your base, the Cleanse Walker, and she has research to conduct for new recipes or higher yields on the seedlings you can plant and harvest for ingredients. There's also an affinity system you can build for both characters, done by petting or interacting with Koo and eating Kagura's meals. As affinity levels rise, you can unlock new rewards and conversations that delve more into their pasts and relationship with Emma. 

There's a really satisfying gameplay loop that evolves from piecing your way through zones, finding stronger enemies, investing in new skills, and then resting at the Cleanse Walker, before you head back out. And I cannot overstate how much I loved the skill system in particular for how much variety it adds. 

All that being said, I do think there's one major issue that keeps Beast of Reincarnation from reaching greater heights: it's simply too long. As someone who plays many 100-hour RPGs, I don't have a problem with long games, but at a certain point it feels like Beast of Reincarnation is spinning its wheels, especially as you end up fighting multiple bosses more than once. Boss battles are one of the highlights of the game, so it was especially disappointing to see the same boss pop up three times in the second half, with very few changes between battles.

It genuinely feels like Beast of Reincarnation could have cut out one, maybe even two areas, and been the better for it. This is especially true considering a few of the areas you explore feel remarkably similar, both visually and thematically. That same sentiment also applies to enemy types, many of which are simply stronger versions of the ones you've fought before. There's basically a whole middle chunk of the game that feels like it's spinning its wheels before the story starts kicking things into gear. The satisfying gameplay progression does help assuage some of those issues, but I can't help but feel like I would have enjoyed Beast of Reincarnation even more with just a bit of the fat cut off.

Another minor issue is the game's visuals, more specifically the lighting. To get the obvious out of the way, Beast of Reincarnation doesn't have any of the performance issues of recent Pokémon games; in fact, performance is one area I had almost zero issues with. And, by and large, I think this is a beautiful game made even better by incredible art direction. But character animations, especially facial animations, can feel a bit stiff and awkward at times. There's also the occasional muddy texture, and the lighting can really act up at times to add this bizarre sheen to the entire environment, specifically in areas entirely indoors or underground. It's not enough to ruin the experience at all, but noticeable nonetheless. 

Beast of Reincarnation is one of those solid experiences that may not have set my world on fire, but after 40 hours with it, and a few tears shed at the ending, I felt satisfied and happy I'd experienced it. The action remains consistently thrilling the entire time, and if you like any of the games it's clearly inspired by, I think there's a lot to love here. Even just on a basic level, it's somewhat fascinating to see the way this game tries to run ahead with its inspirations, and mostly succeeds.

There's also something beautifully complex in the way that Beast of Reincarnation portrays the bond between human and animal, a co-dependent relationship that any pet owner can easily identify with. As someone who genuinely says my cat might have saved my life in my deepest, darkest years of depression, there's something in Emma and Koo's relationship that strikes right at my heart. And if there's anything this game needed  ​​​​​​to get right, it's that. Again, that decades of expertise in crafting player relationships with Pokémon pays off in spades here.

Despite a few stumbles here and there, and a dose of overdesign, Beast of Reincarnation is a bold strike into something new for Game Freak, and a genuine foundation that I hope the studio continues to build upon.