Game Freak is one of gaming’s most storied developers. They created Pokémon which would go on to be the biggest media franchise ever. While Pokémon has been their main breadwinner for thirty years now, they have also dabbled in making other, smaller, one off games when they weren’t cranking out Pokémon games. Now, we have arrived to what many fans of the studio have been clamoring for with the release of probably their biggest and most high fidelity game yet with Beast of Reincarnation. You can see this is Game Freak’s first real endeavor into this type of development for both good and bad, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a massive first step for a studio that has primarily made handheld RPGs for most of its existence.
Beast of Reincarnation has been hyped by many as another Soulslike which would just make it another wave in a sea full of games in the genre. However, the game is nowhere near being one. Instead, Beast of Reincarnation feels far more in line with and takes inspiration from games like Stellar Blade and Nier: Automata. It is a serene action game with beautiful scenery despite being set in a post apocalyptic world. The game isn’t overly difficult either, but does have a New Game+ option that makes the game more difficult the more you beat it.
The story of Beast of Reincarnation is what you would expect from these types of games. The game is set in Japan 2000 years from now in the year 4026. 1000 years prior to the events of the game the world fell due to the emergence of the Blight which has taken out most of humanity with the remainder living in colonies scattered throughout the world. You play as Emma who is a Purifier or Sealer (or unaffectionately Stained) which means she has been infected by the Blight but not overtaken by it. Thus, she is able to venture out into the world and take out malefact (Blight infected creatures) and Nushi which are far more powerful and giant creatures. Emma is tasked with eliminating all Nushis around Japan as she ventures to the capital to take out the Beast of Reincarnation itself. Emma is also accompanied by her pale malefact companion and best good boy; a white wolf named Koo.
As mentioned, the setup for the story is very paint by numbers. However, the cutscenes and world Game Freak created are beautiful to look at as this is the most high quality looking game they’ve made. There’s even an option to have the cutscenes run in 24 FPS to give them a more cinematic appeal. Then, the story’s shining light is it also sets up the fact that humanity had given up their emotions in the past. Emma feels like a blank slate with very little personality with no real understanding of emotions. Then, as the game progresses, you start to see her come to understand the emotional responses of the people she travels with and form connections with them. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t give a lot of shine to the majority of the side characters so the player doesn’t really form a connection to many of them.
The combat, on the other hand, definitely shows that Beast of Reincarnation is Game Freak’s first foray into the action genre. Emma is equipped with a sword, crossbow, and shorty a regular bow too. There’s not a lot of depth to the combat when you first start out as you’re mostly just hacking and parrying your way through the enemies you encounter. Emma also has an Entaglement Meter at the bottom of the screen that can be used to perform a Blade Art (more powerful special moves) that cost a portion of the meter or she can slow down time for a short period until the meter runs out. You can also call on Koo in combat to perform his Bloom Arts which are powerful attacks that all have their own secondary effects and a quick time event that heals Emma upon being successful. Koo can also do regular attacks on enemies or do other things such as lay a landmine or use a heal potion on Emma automatically if equipped with those abilities.
Combat grows in depth as you continue to progress through the game unlocking more Blade Arts and Bloom Arts for Emma and Koo. Thus, the game becomes far more fun and engaging as you start to string together different abilities and Arts to use. Unfortunately, the game features only a small handful of enemy types for you to engage with including the robotic Golems and melefact creatures (which again you just encounter the same kinds over and over).
Where the game both stands out and falters the most is when it comes to world design, and this is where you can see Game Freak hasn’t done design like this much before. The world is separated into regions you progress through with some being more open while others are more linear in their design. However, exploring the regions is very lackluster. The game doesn’t give much incentive for exploration. While you can find new swords, crafting manuals, recipes, or shrines that give you more health recovery, most of the exploration just leads to materials you’ll never actually use much. This wouldn’t be as bad if there was anything else to do in the game. There are no side quests or side activities to do with the most engaging thing being a few elite enemies scattered throughout the areas. Thus, by the time I got to the later regions in the game, I was far less incentivized or compelled to keep exploring the world as I has enough health recovery and weapons I was comfortable with.
Beast of Reincarnation is a fine action game that feels like a first game from a developer. This is Game Freak though, and fans have been wanting them to pursue something like this for ages. This won’t live up to those high expectations that these fans have had for over a decade. However, this really is the first step for them to branch out into higher quality development and shows what they can be capable of when given time and opportunity. Beast of Reincarnation may not have the best story or combat or world design but what is there gives the feeling that it could be so much more.The game is that first stepping stone for one of the most important developers in gaming to finally spread their wings.
Score: 7 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
