Game Freak is hoping to prove it’s more than just the studio behind Pokemon with Beast of Reincarnation, a post-apocalyptic action RPG with a unique twist. But does its bold new direction pay off?
Beast of Reincarnation couldn’t be further removed from the cute creature-collecting world of Pokemon. Instead, it throws players into brutal Soulslike battles where perfectly timed parries and coordinated attacks with a canine companion are the key to survival.
While its familiar ideas don’t always reach the lofty heights of the games that inspired it, Beast of Reincarnation proves Game Freak is capable of more than just Pikachu and Poke Balls.
Beast of Reincarnation screenshots
Beast of Reincarnation review
What is it about?
Set in the year 4026, Beast of Reincarnation takes place in a post-apocalyptic Japan where humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction by a devastating blight that infects both animals and humans.
It’s up to Emma, an outcast Sealer and her canine companion Koo, to slay massive monsters roaming the world known as Nushi, and defeat the mysterious Beast of Reincarnation.
The story is nothing to write home about, but there’s a few twists that kept me intrigued throughout my 30-hour adventure, and Koo alone is well worth the playthrough.
Man’s best friend takes center stage
Instead of having a party of Pokemon to hurl out, you can unleash devastating attacks with a Princess Mononoke-esque white wolf that has a penchant for turning every enemy into an oversized chew toy.
When selecting Koo’s elemental abilities, combat briefly slows down just like in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, allowing you to select targets and unleash one of the deadly doggo’s attacks.
These include fiery flowers that pepper enemies with scorching hot seeds, shield-breaking branches that launch foes into the air for Devil May Cry-style juggles, and acid-filled bomb flowers that melt through armor. You’ll need to be quick, though, as dealing maximum damage requires hitting quickfire button prompts.
You can’t just spam abilities from Koo either, as you must land parries to gain the necessary points needed to use them. Deflecting blows is much more forgiving here than in FromSoftware’s Souls series, but still challenging enough that you’ll become pink paste if you mess up when playing on Hard difficulty.
Fortunately, enemies can also be toppled by successfully exploiting their elemental weakness or by breaking their guard Sekiro-style, with constant deflections or attacks. Once downed, Emma has a few precious seconds to go all out, barraging her infected foe with flashy flower combos.
Most of which involve the resident dog whisperer leapfrogging off giant flowers for swift takedowns, which leave behind Okami-style plumes of beautiful foliage that decimate those around her. Landscape gardening aside, Emma’s most fun feature is her Entanglement Overdrive, a special slowdown effect that feels every bit as satisfying as NieR: Automata’s Overclock and Bayonetta’s Witch Time.
My Emma build had this meter fully maxed out, and I often felt like I was cheating by using it to dodge incoming attacks, recover missing health, reposition, or launch a full-on combo offensive.
Although none of these systems are unique to Beast of Reincarnation, the game is at its best when everything clicks together. Encounters feel like a rhythmic dance, where you’re constantly walking the line between life and death, opening yourself up to claw swipes and sword swings for an intense risk-vs-reward loop that is as addictive as it is satisfying.
Bland environments with fun traversal
From damp underground facilities filled with rusty robots to rugged deserts reminiscent of NieR: Automata’s wastelands, Beast of Reincarnation has you traveling between plenty of varied environments during its 30+ hour runtime.
Unfortunately, none of the environments will win any awards in the visual department. In fact, on the base PS5, textures look particularly ugly, which is a shame, given eye candy like Ghost of Yotei exists on the platform. However, what Beast of Reincarnation lacks in graphical fidelity, it makes up for in unique traversal mechanics.
Emma can use her hair to conjure vines to cross cliffs, and holding down the jump button will summon a giant beanstalk that sends you upwards. She even has a Zelda-like grappling hook ability that lets you zip towards structures and your own plants.
When used in coordination with each other, they open up fantastic vantage points that aid exploration and even boost your lethality in battle with instant kill takedowns.
Despite this, some locations like the sprawling fields of Oguchi Buffer Zone and the vast wastelands of the Crater Zone are big and desolate enough that I wish Emma could use her skills to fashion a little saddle that would allow her to ride upon Koo, or a Breath of the Wild-style glider to speed up traversal altogether.
Fortunately, you can find base camps dotted around each map, which act as Dark Souls bonfires that replenish potions, allow you to level up your Emma and Koos base stats, and even pump levels into their respective skill trees.
Verdict
While its post-apocalyptic story isn’t particularly memorable and its environments are held back by muddy textures, limited enemy variety, and a repetitive soundtrack, Game Freak’s non-Pokemon RPG shows promise.
Beast of Reincarnation blends Sekiro-style parries, Clair Obscure-inspired action inputs, and weighty Soulslike boss fights into a combat system that feels fun and rewarding. It doesn’t quite surpass the games that inspired it, but it carves out an identity that’s very much a beast of its own.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
