Beast of Reincarnation Review

A stylish action RPG with rewarding combat and intriguing world-building, undermined by uneven storytelling, repetitive encounters, and technical rough edges.

Game Freak has been synonymous with Pokémon for decades now, which means Beast of Reincarnation is one of the biggest creative risks the studio has taken in its history. Instead of returning to the familiar turn-based formula that made the developer famous, the team steps into the action RPG genre with a completely original world, challenging real-time combat, and an emphasis on exploration. 

Beast of Reincarnation is not just borrowing from popular action games; it’s mixing a few modern mechanics with its identity. You spend much of the adventure mastering precise defensive combat, traversing vertical environments, customizing your abilities, and uncovering the mysteries of a ruined future Japan. Each system isn’t polished equally, but it’s clear the developers aimed high with the whole experience. 

The story takes place roughly two thousand years after the Blight, a mysterious force, has ravaged humanity. 

The infection does not kill its victims but allows the vegetation to feed on living bodies, corrupting humans and animals into monstrous creatures. Humanity attempts to avoid extinction by transferring human consciousness into artificial mechanical bodies called golems. 

This solution delays the inevitable, but these machines, too, eventually decay, leaving broken mechanical beings and terrifying monsters called Malifacts that now roam the ruins of civilization. As a result, the world becomes even more dangerous for the few survivors still searching for hope.

You take control of Emma, a warrior bred for one thing: to hunt down the mighty Nushi creatures and, eventually, to confront the Beast of Reincarnation that keeps the Blight alive. With her faithful dog, Coup, at her side throughout the journey, Emma soon becomes much more than a supporting character. 

The setting itself is easily one of the biggest strengths of the game. Beast of Reincarnation is a different kind of fantasy, mixing post-apocalyptic sci-fi with cyberpunk and biopunk influences. Forests swallow abandoned skyscrapers, highways are covered in dense vegetation, and futuristic ruins sit alongside overgrown cities overrun by nature for centuries.

Unfortunately, the main story doesn’t always capitalize on the strength of its world-building. Emma's emotional detachment fits her background, but it often makes her conversations seem stiff rather than enigmatic. Dialogue is often used to explain emotions, rather than let them play out naturally, and awkward pauses, limited facial animation, and static cutscene direction weaken the effect of important scenes. 

Supporting characters are interesting ideas, but few are developed enough to be memorable. Much of the dialogue that happens in your mobile headquarters concerns routine matters that don’t often advance relationships or help the central narrative along in any meaningful way.

It is ironic that Coup is one of the most memorable characters who never says a word. 

He’s more expressive than a lot of the support cast, thanks to his animations, body language, and the things he utters while exploring and fighting. The story also throws up a number of mysteries and subplots that look significant at the beginning but either stop dead or are poorly resolved later on. 

You spend most of your time exploring large environments, searching ruined cities, climbing towering structures, battling corrupted creatures, collecting resources, and gradually making your way toward more dangerous regions. 

Exploration is all about verticality, with Emma using her root-like braided hair to grapple to distant platforms, scale buildings, and leap across large chasms. Traveling the world is fluid and fun, and movement is one of the best mechanics in the game.

The environments encourage you to explore rooftops, hidden cliffs, and abandoned structures that are usually off limits in a lot of action RPGs. The ability to approach places from different angles makes traveling around the world fun. 

As you go further, both Emma and Coup have much more customization thanks to extensive skill trees. By different approaches, you unlock new abilities, strengthen existing attacks, improve defensive options, and specialize in different combat styles. Emma gets more powerful Blade Arts, while Coup unlocks a ton of support abilities that expand your tactical options. 

Collecting resources is also an important part of the adventure. 

You mostly use the stuff you collect while exploring to upgrade your mobile headquarters, craft useful stuff, and improve your overall capabilities. Collecting these resources always serves a purpose, but exploration often feels less rewarding than it should, because hidden paths usually yield crafting materials or consumables instead of unique weapons or exciting equipment. 

The progression system does allow for long-term character building, but there are a few frustrations along the way. As you progress, you will receive skill points at a steady rate, allowing you to unlock new abilities and improve your chosen build. Still, the points are limited enough that it’s difficult to fully experiment with multiple play styles in a single playthrough. 

The respec system makes this challenge even greater by not returning all the points you put into it, so your early upgrade choices can have long-term consequences. Progression does not reward constant experimentation and instead encourages sticking with one build for most of the game.

The fighting is the undeniable highlight of Beast of Reincarnation. Every encounter is about timing, not button mashing. There’s a lot of emphasis on parries, dodges, stagger meters, and counterattacks. Successfully parrying enemy attacks opens up some satisfying opportunities for devastating Blade Arts, and the sound design and weighty animations make every successful exchange feel rewarding. 

Coup contributes just as much to battles as Emma herself. During combat, successful attacks build entanglement energy that lets you briefly pause time and issue commands to your canine companion. Coup can daze and immobilize enemies, deal elemental effects, create defensive shields, poison enemies, and provide many other forms of support. 

Coup’s skills, combined with Emma’s Blade Arts, create fun tactical opportunities that reward careful planning rather than mindless aggression. These systems work great for boss battles, especially in the early stages of the adventure, where you have to learn attack patterns, conserve resources, and look for the right moment to attack.

Combat is consistently enjoyable, but as the game progresses, a few problems start to become apparent. 

Enemy variety is a little lacking, with the same foes repeating throughout the campaign. However, instead of new mechanics, several boss encounters return later with slightly different looks or more health. As a result, these repeat battles can start to feel predictable, reducing the excitement of facing what should be major encounters.

The system also has problems when many aggressive enemies attack at the same time. One-on-one combat is where it shines, but larger groups tend to descend into chaos, making it harder to read incoming attacks. 

Normal enemies can deal as much damage as big bosses, so normal fights are far more punishing than you’d expect. Still, the combat never gets old, with its parry focus remaining enjoyable through and through, despite some balancing concerns.

In terms of artistic direction, Beast of Reincarnation is more visually successful than technically successful. It’s a memorable setting, with futuristic machinery, cities run amok, giant flowers, and forests reclaiming civilization, unlike many other post-apocalyptic games.

Emma’s appearance also naturally evolves as the adventure progresses; flowers slowly bloom in her braided hair, subtly mirroring her growth without the need for cosmetic upgrades. This small visual detail reinforces her journey without relying on traditional stat screens or cosmetic changes.

The technical presentation, though, is not very impressive. 

The character models’ facial expressions are rigid during conversations, animations lack emotional depth, and environmental textures can feel dated compared to other recent releases at times. The muted colors do help establish the bleak tone of the world, but playing for extended periods can make some areas feel visually redundant. 

Technical difficulties such as inconsistent frame rates, occasional visual glitches, camera issues during larger boss fights, and inconsistent grappling mechanics further bring down the overall polish. While none of these problems entirely ruin the experience, they appear often enough to become noticeable throughout the adventure.

The audio is better in a few ways. The soundtrack features many beautiful orchestral compositions and emotional vocal tracks that perfectly suit the lonely atmosphere of the game. The small selection of songs means that players hear many of them repeated over long periods of gameplay, which reduces their effect over time. 

Voice acting is generally solid, but the dialogue rarely gives performers enough to really shine. The combat audio continues to be excellent from start to finish, with satisfying metallic parries, impactful weapon strikes, and explosive Blade Arts that make every successful battle feel energetic.

Beast of Reincarnation always feels like a game on the verge of something much bigger. 

Game Freak shows it can break out of Pokémon with an action RPG that delivers satisfying combat, enjoyable traversal, intricate character customization, and an inventive world brimming with memorable environmental storytelling. Each major system brings in ideas that are commendable, and many of them work incredibly well throughout the adventure.

However, virtually every strength has a significant weakness. Exploration seldom rewards your curiosity with meaningful discoveries, enemy variety can become repetitive, balancing occasionally undermines excellent combat, and the story never quite matches the quality of its world-building. 

Technical problems, erratic camera controls, and limitations in progression are other reminders that the experience needed some polishing before launch. Even so, the game's strongest ideas still shine through often enough to keep you invested until the end.

Despite those shortcomings, Beast of Reincarnation is still an enjoyable action RPG that showcases genuine creativity and ambition. It may not be a complete masterpiece, but it feels like the first chapter of a series with tremendous potential.

If Game Freak can take this foundation and run with it with better storytelling, more enemy variety, more rewarding exploration, and just a little more polish, then a sequel down the line could effortlessly be something special.