In 2015, Game Freak put out its first console game outside of a Nintendo platform since 1999’s Click Medic with Tembo the Badass Elephant. The colorful platformer still very much felt like a Game Freak game, with lots of lovely art and a fun style. If you had told me a little over a decade later that the Pokémon creators would put out a Dark Souls-inspired action game that features a ton of blood and a moody, atmospheric story, then I wouldn’t have believed you. Yet, that is where we are with Beast of Reincarnation, which has as little to do with pocket monsters as possible, aside from some really wonderful creature design.
What immediately sticks out about Beast of Reincarnation is that you have an adorable canine sidekick named Koo that will happily rip into foes at your command. Koo’s skills, which range from damaging attacks to status ailments and ways to take care of deadly groups of foes, provide a really interesting change of pace from what can otherwise feel like a basic Souls-like game complete with campfires. Decking out your skills over time and coming up with a strategy that helps you finally overcome a tough boss fight is when Beast of Reincarnation really feels unique and at its best.
The other major element that helps Game Freak’s latest stick out as its own is the mobility options you have as Emma, who can use her powers to boost into the air and grow her hair out to traverse long gaps. More than just a cool visual effect, it also opens up a lot of the environment to explore. Unfortunately, there’s not a ton of interesting areas to stumble upon. Sure, you might find somewhere that needs a key that holds some goodies, but you’re rarely coming across cool lore discoveries and moments you’ll want to tell your friends about like in Elden Ring. Instead, you’ll find more golem-like enemies that get repetitive too quickly.
Where the game really shines, though, is in its boss fights. Having Emma and Koo really work as a team to take on some of the fearsome corrupted beasts, which feature some of Game Freak’s signature cool creature design, feels incredible. It also helps that Emma’s parry attack is a wonderful addition, as using that and the dodge roll you eventually unlock can make tough boss fights feel like a really rewarding test of skill and strategy. There’s also an easier difficulty if you don’t want such a challenge, but the fights are worth overcoming and testing yourself.
If there’s one part of Beast of Reincarnation that drags on, it’s the story. Cutscenes are dull, overly long affairs filled with characters who are poor at expressing themselves. While this rediscovery of human connectivity and appreciating nature is part of the story, it makes the opening hours a bit of a slog to get through. Thankfully, you’ll always want to keep playing because of the engaging gameplay loop, but it never fully gets there or reaches the level of the more interesting Pokémon stories.
Beast of Reincarnation has some great ideas and does them justice enough to be included, but very few aspects feel as special as they could be with a bit more polish and time. You gain plenty of skills over time, helping make yourself and Koo more dangerous, but you’re never able to truly swing around the environment as you’d like to, nor does the combat ever feel quite as tight and well-constructed as a FromSoftware game. It comfortably sits in a well-off middle ground where it is rewarding, but not special. I’d love to see nearly every gameplay element get fleshed out just a tad more since the story payoff isn’t all the way there.
Beast of Reincarnation (PS5) Review: Final Verdict
Beast of Reincarnation is a game that ultimately begs for a sequel, but is definitely worth experiencing. With some really cool ideas for mobility and combat, it serves as a great framework for what could be a truly special game. It’s awesome to see a developer like Game Freak take a wild swing like this and try something new when there was little impetus for them to do anything besides crank out more Pokémon games. Let’s hope we get more in the years to come
- Combat is really fun with the parry
- Creature design looks great
- Love to see Game Freak taking big swings
- Story can be on the dull side
- Exploration can be unrewarding
- Golems aren’t all that interesting to fight
Disclosure: The publisher provided a digital copy for our Beast of Reincarnation PS5 review. Reviewed on version 1.004.000
