Beast Of Reincarnation Review

For decades, Game Freak has been almost inseparable from Pokémon, but Beast Of Reincarnation brings something very different to their studio. They have stepped away from what it knows and chucked themselves into a post-apocalyptic action RPG set in a ruined Japan.

This game hasn’t reinvented anything at all; during my first few hours I was really enjoying everything it was throwing at me. The combat was solid, the progression systems were rewarding and making a difference, your faithful companion Koo had stolen my heart, and I very quickly became very protective over anything that went near him.

Whilst the story didn’t initially grab me, after a few hours I started to become more intrigued and started asking questions about what on earth was going on.

Unfortunately, the longer I played, the more those hooks started to slip, and I started to grow fed up.

A Strong Enough Start

Beast Of Reincarnation follows Emma and her companion Koo as they journey through a future Japan devastated by the Blight.

Your ultimate objective is to reach the capital and confront the Beast, but naturally there are plenty of obstacles standing between Emma and her end goal.

Each region introduces powerful creatures known as “Nushi”; these are essentially the bosses of each region, alongside the wider mystery surrounding the Malefacts, Emma and what exactly has happened to this world.

Early on I found myself very intrigued by everything. I had plenty of questions, the world felt full, and the enemies were posing a challenge, and a bit of variety was keeping it all interesting.

Emma initially came across as quite wooden, while some of the character interactions felt really stiff; the further I progressed, the more I realised it was basically intentional from Emma, so that put that thought to bed and I was happy to have an answer to my concern.

At this point I wanted to know more about the Nushi, the Malefacts, the Blight, Emma, Koo, basically everything; I was thinking “okay we’ve got something here”.

Well, it didn’t take long for the game to beat all that intrigue right out of me.

The Good Stuff Is Still Good

The frustrating part about writing this is that there isn’t anything I can sit there and say is outright crap; combat is still enjoyable, Emma is responsive, attacks feel fluid, and the parry system feels good as well.

The skill tree was something I really enjoyed, a huge variety of things for Emma & Koo to learn. I was always working towards something, more abilities or fine-tuning what I already had; it worked really well!

Levelling up genuinely felt useful and never felt like a grind to do so either.

The relationship you start to develop with Koo was one of my favourite things; he isn’t just a dog that follows you and gets in your way or anything. He’s properly integrated into the game; you level him up, get new abilities, new movesets, and he’s extremely useful in battle.

Their relationship is probably my favourite part of the game; there are some lovely little touches as well. After spending enough time fighting through enemies, Emma and Koo can be completely covered in blood. Return to camp, and you can take them into the shower to wash them both clean and hear Koo’s happy woofs as he trots away. It seems unnecessary, but my god I love it.

The rest of the camp systems really worked as well, gathering seeds to grow food to keep your hunger levels down, finding books throughout the world to then use your seeds to make different recipes giving you different buffs; all that stuff worked really well, and I enjoyed it.

The problem is the adventure surrounding all this just completely drops dead.

Déjà vu

The biggest issue with this game is the repetition now; I’ve hit a wall with it.

At first, moving on to a new region felt exciting; I wanted to know what new enemies I’d encounter, what the new Nushi would be, what new books I’d find and how it looks in general.

Instead, I constantly felt like I was fighting the same thing over and over. There’s no variety.

You’ll move onto another area, spot something in the distance and realise you’ve fought that same enemy countless times, and this isn’t just the standard creatures/enemies either.

The Nushi are pretty much all the same; the encounters have become painfully predictable now. You walk in and beat it; it then runs off, you chase it whilst fighting more of the same. You catch up to it, fight it again. It then does its second stage, and finally you beat it.

The first boss was great, but even when the second one ran, I thought “oh here we go, this is going to be the same rinse and repeat shite for each one isn’t it”.

Where’s The Reward?

The repetition wouldn’t necessarily be as damaging if I constantly felt like I was discovering something worthwhile, but the game has also beaten that out of me.

Starting out, I wanted to explore because I was finding things like upgrade materials and seeds and books; there was a reason to check every bit of the map I could. Now it’s just become a grind, and I find myself rushing through because I’m just fed up. Everything is the same!!!

Once I got that feeling, even the progression systems start to fade for me, because I already know how to beat everything. Why the hell do I need to learn new moves and upgrade stuff when I’m just being chucked the same enemies every 5 minutes?

This is what has disappointed me the most; there’s good systems in there, there’s good combat in there, there’s plenty of things it could do really well. I’ve been very negative, but I really believe there’s something here.

Verdict

This is what I’ve landed with: this game should be 15 hours long, not 25+, it’s far too repetitive and downright dull after 10+ hours.

Do not get me wrong, this is not technically a bad game, though. I didn’t start the game and go “this sucks”; I really enjoyed it until about 10 hours in. From there it was a slog and a repetitive bore fest. I had given up caring; the story did not keep it alive, and the world had just become dull.

Give me the enjoyable combat, the skill tree, Koo, the Nushi, the Malefacts and the mystery, but then keep it moving, bring new enemies in, switch up the look and feel of the world.

Give bosses more individuality, cut out repeated pointless encounters. Keep the story moving and don’t let the intrigue slip through our fingers.

Beast Of Reincarnation showed me enough good ideas to make me think it was building towards something more, only to seemingly run out of new things to show me far too early.

There’s a good game in there somewhere; I just wish it knew when to end.