“Growth” is what makes a good RPG, according to Kota Furushima, the Game Freak veteran directing the studio’s newest project: Beast of Reincarnation. That word is fitting considering the lush environments, plant-riddled animals, and a main character named Emma who can grow vines at will. Of course, Furushima isn’t necessarily talking about plants here, but it’s all meant to be intertwined. “Growth from a game system perspective” but also “story… and how players connect with that,” Furushima says.
After playing 90 minutes of Beast of Reincarnation and speaking with Furushima, I am obsessed with dropping down on enemies from my own vines, eager to craft my build, hesitant about the story, and begrudgingly ready to face my most avoided skill: parrying.
I am immediately struck by the fidelity and beauty of this post-apocalyptic take on Japan. But before I can take it all in, I am running headfirst into an increasingly crowded battlefield for the initial tutorials.
A bear with dramatically long claws and tree branches fused to his back rushes towards me. It is infected with the blight, the disease rampaging through this fantasy world. The enemies are mostly forest animals, but sometimes they’re so overgrown with flowers and treebark that I can barely identify their original forms. Emma moves quickly enough that spamming attacks can be a winning strategy against the weaker enemies, but the stronger ones require more tact.
I block at worst, and parry at best, delighted to see a yellow flash indicating success. Emma also has a long-range weapon, perfect for shooting down the smaller winged creatures swooping towards her. This is all standard fare, but the combat’s secret sauce is Emma’s dog companion, Koo, who gives this real-time action a turn-based twist.
Koo can unleash a series of attacks known as Bloom Arts. Doing so consumes Florescence Points (FP), which are replenished when Emma parries. When you open the menu for Koo’s Bloom Arts, everything moves in slow motion to allow time to choose an attack. You can hold this for as long as you want, a welcome break from the quick fighting, similar to the command selection slowdown of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Once a Bloom Art is selected, landing a QTE determines its effectiveness, reminiscent of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
After getting through the opening tutorials, the world opens up a bit. Beast of Reincarnation’s areas are widely explorable, with side quests and optional items, but this is not an open world game. “There [are] approximately 10 ‘stages’ [spanning] about 30 hours of gameplay,” Furushima clarifies.
For the sake of time, I focus on the main objectives, but I take a little time to loot nearby wooden sheds and abandoned huts. I could’ve walked easily from point A to B but I take advantage of my vine abilities to grapple, make bridges, and create vines to lift Emma high into the air. These tools make exploring a novel thrill. I’ve double-jumped and climbed in hundreds of games, but I’ve never essentially vine-levitated.
A vine bridge is useful for crossing a gap, but it can be used to position yourself above an enemy for a stealth takedown. After crossing a few divides and killing a few enemies, I am tasked with slaying several robots called Corrupted Golems in an underground, industrial space. Taking them head-on probably would have been faster, but lurking from above and picking them off one by one is so much more satisfying.
Koo also helps in exploration by barking to alert you of nearby enemies and items. The enemy alerts are specific, usually having some additional UI indicator, but the item notifications are more subtle: ranging from Koo grabbing the item for you to just telling you there’s something nearby. This level of variability makes exploration and combat feel natural. “We didn’t want Koo to become this autonomous tool that basically became just another weapon for the player,” Furushima says, “nor did we want to create a situation where the player had to be very attentive to [Koo].” Koo can be downed, but thankfully that never happens in my time playing. I die long before Koo did, and I prefer it that way.
On the way to the boss, there are plenty of rest sites to restore HP and spend ability points. Their existence and the look of the menus are very Souls-inspired, but that’s where the similarities end. While Game Freak did set out to make a challenging game, avoiding overly punishing the player is apparently a core design tenet. You don’t lose anything when you die, enemies don’t respawn when you rest, and environmental unlocks stay open. So when I lose my fight against the Corrupted Golem waiting behind a locked door, I don’t have to unlock it again by redoing the battles that came prior. My runback from the last rest site is short and peaceful.
My 90-minute session culminates in a boss fight against a Nushi, one of the many powerful creatures inhabiting this land. This one is a giant deer with two phases, providing a brutal taste of what’s to come.
Once the dust settles, I am instructed over comms to return to our ship. This space offers similar features to the rest sites, plus a few extras like talking to our pilot Brad and showering Koo. This respite after a grueling fight showcases the action and tranquility Emma and Koo have ahead of them. Here’s hoping that Game Freak is growing a new hit franchise when Beast of Reincarnation comes out August 3.