Published:
Verdict
Despite a slow start, Beast of Reincarnation provides a hardcore post-apocalyptic JRPG experience wrapped in a well-woven narrative of memory and connection set to a stellar soundtrack and great art design.
All eyes are on Game Freak with the coming release of Beast of Reincarnation, and for good reason. The Pokémon studio hasn’t ventured out of creature-collectors. A huge, mostly open-world RPG with action elements is a surprise.
That risk has paid off. Between great worldbuilding, excellent design, and fun combat, the game is a resounding success, and could easily be a stepping stone into a new IP.
Beast of Reincarnation posits a post-apocalyptic world where nature, technology, and the souls of human beings have synthesized into something larger than the sum of their parts, creating blight and disrepair across the land. It offers a compelling narrative following Emma, who has the ability to absorb powers from creatures called the Nushi. Combat is the primary focus, but there’s a lot more to do in this game, even though it never really tells you directly.
Picking up Beast of Reincarnation will send you on a journey – not just through the various parts of the map, but an emotional one, too. It plays as if you’re unravelling one great big mystery. The characters keep their motivations close to their chests, the environment gives you clues but no answers, and as Emma and her allies get closer to the final fight, you come to understand that their existences are a question, too. No spoilers, of course.
The story is aided by gorgeous audio-visual design. Beast of Reincarnation’s art direction blends futuristic robot elements with the subtle but forceful power of nature, and it’s done to perfection. The game’s areas, particularly The Great Wall Terraces and Fuji Frontier Zone, bring to life both convincing rural areas and a ruined city’s metropolis. It works together with the haunting soundtrack, which can feel peaceful and relaxing at times, and downright terrifying at others. The decision to have a vocalist on many of the game’s tracks gives it a sense of drama that’s very classic JRPG, too.
At first you might feel slightly intimidated by the number of mechanics there are. The combat upgrades can feel overwhelming, but so can some of the side systems, like cooking and growing plants in your base. This is the price that Beast of Reincarnation has paid to allow its players to be extremely flexible in their approaches to the game, whether you prefer to explore the map and grind levels or jump right into boss-fights, the game allows you to play your way.
This isn’t the only sacrifice of Beast of Reincarnation’s design. It’s an open world, to a fault. Many of these systems are presented even before you achieve access to them. It is a little confusing, but more importantly, leads to my primary concern with the game – it doesn’t feel entirely structured enough for something with this much exploration. There are no real side-quests. The closest thing you can get to them is happening upon a Keeper Golem, who vaguely tells you there’s some vicious Malefact – a creature born of blight – in the area.
This hands-off approach is fine in some genres, but for a world as big as this, it’s a little baffling.
Why does the game really need an open world? Did Game Freak want to do it just to show that they can? Even so, it was fun to explore for a little while. This was mostly due to the art direction, but also the map’s verticality, which opens up to the player via Emma’s hair powers. The ability to sling yourself back and forth between points in the air kept up a sense of freedom that felt akin to Spiderman.
Combat is largely enjoyable. Despite the occasional blip in controls, and annoyance when you get the timing wrong, you feel strong and capable when you get it right, and there’s lots of different ways to chip away at enemies. I loved using my hair to send me soaring into the skies, time slowing down as I drew my crossbow and fired on the way down to earth. More ways to defeat enemies are unlocked as you progress, including Helm Splitter, an ability which made fights probably three-to-five times more fun than they had been before.
What is worth noting is that combat is punishing if you make your way through it in normal mode – I didn’t even try and attempt the hardest difficulty. This is because sometimes, no matter how well you’ve learned a Nushi’s attack patterns, you’ll just miss a timing, leading to your demise.
Some games feel alive only in the time you’re playing them, but Beast of Reincarnation stayed in my brain long after my time with it was over, despite its flaws. For that reason, I think that it has the potential to grow as a series beyond this game alone, and earns a high score from me. You should pick this one up if you’re looking to get invested in a story that takes its characters, and the rules of its world, seriously. And even if it’s not your cup of tea, it’s worth checking out to see the potential of a Game Freak action RPG.