… %!s(
What this all told me in the hour-and-a-half long demo I played is that developer Game Freak is shooting for something bigger, more ambitious, and simply different from anything it's previously made. It's drawing from several games we've seen before and piecing them together in its own way while setting up a story that touches on embracing our humanity — and now that I've played it, Beast of Reincarnation feels like Game Freak's best opportunity to break out of Pokémon's shadow.
The story starts off with a bang, establishing its science-fantasy contrast as Emma vows to protect a little girl named Kagura who's recovering in their de facto headquarters — an AT-AT-looking walker — before jumping out donning her samurai sword and ronin-inspired fit. The precious big boy Koo follows her all while an orchestral tune with dramatic choir vocals build an atmosphere that veers so close to NieR:Automata that I couldn't shake the comparison.
In similar fashion to the Yoko Taro classic, you're dropped into a warzone as the tutorial mission. Missiles drop from the sky, blighted creatures are on the attack, and robots fight alongside you as you learn how Beast of Reincarnation's fast-paced action works. Timing parries and Emma's fancy Blade Art special attacks along with commanding Koo as if he was a Pokémon himself; I quickly saw how this game's combat system is both easy to pick up and incredibly fun to engage with.
Game Freak is shooting for something bigger, more ambitious, and simply different from anything it's previously made.“
Once the tutorial intro ends, a cutscene drops some lore that hints at how humanity destroyed its own world, and the broken machines you see rusting away in the overgrown environment are the results of its own corruption. But there's hope in a place called Ogouchi, which is where Emma is headed as you're dropped into Beast’s first open region.
Beast of Reincarnation is not necessarily an open-world game, but the folks from publisher Fictions explained to me that there are several open regions that you'll explore as the story goes on. They aren't exactly interconnected and the story will push you through these regions with little opportunity to return once you're past them, giving the impression that it's going to be more straightforward than its map would imply. It's estimated to be about 30–40 hours for an earnest, full playthrough, so it doesn't appear that this format limits its scope. While you won't be racking up sidequests to fill up a quest log, there's still a lot to find off the beaten path with gear and upgrade materials, but for the most part, I stuck to the main quest to see as much of the story as I could and really test its combat system.
Going Beast Mode
Normal enemies didn't give me much trouble since Beast of Reincarnation's parry timing is quite generous – even as it evokes the pacing and rhythm of a Sekiro or Nioh, it won't be nearly as hard (at least, that's my initial impression). Still, recognizing attack patterns and knowing when to dodge or be aggressive with parries are key to controlling Emma and creating windows for Blade Arts or gruesome finishers. And thankfully, the controls are swift and responsive as any decent action game requires.
But Koo is a vital part of the mix, and he's how this game leans into the RPG realm a bit more. Time stops when you pull up his command menu, giving you a chance to be more tactical and cast spells that can complement Emma's melee prowess. Koo's spellcasting works similar to FF7 Remake's ATB system, where you build up points during the action to then spend on casting his abilities. And when you do, there's a little QTE prompt to amplify his effectiveness. In the demo, I could have him cast fireballs and inflict burn status, sprout a tree for me to launch up to, or blast tree roots to bind multiple enemies at once – weaving these in like they're part of an attack rotation showed me that there's potential depth to Beast of Reincarnation outside of playing it straight like a tough action game.
Beast of Reincarnation blends its traversal mechanics, RPG elements, and hard-action foundation into a singular, flowing combat system.“
There's a lot to dig into with the skill trees for both Emma and Koo, and since they share the same pool of skill points, I suspect there'll be a sense of buildcrafting — or at least ways to emphasize the parts of combat you like most. A Fictions rep explained to me that progression was built in a way that would support a Koo-centric playstyle for those who aren't as in-tune with action combat, and vice versa. For me, I like a good mix of both since I think they work extremely well in tandem, especially in challenging boss fights where difficulty seems to ramp up.
The big boss battle in the demo was against a monstrous stag, and it's in this fight where Beast of Reincarnation’s systems started to interlock clearly. It was hanging out in a river basin below, so I used Emma's hair as a platform to get the jump on it with a leaping aerial strike to start the battle with the upper hand. From there, my primary plan of attack was to nail down the parry timing of its antler swings and read its animations carefully. And with each successful parry and sword strike, I would dwindle its stagger meter. Simultaneously, Koo would be able to bind it for a brief moment so I could get a few more swings in or help chip away at its health with fireballs. This boss is also physically towering, and sometimes the camera has trouble locking onto a much bigger target — especially when backed into a corner — so having Koo's tree sprout up as a grapple point helped me reset and get away from the boss. Eventually, it'll dash around the arena, letting me use my long-range bow to pluck away at more health before bracing for another round of parries.
Based on what I’ve played so far, Beast of Reincarnation blends its traversal mechanics, RPG elements, and hard-action foundation into a singular, flowing combat system. And while I don't think any one of those parts are particularly outstanding on their own, it's the smart confluence of all three that make it stand out in a sea of Souls-ish action games that try drawing from the same core design principles. What I'm looking forward to now is how it'll evolve as the story goes on, and how boss fights further along challenge me in increasingly interesting ways.
Tales as Old as Time
However, it's not necessarily the action that's going to completely win me over with Beast of Reincarnation. This is also Game Freak's chance to show its chops as storytellers. Say what you want about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, but seldom have I seen a game elevate its story to completely unpredictable heights in its final hours like that. Of course, different folks work on various projects within development studios, but it tells me that Game Freak has that potential within.
The last few moments of my demo took me to a flashback sequence where Emma was held captive by one of the more sophisticated robots. It's established that Emma is also seen as a malefact, given her blight-born powers with hair that's wielded like tree roots. She's told she has "no heart, no humanity — no pity for your fellow malefacts," to which she replies, "What's pity?" only to be left with, "Your appearance is the only reminder you were human." And I believe the implication from this cutscene is that Emma is being used as a weapon against the blight, coerced by the humanoid robots to destroy the very thing that made her.
I also can't help but see parallels with my favorite anime film of all time, Princess Mononoke.“
Emma has a ghostly little girl named Violet by her side who keeps her grounded, saying, "Empathy isn't beyond you, Emma. I am sure the day will come when you will understand." This push and pull on finding humanity in someone who seems devoid of emotion is pretty standard storytelling material, but when done well, it can still hit deep. The cutscenes themselves are quite stilted and maybe don't have the same production values you'd see in other games of this scale, but this is where strong writing can do the heavy lifting. Especially when you have a precious boy like Koo as a pet who's experiencing the same struggle of being blight-born, it's easy to see how Beast of Reincarnation could be tugging on my heartstrings.
I can draw a ton of comparisons to other games I've played, like Stellar Blade or Ghost of Yotei when it comes to action and style, and of course NieR with its tone and narrative themes. I also can't help but see parallels with my favorite anime film of all time, Princess Mononoke — a blight taking over the land caused by humanity's ignorance and abuse as a warrior girl and her wolf companion fight to survive the incursion. I'm just theorycrafting at this point, but the twists and turns we've come to expect from these kinds of stories already has me invested in the conflict Emma is caught between with what seems to be a world itself rebelling against civilization. From so many aspects, I see touches of my favorite things reflected in Beast of Reincarnation, and that has me excited to see what it does with this foundation.
Surprisingly, however, director and writer Kota Furushima mentioned to me in a conversation that his biggest influence has been Blade Runner. In creating a new science-fantasy world, Furushima said that he wanted to tap into visual themes of how technological creations have dwarfed the very people who made them and caused pollution in its world. He also said that while very different aesthetically, the vision of a retrofuturist dystopia stuck with him and he wanted to write his own version of that kind of story.
I'm aware that Game Freak has made games outside of its long history with Pokémon, like Giga Wrecker and Little Town Hero, but Beast of Reincarnation is on a different scale. It's been in development for about five or six years, born out of an incubation effort for ideas to help the studio branch out and try new things — and I'm glad we won't have to wait long to see how it comes together in full since it launches on August 4 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. %!s(
