From Pokemon to Post-Apocalypse: A Beast of Reincarnation Humble Review

If you're familiar with the famous theme song from the Pokemon animated series, it will also start ringing in your head here when you see on screen the development team behind this title. The well-known development studio Game Freak, which has long been under the claws of the big N, decided to free itself a bit from the chains and finally start telling its own story that has nothing to do with corporate shoveling of the same mindless content. Although we are fans of the original Pokemon series, it has been clear for a long time that the franchise is faltering due to overproduction or a lack of ideas.

Realistically, in the late 90s and early 2000s, they had great Pokemon games for GB and GBA, but that was a different time with different appetites. The last few titles from this team suggested that the moment had come to move on to new tasks, or that they wanted "something new and something wild." For all of you who expected Game Freak to make new Pokemon games just on other platforms with the same mechanics and "more serious graphics," you might be disappointed.

Beast of Reincarnation is anything but that. Here you have a fairly serious existentialist story, a souls-lite combat model with precise fighting and parrying, large maps with plenty to explore, and a chance to discover the secret of why the world is dying and why humanity is in constant danger every 100 years.

In the mood for something completely different? Check out our Mortal Shell 2 review!

SHOP OUR LATEST MERCH AT VERY

Beast Of Reincarnation Story and World-Building

.The story initially seems simple. We find the main protagonist, Emma, together with her wolf Koo as they exit a bipedal armored transport vehicle onto a map where, for some reason, they must eliminate robots that at first glance seem like a prop from some cheaper sci-fi film—something we've all seen in some form in other games. With a bombastic song and thoroughly chaotic action, we go through an introduction in which absolutely nothing is explained, and you won't have a clue what's happening for at least the first two hours of the game. The plot this game relies on is somewhat generic.

There was an apocalypse; humanity began to fade into shadow, and to preserve civilizational knowledge, people began storing their souls in metal constructs fittingly named "Golems." As time passed, knowledge was lost because there were no descendants, and so civilization split into ordinary Golems, Rusted Golems, and humans. The human race spends its time coexisting with the Golems and, in some cases, serving them.

This disturbed social dynamic is further spiced up by the appearance of a beast called the Beast of Reincarnation, which cannot die and is resurrected once every 100 years when a comet falls to Earth. Then a great reset begins, and it is believed that everyone starts over again, and that this isn't the first time something like this has happened. After all the colorful Pokemon games and plots on the level of a "Saturday morning" cartoon, now we get something like this. A dystopian work that, on many levels, tries to emulate Nier: Automata. Free movement across the map, a fast combat model based on combos and parrying, and a story about the fall of the human race that feels ominous.

The Blight and Blightborn

The world in which the action takes place is polluted by "blight," meaning a disease of nature brought by the "Beast." Blight here isn't presented as it is in other works of entertainment. The black, sludgy substance covering everything is here replaced by amplified and uncontrolled plant growth. Those touched by this "infection" are called "blightborn" and have their own special powers, like our main heroine.

The entire concept of "blightborn" people is the backbone of how characters from the outside world relate to the main heroine. Emma has always been an outcast, unwanted in her environment because she's "different." Because of her abilities, she became merely a tool in the hands of the local colony's lord, and through her memories, we can see the attitude people have toward their fellow citizens who are "dirty."

Character Development in Beast Of Reincarnation

Emma is a person who has spent her whole life on the margins of civilization. Tainted by the "Blight," locked away and forgotten by everyone, she slowly begins to wonder whether she is human or a "malefact." Malefacts are life forms that the "Blight" has completely taken over. Over time, with the help of her companions, she manages to grasp friendship, compassion, sacrifice, and even the definition of love.

All of this would carry excellent emotional weight if Emma were a bit livelier and more convincing. As it is, she occasionally comes across as an anime trope character who experiences her rebirth by the end of the series. We shouldn't forget that this is, after all, a game by an inexperienced team, so the narrative pitfalls that come with animated series can show their questionable faces here, too.

Exploration and Open-World Structure

Upon entering the first region after the prologue, you get a map full of collectibles, and then you're faced with two choices. In the style of open-world games, you can follow the campaign strictly, or you can explore and thereby independently "feel" the vibe of this world. Honestly, it was nicer to explore without the audio narrative moments because the experience was truly authentic.

 Occasionally during play, you'll hear conversations between Emma and side characters that will give you some additional information whether you want it or not. Emma's ultimate goal is to kill the Beast of Reincarnation by absorbing the powers of the "Nushi," a kind of mini-boss for each region you pass through until you reach the capital city. Given that you have a larger number of maps, i.e., biomes, you'll have plenty of material for exploration and for combat, which is the brightest spot of this game.

Genre Identity and Pacing

There's a real problem with classifying Beast of Reincarnation. Is this an action RPG, is it hack and slash, or is it a collectathon? Simply put, this is a game that has picked up quite a few good characteristics from titles we've had the chance to see in past years and mixed them all into a fairly solid whole, carefully wrapped in measured Japanese fatalism. Like all other games from the kitchen of the Land of the Rising Sun, Beast of Reincarnation is a "slow burner" work. If it feels like you're playing it forever, you might be right. It takes a lot of time and mental patience to finish it, for some of the characters present in the game. Some are written well; others poorly, but their role is clear even to people who don't follow the tropes found in Japanese games.

As always, there are shortcomings in the recipe because you have to cater to the weeaboo audience. I'm casting a sharp look at Kagura, while Violet, as a side character, is on a knife's edge in terms of the narrative significance she's given. Kagura has her own dramatic story. She is an orphan sold to the Golems as their servant. It's poignant and falls into the realm of child exploitation, and that's where her story stops. Everything afterward boils down to "braindead" radio chatter about growing potatoes and about hens that lay golden eggs. They could easily slot her into some Pokemon game as DLC and no one would notice the difference.

Combat System Of Beast Of Reincarnation

The combat model is the most beautiful part of the entire game. Although we said at the beginning that this is a "souls-lite" action adventure, the combat model isn't slow in the least. Everything is based on clean parrying since dodge and roll don't serve much purpose in the game. Whether this is a developer oversight or intentional, we may never find out. Modeled after Sekiro and similar games, the combat mechanic is sufficiently precise and clear. There's no need for a detailed breakdown.

With a sufficient number of parries against enemy attacks, you predictably "break" the enemy's stagger gauge, and this opens them up for a finishing blow which, combined with additional attacks performed by Koo, can look VERY nice. There's something about the camera positioning in this game during combat and the choice of shots that truly contributes to the atmosphere during clashes. Besides the standard "blade against blade" beating, Koo will be able to help in various situations. To be able to use his abilities, you fill up a gauge with the help of parrying. This entire mechanic is the backbone of combat, so feel free to play aggressively, because Beast of Reincarnation demands exactly that from you.

During combat, when it's Koo's turn along with his skills, a quick time event appears where you need to press a button at the right moment. If you do everything correctly, Koo's attack achieves its full potential. We had something similar in a well-known French game that everyone praised; only, realistically, the combat in Beast of Reincarnation is, for us at least, better. A solid weapons inventory helps with all this, too, including swords, bows, and hand crossbows. Over time, Emma and Koo gain EXP points and can use them to upgrade their skills. Each of them has their own skill tree (which is genuinely represented as a tree), and on that skill tree you unlock special and basic abilities that can be used during combat.

 While Emma is based on close combat, ranged combat, and stealth abilities, Koo has quite a lot of support skills that are devastating if given well-chosen mods. The system is varied enough that you'll want to unlock as much as you can and see the full potential of this unusual duo. The boss fights, which are the backbone of these games, are well-crafted but at times feel uninspired. Another "polishing pass" was needed here. The experience isn't bad, but it could have been much better.

Technical Issues

Unfortunately, we can't just praise something when a game also has irritating flaws. Although on paper Unreal 5 is a capable engine, we've seen countless bugs before (mostly on PC, where we tested the game). Problems with lighting gradation, FPS drops when a large number of unoptimized particles appear on screen, stuttering, and some similar bugs that we apparently can't shake off. This will surely be fixed, because Beast of Reincarnation deserves a perfectly smooth experience. Not to mention occasional texture pop-in, texture loading hitches, and enemy pathfinding issues, and similar moments that show a lack of time for quality control. The music is also a problem, namely its monotony.

 During the first five minutes of the game, we can listen to an excellent, bombastic track. Then a soft, monotonous, Japanese-style pop tune kicks in, resembling a fairly solid copy of the music from Nier: Automata. A song repeated too many times starts to grate on the ears and makes you want to put on a Nier playlist to enrich the experience a bit. I don't know if the designers understand, but music is a vital part of titles like this, and it's a real shame that a little more time and money wasn't invested in this segment. A miracle could have been made here.

In Conclusion

Beast of Reincarnation is an indicator of what teams can do when the shackles of big corporations are removed from them, and they want to do something of their own. It's one thing when you want to "grind out" an assigned project and take the money, and another when you want to "spread your wings." This is a typical example of such a situation, and we hope more and more development teams will get the chance to do something like this.

Rating

8.5/10 — A distinctive, ambitious action-RPG with genuinely excellent Sekiro-inspired parry combat and an intriguing dystopian world, but held back by an uneven protagonist, repetitive music, and rough technical polish (frame drops, stuttering, pop-in) on PC.

Age Recommendation

Recommended for ages 16+. While there's no graphic gore described, the game deals with heavy existentialist themes (identity, death, dehumanization), references to child exploitation and slavery (Kagura's backstory), intense parry-based combat, and a generally dark, melancholic tone that younger players won't fully grasp or may find upsetting. This is a mature, narrative-driven title closer in spirit to Nier Automata than to anything family-friendly.

Gemini AI Summary

Game Freak steps outside the Pokemon franchise with Beast of Reincarnation, a dystopian souls-lite action-RPG following Emma, an outcast "blightborn" girl, and her wolf companion Koo as they battle through a dying world to stop a recurring apocalyptic Beast. The game earns praise for its precise, Sekiro-inspired parry combat and atmospheric open-world exploration. Still, it is weighed down by an inconsistent protagonist, underdeveloped side characters, repetitive music, and technical rough edges like frame drops and texture pop-in. We are rating it 8.5/10, calling it proof of what developers can achieve when freed from corporate obligations, and recommend it for mature players aged 16+ due to heavy themes.