When Beast of Reincarnation was first announced, I saw that Game Freak — the same studio behind Pokémon — was making a dark action RPG with some serious Princess Mononoke vibes, and my curiosity was immediately piqued.
But what I just played is about as far away from catching quirky monsters as you can get. Instead, you’re hunting them down in a desperate bid to save humanity.
A World Slowly Coming Back to Life
Set in post-apocalyptic Japan, two thousand years into the future, Beast of Reincarnation takes place in a world ravaged by the Blight, a corruption that has twisted nature and transformed creatures into dangerous monsters known as Malefacts.
What’s left of humanity is barely surviving, confined to scattered colonies walled off from the Blight.
The rest of humanity has either died out or transferred their souls into mechanical Golems who rule over these last colonies.
You play as Emma, an outcast known as a Blightborn, and her canine companion, Koo, who is also affected by the Blight.
Emma is isolated from her fellow humans, shunned by society and sent out to deal with Malefacts whenever she’s needed. The ruling Administrator tasks Emma with hunting down powerful Malefacts, known as Nushi, to power up and take down the Beast of Reincarnation to save humanity.
At first, Beast of Reincarnation can feel like it is intentionally holding back. You are dropped into this strange world with more questions than answers, and it takes a while before the larger picture begins to form.
The world itself is interesting enough that I wanted to keep exploring. Every new area revealed another piece of the puzzle, whether it was discovering what happened to humanity or understanding the strange creatures that now dominate the landscape.
The story isn’t completely original; I recognised plenty of story beats. But sometimes execution matters more than originality, and Beast of Reincarnation kept me engaged with its version.
Learning What It Means To Be Human
One of the more interesting choices Beast of Reincarnation makes is how it handles its characters. At the beginning of the game, many feel almost emotionless, namely Emma and Kagura, a little orphan girl who serves the Golems and feeds Emma at the colony.
Conversations are cold, relationships are distant and Emma and Kagura clearly require a lot of guidance on how to talk to humans.
Watching Emma and Kagura slowly open up and heal from their upbringings was genuinely heartwarming to watch. They don’t suddenly transform into completely different people. Instead, their personalities develop naturally as they experience the world and learn their place in it.
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Even with a few of the conversations dragging, the emotional growth feels earned.
There’s also a small roster of other characters you meet along the way, such as Brad, the mech driver; Violet, the girl only Emma can see; and Kunai, a fellow badass purifier tasked with the same quest. Koo, though, is easily the star of Beast of Reincarnation — who doesn’t love a dog companion?!
Koo isn’t just there to look cool and help Emma in battle, although he absolutely does that too. He becomes the emotional anchor of the entire adventure.
The relationship between Emma and Koo is the heart of the game, and this bond developing over the course of the journey was easily one of my favourite parts. That, and ensuring Koo got his shower everytime we returned back to base.
By the end, I genuinely cared about what happened to this oversized magical dog. Which is impressive considering he mostly communicates by being a very good boy.
Combat Blooms
Emma and Koo fight together as a single unit, combining Emma’s sword abilities with commands that allow Koo to unleash different techniques. It creates a combat system that mixes real-time action with strategic decision-making, think Final Fantasy VII Remake.
At a basic level, Emma can parry, dodge and swing her sword. Combos flow smoothly, and there are enough abilities available to keep encounters interesting throughout the game’s 25-plus-hour adventure.
Being a Blightborn, Emma’s abilities cause flowers to bloom across the battlefield. It creates an elegant beauty to combat. Watching sword strikes create bursts of colour against the game’s darker world never stopped being satisfying.
There were moments where I probably spent too much time admiring the effects instead of paying attention to whether an enemy was about to hit me.
Worth it.
Combat also does a good job of encouraging experimentation. Different enemies have different weaknesses, and learning how to exploit them is the key to success. You can customise Emma through different skills, gear and Spirit Stones, allowing you to create builds focused around different playstyles.
However, on normal difficulty, build crafting never becomes essential.
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The systems are there for players who enjoy optimising every possible advantage, but simply understanding enemy weaknesses and learning attack patterns will carry you through most encounters. Parrying is also key, as it gives you access to Koo’s abilities, fortunately the timing for parrying is rather generous.
For those wanting a bigger challenge, higher difficulty options are available and the new game+ offers further difficulty ramps.
For me, Normal difficulty provided a good balance. It challenged me without making every fight feel like a punishment. Despite the game’s Souls-like influences, it’s not a Souls game and is more akin to the Nier series.
A Beautiful World With Some Rough Edges
Visually, Beast of Reincarnation is a mixed bag.
The world itself is fascinating. The contrast between abandoned human civilisation and nature reclaiming everything creates some genuinely memorable locations. Forests bursting through ruined cities and abandoned technological marvels give the game a strong visual identity.
Emma can extend her hair to grow bridges, grapple points and rise high into the sky. These traversal options give the world a good verticality. They also make exploration extremely enjoyable.
When the Blight falls, entire forests literally erupt from the ground, dramatically reshaping the world around you. It’s a striking effect that creates a dynamic shift in the environment. However, I wish the game had explored that mechanic further.
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There’s far too much graphical ghosting and shimmering, along with some flat textures throughout the game — this is the world’s biggest flaw. It is particularly noticeable indoors, where lighting effects can become distracting and moving the camera can create a strange blur around objects.
Playing on a PS5 Pro in Pro Enhanced mode, I noticed very little slowdown outside of some smaller fight sequences. Overall, the game runs smoothly.
It never completely ruined my experience, but it does make the game feel less polished than it should. Hopefully this is something that can be addressed with patches.
A Soundtrack That Deserves More
From the moment I booted up the game, the music immediately let me know Game Freak means business. After all, the Pokémon games have some of the most iconic music in gaming.
Beast of Reincarnation’s soundtrack perfectly matches its lonely atmosphere, bringing emotion to quieter moments and adding intensity during major battles.
Several tracks genuinely elevate important scenes, with the overall soundtrack being very reminiscent of Nier Automata.
My only complaint is that there isn’t enough variety. Some themes repeat so frequently that they lose impact later in the adventure.
I played through the majority of game using the Japanese voiceover, which fit the tone. Performances generally capture the quieter emotional moments well.
English voice options are also available, but they’re not presented as an option during setup. You have to go looking through the settings, from the title screen for them. Be warned, they’re extremely British.
A Beast Worth Following
Beast of Reincarnation is a game that knows exactly what it wants to be.
It is a story about loneliness, connection and discovering humanity in a world that has almost forgotten what that means. It is also a game where you fight giant monsters alongside a giant dog while flowers explode everywhere.
Honestly, that combination is pretty hard to dislike.
While its strengths outweigh its weaknesses, the story takes a little too long to get moving, and the technical issues prevent the games world from reaching its full potential.
Thankfully, the combat is excellent, the world is intriguing, and Emma, Kagura and Koo’s growth carries the adventure in a way I didn’t expect. By the end, I wasn’t just playing to see what happened next. I was playing because I actually cared about these saplings.
Beast of Reincarnation may not reinvent the action RPG, but it delivers a memorable journey with a surprising amount of heart.
And sometimes, that’s all you need.
Quest Daily scores Beast of Reincarnation:
8/10
Beast of Reincarnation is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam.
Access to Beast of Reincarnation was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
