Beast of Reincarnation assessment – Sport Freak open a brand new world

Printed: August 4, 2026

All eyes are on Sport Freak with the approaching launch of Beast of Reincarnation, and for good motive. The Pokémon studio hasn’t ventured out of creature-collectors. An enormous, largely open-world RPG with motion parts is a shock.

That danger has paid off. Between nice worldbuilding, wonderful design, and enjoyable fight, the sport is a powerful success, and will simply be a stepping stone into a brand new IP.

Beast of Reincarnation posits a post-apocalyptic world the place nature, know-how, and the souls of human beings have synthesized into one thing bigger than the sum of their components, creating blight and disrepair throughout the land. It affords a compelling narrative following Emma, who has the flexibility to soak up powers from creatures referred to as the Nushi. Fight is the first focus, however there’s much more to do on this sport, although it by no means actually tells you straight.

Selecting up Beast of Reincarnation will ship you on a journey – not simply by the varied components of the map, however an emotional one, too. It performs as in case you’re unravelling one nice large thriller. The characters preserve their motivations near their chests, the setting provides you clues however no solutions, and as Emma and her allies get nearer to the ultimate battle, you come to grasp that their existences are a query, too. No spoilers, in fact.

The story is aided by attractive audio-visual design. Beast of Reincarnation’s artwork route blends futuristic robotic parts with the delicate however forceful energy of nature, and it is carried out to perfection. The sport’s areas, significantly The Nice Wall Terraces and Fuji Frontier Zone, carry to life each convincing rural areas and a ruined metropolis’s metropolis. It really works along with the haunting soundtrack, which might really feel peaceable and stress-free at instances, and downright terrifying at others. The choice to have a vocalist on lots of the sport’s tracks provides it a way of drama that is very traditional JRPG, too.

At first you would possibly really feel barely intimidated by the variety of mechanics there are. The fight upgrades can really feel overwhelming, however so can among the facet programs, like cooking and rising vegetation in your base. That is the worth that Beast of Reincarnation has paid to permit its gamers to be extraordinarily versatile of their approaches to the sport, whether or not you like to discover the map and grind ranges or bounce proper into boss-fights, the sport means that you can play your means.

This is not the one sacrifice of Beast of Reincarnation’s design. It is an open world, to a fault. Many of those programs are introduced even earlier than you obtain entry to them. It’s a little complicated, however extra importantly, results in my major concern with the sport – it does not really feel completely structured sufficient for one thing with this a lot exploration. There aren’t any actual side-quests. The closest factor you may get to them is going on upon a Keeper Golem, who vaguely tells you there’s some vicious Malefact – a creature born of blight – within the space.

This hands-off method is okay in some genres, however for a world as large as this, it is a bit baffling.

Why does the sport actually need an open world? Did Sport Freak wish to do it simply to point out that they’ll? Even so, it was enjoyable to probe for a short time. This was largely because of the artwork route, but in addition the map’s verticality, which opens as much as the participant by way of Emma’s hair powers. The flexibility to sling your self forwards and backwards between factors within the air saved up a way of freedom that felt akin to Spiderman.

Fight is basically satisfying. Regardless of the occasional blip in controls, and annoyance while you get the timing improper, you are feeling robust and succesful while you get it proper, and there is a lot of other ways to chip away at enemies. I liked utilizing my hair to ship me hovering into the skies, time slowing down as I drew my crossbow and fired on the way in which all the way down to earth. Extra methods to defeat enemies are unlocked as you progress, together with Helm Splitter, a capability which made fights most likely three-to-five instances extra enjoyable than that they had been earlier than.

What’s value noting is that fight is punishing in case you make your means by it in regular mode – I did not even attempt to try the toughest issue. It’s because typically, irrespective of how effectively you’ve got realized a Nushi’s assault patterns, you may simply miss a timing, resulting in your demise.

Some video games really feel alive solely within the time you are enjoying them, however Beast of Reincarnation stayed in my mind lengthy after my time with it was over, regardless of its flaws. For that motive, I believe that it has the potential to develop as a collection past this sport alone, and earns a excessive rating from me. You must decide this one up in case you’re seeking to get invested in a narrative that takes its characters, and the principles of its world, severely. And even when it is not your cup of tea, it is value trying out to see the potential of a Sport Freak motion RPG.