While many game studios work across a variety of franchises throughout their careers, some inevitably become synonymous with a single series. For better or worse, that’s exactly what has happened with GAME FREAK. Mention the studio’s name, and most people’s minds immediately jump to Pokémon, and that’s perfectly understandable. However, that might change soon, as GAME FREAK is breaking ground with Beast of Reincarnation, an addictive and memorable action RPG that showcases the studio’s potential and makes me wish the developers would continue to venture into other genres.
When I saw the first trailer for Beast of Reincarnation and witnessed a taster of its soulslike combat, I thought it would feature a vague and hard-to-follow story, as it tends to be a staple of that genre. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, and I’d say the narrative is one of the strongest elements of Beast of Reincarnation.
You assume the role of Emma, a human known as a Purifier, capable of cleansing the world from Blight by absorbing it. Along the ride, you have your faithful Blighted dog called Koo, as well as other characters who join you for a ride on your mobile base.
In terms of the overarching narrative, Emma’s goal is to reach the capital and defeat the titular Beast of Reincarnation. However, it’s the journey to get there that makes the story so enjoyable. Beast of Reincarnation explores a number of thought-provoking themes through the eyes of Emma, a stoic protagonist who has spent her life isolated from the world because she is a Purifier. As she journeys through the game’s post-apocalyptic version of Japan, you gradually witness her grow as both a person and a character, making her development one of the story’s greatest strengths.
The secondary characters were also a welcome addition, especially Koo and Kagura, both of whom have rapport levels that, once increased, allow you to talk to them to learn more about their personalities and roles in the journey. The cherry on top, though, is the superb voice acting, which I recommend keeping in Japanese. Nothing against the English voice actors, but the direction seemed a bit different, as some lines didn’t hit with the same emotion that those in Japanese conveyed. Plus, Emma’s voice actor is Yui Ishikawa, known for being the voice of 2B in NieR: Automata, so any chance to listen to her again in a protagonist role is a big bonus for me.
Overall, I ended up enjoying the story way more than I thought I would, and all of it is thanks to the superb world-building and excellent character development. On top of that, there are some shocking twists in some parts of the narrative that reel you into this wonderful world GAME FREAK has created. For a new IP, I’m extremely pleased with what the studio accomplished in its storytelling aspects, and I only hope we see more of this world in the future.
Systems On Top of Systems
I will not sugarcoat it: Beast of Reincarnation is one of the most overwhelming games I’ve played this year, but I say that in a good way. Lately, studios seem to look for ways to simplify every single thing in their games, and then we have GAME FREAK who really throws as many systems as possible into one blender and, surprisingly enough, makes all of them work.
When I say overwhelming, I only mean during the opening hours, as Beast of Reincarnation throws several systems at you right off the bat. For starters, the combat has a Sekiro feel in terms of its parrying system. Every enemy has a stagger bar, and by consistently parrying their attacks, you can deplete it and leave them vulnerable to a fatal blow.
However, parrying has another function, which is when Koo comes into play. When you parry, Koo gains FP, which he then uses for his skills. All of Koo’s skills have different effects, such as binding enemies, applying poison, and even destroying shields. You can further customize these by unlocking and applying mods, which allow you to activate extra effects after using a skill, like removing effect build-up from Emma.
Then comes the character-building part, which is as extensive as you can imagine. The huge skill tree is split into three branches for both characters, each one corresponding to a major skill. To unlock more abilities, you need to level up your attributes and spend skill points to unlock the new skill. At first, I thought the attribute requirements were a bit strange, but once I managed to get all the way to the bottom of one branch, unlocking others was pretty easy.
Also, I liked how all branches cater to different playstyles, such as Emma’s Hair branch, which is all about entangling enemies, or Koo’s Guard branch, which turns him into a more tank-like character. You’ll eventually want to, pardon the pun, branch into other areas of the skill tree, as all of them have interesting skills that are quite useful in certain encounters.
If that wasn’t enough, you then have stones that give Emma passive bonuses, craftable items that Koo can create and use on his own, weapons with different elemental attacks and upgrade levels, and even armor, which, despite not being shown on Emma, provides different bonuses and slots for your passive upgrades.
Even if I thought some of the systems were a bit confusing at first, it didn’t take long for me to fully grasp them and realize just how deep the combat system went. That said, I do believe that difficulty here is an issue of sorts, as even on Normal, the game is way too easy and doesn’t give space for the combat mechanics to shine. While I would recommend playing Beast of Reincarnation in its most challenging difficulty, I appreciate GAME FREAK for giving us the option to focus on the story or find a more balanced approach.
Speaking of balance, I do have a few gripes with enemies and bosses. For the former, I loved the variety. You start fighting your usual and weak Golems first alongside some blighted beasts that present a bit of a challenge, and then start facing a few that overwhelm you with fast combos where perfect parrying is a must. Unfortunately, boss fights are on the other spectrum, as I found most of them quite underwhelming.
Visually, looking at the towering creatures and facing other huge Golems was a treat. However, the actual fighting felt extremely simple, with just a couple of boss encounters being memorable after my journey ended. In addition, with how big some of the bosses are, I would’ve loved different camera settings, as sometimes you couldn’t appreciate the design of the foe or its attacks.
Nevertheless, despite these minor complaints, GAME FREAK has created a new blend of action RPG that takes many systems we’ve seen in modern titles, combines them into a brand-new IP, and makes every single one work. There’s still room for improvement, especially in some of the game’s critical encounters, but I do admit that leaping from branches to land on a golem, slicing it in half, and then performing a combo to apply poison to others was amazing, and not a lot of games provide this.
Great Design, Choppy Looks
When it comes to visuals and map design, I’m a bit conflicted. For visuals, Beast of Reincarnation excels at presenting an eerie yet strangely gorgeous version of a post-apocalyptic Japanese landscape. The collapsed buildings, the sunken roads, the broken-down traffic signs leading to Shibuya — all of it is amazing. However, performance woes are present every step of the journey, at least on PS5.
The first zone was fine in a sense, as I didn’t experience many technical hiccups, even when parts of it changed in real-time. However, the game struggled after its second zone, as my frame rate would drop considerably, pop-in issues became more noticeable, and textures started to look extremely blurry, taking away some of the beauty that the art team worked so hard to convey.
In truth, this is a bit of a shame, especially when Beast of Reincarnation has such strong level design. The first area feels like a semi-open world, rivaling some of the zones we saw in games like Stellar Blade. After that, the studio uses a lot of verticality to give you these urban mazes full of plants, branches, and dilapidated structures. It was extremely engaging to find my way to the next strongbox or go off the beaten path to discover a new group of enemies or a hidden Shrine. Then again, the real battle is against the choppy frame rate and blurry textures, which at times made me want to rush through the main scenario rather than explore.
Thankfully, I didn’t encounter any gameplay bugs during my playthrough. Combat, traversal, exploration, and even item collection felt consistently smooth, and I never had to restart a save or deal with a crash. In that regard, I think Beast of Reincarnation did an excellent job at polishing its core systems, but I still wish the studio had done a better job at optimizing the game, at least for consoles.
A Rewarding New Road
As I ventured deeper into the blighted lands and journeyed toward the capital alongside my loyal canine companion and newfound allies, I often found myself forgetting I was playing a GAME FREAK title, and I mean that as the highest compliment. I expected the studio to remain firmly rooted in creature-collecting games, but instead it delivered an exceptional action RPG with a superb story. Beast of Reincarnation has easily earned a place among my favorite games of 2026.
While I do think the performance needs improvement, as it will hold back the game considerably, Beast of Reincarnation provides a unique RPG experience packed with fast-paced combat, a plethora of character-building opportunities, and stellar level design that I wish the studio would continue using. In the end, as a fan of GAME FREAK, I’m thrilled to see the studio channel its creativity into new genres, and I hope Beast of Reincarnation is only the beginning of that journey.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Beast of Reincarnation (PS5 Reviewed)
Beast of Reincarnation is GAME FREAK's latest endeavor, showing the studio is more than capable of moving beyond the creature-collecting genre. With an excellent story and gameplay systems that work cohesively, it stands as another highlight of 2026.
Pros
- A superb combat system
- Memorable narrative and characters
- In-depth character-building options
Cons
- Several performance issues
- Some boss fights can be underwhelming
