Beast Of Reincarnation review – the new best dog in video games

Ahead of next year’s new Pokémon game, developer Game Freak is mixing things up with a new action role-player that boasts the best graphics in the studio’s history.

We don’t want to compare Beast Of Reincarnation with Pokémon too much, since they don’t share a lot in common beyond developer Game Freak, but we do need to address the (bad-ass) elephant in the room that is the game’s graphics.

Even from the first trailer, Beast Of Reincarnation looked surprisingly pretty and that remains the case in the full game. Its detailed, post-apocalyptic Japan, where the remnants of human civilisation have been overrun by foliage and nature, is an impressive (if a tad generic) effort and should put to bed the idea that modern Pokémon’s flat graphics are due to a lack of talent and/or skill. Instead, it seems to be more a question of how much time and budget they’re given to make their games.

However, good graphics don’t equate to a good game and Beast Of Reincarnation is a massive departure from Game Freak’s non-Pokémon titles, since instead of another 2D platformer or puzzle game, this is an action role-player that you could easily mistake for a Soulslike. Although it really has more in common with something like Capcom’s upcoming Onimusha revival.

Beast Of Reincarnation certainly has some Soulslike DNA, in terms of the flow of combat, which requires patience and fast reaction times. Plus, the game’s various zones (think Pokémon Legends: Arceus) are littered with campsites that serve as save points, letting you unlock and upgrade skills, restore your health, and respawn defeated enemies.

Despite these similarities, and a higher-than-average skill ceiling, Beast Of Reincarnation isn’t as punishing as it first seems, since death only sends you back to your last campsite and doesn’t cost you unspent skill points or any resources you’ve collected. The game offers difficulty options too, that you can change at any time, so it’s hard but not punishing.

Whereas Pokémon games always treat you as a newbie at the start of the adventure, Beast Of Reincarnation already expects you to have some familiarity with action games. Enemies are aggressive from the get-go and learning how to parry is a must, since it not only helps fill a stagger bar – which opens up an instant kill opportunity when full – but it also keeps your own stamina bar from depleting, which empties whenever you block an attack.

There’s no Batman: Arkham style flash to inform you when to parry; you simply have to rely on watching how each enemy moves and learn the timing of their various attacks, some of which can swing upwards of six or seven times in a row. The one exception is a red flash to warn you of unblockable attacks, which you need to dodge.

Perhaps most importantly, parries are how you earn Florescence Points (FP) for your canine companion Koo, the MVD (most valuable dog) of the game. FP is spent on Koo’s bloom arts, which range from a flammable projectile attack to shooting out vines to pull enemies together, and are a great way of further racking up damage, inflicting status effects, and disrupting enemies.

Beyond that, Koo will attack enemies automatically and is capable of learning skills that don’t require FP, like planting landmines or curing yourself of status ailments, making him an invaluable ally and a genuine lifesaver in the game’s tougher battles.

He can be knocked out if he takes too much damage, but he’ll thankfully revive himself after enough time passes, and is constantly alerting you to resources to gather in the field, such as seedlings for growing ingredients to cook stat-boosting food at your home base.

That’s not to say you’re completely incapable yourself, although it can feel like that at first. Beast Of Reincarnation’s opening hours don’t make a great first impression, thanks to your limited skill set and a couple of tough enemy encounters before you even reach the first boss.

However, both you and Koo are constantly unlocking new abilities through a giant skill tree and boosting your stats through level-ups, which do make a tangible difference. We wouldn’t say combat gets easier the further you progress (skill is ultimately the most important factor), but it does become more manageable and increasingly fun.

The wide variety of skills available to you means there’s plenty of freedom in how you build yourself and Koo. We opted for a defensive approach, where we could more easily restore health while Koo could buff us with temporary armour and use a taunt to draw enemy aggro.

There are also multiple swords to acquire that have their own passive effects that can be upgraded, as well as a degree of strategy of when to perform your own special attacks, which require you to spend portions of your stamina bar but can rack up a lot of damage and more easily stagger enemies.

Fights with multiple enemies remain annoyingly hectic throughout, though, especially since they can easily gang up on you and it can feel unfair whenever they take potshots from off-screen and right after you come out of the insta-kill animation, which leaves you little time to guard.

Bu you gradually unlock more moves to better deal with them (we came to love a dive attack that can be performed in mid-air) and the game also offers opportunities to pick off enemies stealthily or from afar with ranged attacks.

It’s a good thing the combat is consistently enjoyable because the story certainly isn’t compelling enough to keep you going. Protagonist Emma’s quest to kill the titular Beast of Reincarnation is simple enough on paper, but it throws a lot of uninteresting lore at you right from the start, that is presented in the most boring way possible. Its attempts to tackle deeper themes, about the importance of emotions and freedom of choice, aren’t nearly as thought provoking as the game thinks they are.

This could have been offset by some fun characters, but Emma herself is about as wooden as the twigs in her hair, while everyone else around her is almost as dry and uninteresting. Writing her so that she canonically has no emotions, while giving her no larger-than-life personalities to bounce off of, was a big mistake and makes it almost impossible to engage with the plot.

The only endearing character of the lot is Koo and that’s by virtue of him being a cute doggy. We’re not being facetious when we say that the Pokémon games have had more memorable storytelling and characters.

It also quickly becomes apparent that despite the luscious visuals, Beast Of Reincarnation is not without budgetary constraints. Some boss fights start being recycled around the halfway mark and after its first zone promises multiple wide-open areas to explore, they quickly become more linear, funnelling you to the end goal with only some extraneous diversions.

When combined with the dull story, the game begins to feel padded out and could’ve afforded to be shorter, even though it’s not particularly long to begin with. We managed to clear it in just under 23 hours, even with copious deaths, yet it felt longer with how much the story drags its heels.

Furthermore, there are shockingly no accessibility options beyond autotargeting. Even the subtitles can’t be adjusted, meaning they are permanently tiny and often difficult to read, so god forbid if you’re hard of hearing or just want to play with Japanese voice acting.

Even so, this might be Game Freak’s best non-Pokémon project since 2005’s Drill Dozer and proof that the studio can still make engaging games beyond just formulaic Pokémon sequels. Although Beast Of Reincarnation is interesting enough that it does bode well for next year’s Pokémon Winds and Waves.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Fictions
Developer: Game Freak
Release Date: 4th August 2026
Age Rating: 16

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