Beast of Reincarnation is a new video game from Game Freak, the creation team best known for their Pokémon titles. However, this game is an action role-playing game that’s reminiscent ofa Final Fantasy adventure. And it includes gaming elements that are similar to even edger titles such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Dark Souls.
In other words, don’t go in expecting a laid-back gotta catch ‘em all vibe.
Beast of Reincarnation takes place in the year 4026, a retro-futuristic fantasy time of robot golems, swirling magic and swordplay. In this age, humanity is dying out, civilization has collapsed, and a virus-like phenomenon called the blight has tangled the world up in vines and wild woodland growth—turning forest beasts feral and infecting human souls.
Players face this world as Emma, a beautiful but emotionless Japanese girl/warrior who travels with a blighted dire wolf named Koo.
The game slowly doles out Emma’s backstory and eventually shows us how she became an outcast “purifier” with blight-borne powers. Her sole job is to hunt down colossal, corrupted creatures called the Nushi, then seal (or absorb) their blighted energy and find her way to the core of the world’s corruption: the Beast of Reincarnation.
Gameplay wise, gamers travel the tainted, overgrown world—upgrading their skilltree abilities and improving their gear—and give battle to all manner of enemy robots and Nushi beasts. The combat features Emma and Koo battling as a team, and it centers around parrying every attack that comes Emma’s way.
Each attack parry allows two things to happen: It builds up a “stagger” gauge that gives Emma more effective knock-back attacks (or kills). And the parries fill up her “florescence points” that give Emma the ability to slow down time and select special moves and attacks that Koo can perform.
There are 13 distinct regional zones for Emma and Koo to explore peppered with usable items, deadly enemies and some engaging platforming challenges. Emma’s blight-stained hair, for instance, can extend to form vine bridges across terrain gaps and transform into a grappling hook that can latch onto distant ledges.
Beast of Reincarnation is a single-player game that does not offer any multiplayer interaction and does not require an internet connection once the game is installed. Expect about 20 to 30 hours of playtime.
Beast of Reincarnation is the story of a young woman fighting for the wellbeing of a world that rejects her. This seemingly emotionless woman is ultimately able to develop a love for Koo and others that she travels with. In essence, the game tells us, she’s able to “grow a new soul.” Emma eventually sacrifices herself for those loved ones’ sakes and humanity at large. She becomes a sacrifice that gives humanity and herself a rebirth.
This is a very graphically pleasing game, despite its darker post-apocalyptic, corruption elements. And the game thematically lauds companionship and empathy over isolation and detachment. In fact, you can find an encouragement here to step back from technology and, instead, reach out to the people in your life.
Beast of Reincarnation’s story and its corrupted world can feel dark and foreboding. And early on, Emma’s rejection by the remnants of human society for being a “cursed outcast” feels a little disturbing.
This is a game that centers heavily on combat. The battles are fast-paced and percussive with brightly-colored, lightning-like clashes and some blood spatter. Characters fall to the ground bleeding and struggling. Players use swords, wrist crossbows, and Emma’s wolf companion to battle human enemies, robotic golems, and mutated plant/animal creatures. Plant creatures and mutants attack with claws, teeth and magic-like blasts. (One foe is a large dinosaur-like plant-and-human mutation.)
Beast of Reincarnation incorporates a strange spirituality in its storyline that centers around corrupted growth and a cyclical system of tainted rebirth. There’s also a technological element involved that includes human soul-transference into robotic golems. (However, Emma rejects the reincarnation system in place and through her sacrifice gives mankind a fresh start.)
Emma interacts with a “ghost girl” called Violet. Through most of the game, it’s unclear who or what this “spirit” is, but by the end, we find that this entity isn’t the spirit of a dead person at all.
Beast of Reincarnation isn’t a game that everyone will be drawn to. It’s an odd blend of beauty, darkness, corruption, heated battle, moments of kindness, twisted spirituality and redemption. All in a T-rated RPG package.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
