Game Freak Steps Beyond Pokémon — and Beast of Reincarnation Makes It Count

Game Freak is a studio built on Pokémon. For over three decades, it has been almost synonymous with that franchise — which makes Beast of Reincarnation a genuinely unusual release. A dark fantasy action RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world, with a combat system drawing comparisons to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, feels about as far from catching monsters as it is possible to get. And yet, based on early reviews landing today on its August 4th release date, Game Freak has largely pulled it off.

What Is Beast of Reincarnation?

Beast of Reincarnation drops players into a ruined version of Japan where humanity is on the brink of extinction. You play as Emma, a purifier dispatched by the capital to hunt and slay the titular beast — a creature that has consumed much of the world’s wildlife and human population alike.

The setting draws inevitable comparisons to The Last of Us, with a world where nature has reclaimed civilisation in spectacular and unsettling ways. Enemies are so consumed and transformed by the beast that it can be difficult to identify what they once were. It is a genuinely eerie premise, and the sound design — from ambient noise to combat feedback — does considerable work in making it feel immersive.

The game runs roughly 30 hours across ten stages on normal difficulty, with a story difficulty mode available for players more interested in the narrative than the challenge.

A Combat System Worth the Soulslike Label

The Soulslike comparisons are going to come, and they are not entirely wrong. Emma’s combat revolves around a parry-and-attack system, with a variety of weapon types and enemy encounters ranging from tense solo fights to multi-enemy ambushes and enormous boss encounters. Timing and positioning matter.

What separates Beast of Reincarnation from the harder end of the genre is its relative accessibility. Parry windows are more forgiving than Sekiro’s, enemies do not respawn when you rest at save points, and defeat does not cost you collected resources. The review consensus is that it earns its Soulslike comparisons without becoming punishing for its own sake — a balance that many games in the genre get wrong.

Emma uses both ranged and melee weapons, and the buildcrafting system adds real depth. Mods can be applied to abilities to create synergistic effects, giving players genuine room to experiment with different approaches to the same encounters.

Koo Is the Game’s Best Design Decision

Emma does not fight alone. Her companion is Koo, a dog with a power set that fundamentally shifts how combat feels. Using Koo’s Bloom Arts ability slows down time entirely — pulling the game from action territory into something approaching a turn-based RPG, if only for a few seconds at a time.

The mechanic is not just a gimmick. Points needed to activate Bloom Arts are earned through successful parries, which means the two systems feed into each other constantly. Nail a series of parries against a difficult enemy, bank the points, and then use Koo to open up a window for a devastating combo. It rewards players who invest in the core systems rather than those who simply button-mash, and it is the element that most clearly distinguishes Beast of Reincarnation from its action RPG peers.

Bleacher Report calls the result “synergistic” — a word that might sound like marketing language but genuinely captures how the two-character system works in practice. Action RPGs have dominated Steam’s charts this year, and Beast of Reincarnation offers a combat loop distinctive enough to stand out in a crowded field.

Is Beast of Reincarnation Worth Your Time?

The review consensus forming on launch day is warm, if not universally ecstatic. TechRadar calls it “fantastic and immersive” with “some of the best and most satisfying combat” the reviewer had experienced in some time, and praises an emotional narrative that keeps players guessing chapter by chapter. Bleacher Report lands at “a fun romp in a gorgeous world where progression feels rewarding” — a slightly cooler verdict but still clearly positive.

The IGN review notes that the game borrows familiar action RPG ideas but applies them with enough creativity that the debt feels earned rather than lazy. The world design, in particular, receives consistent praise across multiple outlets.

Beast of Reincarnation is not a reinvention of the genre. It does not need to be. For Game Freak, it is proof that decades of creative experience extends well beyond catching and battling creatures — and that stepping outside a comfort zone, when done with genuine craft, produces something worth playing.