Beast of Reincarnation: I was ready to tear Game Freak apart, and it slapped me (in a good way)

Let me open with a confession: when Game Freak announced an action RPG that was not a Pokémon, I laughed. Honestly. The studio nobody has been able to defend for years, the one whose every release comes with an inventory of bugs and cardboard trees, trying its hand at a souls-like? For sixty euros? I booted up Beast of Reincarnation with my arms crossed, ready to write a scathing review.

Four hours later, I still had not put the controller down. And a puppy half-eaten by corruption had already melted my heart.

A girl, a mutt, and a Japan that went very wrong

It is the year 4026. Japan barely exists anymore: a plant has colonised the world, nature has taken back its rights, and what they call the Corruption gnaws at everything that moves. You play Emma, a Sealer who throws plant-based attacks thanks to powers lodged in her hair. Yes, her hair. Picture a mix of Bayonetta and Avatar with a decent budget, and you are not far off.

But the real main character is Koo. This mutant dog, ugly and adorable at once, is not a gadget you forget after ten minutes. He opens passages, he tears enemies apart while you take hits, he warns you of danger with a bark. At one point, cornered by a boss beating me senseless, I caught myself yelling "Koo, get him!" like a kid at his own dog. It is silly, but it works. Game Freak understood something many RPGs forget: a companion is something you feel, not something you tick in a menu.

The combat does not forgive, and that is a good thing

Where I expected the studio to be weakest was the crux of the matter: does it play well? Short answer: yes, and it stings.

The system blends real-time and turn-based, with a heavy dose of souls-like parrying. You do not hammer the attack button, you read your opponent, you wait for the right window, you counter. Miss a parry against a big boss, and half your bar is gone. The first time I chained three perfect parries on a tentacled monster before finishing it, I felt that little shiver you only get in good, demanding games. Famitsu dropped a 35 out of 40, and for once I get the hype.

It is technical, it is punishing, and it will not suit everyone. If you want a cool RPG where you cruise on autopilot, move along, you will suffer. Me, it hooked me.

Where it stumbles (because it does stumble)

I will not lie to you, and I know that on the forums some are already crying scandal about the game's opening: they are not entirely wrong. The first hour is rough. The camera sometimes fights you in tight corridors, I ran into two or three invisible walls that had no business being there, and a few animations have that slightly unfinished feel that reminds you Game Freak is still learning the big action-production trade.

These are not game-breaking bugs, but they are rough edges that stop Beast of Reincarnation from being the masterpiece it grazes. You feel the first attempt, the ambition sometimes outrunning the mastery. It smooths out as you go, but the shop window of the first few minutes does a disservice to a game that is worth infinitely more than its first impression.

So, the famous question of the budget

I saved it for last, because it is the one that made me laugh at the start: did Game Freak finally put in the money? Yes. And it changes everything. The art direction of this Japan devoured by vegetation is gorgeous, dark, coherent, miles from the pastel imagery we know them for. There is a care, a density, an identity we no longer dared hope for from them.

That is where the joke turns around: for years, we wondered whether Game Freak was mocking us with Pokémon sold by the million and shipped half-baked. Beast of Reincarnation is proof they could do it, and that all they lacked was the will (and the budget) to prove it elsewhere. On Game Pass from day one, no less, so there is really no reason not to give it at least a few hours.

An imperfect game, a little wobbly at the start, but alive, ambitious and sincere. From the studio I was gearing up to demolish, it is a slap. A good one.

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