For nearly 30 years, the developer has been collecting and taming monsters. Now, Game Freak is stepping outside the Pokémon series with its first AAA title: ‘Beast of Reincarnation.’ This new IP is set in a post-apocalyptic Japan in the year 4,026, ravaged by a mysterious plague. Players follow Emma, a young girl who wields plant-based powers, and her canine companion, Ku, as they fight in perfect synchronization to hunt down the ‘Beast of Reincarnation,’ the source of all calamity.

The news that a company known for Pokémon was making an action RPG centered on swordplay brought as much anxiety as it did excitement. Furthermore, the experimental combat structure—combining Emma’s sword-based action with Ku’s command-based support—left me uncertain. Has ‘Beast of Reincarnation’ successfully leveraged the developer’s unique strengths?

I spent about two hours with a demo build at the Bilibili First Look event. I played on a PC with a Xbox controller, using English subtitles and Japanese voice-overs. The demo covered a tutorial, a foray into the fields, a return to the tutorial, a boss fight, more exploration, and finally, another boss encounter in a village.

Emma’s blade is fast and nimble, but…

First, I must address how the combat functions. Combat in Beast of Reincarnation revolves around two pillars: Emma and Ku. Emma is directly controlled by the player; all real-time actions—slashing with a katana, dodging, and parrying—are her responsibility. Ku, on the other hand, does not fight autonomously. Instead, the player opens a command menu to select and trigger Ku’s skills. Think of it as inserting turn-based RPG command inputs into the middle of real-time action.

The link between the two is parrying. When Emma parries an enemy attack, points are accumulated, which are then spent to trigger Ku’s skills. In short, you must defend well with Emma to generate resources for Ku, and use Ku’s skills to cover Emma’s openings—a symbiotic design. The intention is to ensure that the hand wielding the sword and the hand commanding the dog work in harmony. Consequently, the player must juggle three elements: Emma’s action, Ku’s commands, and the parrying that connects them.

To start with the conclusion: the swordplay is a success. Emma’s katana action is generally snappy, fast, and light. It feels agile, but interestingly, the weight of the sword changes depending on the situation. Standard attacks feel crisp and fluid, while landing an assassination strike from behind an enemy carries a heavy, satisfying impact. Looking at the swordplay alone, it is so well-executed that it is hard to believe this is Game Freak’s first action game.

Parrying also plays a significant role. You could almost say the game is impossible to progress through without it, but fortunately, the timing window is quite generous. At least in the early stages I played, the rhythm was steady and predictable, making it easy to read. Rather than demanding pixel-perfect precision, the game gives you plenty of room to counter. If you were expecting the razor-sharp rhythm required by a game like ‘Sekiro,’ you will find this much more forgiving.

The parrying scene above illustrates the various mechanics of the system. First, I was able to parry mid-attack, and the game registered a success even though I pressed the button just before the enemy’s strike landed. Conversely, the second parry was successful even though I pressed the button quite early, well before the enemy’s blade reached me. During these two parries, ① Ku’s energy gauge filled up, and ② the opponent was staggered by the parries alone. The window for parrying is quite lenient.

The problem is Ku. The combat is structured so that Emma rapidly pressures enemies, with the player occasionally opening a command menu to trigger Ku’s skills. The developers intended this to be a ‘pacing adjustment’ that allows players to pause and strategize rather than relying solely on reflexes. I understand the intent, but it doesn’t feel fluid. The moment you open the command menu, the fast-paced combat comes to a jarring halt. It breaks the flow.

It is not uncommon for games to pause briefly for selection during action. However, those games usually only pause in specific, rare situations. In Beast of Reincarnation, because Ku is as important as the protagonist, you have to repeat this pause frequently. Frequent pauses mean frequent interruptions. Ultimately, I could not truly feel the ‘perfect sync’ between Emma and Ku. Because the controls felt disconnected, I never had the chance to experience a true synergy. I feel like I solved half the homework from this demo, while the other half remains a question mark.

Ranged weapons are strictly for support. They fly well enough, but they lack any real sense of impact.

However, these plant-based abilities prove to be effective in weakening the health of bosses, which are often too large for your sword to reach. I encountered two types of plant-based abilities: a double jump that grants an extra boost in mid-air, and a rope-action move that allows you to throw a plant at a specific point and zip towards it, similar to the traversal in the ‘Batman: Arkham’ series. There was also a feature to create paths with plants in the air, but after the tutorial, I completely forgot about it and never used it again.

‘Emma,’ a superhuman who deflects attacks from house-sized bosses with a single sword

The highlight of the demo undoubtedly was the boss fights. The first opponent, ‘Rangifer,’ a deer-like creature, despite its screen-filling size, had surprisingly predictable patterns. It would stab once with its antlers, swing twice, jump away, return, swing its antlers twice more, and finish with a downward slam. It was easy to read and dodge. When it howled and turned red, it entered phase 2, incorporating ranged patterns such as throwing rocks, making the battle more engaging. Overall, it stayed within the expected difficulty range for an early-game boss.

‘Nue,’ encountered in a flashback, felt different. It was a bizarre-looking corrupted monster with a dog’s body and a lotus-like head. While its melee patterns—swinging its front paws and tail-whipping twice—were manageable, the attack that summoned lightning along with a roar was quite tricky. It attacked from both close and long range, but the difficulty itself was not very high.

After experiencing two boss fights, I couldn’t help but feel that sword-based action doesn’t quite mesh well with giant boss monsters. It felt out of place to see the petite and fragile ‘Emma’ effortlessly parrying attacks from colossal bosses with just a single sword. Swordsmanship was originally designed for human-to-human combat, and directly applying it to battles against giant monsters lacks visual coherence.

In my personal experience, I found the regular monsters to be more challenging than the bosses. Among the early-game enemies, the bear-like creature was particularly formidable. It would swing twice rapidly, then, just when I anticipated a third strike at the same pace, it would delay its final blow, catching me off guard. While boss attacks followed a rhythm and were predictable, regular monsters occasionally utilized off-beat and irregular attacks, leaving me with the impression that they were more intimidating than the bosses.

I quickly adapted to the controls. Initially, maneuvering the protagonist felt awkward, but as I grew accustomed to it, it became second nature. The only aspect that I never quite got the hang of was ‘Ku.’ The user interface was intuitive and uncluttered, and I encountered no frame drops or stuttering during the two-hour session. I didn’t encounter any loading problems or bugs. At the very least, the technical polish of the build was flawless.

Storytelling Lacks Immersion Compared to the Action

The narrative perspective shifts in the early stages were somewhat confusing. The game starts with a tutorial featuring a fully developed ‘Emma’ with all skills unlocked, but then the timeline regresses to the past where she is journeying with ‘Ku,’ and further back to when they first met.

While the intention may have been to create a strong impact in what could have been a monotonous early game, the frequent perspective changes hinder the organic flow of the story. The structure of completing a tutorial with a fully skilled character only to backtrack to the past and repeat tutorial-like gameplay also detracts from the overall cohesiveness.

The storytelling itself was disappointing. The cycle of transitioning to a flashback to explain the backstory immediately after an intense battle repeatedly interrupts the momentum of the combat. There were numerous instances where the intensity of the battle waned during these flashback sequences, and the ensuing cutscenes failed to leave a lasting impact.

However, my curiosity about the story remained. This was due to the seamless integration of elements outside of the narrative into a unique world. The diverse designs of the mechanical humanoid monsters and the strange beasts cursed by plants, along with the prevalent Japanese-style setting, brought to mind Studio Ghibli’s masterpiece Princess Mononoke. This evocative mise-en-scène constantly piqued the player’s anticipation and curiosity about what would unfold in this desolate world.

One month until launch… The hour of the dog and wolf

There is a fleeting moment at twilight when the silhouette approaching over the hill is so ambiguous that you cannot tell if it is your own dog or a wolf coming to harm you. We call this the ‘hour of the dog and wolf.’ My two-hour demo of ‘Beast of Reincarnation’ felt exactly like that.

It remains uncertain whether players will embrace ‘Beast of Reincarnation’ like a loyal dog or shun it like a fierce wolf. The game’s strengths and weaknesses stand in stark contrast.

‘Beast of Reincarnation’ is set to launch officially on August 4 for PS5, PC, and Xbox. With just a month to go, the development team will likely focus on refining the well-received aspects and addressing the shortcomings highlighted during the demo.

Being just a hands-on build, it’s too early to pass judgment on the final quality. The depth players experience once they master the systems fully, or the emotional impact of the complete narrative, could differ significantly. The game already boasts a strong foundation to engage users, with a visually stunning setting reminiscent of ‘Princess Mononoke’ and solid katana combat mechanics. I eagerly anticipate its return in August, hopefully as a more polished masterpiece after utilizing the final month effectively.