Beast of Reincarnation Review: Flower power

At this point in the gaming world, the post-apocalypse is a well-mined concept. We’ve been through more half-destroyed buildings and read more notes left by survivors than it’s possible to keep track of, so it’s always a joy to discover a title that’s found a new way to take on the idea. Enter Beast of Reincarnation, the latest from GameFreak – most well-known as “the Pokémon game people” – which takes us to a verdant apocalypse with a new twist.

2000 years in the future, Japan is a barely recognisable, overgrown wasteland. After the ancient civilisation of 2026 was destroyed by the titular Beast, a blight spread across the country killing or mutating all living creatures, animal and human alike, into half-plant hybrids known as malefacts. The remaining, unblighted humans survive in the remaining colonies, while blight-stained humans are both shunned and used as protectors – holding back the tide of malefacts, and preparing for the Beast of Reincarnation’s return every one hundred years.

You take the role of Emma, a blight-stained known as “the Sealer” for her ability to destroy powerful malefacts and absorb their blight into herself to protect the village of Ogouchi. As the Beast’s return approaches, Emma is tasked with traveling to the Capitol, defeating powerful malefacts known as Nushi along the way to eventually face the Beast itself. Emma herself is an especially blank slate for a lead character; the trade-off for her exceptional skills and plant-hybrid combat powers is a complete loss of her memory and emotions. At the outset of the story she’s little more than a combat doll who does as directed, so it’s thankful that she has a cast of support characters to carry the story forwards.

Chief among these is Koo, your giant dog companion and fellow malefact. Thanks to his bond with Emma, he’s able to assist in combat with a variety of special attacks and support abilities, the latter of which he’ll deploy automatically in a fight to help you – one of the first skills I was able to unlock gave him the ability to independently deploy landmines in combat, and that was just the beginning of his skill tree… Now THAT’S a good boy. You’ll also be supported by Brad, pilot of the ‘cleanse-walker’ vehicle carrying you to the Capital, as well as a young girl named Kagura who also called Ogouchi home.

As you journey towards the Capital, you’ll move through a surprising number of open-zone maps packed with collectibles, side diversions and upgrade materials for your various gear and weaponry. The openness of these zones does vary fairly dramatically however, with the occasional are that’s pretty much a straight shot from start to finish, mixed in with plenty of wide open spaces full of little corners to investigate. Each area also has its own Nushi for you to track down – a unique, giant boss malefact that’s packed full of blight for Emma to absorb.

Exploring these areas is a completionist’s dream, as Koo will sniff out and flag any items of interest as you go – campsites to rest at, unique enemies, treasure chests and all manner of items and notes. So long as you get close-ish to items of interest, everything is tagged and remembered on your map so you won’t miss anything… as far as you can tell at least, as Beast of Reincarnation doesn’t offer a master checklist of what’s out there. I never felt like I had to search especially hard to keep myself stocked up on everything though, so the game definitely keeps things in your line of sight.

Moving around each map, combat is frequent and frenetic. Fighting is all about parrying and dodging in Beast of Reincarnation, a fast-paced Souls-like experience where enemies hit hard, often and with little room for failure on your part. A fight against even grunt enemies can be over in a matter of blows if you’re not paying attention and using all your tools effectively, though the game is very quick to remind you to take advantage of Koo’s combat skills if you haven’t in a few seconds.

As you defeat the Nushi, you’ll also gain new combat skills for both Emma AND Koo, represented as different flowers blooming their way down Emma’s braided hair. It’s a great visual representation of just how much she’s overcome in the course of this journey, while also acting as an ever-present reminder of just how many cool botanical skills you have access to as the game’s thirty-odd hours of playtime roll along.

Even taking advantage of all your skills and weapons, combat can become visually chaotic with all the various flourishes from Emma, Koo and your enemies’ attacks going off. I found there were some fights where I just couldn’t SEE my enemy through it all to block their attacks effectively, which did make me more reluctant to employ everything at once rather than just focusing on basic swordplay.

 Thankfully, the game’s difficulty rankings offer a compelling spread to tailor the experience to your tastes. While Beast of Reincarnation’s Normal mode does skew a little tougher in accordance with the genre, it’s fairly manageable if you’re willing to invest the time and skill. For the hardcore there’s Hard mode of course, and Story converts this into a far more relaxing, almost NieR Automata-adjacent slashathon.

Beast of Reincarnation quickly locks into a satisfying gameplay loop, exploring each new map from campsite to campsite. Visiting each one unlocks a new fast travel point, encouraging you to check in at the cleanse-walker each time to restock and upgrade your gear.

There’s always plenty to do on each visit, with the campsite menu helpfully giving you a rundown of everything you can do if you go back to base. While weapon upgrades and skillpoints can be used at the campfire itself, at the walker you can also grow food, unlock new recipes for stat boosts, trade with Brad and develop your relationship with Koo and the crew to unlock even more. While not everything will upgrade every time you visit, there’s always SOMETHING to come back for.

While very little is explained in the early hours of Beast of Reincarnation – I’m still not totally sure what the glowing sapling Emma carries is for – it does slowly open up about its world and characters, though there was plenty of place-setting I only learnt from the game’s character database entries. The main story of the game is more interested in revelations about the world itself than the characters in it, though that’s not to say they bring nothing to the table!

In an odd way, Beast of Reincarnation is supporting two play styles; a no-nonsense path to the end for mechanic-focused players, with an expanded lore to the world in collectibles and tutorial entries for those who want to know. There were definitely a few reveals in the late game that I didn’t see coming, though I do feel the characters themselves feel a little too static in the face of everything they’re going through.

This is a stunning vista from start to finish however, with the Nushi enemy designs in particular offering some of the most beautifully grotesque fusions of plants and animals. While the combat challenge may seem like a barrier to some, Beast of Reincarnation wants to welcome as many players as possible at whatever speed they’re happy with, in order to share its intriguing world.

Beast of Reincarnation was reviewed using a promotional code on PS5, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.