Game Freak has delivered an intriguing exploration game with Beast of Reincarnation due to great platforming and solid action, but the game world currently feels unfinished. The dev has promised improvements, however.
Beast of Reincarnation is the newest (non-Pokémon) game of Game Freak inc., published by the Take-Two Interactive brand Fictions, formerly Private Division. That alone makes it stand out from other releases, because when Game Freak does its own thing, it can get unusual, as seen with Tembo the Badass Elephant in 2015.
Beast of Reincarnation has of course much more ambition than the sidescrolling elephant, at least when it comes to dimensions. In a fully explorable 3D world, the game sends out Emma and her wolf Koo, both hybrids of their respective mammal and plants, to safe the world from an infestation of that selfsame parasitical plant life that has almost destroyed humanity, called the blight.
This infestation gives both of them the skills that make out Beast of Reincarnation: Emma's traversal and movement, which define her very pleasant quickness in a combat system that is build around a solid parry mechanic, and Koo's skills which can be activated with a resource gained through said parries. This is were Game Freak's Pokémon relation might come into mind, because activating Koo briefly stops the battle and evokes a turn-based battle system, in which players choose elemental-aligned special skills the wolf then executes. Emma's flexibility however also makes movement through the world out of combat a joy, since she can grapple, make her own platforms with her branchy hair and can even glide of sorts, by making a platform grow below her.
Unfortunately, these great-feeling traversal mechanics are hampered by the game world itself, which is almost devoid of anything to be explored. Side quests are few and fair between, and free exploration isn't rewarded with a lot of equipment or crafting materials. It feels as if Game Freak ran out of time to fill the game world, even though the vistas give quite a lot of opportunities to hide caves or special treasures. Other issues such as a camera that is too close to the main character to allow for a lot of overview, are gradually patched out, and Game Freak has promised that they will indeed put more into the game with time ongoing.
It might certainly be worth waiting for that, because currently, the one thing that can make or break the game for players within this is the main quest, the only thing that moves Emma through the game world. And the execution of this main quest will not be for everyone. Cutscenes drag out longer than they should, not because dialogues are too long, but because a final editing touch seems to have been missed. Some defeated bosses turn back into their idle animation for several moments before the corresponding defeat cutscene even starts. Dialogues are often stilted, and while parts of that appear to be on purpose, due to Emma's insistence on not possessing a human soul, several other characters in the English as well as Japanese voiceover would have profited from another run of voice direction in the studio.
As it is, Beast of Reincarnation is an impressive endeavour that seems to simply not be finished. With another half year of polish, we are looking at a potentially great action RPG, but if mainstream appeal can be recaptured then will have to be seen.
