Beast of Reincarnation is the latest in a line of non-Pokémon games by Game Freak, which spends most of its time creating the RPGs that will act as the nexus point for the global phenomenon of trading cards, anime characters, and heaps of merchandise. When the team gets the rare opportunity to make something else, it’s interesting to see how far it deviates from the monster-taming grind it typically spends most of its time dealing with. At a glance, Beast of Reincarnation, a soulslike post-apocalyptic RPG, seems like a pretty big departure from Pokémon, but as someone who spends loads of time in the Pokémon universe, I definitely see how this team arrived at something like Beast of Reincarnation.
On a superficial level, Beast of Reincarnation integrates the monster-taming elements of Pokémon by allowing you to issue commands to Koo, the game’s wolf companion who has the power to manipulate the elements. He can shoot fireballs from his tail, strike foes with lightning, and bring up mighty roots from the ground to impale enemies. While most of the time, you’re swinging a sword as Emma, when you need to call in your canine friend, the game slows down and allows you to pick the ability you want him to use in a way that feels distinctly Pokémon.
Outside of the mechanical element of directing a magical animal, the creature design in Beast of Reincarnation integrating animalistic features with elaborate vegetation to create something that could thrive in Beast’s post-apocalyptic world is right out of Game Freak’s playbook. Pokémon are fantastical creatures, but they’re rooted in the ecosystem of a region, found and captured in spaces that make sense for their species to live, and they also each have some sort of elemental affinity that allows them to thrive in a specific space. Though pretty much all the blighted creatures in Beast of Reincarnation would likely be grass-types with all the flowers and vines replacing much of their fur, I could easily see each of them remade in the Pokémon house style, with a Pokédex entry explaining their habits and how they’ve managed to survive in the dense forests of the world.
© The Pokémon Company
The most important connective tissue between Beast of Reincarnation and Pokémon, however, is the connection between humanity and animal kind. Koo and Emma’s connection is a key part of the game’s story, but they’re not the only human and animal pair you encounter in the story. The culture of Beast of Reincarnation has taught humans to fear these creatures, and yet several characters have partnerships with animals just like a Pokémon trainer has to their starter. I was always excited to meet another human on my travels because their blighted animal partner usually reveals something about them. Kunai, a capable warrior who assists Emma and Koo during their time of need, is accompanied by a vine-covered horse that reflects her majestic presence. Some partnerships were not quite as flattering; one villain I faced was accompanied by a gruesome creature I wouldn’t know how to begin to describe. Some of Beast of Reincarnation’s most effective storytelling moments come from its subversion of those parallels, and while the story has its issues, Game Freak’s understanding of the symbolism that partnering man and monster allows for shines through here after decades spent making one of the longest-running explorations of the idea.
Beast of Reincarnation isn’t perfect, and I waver back and forth between liking the game and thinking it was merely fine. But as a Pokémaniac, I like seeing the stuff Game Freak does well in a game full of things it’s trying for the first time.