The rise of action RPGs in recent years has led to many fantastic titles. Balancing fun action combat with deep gameplay mechanics is a lot harder than one would think. Still, many games have tried to get into the formula to variable success. Unfortunately, Beast of Reincarnation showcases promise deep within it for the genre, but it doesn’t quite dig deep enough in its roots to make it stand out. Beast of Reincarnation follows Emma, a woman with powerful Blight powers, and her furry dog companion, Koo. As a sealer, she can absorb the powers of fearsome bosses to use in battle, along with using swords and hair in combat. She, along with the mysterious Brad and the orphan Kagura, is on a mission to the Capitol to stop the dangerous titular Beast of Reincarnation.
The narrative doesn’t take as many risks as one would expect and, on the surface, plays it too safe. It’s not predictable, per se, but story beats can feel very cliché. There’s a moment midway through where the pace and tone shift in a way that work extremely well. It makes me wish the game was like that the whole time since, for a majority of my playthrough, it felt repetitive and dragged out.
One aspect I did appreciate about the game’s story is how contained it felt. It doesn’t have tons of characters or lore that’s too complicated. Beast of Reincarnation introduces you to only a handful of people, granting more opportunity to enjoy them than overfilling the game with dozens of unimportant NPCs. Each named character plays a part in the story, with a majority having meaningful arcs within it. Maintaining focus in an RPG is a vital art and this game does that quite well.
Against the Forces of Nature
Nature is at the forefront of Beast of Reincarnation. The post-apocalyptic setting holds a more dystopian green world akin to Horizon: Zero Dawn or The Creator. While it does lead to much of the game feeling repetitive in terms of world design, it’s undeniable how authentic it looks and feels when playing. Lush landscapes of grass, trees, and mountain ridges are mixed in with worn-down homes, abandoned roads, and scraps of giant robots that once roamed. It paints a pretty picture, even if it’s been done before. Plus, with Emma’s vine hair, you can traverse it in fun ways like crafting crossable bridges to get to nearby roofs or using stilts to gain vantage points over enemies.
“When the combat goes hard, it goes quite hard”
As Emma, you’ll face off against robots, humans, and creatures both small and gigantic. Their are great and look like they truly belong in the world the team created. Combat-wise, it’s similar to the system Square Enix perfected with Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth, though catered more to the action side rather than tactical. You’ll perform combos, with some allowing for other powerful moves to be added onto them for powerful strings of attacks. In addition, Koo has a range of moves you can pause time for and plan out strategic attacks, like exploiting weaknesses or staggering foes.
When the combat goes hard, it goes quite hard. It can feel like, at times, a song and dance, delicately maneuvering around a battlefield and striking when the time is right. However, it doesn’t take enough risks in terms of possibilities on the battlefield. For the most part, you’re just attacking regularly and nothing out of the ordinary happens. This extends to bosses, who just feel like bigger enemies with bigger AOE attacks. For a game that lets you create vine bridges and stilts, the lack of utilization outside of navigation, especially in combat, is a bit of a letdown. It would’ve been cool to see those mechanics used in combat more or have a bigger variety for what the vine hair can do.
A Rocky Journey
Graphics-wise, there are some great moments where the engine and art design shine. Too often, however, the lighting can make things look off-putting. Facial and character models can look iffy for certain scenes, especially for in-game cutscenes. The engine does make the landscapes Emma and Koo explore look realistic and complements the highs and lows of the story. Also, I didn’t experience many frame-drops or texture pop-ins, making it a pretty smooth experience on base PS5.
I also played the game in English with the available dub. While not terrible, it definitely felt lackluster in terms of performances. The delivery of certain lines and cutscenes were wooden (nature pun intended) and often times distracting. It did make some story beats lose some impact, in some cases. It’s not to say all of it was bad, but compared to recent titles, even outside of the action RPG genre, I wish more effort was put into the script and acting.
Beast of Reincarnation is All Bark with Little Bite
Overall, Beast of Reincarnation doesn’t quite reach the heights of other action RPG contemporaries. Still, it boasts some neat worldbuilding and combat. Unfortunately, the repetitive and slow story pacing mixed with subpar graphics and voice acting make it a tough recommendation. However, if you do decide to join Emma and Koo, there are some things to be appreciated and enjoyed. Like in nature, Beast of Reincarnation needed more time to grow and blossom into something worthy of the grand scale it was hoping to achieve.
Score: 6/10
Beast of Reincarnation releases on August 4th, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Review code provided by the publisher
