Beast of Reincarnation Review
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release Date: August 3, 2026
Main Story Length: 23 hours
Developer: GAME FREAK inc.
Reviewed on PS5
Gameplay screenshots captured by NextUpDaily
Great Movement Can Only Carry You So Far
There are games where the story pulls you forward. Games where the combat has you hunting for the next fight. Games where you lose an embarrassing amount of time digging through every corner of the map because you know something good has to be hiding there.
With Beast of Reincarnation, I kept moving forward for a much simpler reason:
Moving around is just really damn fun.
Over my 20-plus hours with the game, Beast of Reincarnation gave me responsive combat, some satisfying challenges, interesting environments, and one of my favorite traversal mechanics I’ve played with recently. Unfortunately, almost everything surrounding those strengths struggled to leave the same impression.
I finished the journey having enjoyed myself.
I just didn’t feel much of anything about the journey I had finished.
Emma’s Hair Does a Lot of Heavy Lifting
The best part of Beast of Reincarnation is getting around its world.
And it isn’t particularly close.
Emma’s vine-like hair acts as your primary traversal tool, allowing you to swing and launch yourself toward specific points, reach elevated areas, and clear large gaps. Once I got comfortable with it, simply getting from one destination to another became part of the entertainment.
I wanted to climb higher because getting there was fun. I wanted to make the longer jump because I wanted to see if I could. Exploring new areas remained interesting largely because I enjoyed the physical act of reaching them.
For a game that asks you to spend a lot of time traveling, that’s a major win.
There was one thing I spent basically the entire game hoping would eventually unlock: some kind of double hair-jump.
Give me another launch in midair. Let me get reckless with it. Give me a little more freedom and a little more room for error.
It never happened.
The traversal is already good, but that one addition could have pushed it into something special. I kept waiting for the skill tree to hand me the keys and tell me to go nuts. Instead, Emma apparently decided one hair launch was enough responsibility for me.
Still, when the thing keeping me engaged most consistently is simply moving through the world, the developers clearly got something right.
Combat Feels Good — Especially When Things Get Difficult
Thankfully, traversal isn’t the only part of the gameplay that works.
Combat is responsive and fluid, with satisfying combos and a parry system that feels good when you nail the timing. It isn’t always easy to pull off, either, which makes those perfectly timed defensive moments that much better.
The finishers were probably my favorite part.
They’re cinematic, aggressive, and add some personality to fights that otherwise can start to blend together. I just wish there were more of them. After enough hours, you’ll become very familiar with the small group the game rotates through.
Beast of Reincarnation can also be legitimately challenging. Several bosses took me multiple attempts, and the game isn’t afraid to punish mistakes. I wouldn’t put it on the same difficulty level as something like Black Myth: Wukong, but if you enjoy having a game push back a little, there’s enough here to keep things interesting.
Getting destroyed a few times and finally pulling through is still one of gaming’s simplest pleasures.
The problem is that some bosses stretch that challenge too far through repetition rather than evolution. Several fights have multiple phases that don’t change enough to justify how long they continue. Eventually, “Oh, there’s another phase” stops sounding exciting and starts sounding like your controller just sighed.
Enemy designs themselves are cool, but variety also begins to wear thin as the game goes on. More distinct encounters — especially during the boss fights — would have gone a long way toward keeping combat fresh through the final hours.
There’s Plenty to Upgrade — Maybe Too Much
Beast of Reincarnation gives you no shortage of systems to interact with.
Abilities. Skill upgrades. Weapon upgrades. Large progression trees. Food. Egg care. Character development. Collectibles. Loot.
There is a lot going on.
Individually, many of these systems are enjoyable. I liked gradually building Emma into a stronger character and finding ways to customize how I approached fights. If you’re someone who loves filling out every branch of an upgrade tree, there’s plenty to chase here.
Completing everything is clearly going to require New Game Plus, though, and at times the amount of progression thrown at you feels more overwhelming than rewarding.
That matters because, for me, the bigger issue was motivation.
I enjoyed leveling Emma.
I didn’t enjoy the overall game enough to immediately want another 20-hour trip simply so I could finish leveling Emma.
Those are two very different things.
Exploring Is Better Than What You Find
This might be the strangest part of Beast of Reincarnation.
I loved looking for loot.
I rarely cared about the loot I found.
Physically exploring the environments is enjoyable because of the traversal system and level design. Taking an unnecessary detour, climbing to an awkward location, or searching behind something always feels like it might lead to a great discovery.
The payoff rarely matches that excitement.
I never really had one of those “YES, I’ve been looking for this” moments that makes you immediately feel rewarded for combing through every corner of a game.
After enough underwhelming discoveries, my desire to search every nook and cranny started fading.
That’s a shame, because the world itself encourages curiosity.
One small feature I did enjoy was the chest-opening minigame that has you quickly pressing directional inputs. It’s simple, but there’s something satisfying about it. I actually wish they had taken that concept further, with longer and increasingly difficult combinations that genuinely tested how quickly you could react.
Make me earn that disappointing loot.
A World Worth Looking At
Visually, Beast of Reincarnation isn’t going to be the game I use to show somebody what modern hardware can do.
But I liked looking at it.
The environments have a distinct identity, moving between lush greenery, weathered and rustic areas, and more futuristic locations. Even when the raw graphical fidelity didn’t blow me away, the art direction frequently did enough to make me want to see what was around the next corner.
The world becomes especially impressive during the game’s closing hours.
Some of the late-game environments and cinematic sequences are pretty great, and there were moments near the end where I caught myself wondering why the game hadn’t looked and felt this ambitious more consistently.
Had that level of presentation been spread throughout the full experience, we’d be having a different conversation.
Character presentation doesn’t fare as well.
Facial expressions and animations often feel stiff, and when you combine those with some awkward dialogue, scenes that should feel emotional instead come across as strangely robotic.
There also isn’t much in the way of meaningful visual gear customization, which feels like a missed opportunity in a game with this many other progression systems.
The Story Never Gave Me a Reason to Care
This is ultimately where Beast of Reincarnation lost me.
Its story isn’t offensively bad.
It’s just dry.
Emma, Violet, Brad, and the rest of the cast simply never grabbed me the way I wanted them to, with Koo being the clear exception thanks to his unique abilities and creature design.
There are scenes where you can tell the game is reaching for an emotional response. Every now and then, it even gets close.
But most of the time, I felt incredibly disconnected from these characters.
That’s a major problem over a 20-hour adventure.
The dialogue is the biggest culprit. Conversations are frequently too simplified to feel natural or interesting, yet somehow, they also go on for far too long. That’s a brutal combination.
Some in-game conversations continue while you’re trying to move on with what you’re doing, even preventing you from resting at a campfire until everyone finishes talking.
And talking.
And still talking.
When the writing isn’t pulling me in, forcing me to stand around waiting for it to finish isn’t going to suddenly make us closer.
Cutscenes suffer from the same issue. The dialogue, limited facial emotion, and character movement often combine into scenes that feel generic instead of personal.
For a game clearly trying to make you care about its cast, I finished about as emotionally disconnected from them as I could possibly be.
Koo Helps, But the Companion Dynamic Needed More
Having a companion alongside Emma is one of the ideas I liked about the game.
Much like Pragmata earlier this year, there’s something naturally appealing about traveling through a dangerous world with another character — especially one as unusual as Koo.
Koo has personality simply by existing.
The creature design is interesting, the abilities give the partnership an identity, and the concept creates opportunities for a stronger emotional bond than the game ultimately manages to deliver.
I wanted more from that relationship.
More memorable interactions. More moments that made the pairing feel inseparable. More reasons for me to become attached beyond what Koo contributes mechanically.
The ingredients are there.
The connection never fully is.
Technically, This Thing Runs
One area where I have very little to complain about is performance.
Across more than 20 hours, I experienced zero crashes.
That’s worth mentioning.
The game ran smoothly, controls remained responsive, and I never felt like the technical side was fighting against what the gameplay was trying to accomplish.
Sound design gets the job done without leaving much of an impression. There are a couple catchy musical moments I enjoyed, but the soundtrack doesn’t offer enough variety or memorable themes to become a major part of the experience.
It’s fine.
And “fine” unfortunately becomes a recurring description for quite a few parts of this game.
The Good Parts Kept Me Playing
That’s the strange thing about Beast of Reincarnation.
For everything I’ve criticized, I never disliked playing it.
Traversal kept pulling me forward. Combat remained enjoyable. Parrying felt good. Finishers looked cool. I liked exploring the different environments. The challenge kept me engaged. Building Emma became satisfying.
Gameplay is obviously a pretty important part of a video game.
And Beast of Reincarnation does gameplay well.
It’s just about the only thing it does consistently well.
The story never grabbed me. The dialogue routinely pushed me away. The characters didn’t leave much of a mark. Loot stopped feeling exciting. Enemy variety wore thin. Several bosses overstayed their welcome.
The game has plenty of systems, but not enough memorable moments connecting them.
When I think back on my time with it, I remember launching Emma across the environment.
I remember a few great finishers.
I remember some excellent scenery toward the end.
What I don’t remember is a character conversation I loved, a piece of loot I couldn’t believe I found, a story beat I can’t stop thinking about, or a boss I immediately want to fight again.
And that’s the difference between a good experience and one that stays with you.
Final Verdict
Beast of Reincarnation is a decent game built around a fun foundation.
Emma’s hair-based traversal is easily its standout feature, while responsive combat, satisfying parries, challenging encounters, and strong environmental design make actually playing the game consistently enjoyable.
But everything surrounding that gameplay struggles to reach the same level.
A dry story, weak dialogue, stiff character presentation, repetitive enemies, underwhelming exploration rewards, and an emotional connection that never materialized kept me at arm’s length throughout most of its 20-plus-hour journey.
I had fun.
I just don’t have much desire to go back.
If you’re primarily looking for fluid action, challenging bosses, and an intriguing world to move through, there’s absolutely enjoyment to be found here. If you need memorable characters, compelling storytelling, or a world where every discovery feels rewarding, expect considerably less.
Beast of Reincarnation kept me playing because controlling Emma was fun.
Sometimes that’s enough to finish a game.
It just wasn’t enough to make this one memorable.
Buy Beast of Reincarnation
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