Beast of Reincarnation
Review
Breathing New Life
by Camrin Santchi
reviewed on PC
A Ravaged Land
Fallen worlds are some of the most fascinating to explore in video games, from the nuclear wasteland of the Fallout series to the collapsed ages of fire or demigods in Dark Souls and Elden Ring. Introducing a player to a world after it ended or has begun to end allows creators to tell a story in a fascinating order, as players stitch together an understanding of the world around them and how it came to this state. Our topic for today, Beast of Reincarnation, is another of these apocalyptic tales, taking place 2,000 years in the future, where nature has grown out of control.
Nature Vs Nature
In the world of Beast of Reincarnation, overgrowth has claimed most of the world, a blight that springs up from the very footsteps of beings and swells out of control. Players take the role of Emma, a Blighted One that uses her powers against the rampaging, mutated flora and fauna in hopes to gather enough strength to hunt down and defeat the titular Beast of Reincarnation, and potentially save the world as is supposedly prophesized.
Emma is partnered with Koo, a giant white wolf that is also Blighted, and the core of the combat centers around commanding Koo to help make openings, exploit weaknesses, or otherwise aid in controlling the flow of combat, like creating a temporary grapple point for Emma to fling herself to in order to avoid getting surrounded. Beast of Reincarnation slows time down when players are choosing an attack for Koo to use, which also gives players a chance to sort of gather their bearings and reorient, which can be useful in larger encounters.
Nature VS Not-Ure
Along with the massive creatures and plants (or even both) within Beast of Reincarnation, Emma also encounters 'golems', the remnants of humanity that have uploaded their minds into robots to try and protect themselves from the Blight. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them have succumbed to madness after centuries or more of isolation, meaning that Emma and Koo will also have to fight the erratic, chattering remnants of those who sacrificed their humanity for the sake of survival. This is an interesting addition both in terms of worldbuilding and adding variety to the combat, breaking up encounters between different types of enemies.
A Lot to Process
Combat in Beast of Reincarnation is very satisfying to learn, leveling up Emma and Koo to acquire new techniques or upgrade previous ones, learning timing for dodging or parrying attacks, and finding additional equipment to boost your stats. As fun as the combat is, particularly the fighting alongside Koo, there are a lot of particle effects within the combat that can make the screen feel very cluttered and almost make it difficult to see what is going on. This can also make for some frame drops or stuttering even on low graphic settings, but it is manageable for the most part.
Beast of Reincarnation is very visually beautiful, even accounting for heavy usage of particle effects. The overgrown ruins of Japan, the immense or otherwise monstrous 'malefacts' that are some combination of flora and fauna, even the details like the plants that grow where Emma and Koo step, all of it creates a distinct visual identity that makes the game stand out, especially since apocalyptic can occasionally mean 'gray' in shorthand. The writing can also feel a little cliche at times, making impactful moments a little more underwhelming than they should be, but it isn’t enough to take someone out of the story.
Save The World From Itself
Overall, Beast of Reincarnation is a very enjoyable game with a great visual identity and satisfying combat. In combat there can be a lot of visual clutter that might cause a bit of stuttering in some situations, but those issues are few and far between once you take the time to adjust the visuals to your hardware. The writing can feel a bit underwhelming situationally, but Beast of Reincarnation is a very enjoyable game that players can spend hours working together alongside Koo in very cinematic, enjoyable combat. Players that enjoy Action RPGs and or fighting alongside a beast companion will surely enjoy their time in the post apocalyptic, overgrown prefectures of Japan.
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7.3
fun score
Pros
Stunning Visuals, Great Combat
Cons
Underwhelming Writing, Some Stuttering and Visual Clutter
