“The Beast of Reincarnation” is an ode to melancholy. review

Played on Xbox Series S

Game Freak has been developing Pokémon games for three decades, even though the studio is completely independent and not owned by Nintendo. As it happens, work with the Japanese publisher has been delayed (and will probably continue to be), which is why the team has little time to release anything else. You may remember some failed releases like Small Town Heroes, and attempts to partner with other publishers (remember Tembo the Bad Elephant?), but these were 2D adventure games that didn’t require a lot of resources. But Beast of Reincarnation is the studio’s first game without Pokémon, but it has modern graphics, massive scale, and… a bunch of shortcomings because Game Freak lacks the experience to develop such a project.

⇡#very sad

The plot takes us to the year 4026 – more than two thousand years later, the world has become a ruin. It’s all about the reborn beast in the game’s title. Every hundred years, this immortal being is reborn, even if he is defeated, so humanity is doomed to eternal suffering – having to live in constant fear that the next cycle is about to begin and it will all happen again. As fate would have it, our heroine Emma ends up being the one who can destroy the beast. First, she needs to travel through all the areas and defeat every Nussi – which is the name of the infected animals whose energy we absorb to build up strength for the final meeting with the main creature.

The overall plot is so-so, but every scene with Ku has been spared.

Overall, this is an already tired Asian story about a dying world where people can’t find peace because of unsolvable problems or other reasons. The game’s narrative is reminiscent of NieR: Automata and Starblade, but if the former had philosophical discussions about the life and death of humans and robots, and the latter had charismatic characters (not counting a dull protagonist), Reincarnated Beast has neither. The writers try to make players care about the characters and the world around them; with each chapter, they better reveal the backstory of the universe – for example, we learn that in order to preserve memories, people transfer their minds into golems, but it can’t be stored there forever, which is why memories of the past are sooner or later lost forever. In the second half of the game, you start to show even a slight interest in the plot – if you reach this part of the game, of course.

The main problem lies with the characters – it’s hard to imagine anyone more boring than these dummies you’re forced to endure in story cutscenes. In trying to make the atmosphere as melancholy as possible, the developers went too far – it’s as if you’re looking at taciturn, mysterious introverts and sociopaths for whom any contact with anyone is akin to torture. The actors speak very softly and slowly (both in the English and Japanese versions), there’s always a second pause between the phrases they speak, and the dialogue often elicits laughter – much of it more reminiscent of awkward improvisation. She loses nothing by not having these growls in the game. The best character is Goku – also because she can’t speak.

Our base is the walking robot Cleanse Walker, and there are often people inside chatting outside the main plot.

Overall, it’s definitely not worth playing Samsaramon for the story – if it attracts you, it’s only for the gameplay. There are some complaints against him though, and they accumulate as you progress. For example, the game has thirteen story chapters that take us to different areas of the five regions, but there are no significant differences between the locations – they seem to be a whole, which is why visiting a new place for the first time does not evoke strong emotions. And the research you wanted to do in the first few hours becomes routine by chapter three, because the rewards for opening treasure chests and defeating opponents are so boring that they rarely encourage you to go into your inventory and change your character’s equipment.

⇡#light

In many ways, the gameplay is based on the combat system – although Game Freak has spent its life devoted to turn-based “combat” games, the developers have successfully borrowed tried-and-true ideas from other action games. The game is similar to Souls-like and hack-and-slash games – not just parry, stamina and completion levels, but attack combos that are typically thrown into the air and then dashed towards a stunned target. Luckily, there’s no soul system, money loss on death, and other boring mechanics – just bonfires, a limited number of first aid kits, and respawning enemies taken from the Souls-like formula. But there’s so much fire like this, and it’s so much fun to fight your opponents, and you won’t be annoyed if you die.

In the release version, the parry window was very small, but after the patch, parrying attacks became easier (and more fun)

The game allows you to create builds based on different elements, and often the preferred combination is obvious since there aren’t many options related to specific effects. For example, there’s only one poison sword in the game, and there’s also an electric sword – once you find them, you’ll immediately understand what you need to start with. You choose spirit stones with corresponding bonuses, look for bows, crossbows, and arrows with similar effects, and give your dog companion appropriate active skills. This is what sets Samsara Beast apart from other action games – your partners are actively involved in the battle and follow your orders. He can restrain targets, poison them, and set them on fire – and what’s especially cool is that you can open the skill menu in the middle of an enemy attack, pausing the world and interrupting your opponent’s powerful moves.

The combat system isn’t impressive at first, but as you see how big the upgrade tree is and how many different systems there are (including growing plants in your base, raising chickens, and cooking before going out, like in Monster Hunter), it becomes increasingly interesting to discover what awaits you next. In the first few chapters, the gameplay isn’t boring – you can learn to parry attacks and drain enemies’ stamina bars, or you can clear locations secretly, just like you’re playing Assassin’s Creed. And, in some ways, the stealth here is more interesting – with the help of her magical hair, the heroine can rise to high places, creating elongated platforms in front of her, which provide many opportunities for attacks from above.

With your hair, it’s not difficult to climb this bridge.

The only frustrating thing about combat is that the opponents become more and more repetitive over time, and this applies not just to regular minions but to bosses as well. This is especially noticeable in the second half of the game, where you encounter nearly identical creatures, and the idea starts to creep in, as the project was originally conceived as more ambitious than the final result. The location design shows this, becoming more and more linear in later chapters, while the library’s implications for collectibles become less and less valuable. Because of this, and the fact that the story is filled with boring dialogue and elaborate cutscenes, the story feels lengthy even though the game only takes 25 hours to complete.

***

Shortly after release, the director of Samsara Beast apologized for the final version of the game. First, he’s referring to poor optimization (which is “crappy” on both PC and consoles), but he also admits there are narrative pacing issues. Some things will be fixed via patches, other things have changed – for example, the ability to skip story cutscenes isn’t available out of the box. But it’s unlikely to get rid of all the game’s shortcomings – the history, location design and many other components aren’t very successful. But the thing I want to praise the most is the combat – if Game Freak keeps trying to make something other than endless Pokemon, at least the studio won’t have issues with the combat system. But the first “graphic” pancake turned out to be lumpy.

advantage:

• Dynamic combat system and truly useful companions;
• A variety of gear and a wide range of upgrades allow you to collect many unique combinations;
• The ability to fly through the air and create platforms at any time makes exploration even more fun.

defect:

• The boring story takes a long time to pick up steam, but the characters remain bland until the end;
• The story film is poorly made, nothing happens, and the dialogue is painful to listen to and read;
• Locations are similar to each other, and the closer you get to the middle of the game, the less open they are;
• Repeating bosses.

Rating: 6,0/10

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