Beast of Reincarnation

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review:  Pretty much.
• Time Played: 32 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It probably would have been perfect had I not done so much backtracking to look for things it turns out you get in abundance.
• Did I cry: Multiple times.
• Soundtrack: Amazing. It's not quite on the level of certain vocal osts of similar ilk, it's a little more repetitive in a way that makes it more atmospheric background music, but it's still really good and I'm comparing it to some of my favorite soundtracks of all time.
• Why I played: Dog. A lot of people make a big deal about this being a non-Pokemon game by Gamefreak, but they've always made non-pokemon games and I've played most of them. This one just got attention because it doesn't look like a silly random indie title.
• Jank: It's kind of... very janky. There are bugs and here and there that are pretty minor - my sword was invisible until the next time I fast traveled. Texture pop-in or... pop-out even? Invisible walls and infinite falling pits galore. To be fair those last two are usually when you're trying to access the more or less obvious out-of-bounds areas of the game, but sometimes the "infinite falling" just happens when a tree branch meets a fence at an angle and you decide to land between them. It only takes a couple seconds to respawn nearby but it happens more than it should.
• Difficulty: It's a bit of a mix. It's pretty difficult early on, but got pretty easy later. Which sure, experience and skill alone could do, but I think I out-leveled the later content. I don't know if the game leaned to in designing for New Game + or what, because there were still so many skill I never got, or fully leveled up. I barely fully leveled up any skills, putting in my points into my best efforts to at least acquire one of each. In theory that would give me plenty to still earn in a New Game +... but I don't think a game should be designed around that. Personally.
• Something I liked: I realized that a lot of my longer reviews end up nitpicking aspects of the game just because I spent more time with it and am "analyzing" the game so to speak. It can make it seem like I didn't like the game. Also I might not get a chance to slip it in naturally. So we'll see if this section fits in moving forward. I liked Koo, obviously. The grappling while only a "partial" grapple mechanic had so many grapple points it still felt pretty good, you could also create grapple points both in and out of combat, even Koo can! The parrying mechanics actually felt really good as enemy attacks were almost always well telegraphed. Once getting enough abilities I liked the combo-into-specials system a lot.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely pleased, despite some sections where I felt it drag, despite some lack luster aspects, despite some jank and lack of polish, I loved the game.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would - especially to those who like the Nier games, or action games that lean heavy into parry-mechanics.
  

Beast of Reincarnation is what I would call a Near-Nier. The third of it's ilk after Stellar Blade and Ultra Age. There could be more I supposed, but I would hope to know about them. I keep up with a lot of games, but obviously I can't play them all and I could have seen something that didn't look like a Near-Nier, but feels like a Near-Nier.

I'm sure there are a lot of frenetic action games that could potentially feel like Nier, but not really feel like Nier - if you know what I mean. Regardless, it's possibly my favorite genre. The Nier games are pretty high up in my list of favorite games of all time, and these games fill a void for me. I wouldn't want Nier games just pumped out without care every couple years, but a game that is Nier-like, a "we changed it up a bit", something that captures the mood and atmosphere, recognizing some of the good aspects and makes an attempt to appeal to that - that's what fills the void.

Beast of Reincarnation probably isn't going to make the list of favorite games of all time - that is the unfortunate fate of something derivative that doesn't exceed it's predecessor, but it's a damn good game. At least as far as I am concerned. As of writing this it has mixed reviews on Steam and a Metacritic score not much higher than that mixed implies. I think PC may have even more issues than the console version. Something it also took inspiration from Nier with.

I genuinely don't get why there are so many negative reviews not pertaining to being unable to run it on PC though. The gameplay is more than solid, the game looks good - it's not mind blowing, but it's serviceable. The music is great. The story is interesting. I do feel like there is one very specific aspect of the story they never really explained, maybe it was meant to be interpreted and I am happy with my interpretation, but otherwise I have no complaints on that front other than maybe they don't explain enough early enough - which could also be attributed to my trying to do everything. Many of the characters come off a little flat - but there is good reason for that. If you're paying attention you notice the character that don't come off flat - sure they're generally not the main ones you hear the most, but it all made sense to me.

Maybe the biggest problem of the game is it seems like it was kind of designed to be a more linear experience, but they felt to keep up with modern action games they needed to really needed to fill out the world. The awards for exploration aren't super great once you get in enough - there are a couple settlements with NPCs but you can't really interact with them much, and I do wish there was more world-building on that front. I would have liked more to do in the towns, sure. Maybe less to do in the actual zones of the game? If you shoot for just doing the story you also probably don't encounter a lot of my little nit-picks.

Unfortunately in the year 2026, linear 3D action games tend to fall to the way-side. I loved Pragmata and I still think it may maintain my GOTY spot so far, but I've heard almost nothing of it since it's release and when I do hear/see it mentioned, it's people complaining about how linear and short it is. Pragamata though, is also a much more polished and catered experience with excellent characters full of personality.

Koo is probably one of the more expressive characters of the game, he's not a magical talking dog. I mean he's definitely a magical dog, just not talking. Being that Koo can't talk, maybe Beast of Reincarnation would have been better served having a main character with a stronger personality, or Brad should have been. You can't have an entire cast of stoics. Alas, this is a Nier-near, and it might be uncharacteristic for your female lead to deviate. The males can though - so Brad should have had a stronger personality - even if he also had is own reasons and it made sense, story-wise.

I guess that's the other thing. Besides your main-party so to speak, your secondary NPCs show up a couple times total. I kept expecting to see them more and didn't. Maybe that's another thing that could have helped fleshed the game out a bit to meet other peoples expectations.

For me though these complaints are minor and nothing I would "not recommend" or "negative review" a game for, overall it's still a game and the game of it all is what matters most and I had a lot of fun with it.