Beast of Reincarnation reveals more details about its unique work
Game Freak were on hand at the recent Xbox Developer_Direct to talk about Beast of Reincarnation, their next game, which takes the souls-genre and lets the Pokémon developers put their own spin on it.
Emma is the character players will control, as she explores a world filled with parasitic plants, which have taken over the world. Emma herself, has a small part of this within her, which lets her control her hair, giving players a way to reach otherwise unreachable locations. Emma won’t be alone as Koo will alongside her, though he will have a larger role in the game than the developers are willing to say right now. What they have said is that Koo is a malefact, one of the beasts that has been hit with the blight, of which it is Emma’s job to slay them and seal the blight inside of her body.
Emma and Koo, though meant to be incompatible, meet and set out west to fight the “Beast of Reincarnation,” the source of the blight. The blight can suddenly turn areas into dense “blighted forests” grown by giant malefacts called Nushi. Emma and Koo must battle through those forests and defeat the Nushi, absorbing their power and skills to finally destroy the Beast.
Some of these malefacts that players encounter will be more plant than animal and can spawn trees and roots out of nowhere, in an attempt to fight back. But it is not just giant beasts that players will have to deal with, as there are also rusted out Golems that are scattered around. Golems are robots that have had human souls added to them, in order to survive the harsh world, with things that did not go to plan and now they attack anyone that comes near them.
You won’t be fighting alone as Koo will be alongside you, in fact you can open Koo’s command menu at any time and have them take more direct action. Koo possesses a wide range of skills designed to handle a variety of combat situations, some of which we saw in the show. While you are selecting Koo’s skills from the menu, combat slows down. This gives you the breathing room to assess the battlefield and strategize your comeback.
Players will also be able to equip what are known as Spirit Stones. These stones grant various effects, based on the actions that you undertake in battle. There are also new katana for Emma to find and charms for Koo to make use of, giving players more freedom to find a style that works for them. As this is clearly Souls-adjacent, the game will offer three game modes, normal, hard and story mode. The last one is for players who are not great at this sort of faster paced action game, with a larger parry window and enemies that deal less damage.
Both Emma and Koo carry a heavy secret. Throughout the game, they will cross paths with allies who offer their support, who are also bound by their own great secrets. These mysteries intertwine with Emma and Koo’s journey, adding colors and depth to the multi-layered story.
The game will release this Winter on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
