Review: ‘Beast of Reincarnation’ is fun, but it's no ‘Pokémon’

Game Freak’s enduring legacy is being the developer of the Pokémon franchise alongside Nintendo. While that certainly has its perks like keeping the office lights on, it shouldn’t be surprising that Game Freak wants to branch out. It’s been done so over the years with smaller games like Giga Wrecker Alt, Little Town Hero, and Tembo the Badass Elephant. Now, Game Freak is back with the action-adventure game Beast of Reincarnation. It’s the studio’s biggest game yet, but is it big enough to step out from Pokémon’s massive shadow? The combat is sublime, along with its breathtaking art direction and intriguing open-world zones. However, Beast of Reincarnation is muzzled by its confusing story pacing and dull cast of characters. Beast of Reincarnation follows a young girl named Emma as she travels through a post-apocalyptic Japan to stop the titular monster from rising again and spreading a corruption called Blight. Much like Stellar Blade, Beast of Reincarnation attempts to emulate the profound themes of existentialism, artificial intelligence, sentience, and humanity found in the excellent Nier: Automata. But they fail to understand what made Yoko Taro’s masterpiece so compelling: the