on Google Preferred Source Google News Link copied to clipboard By Ari Notis Published Aug 3, 2026, 8:44 PM EDT Analysis Game Freak is gonna be stuck with Pokémon forever, huh
Beast of Reincarnation is all over the place Pokémon Pokopia has new anti-motion sickness features coming for Ditto divers Street Fighter 6’s latest balance patch leaves players furious as Yasmine makes her debut The Pokémon team's new Soulslike can't outshine its obvious inspirations Image: Game Freak/Fictions Beast of Reincarnation Sign in to your Polygon.com account True fact time: Game Freak, the developer best (mostly? only?) known for churning out Pokémon RPGs, also makes other games. One of those games, Beast of Reincarnation , actually comes out this week. And according to critics, it's...fine. It's fine!
Beast of Reincarnation , which will be released Aug. 4 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, is a Souls-inspired action game set in an apocalyptic futuristic Japan. Stylistically, it's about as far away from Pokémon RPG as you can get (though you still get an animal friend in the form of a trusty dog companion named Ku). As of this writing, Beast of Reincarnation is currently sitting at a 74 on Metacritic , based on 27 reviews.
Writing for IGN , reviewer Travis Northup scored Beast of Reincarnation a 6 out of 10. "Combining elements of a soulslike with a more traditional JRPG, this fast-paced action game feels like what you might end up with if you tried to combine Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake ," Northup wrote. "That potential is only realized every once in a while though, as you’ll spend a lot of your time fighting the same handful of enemies far too often, plowing through even the most daunting encounters without much friction due to incredibly forgiving parry windows, and quickly mastering every opponent you come across owing to the fact that they all have just two or three attacks they repeat ad nauseam."
Eurogamer's Matt Wales had a similar take in a three-star review : "Game Freak introduces its gameplay ideas equally chaotically, throwing so much out so fast, with so little explanation, it took me a fair while to wrap my head around it, let alone warm to it all. It practically demands you visit its in-game manual to properly understand the often convoluted interplay of its systems."
At Game Informer , in another 6 out of 10 review, Wesley LeBlanc said Beast of Reincarnation is "soulless," "transparent," and ultimately left him feeling "nothing," though he did note that the combat was "rewarding" and the game featured "tense" boss fights. For Giant Bomb , Shawn McDowell agreed, calling the story and characters "underwhelming at best" while praising the game's combat.
Image: Game Freak/Fictions Inc. Image: Game Freak/Fictions Image: Game Freak/Fictions Inc. Image: Game Freak Inc./Fictions Image: Game Freak/Fictions Close Image: Game Freak/Fictions Inc. Image: Game Freak/Fictions Image: Game Freak/Fictions Inc. Image: Game Freak Inc./Fictions Image: Game Freak/Fictions One positive take came via a 4.5-star review at GamesRadar , written by Luke Kemp, who found a lot of depth and beauty in Beast of Reincarnation 's apocalyptic future. "It's not long before you start to discover that there are layers to this world, and the people who live in it. Layers that make this a strong and deep experience rather than a fun but shallow action game," Kemp wrote. "The broad strokes of Beast of Reincarnation give the imp…