Beast of Reincarnation
Una relación capaz de sostener un mundo inerte
Beast of Reincarnation takes a while to find its place. After completing the story in about 30 hours, what remains is not so much its post-apocalyptic Japan as Emma, Koo and the relationship they build during the trip.
Introduction
Beast of Reincarnation takes a while to find its place. During its first hour it mixes concepts, systems and mysteries with too few explanations, to the point that it is difficult to distinguish what it intends to keep deliberately hidden and what it simply has not explained well. After that start, the experience improves significantly.
After completing the story in about 30 hours, what remains is not so much its post-apocalyptic Japan or the secrets that surround its world, but rather Emma, Koo and the relationship they build during the trip. This is also where the game finds its best playable idea: turning both characters into two parts of the same combat system.
A beginning that tests patience
The first few hours are probably Beast of Reincarnation’s biggest hurdle. The game introduces terms, characters, objectives, and mechanics fairly quickly, but rarely stops to explain how they fit together.
The tutorial helps little. Many of the rules end up being learned through trial and error, something that especially affects combat during the first confrontations. It’s not that its systems are overly complex, but that the game trusts too early that the player will know how to interpret what is happening.
After about an hour, much of that confusion disappears. Actions begin to make sense, objectives are better understood, and combat no longer seems like a succession of independent systems.
History needs a little more patience. Beast of Reincarnation keeps a lot of information during its first chapters and this makes it difficult to connect with some scenes because we still do not have the necessary context to understand their importance.
Emma and Koo fight as one
Combat is one of its most interesting sections and also the best example of how Beast of Reincarnation uses the relationship between its protagonists.
Emma fights directly with her sword, while Koo participates through orders. Carrying out precise defenses allows you to generate the necessary resources to use your techniques and, when opening the corresponding menu, the action slows down so that we can decide what to do without completely losing control of the confrontation.
The result mixes action and planning in a quite natural way.
Emma keeps the pressure on the enemies and forces the player to be aware of attacks, positions and defenses, while Koo allows for small strategic pauses. Neither of them is relegated to a secondary role and both are part of the same combat circuit.
Of course, understanding it takes a while. During the first few stages I had to practice until I understood when to defend, when to attack and when to resort to Koo. Once that barrier is overcome, the confrontations gain clarity and the game begins to show much better what it aims to achieve.
The progression system adds skills, equipment and different tools with which to slightly adapt our way of playing. It is possible to bet on a more aggressive style, play more cautiously or rely more on certain skills. Experimenting with these combinations makes sense, although again the initial explanations could be much better.
A beautiful Japan that lacks things to tell
Beast of Reincarnation takes us to a post-apocalyptic Japan where the ruins of civilization have been practically devoured by nature. Vegetation occupies roads, buildings and ancient settlements while corruption transforms both the landscape and some of the creatures that inhabit it.
Visually, the artistic direction knows how to take advantage of this mix between decadence and nature.
The problem appears when we start exploring it.
The scenarios offer enough space to deviate from the main path and their appearance continually invites you to do so, but too many times these small excursions end without a reward, an encounter or a story that justifies the journey.
The world seems bigger than it really needs to be.
This is especially evident because the story places importance on the state of the world and the people trying to survive in it. More characters, secondary encounters or small stories would have helped each area have a stronger identity.
Instead, exploration ends up functioning primarily as a transition between combat and main plot moments.
It doesn’t make the journey unpleasant, but it does leave the feeling of going through places that could have offered much more.
Emma ends up becoming the center of everything
The narrative takes time to get going. During the first hours, it accumulates questions and concepts without yet providing the answers necessary to understand them, something that once again reinforces that feeling of initial confusion.
However, little by little the true driving force of the story appears: Emma’s evolution.
His difficulty understanding empathy and relating to other people results in a gradual transformation that works better than many of the plot’s big mysteries.
Koo is fundamental in this process.
Their relationship brings warmth to a world that, by design, can feel cold and lonely. The companions that appear during the trip also serve to measure this evolution, because they allow us to observe how the way in which Emma interprets the emotions and needs of those around her changes.
It is a development that avoids sudden changes. Emma doesn’t suddenly become someone else because the story needs to move forward. Their experiences gradually modify their behavior.
When we finally receive some of the context that was missing at the beginning, several earlier scenes also gain meaning.
It does not completely erase the confusion of its first hours, but it does make many of those narrative decisions more understandable.
At the end of the adventure, it is Emma and Koo who really justify having gone to the end.
A PC version that needs more options
During about 30 hours of playing on PC I encountered few bugs and was able to complete the story without any major issues preventing progress.
That doesn’t mean that the PC version is especially well taken care of.
The graphical menu offers few possibilities to adjust the image and performance to the available hardware. On a platform where it is expected to be able to modify these types of parameters quite precisely, the available options are too limited.
They are small details that, together with the low density of some areas, convey the feeling of being in front of a game that would have appreciated a little more development time.
Not because there is a specific problem capable of ruining the experience, but because there are enough small shortcomings to easily imagine a more polished version.
Location and accessibility
Beast of Reincarnation offers voices in English and Japanese and texts in Spanish, so following the story and understanding the main systems is no problem due to language issues.
In fact, the main difficulty in understanding its first hours comes from the game’s own design.
The limited tutorial and the way the story withholds information affects comprehension much more than its location. Once we get past that first stretch and begin to familiarize ourselves with its terms and systems, both the combat and the narrative become much easier to follow.
The good
- The evolution of Emma and her relationship with Koo.
- The combined combat system between both protagonists.
- The artistic direction of its post-apocalyptic Japan.
- A progression that allows experimenting with different ways of combat.
The bad
- A very confusing first hour.
- A tutorial that explains little of its systems.
- A beautiful open world but lacking in activity.
- Few graphic options on PC.
Conclusion
Beast of Reincarnation is a game that takes time.
Its first hour is confusing, the tutorial explains less than necessary and its open world offers too many spaces where hardly anything happens. The PC version also does not provide the level of configuration you would expect.
But when their systems begin to fit together, a much more interesting experience appears.
The combat finds its own identity thanks to the combination between Emma’s sword and Koo’s orders, while the relationship between the two ends up becoming the true heart of the adventure.
Its post-apocalyptic Japan could be better used and some ideas need more development, but during its approximately thirty hours it manages to give Emma’s growth enough weight to maintain interest until the end.
Not all the pieces are equally polished, but the ones that work manage to sustain the experience.
Recommended for
- Players of action RPGs with Japanese settings and post-apocalyptic worlds
- Players interested in stories about bonds and personal growth
- Players who enjoy learning systems through practice and exploration
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