Beast of Reincarnation doesn’t hesitate to throw you into its wide, weird world. Game Freak’s unexpected action-RPG takes cues from greats from across the genres – you can feel the influence of everything from Dark Soulsto Bayonetta –and adds its own fresh ideas to the mix. All of which means there’s a lot to get your head around as the game begins.
After an action-packed intro sequence, you’re plonked back 5 months into heroine Emma’s past and sent straight into a huge open area – while there are of course tutorials to guide you on the basics, there are mechanics and nuances you’ll need to find for yourself… or from us. Here are some of the little things we’ve learned to ease you through the game’s early stages.
Explorer’s Guide
From the very beginning of the game, Emma is accompanied by Koo, a gigantic white dog with an array of abilities. One of his least showy features is also one of his most useful – as you travel around the wide open areas, Koo will sense nearby points of interest (camps where you can rest, hidden treasures, food to top up your hunger gauge, and more) and mark them on your map. It’s useful both as a way to head off the beaten path, or to bank for later.
Don’t Let Them Hear You Coming
As you travel around these areas, you’ll find a lot of enemies, including corrupted, robotic Golems and Blight-infested wildlife (and, in a fun twist, these two enemy types will get in their own scraps, even if you’re not there). In classic Soulslike style, taking even a single hit can be brutal but there are ways to thin the ranks without getting in a direct confrontation. In those early, underpowered levels, stealth is your friend – we found that walking at full speed tends to attract attention, but you can also hold B to enter a crouched stealth position. Even tilting the stick more gently makes Emma walk slowly, allowing her to get in closer for a clean kill.
Hair Style
One of the most unusual mechanics in the game is Emma’s vine-like hair, which can be used to help you get around in some less-expected ways. It gives her a lot of vertical and horizontal range, and even the opening areas are already dense with secrets to find tucked away high and low. You can either hold A to use it as a “glide” or sorts, or hold RT to extend it as a temporary platform, letting you travel along its length and reach less accessible locations. Pay attention to the environment and get creative with your hair. If it looks like you might be able to get on top of something tall, you likely can… and there’s probably a reward.
Hair Cuts
In addition to exploration, Emma’s hair has combat utility as well. Aside from parries and dodges, Emma’s hair offers her another way to avoid those blow. In a fight, using it to ascend above your foes is a quick get-out, with many basic enemies unable to reach you. You can even fire off a few shots from your ranged weapon as you do so, taking advantage of the built-in slow-motion you get while in the air.
But what if you avoided a fight altogether? We found a lot of success by using a hair platform to create bridges over unsuspecting enemies, letting Emma take them out instantly with death from above attacks. Even tougher enemies that won’t go down instantly can lose a huge percentage of their health like this, saving you from extra danger.
The Arts of War
When you do get into a full-on fight, make sure you’re using Emma’s full toolset. Your basic attack combos are tied to the right bumper, but can be augmented with Blade Arts, a set of skills Emma unlocks. Blade Arts are activated by X, and can either act as their own separate moves, or like combo-finishers with some fairly wild effects (giant flowers exploding underfoot, anyone?). Make sure to check your menus to study these and assign the most useful extra attacks to make you lethally efficient.
Parry Practice
Where many games include parrying as an optional, high-risk/high-reward combat mechanic, parrying is far more essential to the combat loop in Beast of Reincarnation. Koo has his own set of skills, Bloom Arts, which offer a whole new way to fight – bringing up the menu to use one of them slows the game down to a crawl, offering a more tactical approach. The twist? You have to parry to build up the Florescence Points (FP) needed to use these skills.
In general, you want to press LB when you first see the attacking limb start to swing towards you. The opening area is full of forgiving robots and stags that will respawn whenever you rest at camp, so take some time and practice just observing and parrying. As an added bonus, parrying also makes your fights a lot quicker – once you can start to hit them consistently and build up enemy stagger bar for instant executions.
Working Like a Dog
If you’d rather Koo just did his own thing, that’s an option too. Holding LT and pressing RS while targeting an enemy from outside of combat will send Koo ahead to attack first, with full use of his unlocked Bloom Arts. Rather than actively managing Koo at all times, this can be a great way to reduce cognitive load and let your good boy do his thing on his own. Alternatively, you could focus on a separate enemy while Koo engages someone else, freeing you from the fear of an unexpected strike from offscreen.
Beast of Reincarnation arrives on August 4 for XBOX Series X|S, XBOX on PC, cloud, and is XBOX Play Anywhere. Play it day one with Game Pass Ultimate.
Beast of Reincarnation Digital Deluxe Edition
☆☆☆☆☆329
★★★★★
$69.99
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Beast of Reincarnation Digital Deluxe Edition
The Digital Deluxe Edition includes Black and Brown Shiba Skins for Koo, “Oni’s Hat” for Emma, Emma’s sword “Big Dipper”, 100,000 Amber (in-game currency), plus a number of vegetable seedlings!
Beast of Reincarnation Pre-Order Bundle
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Beast of Reincarnation Pre-Order Bonus
Pre-order Beast of Reincarnation and receive a Brown Shiba Skin for Koo plus 30,000 Amber (in-game currency)!
