Pokémon Fans Are Already Slamming Game Freak’s New RPG

The Pokémon series has faced no shortage of criticism in recent years, despite being one of the most influential turn-based RPGs of all time, over its relatively formulaic gameplay loop and lack of ambitious concepts introduced in each generation of its 3D era. While there are still countless fans who can look past the smaller issues with newer Pokémon games, the same can’t be said for Game Freak’s newest RPG outside of the long-lived franchise.

With Game Freak’s newest release having the entire fandom eagerly awaiting to see how the ambitious RPG could be used as inspiration for future Pokémon games, the release of Beast of Reincarnation has been met with a relatively lukewarm reception from fans.

Beast of Reincarnation characters walking in a ravine.

You’ll likely have heard of the Beast of Reincarnation if you’re even remotely a fan of the Pokémon series, offering a massive departure from the studio’s past work in the form of a fully fleshed-out triple-A experience. While there was plenty of anticipation for the release without the confines of Pokémon‘s infamous scheduling constraints, reviews from fans have not exactly been kind, with many PC fans on Steam saying that the trailer looked “far more ambitious than it actually plays.”

While official reviews from critics have varied wildly, many of the complaints from players are incredibly reminiscent to the same problems that have been plaguing modern Pokémon games for years, with one of the most common issues being that the “world feels empty and lifeless for the most part,” with other reviews reinforcing it by saying that the “world exploration early on and the common enemy design is rather uninspired.”

Even though performance and visuals have been noted to be Beast of Reincarnation‘s greatest strengths, with plenty of “interesting concepts here“, players have reported that the “general presentation feels much cheaper than the price suggests.”

Beast of Reincarnation characters official banner

While the general consensus seems to be that Beast of Reincarnation isn’t a terrible game and still has some unique aspects to make it worth checking out, players are recommending that fans “wait for a ton of patches and a 50% price cut” before diving into the experience that “feels kind of like a demo” rather than the triple-a experience you would expect from a $60 game.

Given that many fans were hoping that the success of Beast of Reincarnation would show Nintendo how the Pokémon games could use a bit more time in the oven with the fleshed-out visuals and mechanics of Game Freak’s newest RPG, the lackluster reception likely means we won’t see any drastic changes to the iconic games anytime soon.

Putting the Pokémon games aside, we’re still hoping that Beast of Reincarnation can get the post-launch support that the incredibly unique experience needs to reach its full potential, as the foundations are still there for a fantastic RPG experience, even if it’s missing many of the bells and whistles that players expect from the legendary games it’s been compared to, with some combat updates, additional music, and a few new enemy types being able to drastically enhance Beast of Reincarnation‘s gameplay experience.