As a lifetime Pokemon fan, I wanted Beast of Reincarnation to be a statement from Game Freak. The Pokemon developer has spent years working within one of the biggest franchises in gaming, so seeing the studio tackle a completely different genre was exciting. This was not another creature-catching RPG or a familiar Nintendo project. Beast of Reincarnation promised a darker action RPG set in a post-apocalyptic version of Japan, with demanding combat, exploration, and a relationship between protagonist Emma and her canine companion Koo. The premise looked ambitious enough to suggest that Game Freak had learned new tricks that could eventually benefit its biggest franchise. Instead, the critical response has left me asking whether those lessons will actually carry over.
Pokemon Winds and Waves need to represent a major step forward. Game Freak’s upcoming Generation 10 games are being developed exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2, with an open world featuring windswept islands, a vast ocean, and ecosystems built around the region’s environments. That sounds like exactly the kind of technological and design leap Pokemon needs. Yet Beast of Reincarnation is arriving as a middling action RPG, with reviewers praising elements such as its atmosphere, combat ideas, and Koo while criticizing its lack of depth, repetitive encounters, and underdeveloped storytelling. Instead of reassuring me that Game Freak is ready for its next generation, it has made me more cautious.
The first reason Beast of Reincarnation was so promising is that it represented a substantial departure for Game Freak. Visually, it was the most impressive thing that Game Freak ever worked on, and the premise was so different from Pokemon that I couldn’t believe the studio behind it. The game takes place in the year 4026, in a world devastated by the Blight, and its post-apocalyptic setting is dramatically different from the colorful worlds traditionally associated with Pokemon. From the first trailer, I had high hopes for Beast of Reincarnation.
That ambition matters because Game Freak has been under increasing pressure to demonstrate that it can evolve technically and creatively. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet established a fully open-world direction for the main series, while Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Z-A experimented with exploration and Pokemon encounters in ways that differ from the traditional formula. Beast of Reincarnation looked like another opportunity to see what the studio could accomplish outside its most established framework.
Instead, the reviews suggest that the ambition was not always matched by execution. Elements of the game were praised, but there was a lot of criticism toward its vague storytelling ,underdeveloped world, repetitive combat, limited enemy variety, predictable attack patterns, and disappointing bosses. Individually, this doesn’t make Beast of Reincarnation a terrible game, but they come together to form a lackluster product.
What bothers me most is not that Beast of Reincarnation appears to be a bad game. The reviews make it clear that there are good ideas here. Koo has emerged as one of the game’s strongest elements, the world can be visually striking, and the combat has enough tactical potential to make the foundation interesting. Earlier hands-on impressions were also positive, with many highlighting the game’s parrying mechanics, exploration, and art direction. The problem is that those strengths do not develop into the deeper action RPG experience the premise promised and grow stale further in.
That sounds familiar to anyone who has followed Pokemon for years. Game Freak has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to create great ideas without always giving them the depth, polish, or technical refinement they deserve. Pokemon’s battle system remains enormously deep, but the surrounding single-player adventures have often struggled to match that depth. This is especially important now because Pokemon Winds and Pokémon Waves are not simply being positioned as another pair of games. They are the next generation and mark a major milestone.
There is also a difference between having ambitious features and knowing how to make those features work together. Beast of Reincarnation has a post-apocalyptic world, action combat, exploration, a companion system, and a cinematic presentation. Yet several of these pieces do not reach their full potential. That is precisely what worries me about an open-world Pokemon game filled with islands, oceans, ecosystems, environmental challenges, and exploration. I do not want Winds and Waves to simply have more systems, but for those to reinforce one another and make the world feel richer because they exist.
There is still plenty of reason to be optimistic about Pokemon Winds and Pokemon Waves. The games are being developed exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2, giving Game Freak the opportunity to build around more powerful hardware rather than the limitations of the original Switch. This means we can expect an open world featuring windswept islands, a vast ocean, unique Pokemon ecosystems, and forces of nature that can affect exploration like never before.
However, Game Freak needs to prove these systems have genuine depth. An open world should not exist simply because modern games are expected to have one, and the ocean should not be little more than a backdrop for an island region. Environmental mechanics also need to meaningfully influence exploration rather than becoming features players interact with briefly before returning to the traditional Pokemon formula. Beast of Reincarnation had ambitious ideas, but the result failed to realize those ambitions.
I am still excited for Pokemon Winds and Waves, but Beast of Reincarnation has tempered my expectations. The games are scheduled for a worldwide release on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2027, giving Game Freak time to prove this generation can be more than a prettier and better-performing version of what came before. I want Winds and Waves to deliver the generational experience Pokemon deserves. Now, Game Freak needs to show it can execute on that promise, even if Beast of Reincarnation didn’t prove the studio knows how.
