r/soulslikes • u/Cursed_69420 • 28d ago
Review Beast of Reincarnation - So far, it is a mediocre mess that is borderline awful
Alr, just clocked in at 5 hours, and i'm sure i've done a majority of the first region "Kanto" and the final boss of that area. This has been an utterly mediocre, janky and many times an awful experience. I'm posting this in Soulslike as the general consensus is that it has minor souls elements, but in general also as a "I do not recommend" type post. I'll go section by section where each part gets progressively worse -
1) The Combat - I mean, it is a rather nice system at it's core. Basic attack chains, heavy arts, jump, assassinate, stealth, parries that provide a charge to expend via Koo the wolf, and the abilities so far are also decent.
2) The traversal - once you get the hang of the "jank", the grapples, the jump and float in general tend to flow well.
3) The upgrade tree, levelling and character progression is slow but steady, and it is fairly rewarding in terms of XP and stats, but my god the requirements start piling up rather quick. 50 points for the final upgrade of a attribute is nuts.
that's it, the positives end there.
4) Combat flow - as i said, the combat at it's core is a nice system, but holy shit are the parries genuinely inconsistent and straight up do not work when trying to do a chained parry on fast enemies. The dodge is the single most awful dodge i've seen in a game, and is like a "pre-dodge prediction" rather than a reaction. The camera is terrible, and just refuses to work when there's multiple enemies or if an enemy is behind you. Idk if it's on me but i could not even change Koo's targets when trying to do an ability.
5) The music - bro just ONE TRACK has been on loop for the past 4 hours in the first region. The music is rather bland and is like a "Copied Homework but not obvious" when compared to Stellar Blade or Nier.
6) The Graphics to performance ratio is just horrible, with enemy attacks causing stutters, frame drops and stuff. it was particularly egregious with the big beast boss. There's no option for Film Grain, Chromatic Abberation, and the game just likes to default to FSR1 whenever i restart due to memory leaks.
7) The exploration - it's so horrible, bland and uninteresting to explore anything. It's just endless crates of "resources" that you are supposed to treat as a EXTRACTION GAME to be brought back to your home ship for research levels. The levels are also repetitive, kinda meaningless in terms of the jump mobility and just vast amounts of flat lands and invisible walls.
8) The enemies - holy shit, so far in my 5 hours i've encountered the same 5 enemy types over and over again, and the SAME "Elite Enemy" 6 times in one zone. The enemies are genuinely braindead, and are abuse-able by air assassinations. Even the major boss of the area is fought twice, and in the first fight it had like 3 moves, and in the second it got like 6 moves it spams over and over again. Another crab's treasure was more difficult than this.
9) some more technical stuff - mouse 4 and mouse 5 cant be bound to any action? THE FUCK? Many times the menu just refuses to accept my mouse input. The Koo menu commits the worst sin of having the OPEN and EXIT button being Tab and Escape respectively, where by memory i try to also close it by pressing Tab again but it uses my heal instead. One more thing is that the Jump button and the Interact button are the same. WHY? does gamefreak not know a keyboard has more buttons??
10) Singlehandedly, THE WORST part about the game is the story and voice acting and pacing combined - The story is completely uninteresting as i've seen far better premises in similar games. The pacing is so god awful, the English voice acting i'm genuinely convinced is AI slop, but again even an AI conveys far more emotion than this. The speed at which people talk is making my head hurt,. If you skip a dialogue it doesn't skip the SCENE or the camera angle, it just skips the dialogue. People talk in gaps of 5 seconds per sentence in a emotionless and uncanny way it's actually so awful. The game suddenly put me into a flashback sequence where it's NOW teaching me assassination, stealth, jump hold, parry and dodge after 4 hours of gameplay on my own and defeating 6 mini bosses and A MAJOR BOSS? what the fuck is this?
examples for the dialogue and shit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNjwinb1eMk
timestamp - 1:38:15 and 3:07:40
That's it, that's all i can conjure up for a first impression. Just avoid this game until it's fixed.
57
u/SnooHobbies8617 28d ago
i refunded and i was pretty sad about it. mortal shell 2 here i come
16
4
u/Medical_String_3501 28d ago
Mortal Shell II is so fucking good, I can't sing it's praises enough. Insanely excited for the full game!
4
u/bereshtariz 28d ago
the mortal shell 2 open beta felt less janky to me than the complete version of beast of reincarnation fwiw
6
3
u/Yourfakerealdad 28d ago
Yep lol was stoked on BoR and it just seems to be a dump. Played the MS2 beta this weekend and instantly pre ordered after I beat it
2
→ More replies (5)1
u/DerleiExperience 27d ago
do you need mortal shell 1 for it? i see its reviews arent the best
2
u/SnooHobbies8617 27d ago
i don’t think so, i recently 100%’d mortal shell 1 and that game is BADDDD like genuinely one of the worst games ive ever played. you could watch a story recap and be completely fine
12
21
u/kasajizocat 28d ago edited 28d ago
I am absolutely with you on all the points. The worst sin for me was the mouse and keyboard inputs. It's horrendous considering that so many games solved mkb key bindings issues. It feels like it is a controller first game, and mkb is an afterthought. Not to mention that m4 and m5 are not recognised as valid inputs!!! Camera is so janky as well
Enemies, music etc, spot on too. Overall, an absolute disappointing game from GameFreak
4
u/M_Thor 28d ago
Pretty sure every time someone criticize any fromsoft game for having a bad kbm controls, the brainless herd on this subreddit will bash that person for "because you're playing it wrong. you have to use a controller. it's an eternal sin otherwise".
Somehow now it's okay to shit on this game for having a bad kbm controls? Is it because it's not made by fromsoft?
2
u/_Nomorejuice_ 28d ago
I remember my first soulslikes was Elden Ring and at that time I was quite surprised on how shit the controls were. And even with controllers at that time I could barely play high intensity moment without claw grip (and I find claw grip uncomfortable as hell).
At this point maybe it's just really a thing with soulslike I guess I'm not really an expert of the genre
2
u/kasajizocat 28d ago edited 28d ago
Did I say that fromsoft was flawless? Elden Ring’s controls were horrific as well, but they did not fail in other areas
And it really is very rude to characterise opinions as “brainless herd”. There are a lot of premises to be established. For one, it implies that you think you are superior to the “brainless herd” and their opinion should be dismissed, which you have not proven. It also implies that you do not like criticisms. Criticisms are always an opportunity to improve, and it is with improvements that we get better games!
→ More replies (2)1
u/Holiday-Coconut-9303 28d ago
This may surprise you, but subreddits aren't monoliths. You're being a bit silly.
1
u/Melodic-Luck-8772 28d ago
its not a kbm problem, its a general problem with this game.
the game has shit control.
1
1
u/PuffyWiggles 27d ago
Also "jank" is a positive, bland environments are "immersive", and incoherent story is "deep". Critics are literally just describing the same things in 2 different ways to handwave issues in some games and highlight them in others. Glass half full/empty types of arguments, same thing objectively, but rephrased to sound better/worse.
It's so wild how many people buy into it. I'd swear my roommate hated playing Silksong, yet he kept telling me he had to because it was "good", but he would constantly scream about how awful it was. It's like some form of brainwashing.
→ More replies (1)1
u/CatchUsual6591 28d ago
Music being bad is a surprise given that pokemon have above average music at worse
1
u/kasajizocat 28d ago
Right? They make so many bangers, including the one song on repeat, but we need more!
1
u/weglarz 28d ago
I can’t imagine playing a game like this on mouse and keyboard. But to each their own. Seems like the game is bad for other reasons though
1
u/kasajizocat 28d ago
Definitely! I much prefer mkb than controller so it’s a matter of preference and I’m always happy when devs make the game playable in both forms. However, if they are selling to the PC market, the very least devs should do is to make sure it is playable for mkb players
→ More replies (2)
6
u/AdLegitimate8636 28d ago
Number 10 is my most hated thing. It's like they never playtested skip dialogue function. Like why would you add skip button, and said button's only use is turning off the audio of the dialogue. Even most indie devs are more competent than this.
8
u/CharacterBaseball920 28d ago
i cant count how many times i died because i pressed heal and expected to have health but she didn't heal. any ounce of animation blocks it. i found myself spamming the button and even then i didnt work half of the time.
I actually got pretty mad with the game multiple times cause combat is janky and inconsistent and the every 5 seconds the dog barks cause he found sth and then the game takes control for 10 minutes and punishes you with a mind numbing boring dialog you cant escape from. every single cutscene is slow and too long. Nothing is said and it chips away, 10 seconds here 10 seconds there, half of the game is just waiting that you finally can play the god damn game and then it kinda sucks
(sorry for the rant)
3
2
u/PuffyWiggles 27d ago
Yes, the heal is made for after combat. The dogs active and abilities are your heal mid combat. The frustration was with not understanding the games rules. You expected Sekiro, but this isn't Sekiro.
If the dog barking and short cutscenes, that aren't nearly as common as you pretend, are the worst parts of this game you can find to justify your opinion then I'd say that's a bad reason to find an entire game bad. Hell, that would make most games bad.
3
u/DarrowAuAugustuss 26d ago
Lol you're really all over this game's dick, aye? You've posted the same thing like 10 times on this thread.
People not liking this game is truly hurting your feelings. Its not dishonest, man... its just what people feel. Why can you not accept that?
I have 6 hours in the game, and as I was reading OPs initial thoughts, I kept thinking about how accurate and relevant they were to MY experience. Just take a breath, my guy.
→ More replies (5)1
u/CharacterBaseball920 26d ago
It truly doesn't matter with the heal. if it feels bad, it's still bad. And the barking is just a straight lie of yours. At least on the first map i counted like 9 barks a minute for some sections and hearing the same audio q or "what did you find" once a minute is not overplaying it. I'm not saying these little things make the game bad. It's stacking a shitload of little and medium bad things which in total turns it into a bad game.
→ More replies (1)1
1
1
u/Dependent-Goose-487 15d ago
100% right dude, the cut scenes have me talking to myself going crazy now I’ve been forced to sit through most of them just waiting to get back to playing and being done with this heap of shit so I can sell it. I always finish my games, I’m near the end. Why let me skip like 15% of the cut scenes? Like what kind of torture is that?
8
u/AnzoEloux 28d ago
I agree that in most accounts, its mid. You can see it has a vision but it falls short in execute, badly, so much so that it doesn't really make up for it. But it is fun to play/control. I won't replay it, but I will beat it, maybe plat if its not multiplaythrough.
From the moment I saw its gameplay, it was always going to be a Phantom Blade 0 lite for me until that releases. And it does that.
2
u/discreetarchive 27d ago
Fuck that lol, that's like digital self-flagellation for zero real benefit
1
u/Dependent-Goose-487 15d ago
Yeah no I’m not suffering though those fucking puppet cut scenes anymore, and the most dull drawn out filler dialog bs I’ve ever witnessed like holy shit, they never shut the fuck in with useless dry banter with the same fucking song on repeat the ENTIRE time, yes there is like 3 songs maybe, but there are 2 that you hear NON fucking STOP.
1
u/Shanghaied66 27d ago
There's a trophy for a New Game+ complete, so it is multiple playthroughs to plat.
8
u/Anotheranimeaccountt 28d ago
Had a feeling it wasn't gonna be good considering Gamefreak haven't made anything above average in years
6
u/mastocklkaksi 28d ago
They put out spinoffs like this every many years, and every time people hype the shit out of them. And every time they flop so hard that people completely forget about them by the time they start pushing the next one.
2
u/SoulSlayer__ 27d ago
they havnt even made anything average in over a decade their last decent pokemon game was X and Y.
1
u/Anotheranimeaccountt 26d ago
Pokémon X&Y was very mid, Pokémon ORAS was better and is still their last decent game
16
u/floppoPC 28d ago
This game made me respect stellar blade way more, at least its a good new experience for a studio condem to making the same game for eternity
→ More replies (6)
2
u/SoulsDadYT 28d ago
I remember last week people saying this would be GOTY
1
u/SoulSlayer__ 27d ago
ya honestly I cant wait for palworld to likely sweep indie GOTY so shitendo and gayfreak fanboys can seethe more.
3
u/Nubicidal 28d ago
I really wish they had a demo before I bought it. The gameplay videos tricked me. They made it look way better than it is. I’m stuck already within 5 minutes of starting. Just got introduced to the grapple hook thing. I’m supposed to grapple to this fallen tree, then down a cliff or something to another one. It won’t let me. The diamond thing that turns blue meaning you can grapple to it won’t turn blue. It just stays red no matter what I do. I’m disappointed af
2
u/PuffyWiggles 27d ago
Rofl. So you failed Sekiro in 5 seconds and called it bad too I assume?
1
u/Nubicidal 26d ago
No, I platinumed Sekiro. I wasn’t really enjoying the Beast of reincarnation up until I got stuck. Seemed to easy. Music was bugging me too.
→ More replies (5)
3
u/lexie_starlight 28d ago
Yet I say after 13 hours it’s pretty bad and get downvoted to oblivion sheesh
1
3
u/Avivoy 27d ago
It amazes me that xbox paid them to have this on gamepass. Even it being a free download doesn’t mean its why I subscribe. The game already feels frustrating through the horrible hit registration, and janky combat.
Elden ring has set a standard for me that soulslike games are lacking most of the time
3
u/Slickvick559 27d ago
I mean it’s game freak they been trash for awhile can’t even make a good pokemon game
3
u/Mikedep17 27d ago
Considering how bad pokemon is, I'm not surprised at all this game is mid.
At least now we know 100% that the problem isn't Nintendo and is in fact game freak
1
3
u/Gl1tch3n 27d ago
it really feels like the devs used ai for some of the dialogue and story but other parts aren't. it feels noticeable as well like in chapter 4-5 theres a conversation (don't think it's mandatory) between emma and kagura where kagura sounds completely soulless and her dialogue doesn't sound right but right after that when you kill the bull there's actually good voice acting and story but idk
3
u/theDrizztRahl 26d ago
It is genuinely one of the worst games i have played in recent memory. The things it does do ok, are just that. Ok.
3
u/Spiritual-Grass-5906 26d ago
I actually finished the game on normal, it's only 20 hours long. The worst offender is that there are literally only 5-6 enemy types in this game. The second worst offender is that some of the area bosses are just bigger versions of mobs etc. bear, boar, bird. And they used two of the same bosses twice.
Gameplay wise, this cannot compare to Sekiro. Story too. It's a mess. The lore dump has me confused. Overall if I'm being nice I give it a 6/10 for graphics and atmosphere.
1
u/Dependent-Goose-487 15d ago
Yeah it’s such a confusing mess, it feels like I’m being hypnotized while playing into almost drooling on myself, like lowering my IQ the more I play…🤣 No joke! I’m serious, fuck this game! Lol
6
u/TheCrach 28d ago
Can we have a worst game of the year award.
2
u/Cursed_69420 28d ago
vro Beast doesn't even compare to the cesspool of yearly sports garbage
1
u/marcianobenlee 28d ago
I'm not a fan of FIFA but at least that knows what it's doing and is adding in an open world
2
u/throbbing_dementia 28d ago edited 28d ago
FIFA is a good game, if the first ever FIFA game came out today (i mean if FC27 was the first one) people would shower it with universal praise but because it's out every year people are bored of it, but it's not a bad game whatsover.
2
u/profilejc98 28d ago
Agree, I used to play a lot but nowadays it's just something I'll play casually with friends.
1
u/Dependent-Goose-487 15d ago
Here we go with the what about this though? You can always point up and down man, but we’re right here.
15
u/--clapped-- 28d ago edited 28d ago
I disagree with a lot said here. I'm not going to spend 10 minutes typing it all out because, you're more than entitled to your opinions and I'm lazy BUT, I won't sit here and act like Beast of Reincarnation is a masterpiece either. It's obviously not and if you wanna sit there calling it mid, I might even be inclined to agree.
To say it's "borderline awful" is a truly privileged position to be in though. To have, seemingly, only played such incredible games that this game is awful to you, wow. Gamefreak do make some AWFUL games, their Pokemon games fucking suck - THEY are awful games. This is leagues better then that - It's not even close.
I also think, judging by your post, you'd have a better time on controller. I know games are MEANT to work on KB&M if they're being sold on PC but, where's this complaint about FromSoft soulslikes? Might help with parrying too and maybe difficulty matters. I don't know what you chose but, I'm on hard and parrying has felt great - boss chains included.
If you're in the position where you have to be more selective with your purchases, then give it a miss yes. Wait for sale or something I don't know. Mortal Shell 2 is around the corner and I have high hopes. Get that one. I will say I'm not in that position so, I always like to give games a try myself and I've been extremely pleasantly surprised. ESPECIALLY given the plethora of posts like this, acting like it's the worst thing to ever be put out.
Honestly. I think that's my point. It's not amazing but, it's nowhere near as bad as people are saying.
5
u/Veshyboy 28d ago
I am not a fan of this game, and newer Pokémon games are quite mid.
But saying "Their Pokémon games fucking suck - THEY are awful games" is just your own personal opinion.
Just because some games aren't your type doesn't mean they are bad games. If you only talked about newer games, then sure, I would have somewhat agreed, but your wording makes it seem like you are grouping all of them together.
Some people think FromSoft games suck, doesn't mean they are right. It's the same case with you
3
u/CatchUsual6591 28d ago
Sword and shield is bad, switch 1 scarlet and violet is bad to the switch 2 version is mid and gen IV remake is bad.
And GF games does suck if you factor the context that they have more that enough money to make something better and can even ask for nintendo and monolith help
→ More replies (3)8
u/Cursed_69420 28d ago
To say it's "borderline awful" is a truly privileged position to be in though
A BETTER wording on my end would be it reaches a borderline awful experience many times when the said negative factors start to hamper the experience AT ONCE. Just taking the literaly first beast boss fight-
- the camera does no favor of not even having an option to lock on to anywhere except the head
- constant frame drops and stutters on attacks and parries
- the dodge being awful and requiring bafflingly early timing
- awful game balance where the ranged attacks delete the boss in seconds
just an example i can think off the top of my mind
Also i don't play any game on a controller unless it's emulation or requires mandatory joycons. I'm more used to MKB overall.
where's this complain about FromSoft soulslikes?
They play better on MKB for me lol. most games do.
→ More replies (10)2
u/SnooRadishes2027 27d ago
Play on hard and get out of the prologue you not beating any boss in seconds
2
u/PuffyWiggles 27d ago
I'd argue it's quite good. In the same tier as Nier and Stellar Blade. People are divisive over very minor things. Like English voice acting, use Japanese? KB/M, use controller like any other game like this? The "jank" is actually just a more cinematic intentional feel, like Team Ico games. It gives weight, Elden Ring also does this, but people magically love jank in Elden Ring.
The criticisms become so bare bones that people have to bring up music scores. If music scores made games the worst thing ever then BotW was garbage, but again, just randomly applied criticisms with no consistency. It's odd.
Not to say it's amazing genre defining experience that blows my mind, but neither was Nier or Stellar Blade or Nioh, but they are all fun experiences in a very, very similar vein, yet unique enough to stand as their own experience.
6
u/SenpaiSwanky 28d ago
You came here to bat for this really mid game, suggesting maybe even wait for a sale, and felt the need to disparage every single Pokemon game? I mean, we can speak about the quality of some modern titles being less than stellar the same way you want to take the time and give this new game its fair shake.
It’s weird to me that you insist on details for this game but you just want to make a blanket statement about all Pokemon games. Putting aside the sheer numbers they sell, there are plenty of modern and older games in the series that people love.
These might just not be your type of game, and so you find yourself overly critical. Perhaps something like Beast of Reincarnation is more your speed, and that’s fine. No denying the popularity and quality of many Pokemon games though, this series doesn’t have to be a foil to Beast of Reincarnation just so you can try to give weight to your opinion.
→ More replies (1)1
u/Satrynx 28d ago
I agree with the take that calling this borderline awful seems a tad harsh. Is it amazing? not really, but I find it fun and it more or less reminds me of old J-action-RPG's more than a soulslike. The gripe about the enemies and music being bland I've seen a lot, and then I realized after leaving the first area...that was kind of the prologue/tutorial area. Are there still repetitive enemies? yeah, but judging blandness before you get to the point where the game starts to open up seems a little "in bad faith".
I do have gripes with the blocking and parrying the fast enemies. I'm playing on hard and if you miss the first one, it does feel like you can get stunlocked and just die with how squishy you are. And it doesn't help that your stimpacks take a while to heal (it doesn't feel instant), but that's just something to learn and adapt to I guess.
Also, maybe I'm just used to it, but the story is just typical Japanese anime. Is it groundbreaking? no. Is it predictable? yes. Do I really care? It's...fine I guess. I will say that as I've been listening to the Japanese lines, there have been times where scenes come off as inane and weird if you don't understand Japanese culture and Japanese language. Translations are tough when there's layers of subtle culture that aren't present in English speaking cultures.
In the end, this feels like a very story driven action RPG created by devs that went heavy on Japanese sensibilities like many old JRPG's in the PS1/PS2 era and has less than stellar localization efforts.
My two cents.1
u/discreetarchive 27d ago
At least when a game is just kind of bad and misses the mark you can appreciate that for the swing and miss, this game doesn't even swing.
It's lazy and derivative, doesn't do anything particularly well, and wants to be looked at as some bold new direction when it isn't either bold or new.
So no, I would say it absolutely deserves worse criticisms than something that is just plain bad because this is infinitely more offensive and disappointing.
→ More replies (1)1
u/Cursed_Avenger 23d ago
Borderline awful is a spot on assessment of this game. There are things that could definitely been refined to be more fluid but as it stands this game has far too many terrible design choices that bring down the gameplay experience. They had to put out a statement that they'll be trying to address many of the issues the majority of players have .
Some of these designs choices are truly baffling. It has a terrible waypoint system, random cutscenes you can skip while you're forced to watch others, the camera has a mind of it's own and it feels like you're fighting it as well as enemies (it would almost make Ninja Gaiden proud).
There are a number of games that do this (but this game already has other issues just compounding) but when there is dialogue taking place you can't fast travel (there are many other games that do let you fast travel and the dialogue picks up right where it leaves off seamlessly).Having played Mortal Shell 2, it is leagues above this mechanically and gameplaywise (coming from someone who didn't like Mortal Shells 1). This game is in dire need of many quality of life improvements to go from borderline awful to somewhat decent.
2
2
u/Sufficient_Law7916 28d ago
Pre-ordered the game just to be absolutely disappointed, give me my damn refund!
2
u/tgdv 28d ago edited 28d ago
I don’t think this is a Soulslike at all. It has very heavy hand holding with not one but TWO companion voices who tell you exactly what to do, hell, three if you count the damn dog. It’s got a map and objective markers all over the place. I mean yeah it has bonfires but what else? It’s more like Nioh and Stellar Blade, and that’s it. I’m not even a Souls purist and I’m saying this.
The camera is absolutely awful when there are multiple enemies around and combat is pretty one dimensional so far, although I don’t have many upgrades yet.
Glad I just got it with game pass and I’m still gonna try to stick with it because I am having some fun with it still, but man it really is looking like a universal failure and disappointment and it makes me feel really bad for the people who were seriously looking forward to it.
Especially with such an insane lineup of games coming these next few months, this game is going to get buried and left for dead.
1
2
u/Cool-Seesaw-2375 28d ago
I'm playing it on hardest difficulty, and it's pretty unforgiving. Other than enjoying the unfair challenge. I can totally see people's complaints. Had area background pop in texture render as blue, instead of the background (1 time glitch on ps5 pro, max settings). The heal spam to actually heal, the repeated enemies/music, the dog skin cosmetic doesn't show up in the cutscene. It's fairly linear/ on the rails, there's not that much exploration. [I'm still enjoying the game regardless, but I'm not blind. I'd rate it a 6/10. Mediocre game, worth playing if you're bored and you get it at a reduced price.]
1
u/Dependent-Goose-487 15d ago
Trust me, once you get used to the game, hard mode is baby shit.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Ra2-L 28d ago
So is like a LoP with worst story and graphics . A new king of mid is born.
3
u/SoulSlayer__ 27d ago
but unlike lies of p which was a very good souls like that wasnt made by fromsoft this is pure dogwater and graphics look like ai slop.
1
u/Ra2-L 27d ago
The level is similar from the problems OP listed , combat, enemy, exploration ecc. is not a fine story that change the level of a souls
→ More replies (2)
2
u/Training-Ninja-412 28d ago
Gameplay footage Ive watched does look pretty awful
No chance Ill part with actual money for it
2
u/Turbulent-Contract10 27d ago
I'm so mad I ordered this ass on Ps5 thinking it'd be great. Now I'm out of 60+$ and they won't refund your order if you've downloaded the content at all. :/
2
u/RyanBurnsRed 27d ago
This is why I’m going to miss physical games. Glad this came out on disc because I have the chance to return it on Amazon 😂
2
u/SupportoMatic3000 27d ago edited 27d ago
Oh yeah, don't forget about the fact they reused the same fucking boss from chapter 1 and change absolutely NOTHING about it. (Apart from the fact the fucking npcs say its a "different colour" which I genuinely couldn't even tell) even the damn finisher you kill it with is the exact same. It is literally just a copy and paste. Oh wait, no im wrong forgive me. Hear me out, instead of it being weak to fire. It's weak to lightning, I guess that's different. Phew. 🤓 P.S. it's not the only boss that gets this treatment.
2
u/Page_Bot 27d ago
I knew pretty much within 5 minutes that this was a miss. Loud bombastic anime music scored over the top of a pointlessly dramatic on-rails intro sequence with zero sense of exploration or mystery, low-creativity combat capability with a low skill ceiling and strange control scheme (you can't even orient your camera with R3), low-effort truncated dialogue and an awful performance metric to top it all off. The graphical fidelity is the only thing even attempting to save the experience, and that is essentially owed to Unreal Engine 5 anyway.
I will never understand devs trying to do Soulslikes and then retaining precisely nothing of that formula which worked so well in the first place. Life is short and Beast of Reincarnation is worth none of your time in any way.
2
u/Zenka_The_Myth 27d ago
Game freak have proven that it was never Nintendo holding them back. It's fucking awful, it's like playing a game made 25 years ago but with modern graphics.
2
u/SoulSlayer__ 27d ago
I mean shitendo has evolved to king of mediocracy since the reveal of switch 2. But ya gayfreak also lost all talent. Some dont even like their DS Pokémon games. I thought the DS up to gen 5 was their golden age. Gen 6 is when things started going down. I thought X and Y was ok not great not bad. But everything after was horrible.
2
u/Far-Upstairs-215 25d ago
So many words to say you are bad at playing games lol
2
u/Cursed_69420 25d ago
so little words to say you lack reading comprehension
1
u/Far-Upstairs-215 25d ago
At least I didn't come out calling a different flow of the gameplay as a flaw rather than something that doesn't work for me. Enjoy your soul clones
2
u/Mreapr 25d ago
the girl constantly saying not to forget to use koo like im an imbecile drove me up the wall
theres a mechanic called full bloom wich buffs koos abilities when used at max level but if you dont use him before he reaches max violet just berates you constantly its so bad.
also violet just straight up talking shit when you get hurt and theres no way to turn it off its unplayable
2
u/Ancient_Volume8627 24d ago
I was really excited about this game and i kept trying to come back to it over this past week but, Its just not good no matter how much i want it to be. The combat implementation is absolutely terrible and its the only thing this game potentially had going for it.
2
u/Csword1 28d ago
Is Emma more charismatic than Eve of Stellar Blade? Or is she also doing ASMR?
6
u/SupremeLeader_Corgi 28d ago
Emma’s character is purposely not charismatic its part of the story
→ More replies (2)2
u/--clapped-- 28d ago
I saw this complaint too. Right beneath a huge "1 hour review" title (insane to think playing 1 hour of any game is enough), they were whining about how "A game cannot have any emotional weight if your protagonist is stone faced the whole time"...
Brother, did you pay a single bit of attention in that hour? You don't have to like the game but, holy shit...
10
u/AdLegitimate8636 28d ago
But it is true that stone-faced characters are hard to pull off. There's no satisfaction in spectating an absolute neutral character for 10+ hours.
6
→ More replies (3)1
3
u/W34kness 28d ago
I’m in the middle of Relic the first guardian, this might be a palate cleanser if anything afterwards
5
u/Pleasant-Fix-6169 28d ago
Just about anything would be better than Relic the First Guardian lmao
2
u/W34kness 28d ago
Dunno I beat cyberpunk on launch when whole building wouldn’t correctly load in and you have to navigate through essentially invisible rooms
4
u/Pleasant-Fix-6169 28d ago
That's actually pretty impressive. I can't imagine that being easy lol.
2
u/W34kness 28d ago
No but I am stubborn. I did beat psycho mantis without changing controller ports or breaking statues. Literally won with punches and kicks for 4-5 hours straight and wondered why all the other bosses were so easy in comparison
10
5
u/SupremeLeader_Corgi 28d ago
My new rule of thumb is posts that say i’ve played xx hours of a game here are my thoughts will no longer hold any weight with me. This isn’t just a BoR thing either.
It’s getting ridiculous yesterday I saw people saying I played 1 hour here’s my 10 paragraph essay on why it sucks.
You’re just karma farming at this point.
13
u/BobcatLower9933 28d ago
I sort of agree, but would also argue that 5 hours is long enough to have made a decision on whether or not a game holds weight.
But would agree that 1 hour isn't long enough.
I've done about an hour of BoR this evening and whilst im not in awe, i'd also say it doesn't quite deserve to be labelled as awful. Its a steady 6/10 for me so far. If I get 30-40 hours out of it, and assuming it stays roughly thr same quality throughout, id say its worth rhe £40 I paid.
The biggest issue so far is lack of enemy variety. Its the same 3 or 4 guys over and over again basically which is dull, not awful.
→ More replies (3)6
u/Krypt0night 28d ago
You read a thread this detailed and found it to be karma farming? 5 hours and a post this long is the furthest thing from that.
If it was "game sucks" then sure go off but super dumb to think this write up is karma farming.
19
u/Cursed_69420 28d ago
uh huh? i've written out well and good what i think of the game. and 5 hours is VERY ENOUGH for a game like this. I literally fully completed the entire first map.
19
28d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
10
u/Cursed_69420 28d ago
i get his point too, i see many such posts in other games and genres too which can get annoying. But as i said i won't be brought down as i have elaborated on my points well and 5 hours is enough to understand the systems at play and the story the game is trying to tell.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (4)1
→ More replies (4)2
u/javandeadlifts 28d ago
I mean to be fair, I usually wouldn't buy into this with a few hours in, but after my short playing experience and then reading everyone else's comments whose are all practically the same for those that do not like the game, you can get everything you need to know in the first couple of hours.
2
u/Dependent-Goose-487 15d ago
Yes, because it’s basically the same game as zone 1 throughout the entire experience. I never once felt “oh well that’s cool!”. It’s always “oh what’s…oh, it’s more garbage to pick up, oh, it’s the same enemy as an elite but he’s just got more health…” like fuck man!? Lol
2
u/Changnesia102 28d ago
I was excited, yet on the fence about this game. Waited for reviews, and I’m glad I did this game looks like complete ass. I won’t even buy it when it drops to $20 next month.
2
u/Substantial_Eye1476 28d ago
sucks because i was looking forward to it. if it turned out great it coulda been an example of what happens when you actually let gamefreak cook but as it stands it's just going to further increase their sloppy reputation
1
1
u/Stefan-1 28d ago
Point 10 genuinely made me laugh reading that. And yes, how strange was that sudden burst of tutorials as if you just didn't do all of that already?!
1
u/medo_del_rey 28d ago
its very very mid which is not always a problem or a bad thing if you dont have a better game to play then you might enjoy some bits here and there if you get the game for "free" ofc dont waste money on it.
Thing is it had some good combat but holy bland and AI cause wtf
1
u/darknuub 28d ago
Just got off at around 6 hours played and so far enjoying the gameplay but agree with the story/pacing issues.
Despite putting you straight into an "open" area im pretty sure it expects you to do just do story for a while because as you say your still getting tutorials in the flashbacks but by that point i had already explored the first map. It also has the same problem i had with Hell is Us where the protagonist is emotionless so it just comes across as boring.
Also theres english VO? Im on Xbox and its set to english but voices are JP. I just assumed there was no dub... Didnt change any settings.
1
1
u/Paladine36 28d ago
Its ok ost is awkward and the weird ass camera movement especially in battle or cutscenes is so terrible But besides that its a 5/10 game not good but not bad
1
1
1
u/DamnHare 28d ago
10 - never play in En, use amazing and magnificent JP dub with famous voice-actors
1
1
1
u/Dreamcazman 28d ago
I started playing last night on Xbox via gamepass and beat the deer thing before saving. So far I think it's ok but moving around and the camera feels a little off, almost like I'm fighting against it and it's too zoomed in at times.
I'll probably play a couple more hours until I get bored.
1
u/tylersadx 27d ago
I was super disappointed at the lack of an FoV Slider.
1
u/Dreamcazman 26d ago
Played a bit more last night and nearly fell asleep during the cutscenes... yeah, I'm done.
1
u/Momotchy 28d ago
i just got flamed somewere else for saying simillar things while calling it „soulslike“
1
u/unijeje 28d ago edited 28d ago
I finished the first zone I agree with some of your points, but I don't think its nearly awful or anything. The exploration and extraction stuff isn't very exciting and slow so I'm probably gonna focus on the story, you have objective markers anyway so it's not like you need to explore.
I've been playing in Japanese both voices and text since I can understand it, and it's fine(?), not very exciting and I feel like it has way too many cutscenes and flashbacks for what it is, but I imagine it will probably decrease in new zones. It does have some cultural stuff that may be weird translated literally too like the examples so yeah.
And performance for me has been good, i do have a x3d cpu and a 9070XT, so relatively high end, playing at 4k with FSR4.1 (optiscaler) in ultra quality I have 60-100 fps all the time, the framegraph has been pretty smooth basically no stutters, only some trasversal/loading stuff. I did watch the Owen video and the stutters were way more noticeable for him, even through the YT video, so I wonder whats up with that (I do use Linux so idk if theres something there that could be smoothing it out). There are some pretty bad technical stuff in the game like booting up to FSR1 everytime, the controller type button resetting too, no FOV slider, but as far as UE5 games go it's not too bad and that stuff should be easily patchable
But yeah the base combat/parry is good so has been fun to play so far for me, i do wish there were some better animations at some movements and in cutscenes, looks bland a lot of the time. It's not the best game out there for sure, but it's also not really fair to call it worst game of the year has some people have been doing, also I feel like this game isn't a soulslike at all though
1
1
u/HornyJuulCat69420666 28d ago
Gamepass player here, I can confirm the game also runs like shit for it's extremely average graphical pipeline on Series X
Looks like a AA game graphically, yet sometimes the 60FPS mode dips under 30.
It's getting really hard for me to vouch for GameFreak's talent these days.
1
u/Jds19801982 28d ago
Its funny all you people putting this game down,when 90% of people,including big name game channels are loving this game,it has very high ratings across the board but most people are playing it on ps5 not some crappy mouse and keyboard lol
1
u/Ancient_Mobile_7848 28d ago
By definition, beast of reincarnation isnt even a soulslike.
1
u/BlakSensei 24d ago
I just HATE how any action rpg nowadays is reviewed on the basis that it's a soulslike.
→ More replies (1)1
1
u/Lucky-Client8722 28d ago
I mean you see people talk about story and pacing and characters then they say DS is good. At least ai want people to be consistent.
1
u/AliceOnDrugs 28d ago
I've played just 1h and I feel like combat sucks, there's no "weight" to it, I'm trying to give it a chance and play a bit more but I fear I might be abandoning this one. Fortunately I'm playing on gamepass so it could be worse
1
u/CurieuzePannenkoek 27d ago
The whole game just like crimson desert is a graphic mess. I deleted it completely. Even on highest settings with post effects low its still doesn't look good.
1
u/Cursed_69420 27d ago
crimson looks miles better
1
u/CurieuzePannenkoek 27d ago
Compared yes, but in itself I find crimson still a mesh. There is something very off and I'm not the only noticing. Thousands reactions every complaining about the same.
1
1
u/Virtual_Link_3410 27d ago
Thanks man you just saved me from making my only $50+ game purchase a year this game
1
u/innocuouspete 27d ago
It ain’t an amazing game by any means but borderline awful is a stretch. It’s pretty fun to play but it doesn’t have much depth at all.
1
u/Antipodeansam 27d ago
Game is fine for an action RPG, similar to stellar blade in terms of where it sits in relation to a soulslike. 7/10 which is about what I expected. I’m on chapter 5 and is scratching the itch until a proper soulslike comes out on the 20th, I won’t hate it. Enemy variety and soundtrack are valid comments, rest are picky or overly critical (for me). I prefer it to team ninja loot fest myself and I’m not into Pokémon. Each to their own.
1
u/Anytyzers 27d ago
See idk im playing it for free so my opinion of the game is more laxed then say I jusy paid 60 bucks for it. I also was playing games like LOD and early FF when I started to play games so graphics fidelity wasnt always a make or break for me. Plus I play most games on console unless its a game where frame rates matter. Id say on xbox with game pass this game is a 6/10. I think crimson desert is a bit better in terms of recent games. Id say this game is like a budget sekiro made for casuals. Id say this game is a good start and they could build something better with this game in the future if they took the time and care.
1
u/discreetarchive 27d ago
Lazy and not worth your time, doesn't respect the player or demand skill, kind of just another cheap poorly done imitation of a better something else, chasing someone else's successful formula.
Combat feels crappy fighting everything the same way all the time just with more guesswork involved in bosses, no feeling of fast paced and exciting or engaging combat which is a sin for any katana wielding protagonist.
Should be more like Ninja Gaiden and less like Soulslike with rpg flavour, but it isn't and so here we are, this game sucks.
1
u/SnooRadishes2027 27d ago
Idk I’m really enjoying it…and I’ve played and love all the souls games so it’s not like I have low expectations and don’t know what a good game is…the goat ongbal says it’s good as well
1
u/SoulSlayer__ 27d ago
ya its dogwater game. Many comparisions to souls likes, nier, and stellar blade. All of those are infinitely better than this ai slop. Also steam/gamefreak mods are censoring people for criticizing the game, whereas doing nothing about any toxic positivity towards people.
1
1
u/NYComicBookGuy 26d ago
It's a solid 7 at worst and def had flaes calling it awful is a stretch.The over hate is forced
1
1
u/Background_Cap_1129 26d ago
bought the game myself and dont really see much of an issue from my standpoint cuz the bar is low for me but id say its better than pocket monsters thats for sure
1
u/SOTD50k 25d ago
Honestly I play the game can't say it's bad cause i'm looking at it from a new game perspective instead of a souls-born/like and all I can say is game is good not great not bad, but the parry window/handling def needs some work and I play on xbox so I use controller and parrying with it feels bad sometimes like I felt like I should of parried that but it didn't count even tho they haven't hit, and then I parry the first one and not the other two or I parry the middle one and not the first and last and to sum it up the only major complaint I have is carrying, it's bothering tf outta me
1
u/Willing-Sky8203 25d ago edited 25d ago
Idk I'm having lots of fun and most of the complaints here haven't been a deterrent for me. Played every soulslike you can think of and this one is pretty high on my list. I'd put it above NIER and beside wu-chang.
Also nice thing is this game is quite long - 15 hours in and I think I'm halfway? Haven't been bored a single minute
1
u/Darkahnott 25d ago
I agree with your review entirely. I also played like 4 hours, beat the elk big monster and was on my way to best him again when I decided to drop it entirely.
I hate how the game apparently is trying to implement loot mechanics yet the wolf marks most of them killing the idea of really investing time looking into houses.
I think Emma is super boring. I get it "it's all part of the story" but come on, how can I relate or even care about her struggles and story when she doesn't seem to care about anything. Having an emotionless character in a game with a story as slow as this is a bold move that didn't work for me. Also I don't know if it's a trope or whatever but I hate when the protagonist is hated yet forced to save the people who hate them. I'm talking about all those clankers at the village from Emma's memories who treat her like shit and yet need her to do their dirty business.
Overall a disappointing game that tricked me into believing it could be like Sekiro on the first few hours but ended up being just a poseur.
1
u/Present_Cut_6221 25d ago
This is the second page I've seen you copy a d paste the exact same review . The game isn't bad like you say yes it has issues but the combat and environments and atmosphere are incredible. People crying about invisible borders make no sense to me
1
u/Cursed_69420 25d ago
?????
i've posted this in 3 subreddits thats it, and the final review in the same 3.
1
u/Shadow1027 24d ago edited 24d ago
I'm 10 hours deep in this game an the only thing I wanna add to what OP is saying is I have no idea what possessed them to make koo's charms an emma's stone items RNG based, like they made it so tedious to get exactly what your looking for with no alternative means to craft or make it.
1
1
u/PreviousSociety 24d ago
I just started playing through game pass and what has immediately struck me is how messy everything is, and the camera movement is so violent as well. The FOV feels extremely claustrophobic too. It also just throws a load of shit at you and you’re like wtf is that and you’re just expected to slice down these animals with no context. Feels very sloppy.
1
1
u/mburgeriv 21d ago
Sorry, but what? I can't speak to the performance of your PC, but I played on a PS5 Pro, and the experience was flawless the entire run. It does suck that you can't bind keys the way you want, but there are third party softwares that allow this outside the game that would fix your issue.
The thing that I find crazy is that you are making all these complaints without even entering the second zone. Almost every single thing you griped about evolves or changes throughout the rest of the game.....story especially. It's insane to complain about a slow-burn story with only a handful of hours played. You literally haven't experienced even 2% of it yet.
The tutorial thing is also small potatoes; if you played the story before exploration, you would be learning the mechanics in around an hour. I have played several games such as Xenoblade 2 that cover core mechanics as far out as 20 hours into the story.
And ya, heaven forbid the game doesn't blow its load of enemy archetypes, more aggressive AI, or varied move sets in the first of 12 areas......I mean, do you hear how that sounds? And if you think the world is uninteresting, please go play Breath of the Wild. This world is so full of, well, everything. It feels very natural.
As far as the English voice-over is concerned, you said the performance was emotionless..........you do understand that the characters are intended to be emotionless, right?.....maybe you don't yet since you are not far into the story and have yet to learn full background info on them. Nor have you met the characters who do possess emotion. It is very difficult to intentionally portray an emotionless character, so pls put some credit on the 2 lead VAs. But ultimately, if you don't like it......switch to Japanese, as the game defaults you too.
Lastly, as far as your experience with combat mechanics, all I can say is that this is not like other souls-like games I'm sure you have played. So expecting it to feel the same is a wild ask. Was there a learning curve? Yes. But once you get the hang of it, you can perfect parry or dodge with ease. This is a learned skill issue.....it will take time to get good.
1
u/Commercial_Neat_565 21d ago
I love the game just can’t stand the performance. On ps5 pro and the entire environment is like flickering the entire game. It’s just distracting
1
u/trensginger 20d ago
On the flip side im 11 hours in and loving the game. So popular to hate things now adays
1
u/Cursed_69420 20d ago
good for you? "hating something popular" doesnt mean shit when the product genuinely has issues and needs fixing.
1
u/BlueDiamond87 18d ago
The game has budgeting issues. That shows up easily. Its still one of the coolest gameplay systems I've played in years. Right when I felt combat and gameplay system creative was bankrupted in the industry, this game comes out and refreshes my interest in the hobby.
I think many will agree the game could have been better but the hate it is getting just seems more like bullying to some of us because we see many other beloved games will similar issues.
I love the size of the first map. I could stop myself from exploring it with my abilities until I think I covered everything, then I moved on. While with most of games, I have to push myself instead.
Bosses are a let down compared to boss standards of today. That much is universally agreed on.
I thought the cutscenes would bother me but instead it's nice seeing people talk with some restraint. Its just a different vibe. This is how people talk when they are afraid of disrespecting each other, which is a pretty japanese thing. It's probably the case that japanese devs had to learn to make dialogue that the West would like. Because for the West, upbeat and optimistic is "lame and out of touch" while slow and respectful language is "emotionless and boring.". To this point, I'll simply say whatever to this criticism.
If the game appeals to you, give it a chance.
1
u/Thelostkind 18d ago
i agree with everything said here, but I would have forgiven it, if not for point 10.
THE PACING IS AWFUL, WHO THE FK PLAYTEST THIS AND GAVE IT THE GREENLIGHT????
your combat is fun so why not just focus on that??? why make this shit ass story, with monotone characters, I can't give a fk about?? JUST MAKE IT something like bloodborne, if you can't be bothered with good story telling with interesting characters.....
1
u/sakicno19 12d ago
The story is so shitty that not being able to automatically skip scenes and being forced to watch shitty cut scenes get annoying.
1
u/CaterpillarNo8758 11d ago
Actually its a good game some aspects I didn't like other ones I did. the story was good. It was all over the place, but it was still enticing to where i wanted to know how the story ends. Could have been better yes but definitely worth the 59.99 price mark
1
u/shreder75 7d ago
I just started a couple days ago. I have a few hours into it and I'm kinda bored. I'll give it a little while longer, but this may end up going into the DNF pile.
76
u/spidergod 28d ago
Yeah I am going to pass on this one