Beast Of Reincarnation opened pretty promisingly. Its first stretch dropped me into a sprawling fantasy forestscape full of deadly spore-sprouting woodland creatures, gave me a sick hat and a fireball-shooting dog, then strapped a katana in my hand and introduced a real solid parry clang that would fire dopamine into my brain every time I landed it.
Considering the generous parry window let me effortlessly deflect the boulder-sized suckerpunches of a 9ft grizzly bear, I figured this was shaping up to be a very pretty and particularly accessible Sekiro-like. And what’s more, it was from the minds behind Pokemon, Game Freak, who were trying something very different after being trapped making games under the beady, all-seeing eye of a kawaii yellow rat for so many decades. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long to realise the cool hat, the fireball-shooting dog and a satisfying parry clang were a cunning facade.
Beast Of Reincarnation is, in fact, a big old wad of chewing gum for the brain. I got the sweet taste up front, before it quickly squished down to the slimy, flavourless nothingness I continued chewing on autopilot.