Game Freak’s New RPG Might Actually Be Pokémon’s Biggest Threat

Game Freak has become synonymous with the Pokemon franchise, with very few of their other games finding much success outside of a small initial audience. However, that may be about to change with the release of Beast of Reincarnation, a brand-new action RPG that is looking to push far outside the realm of creature collecting and to deliver a brand-new experience unlike anything else the developer has released before. An apocalyptic wasteland full of machines and giant monstrosities, Beast of Reincarnation tasks players and their trusty hound to fight for humanity and to uncover the truth that awaits at the end of the world, using both blades and bites to take on anything that stands in your way.

What makes the game so interesting to me is what it means for the wider Pokemon series. If Beast of Reincarnation is successful and draws in a previously untapped audience, then it may actually become a threat for future games in Game Freak’s leading IP. Many players have become frustrated with the quality of the most recent Pokemon entries, citing performance issues, bugs, and just a general lack of interesting content, so assuming this new IP is a hit, then many existing creature collector fans may feel as though their favorite franchise has been neglected in place of something else. While the sales figures don’t appear to be slowing down any time soon, I think it is still telling that we haven’t had a super high-scoring Pokemon game in quite some time, and that the expectations are only going to rise with pressure being applied from even more angles at once.

Beast of Reincarnation Is Potentially Scary for Pokemon’s Future

When that Game Freak logo popped up in the Beast of Reincarnation trailer, I was among the thousands of others who were expecting to see just another Pokemon game drop later that year, but to everyone’s surprise, we actually saw the first glimpses of something potentially special. For starters, there’s no creature collecting, no monster training, and perhaps the only DNA left over is in the form of your lovable dog Koo, who will play a big role in the gameplay and the story that ties it all together. Then there’s Emma, an outcast with an affliction that has pushed her to the outskirts of society, but together they make a perfect pair capable of tackling enormous foes through synergistic powers and willpower alone.

From the outside, there seems to be no connection whatsoever between the IPs, and the differences are so vast that they even extend to the platforms, with no Switch exclusivity for Beast of Reincarnation. Yet in the back of my mind, I equate this situation to having a shiny new toy to play with, whilst neglecting the ones you already have. What I mean by this is that there are already signs that Pokemon is struggling to keep up with the modern gaming landscape, purely from a quality and caliber perspective. Looking back at the last decade or two of the franchise, I don’t think it is outrageous to say that the bar has certainly dipped from where it used to sit. In the past, it was every other year we got high 80s across the board from the mainline entries, but now, aside from Pokemon Pokopia, which is currently sitting as the highest rated game in the franchise at 89, we are lucky to scrape past the 8/10 mark.

Modern Pokemon Releases

• Pokemon Unite – 70
• Pokemon Violet/Scarlet – 71/72
• Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu/Eevee – 79/80
• Pokemon Sword/Shield –80
• Pokemon Legends: Arceus –83

2010s Pokemon Wave

• Pokemon X/Y – 87/88
• Pokemon Sun/Moon – 87
• Pokemon White/Black – 87
• Pokemon SoulSilver/HeartGold –87

Taking into account these much lower overall scores, I don’t see a world where Pokemon ever fades into obscurity, as there is too much reach and such a rich history that I see no world where a large-scale decline is realistic. However, when games like Beast of Reincarnation do come around, the question surrounding why Pokemon is struggling to hit its stride does become a lot more obvious, particularly when you consider the lack of competition that exists in the wider genre. A good comparison to make is to something like Halo and Destiny, where Bungie had a seemingly unstoppable force that, for various reasons both inside the company and within the industry, became a shell of its former self in place of that coveted shiny new toy. Ironically enough, Destiny is now getting the same treatment thanks to the release of Marathon, but the point is that even in cases where the games are different enough in their content, this spread of internal resources almost always ends poorly and comes at the cost of the original IP that had previously been on top of the world.

On the flip side, there are also recent instances where a developer has been able to distribute resources to different teams and find a sizable amount of success without coming at the cost of their mainline franchises. Look at Capcom, for instance, where we have been showered with half a dozen Resident Evil games over the past decade, all incredible and acting as a second wave for one of gaming’s most beloved IPs. They could have played it safe and just continued pumping out more bangers, but they took some risks with games like Pragmata and, in the end, it paid off, and they ended up with several GOTY contenders in the span of a few months. Moreover, this developmental connection between IPs has turned into a very challenging debate, and in the case of a Beast of Reincarnation and a titanic franchise like Pokemon​​​, I won’t be shocked if longtime fans become frustrated with Game Freak for clearly being capable of creating an incredible game, but not being able to translate those talents to such a staple franchise.

Looking at the bigger picture, it can be easy to just see the doom and gloom, especially with how contentious gaming has been as of late and how complex consumer perception has become over the past few years. I am optimistic and incredibly excited about this new chapter and genuinely curious about what it means for the future of Pokemon, whether it will provide an incentive for the developers or serve as the first sign of a major studio change behind the scenes. The expectations are incredibly high for Beast of Reincarnation, and millions of players around the globe are now waiting eagerly to see what the hype is all about, so only time will tell if the bar is cleared and how big of an impact it will have at the next stakeholder meeting back at Game Freak HQ.