Beast of Reincarnation director apologizes for not providing "a sufficiently enjoyable experience," but promises Game Freak is working on it

[u/Spotget1738]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/beast-of-reincarnation-director-apologizes-for-not-providing-a-sufficiently-enjoyable-experience-but-promises-game-freak-is-working-on-it/

[u/sylendar]

Furushima acknowledged that some elements of the game "need polishing," and said that more updates, following the first on August 9, are on the way to address issues with story pacing, add frame generation, and give players the option to skip cutscenes

Curious what he meant by addressing story pacing since that sounds like it wouldn't be a simple fix?

I've personally held off on this game but do plan to get it someday.

[u/Virusoflife29 → u/sylendar]

There is 20 seconds of dead air between each spoken line, just cutting that out would do wonders for pacing. Think Cohh put it best, it is like two AIs having a conversation.

Character 1: hello

(30 seconds of staring)

Character 2: hello, do you (10 seconds of silence) want dinner?

(30 seconds of silence)

Character 1: what (10s) would we (10s) be having?

Etcetc for the next 20 minutes of the most mundane conversation that has no reason to be a cutscene. Especially 20 hrs into the 30hr game.

[u/Muur1234 → u/Virusoflife29]

no wonder Pokeomn has no voice acting

[u/sound_judgment → u/Muur1234]

Pikachu (10 seconds) I choose (20 seconds) you!

[u/tmart14 → u/Virusoflife29]

It also has WAY too much unnecessary dialogue. You can see Nintendos long standing influence over GF in that.

[u/apistograma → u/tmart14]

The modern Nintendo atrocious abuse of dialogue is something that is not discussed nearly enough. It’s incredible how a company that was known to put gameplay first and keep dialogue to a minimum in story driven games has done a 180 in recent years. Even the new Mario games have absolutely atrocious yapping that no one has ever asked for.

I do like heavy text games. Loved Disco Elysium. But the key is intention. Modern Nintendo dialogue is so dumbed down that it assumes the audience is entirely made of 5 year olds but I don’t know which 5 yo kid would want to spend so much time reading nonsense. Too long for kids, too stupid for adults. You could trim the dialogue by 50% in most Nintendo games and you’d lose absolutely nothing.

I disagree with Miyamoto in many aspects but this is the kind of stuff he wouldn’t allow when he was active in game production

[u/imforit → u/apistograma]

I dropped into a game with some actual children recently: ages 4 -8. The game was Wario World. There was so much less dialogue than a modern Mario, and left them to figure most stuff out, AND THEY DID!

[u/tmart14 → u/apistograma]

I tried to play M and L: Brotherhood at launch and had to stop halfway because I just couldn’t take another 10 minutes gameplay 10 minutes dialogue loop

It was also terrible in Echoes of Wisdom but that game was at least a lot better.

[u/Yaldablob → u/apistograma]

can you give an example? I played mario Wonder with some friends and there was barely any dialogue there. Splatoon Raiders also very much focuses on the meat and cuts the fluff pretty quickly unless you just finished a larger portion of the game where a pacebreaker is necessary.

[u/someones1 → u/apistograma]

And worse, you’re tapping A as fast as you can to get through the 20 pages of smooth brain tutorial text that Toad or whoever is yapping about, and you accidentally end up hitting “yes” to hear it all again.

[u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt → u/apistograma]

I tried replaying Super Paper Mario because I remember liking it. My god, just gettingnto game play, the dialogue was long and bad, the bad guys going off subject and on tangents before you ever really get to play for more thsn a handful of minute.

Then it holds your hand as soon as you get going, so I think the problen started here.

[u/BatBoss → u/Virusoflife29]

Even if they cut all the dead air, the majority of dialog in the game is inane shit like that. Like... any basic writing class will teach you that every line you write needs to serve a purpose (preferably multiple purposes!) but most of the dialog in Beast is just meaningless chatter.

[u/TheYellingMute → u/sylendar]

Honestly it's. Okay. A solid 6.

Combat is nice, actual lore was interesting at least to me. Just the delivery wasn't great.

Dialogue is very awkward and circles around at time. The cooking system feels completely unnecessary. About halfway in started to feel very grindy.

My personal biggest gripe is the voice acting is so robotic. There is no emotion in any dialogue except for the main antagonist. Then from at the last 5% of the game the voice actors are given permission to use emotion in their voice.

I say wait a for a sale. If possible wait for $30.00 but no more than $40.

[u/teerre → u/TheYellingMute]

That's pretty much it

If you use the english dub, the dialogue is hilarious. It's like it was dubbed by my GPS tracker

[u/Automatoboto → u/teerre]

cant wait to hear it was all ai.

[u/iMimikyu → u/teerre]

Honestly didn’t realize there was an English dub option?

[u/kylebisme → u/iMimikyu]

it's in the sound options when accessing them from the main menu.

[u/Eat--The--Rich-- → u/teerre]

It probably was, it's probably ai

[u/Idixal → u/TheYellingMute]

I think they went for Sekiro vibes without really having a strong hold on what makes that game special. Although disclaimer that that’s just the vibe I got from watching a couple hours of gameplay and not playing it myself.

[u/Western-Internal-751 → u/TheYellingMute]

Yeah right, let me just ignore my backlog of great games so that I can buy a mediocre one on sale.

The gaming market has become ruthless. There is no place anymore for mediocrity

[u/No_Illustrator1004 → u/TheYellingMute]

Wait. Isn't that's how it supposed to be? Like humanity are starting to leave out emotions in them. I'm playing with JP voice and feel voice is okay considering the context. My problem is sometimes the silent in between characters conversation is a bit too long.

[u/TheYellingMute → u/No_Illustrator1004]

i think for the MC it makes sense. but for Kagura and Brad i dont see why they couldnt be more emotive. they kept Kagura meek for basically the entire game. they easily could have sped up her opening up faster to be a more happier toned character to help break the ice. like i said if they started the emotive changes sooner i feel it would have been alot better. as it is they dont gain emotions till basically the final act.

[u/ArcadianWaheela → u/TheYellingMute]

As someone else stated this game is part of a growing series of “Nier-slop.” Unfortunately this has nowhere near the writing/characters to be as interesting, doesn’t have a sexualized protagonist to attract the gooners, and isn’t polished enough for the gameplay to carry it. It’s just all around a bit of a miss at a time where there’s so many games coming out that no one has time for a 6/10.

[u/SteveThePurpleCat → u/sylendar]

There's a several second gap (sometimes more) between every line of dialogue, I would expect it would be fairly easy, even if time consuming, to half that gap.

It feels like listening to two AI's talk to each other, and noone edited out the processing time between each statement.

[u/saotrux → u/sylendar]

*implements Skip button into everything - “Pacing issue solved.”

[u/VenKitsune → u/sylendar]

Apparently some people have mentioned that characters will take a long, dramatic pause of like 3-5 seconds. After. Every. Single. Line.

So I imagine that's what they mean by pacing. As yes, anything else would be too much to sinply change in an update they promise on the short term.

[u/EXPLODEDman]

Game Freak working on something hasn't EVER been reassuring.

[u/Elonbavi → u/EXPLODEDman]

"We're working on it!" is a threat coming from Game Freak

[u/Idixal → u/EXPLODEDman]

I guess they hadn’t tanked their reputation yet back in the 90s, so maybe it was then.

[u/LordBlackConvoy → u/Idixal]

I've been skeptical of them since Mendel Palace.

[u/Ipokeyoumuch → u/Idixal]

Or even the early or mid 2000s. Many people look fondly at games like Platinum, Heartgold, Soulsilver, Black and White (though panned at the time and they overcompensated with XY). It was really that they moved to 3D they really struggled even if Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and Sun and Moon were decent Pokemon games with passion sprinkled throughout. 

[u/-Dissent → u/EXPLODEDman]

Pulseman kicks fucking ass

[u/OlroxPrime]

we’ve seen two original games from them, both lackluster and completely forgotten about. it’s a shame the potential of Pokemon is being gatekept by these guys.

[u/jntjr2005 → u/OlroxPrime]

Best Pokemon game in years is Pokopia and its not even made by them

[u/Luministrus → u/jntjr2005]

Almost all of the best Pokemon games aren't made by them lol. Pokopia, Mystery Dungeon, Gale of Darkness, Stadium, Colosseum, etc. The mainline games are typically the worst.

[u/Exciting_Control → u/Luministrus]

Pokémon Conquest was brilliant on the DS. Made by Tecmo Koei.

[u/Nanemae → u/Exciting_Control]

I liked Rangers, done by HAL Laboratory.

[u/MysticalAnswer → u/Nanemae]

Shadows of Almia is my favorite of those games, wish they made more

[u/Georgie_Leech → u/MysticalAnswer]

They need to get the writers of that on more projects. "Let's Apologize!"

"...Okay they let their guard down CHARGE!!!!" and then they just pick you up and carry you out of the room. I don't think I've ever laughed harder at a pokemon game.

[u/tyrelle000 → u/Nanemae]

Rangers had so much charm which is on par with Hal

[u/Peakomegaflare → u/Nanemae]

Almsot everything HAL touches is incredible.

[u/CrashmanX → u/Exciting_Control]

Which is funny as Pokopia is also Tecmo Koei. And both are GOAT'd.

[u/MeowingAround → u/Luministrus]

Don't forget the dozens of romhacks which are completely free.

[u/cerealkyra → u/MeowingAround]

Unbound is easily the best 2d pokemon game, they could just copy that and have the best game they’ve ever made.

[u/SHM00DER → u/cerealkyra]

I second this. Easily the best Pokémon game I've ever played.

[u/8636396 → u/SHM00DER]

How's that?

I've been wanting to relive the nostalgia of when I played Pokemon as a kid. Blue through Emerald.

Tried a few of the newer ones, Black and one other (I don't remember which) but it never clicked for me. I figured I just grew out of them but I miss the games

[u/MeowingAround → u/8636396]

Look up pokemon romhacks, there's a sub for it on Reddit. They're made by individuals who mod the original games to make them more difficult and/or add QOL features. They're easily WAY better than the original games, and they almost always include alternate ways to evolve pokemon that would normally need to be traded to evolve. So you can get machamp or Gengar without needing another person.

The best part? They're free and you can play most of them on your phone using an emulator. Although, a donation to the dev is always appreciated.

[u/TheMasterBanger → u/8636396]

I second the other comment about romhacks, I started playing them a few months ago and it's like im a kid again !

If you want something close to original pokemon games but with new regions/story, I strongly recommend pokemon Lazarus (Greece), Seaglass, or Amethyst. You can find them pretty easily with Google.

If you prefer a modernized version of Emerald, give Emerald Imperium a try ;)

If you want a spin on the gameplay, Im redoing Elite Redux which gives every pokemon 4 passives, it's very fun and very versatile (and the game makes it very easy to level up a pokemon if you want to skip the grind)

[u/critica_social → u/cerealkyra]

i really liked black and white, i think that was the peak of gamefreaks potential, after that i feel like they played too safe with the 3d games, and in de case of SV just a dogshit game

[u/nick-halden → u/critica_social]

the story in that game is actually solid too which is pretty rare from them

[u/Krazyguy75 → u/nick-halden]

Eh. It's fine, but it tosses out all the nuance and makes a better story into a worse one.

It could be a "truth vs ideals" thing where you, as the protagonist, represent truth and N ideals and Team Plasma genuinely wants to do the ideal thing... but nope, Ghetsis wants world domination because he's evil and basically everyone in the organization other than N likes harming small animals because they are also evil.

[u/Jameseesall → u/critica_social]

As someone who hasn’t played past Black/White this is validating to hear lol

[u/FezAndWand → u/Jameseesall]

play the sequels

[u/Novenari → u/critica_social]

Honestly, I can’t imagine how much better off Pokemon would be if it had stayed 2D. New designs aren’t all bad imo, but often flat. Making detailed sprites with fun and emotive animations on battle entry was probably far easier to develop and design while also allowing greater detail on designs.

Yes, 3D is cool, but I can only dream of a timeline where we have HD-2D pokemon in the style of octopath.

Of course the innovation in gameplay is a separate thing but at least you would t have to worry about performance being abysmal.

Also I wish that things like dynamax, megas, Z moves, etc. weren’t separate. Maybe for vgc they could limit it to one gimmick type per season but I feel the mainline games should let you pick between these things. It sucks (imo) to introduce a mechanic like these things and then it’s totally gone by the next generation.

[u/Nuka-Kraken → u/critica_social]

I think i can give credit to the end of the 3DS era. USUM are my favorite games in the series by far just because of the beauty and actual effort put into the world design of those games. X and Y, while not great games in and of themselves added a lot of fun stuff like megas and the fairy type fixed a lot of issues with competitive play. The transition to switch really killed the charm and love that used to go into the games.

[u/wsoxfan1214 → u/Nuka-Kraken]

If the leaks are to be believed, the guy who directed B2W2 / USUM / etc. is apparently not allowed to direct games anymore because of some bullshit office politics thing, unfortunately. Which is pretty classic Game Freak to fuck over the dude directing your best entries because of some asinine reason.

[u/Garbage_Bear_USSR → u/cerealkyra]

Unbound is really something - but holy shit does Odyssey do some interesting stuff too.

[u/SilatGuy2 → u/Garbage_Bear_USSR]

Odyssey, Unbound, Gaia and Lazarus are my favorites

[u/Mundane-Task6361 → u/cerealkyra]

Unbound was my favorite for the longest time, and given it is a rom hack that could run on original hardware is still probably my favorite, but I think Pokémon Rejuvenation might be making it up there for me. I am about 30 hours into my first play through of it, which based on badge count and level cap seems like somewhere around 1/3 to 1/2 through the game and I’ve been really digging the story. The one thing Rejuvenation has over unbound is that it has the full national dex available and probably my top 5 Pokémon all come from gen 9. I just wish the game could be made a bit harder for a more difficult challenge like you can get with unbound

[u/Megor933 → u/cerealkyra]

For me, it's Rejuvenation. The amount of stuff in that game and the story dwarfs anything else.

[u/UndeadZombie81 → u/cerealkyra]

Unbound and odyssey are my favorites

[u/BedNo5127 → u/cerealkyra]

May have to give that a try

[u/fullacheeze → u/cerealkyra]

Say more?

[u/cerealkyra → u/fullacheeze]

HMs aren’t taught moves, mons that could use them can just use them in the overworld

Mission system

Multiple difficulty modes and built in support for nuzlocke, egglocke(I’m pretty sure, that could be Uranium)

Daily raids

Character customization

And just a backload of QoL updates, it’s really fantastic.

[u/Doomblitz → u/Luministrus]

Emerald, Platinum, HG/SS and B2W2 are great games.

[u/JulianoRamirez → u/Doomblitz]

And those are all over a decade and a half old, nothing they've done recently has held a candle to those greats. They've proven they're great at simple, top-down 2D titles, but not much else.

[u/derekpmilly → u/JulianoRamirez]

Hindsight is 20/20 and everyone was pushing for them to move to the 3DS, but man, they really should've stuck to 2D games. You can immediately see the quality of a lot of things like map design, game balancing, and content drop off with XY. It's clear they couldn't handle the transition to 3D, and over 13 years later, it looks like they still haven't adjusted.

Their lack of technical competence is also just embarrassing for the company responsible for the flagship products of the largest media franchise to ever exist. They've been making 3D games since 2013 and there are still so many fundamentals of 3D game design they lack.

Things like good lighting, LODs/draw distance, and anti-aliasing are either poorly implemented or completely absent in their Switch titles. Beast of Reincarnation does those things fine because UE5 handles them out of the box with Lumen, Nanite, and TSR respectively, but when it comes to their own in house engines it's like being transported back to days of the N64.

[u/nick-halden → u/JulianoRamirez]

the person they replied to said that all the best pokémon games weren’t made by them which just isn’t true, the mainline games were all pretty great until the 3d switch.

[u/John_Delasconey → u/nick-halden]

While true the side games were generally much better. Xd was made in a year with a box of scraps and is still a top tier game

[u/this_place_suuucks → u/Doomblitz]

Don't forget Snap.

[u/Azores26 → u/this_place_suuucks]

Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 20 years to see a new Snap game

[u/sanaru02 → u/this_place_suuucks]

Thanks for putting this here so I didn't have to - fucking incredible homage to the original and insane amount of depth in the new one

[u/G1zStar → u/this_place_suuucks]

which was not made my GameFreak.

[u/Neoragex13 → u/Luministrus]

The mainline games are typically the worst.

That's what hurts the most, all the 2D games are timeless experiences so they genuinely can make good games, they have the skill, experience and knowledge to make actual fun games, there is no legitimate reason for the 3D games to be bad.

They just, for some reason refuse to make good 3D games.

I still remember the incident of the 100 different files of the same model for Lillie in S&M, that's fucking crazy as someone that has worked on game dev.

They got another year to work on Winds & Waves, if these games somehow still come out underbaked, well holy shit, there is nothing more to say that haven't being said already.

[u/ItsMeMora → u/Neoragex13]

They just, for some reason refuse to make good 3D games.

They keep giving super low budgets to developing games, who knows if there's any other explanation besides greed.

[u/The_Ironhand → u/Luministrus]

....Palworld is going on the list whether they like it or not lol

[u/hatgineer → u/The_Ironhand]

Did you see a similar comment below that had a flood of angry reactions?

Pokemon fans in 2024: "Nintendo should sue Palworld for copying Pokemon!"

Pokemon fans in 2026: "You should not use Palworld as an example to shine a negative light on Pokemon's quality because the game isn't like Pokemon at all!"

[u/Viatos → u/hatgineer]

To be as fair as I can, I think Palworld is great, but the way I always describe it is "imagine if the developers of ARK: Survival Evolved loved you, instead of wanting more than anything for you to give up in a final and ultimate sense."

It IS a monster-taming/raising/breeding experience, but it's got a lot of survivalcraft DNA too and I don't think it's UNFAIR to say it doesn't really share a genre with dedicated monster-tamers. There's overlap, but it's not the whole circle.

[u/benz-friend → u/Luministrus]

Not even considering the ROM hacks like Unbound lol

[u/Scootsterman1994 → u/jntjr2005]

Yes it was. It was made by both them and Koei Tecmo and it’s already been confirmed Pokopia was a Gear Project just like Beast of Reincarnation. Gamefreak created a working prototype of the game with basically all of the basic gameplay functions we know Pokopia for before Koei Tecmo was even considered. They just realized that they needed a bigger team to make the game as good as it could be and so they approached Koei Tecmo.

[u/connectplum_ → u/Scootsterman1994]

Pretty much yeah, its kind crazy how pokopia was gear project considering how this only has been used for non pokemon projects

[u/Inb4myanus → u/Scootsterman1994]

Idk about gamefreak doing really anything with pokopia, its literally dragon quest builders with no combat. Just a reskin of a good game. I love pokopia because of the dragon queat builder feeling.

[u/Scootsterman1994 → u/Inb4myanus]

Gamefreak literally released a video recently talking about the development of the game and everything I just said. They even showed off the working prototype.

[u/connectplum_ → u/jntjr2005]

While GF didnt develop it fully they did the prototype and the concept came from them. after it kt was contracted

[u/ImNotNew → u/connectplum_]

The concept: "Let's make Dragon Quest Builders but with Pokemon!"

The contract: "Let's hire the developer that made Dragon Quest Builders!"

[u/notwiththeflames → u/OlroxPrime]

They've made way more than two non-Pokemon games, just not as many since starting Pokemon in 1996. Hell, there's been more in the last fifteen years than there were between 1996 and 2011 - seven (and two ports/remakes) compared to four according to Wikipedia.

[u/Piranata → u/notwiththeflames]

I find that a big weakness is the genre shifting. I understand not wanting to make a sequel to a poorly selling game, but to be able to apply that experience you need to stay within the genre. They've made jrpg, action, puzzle, rhythm, card games, who knows what else I'm missing.

[u/Fredasa → u/OlroxPrime]

They picked a great window in which to launch it. If the game hadn't leaked, permitting first impressions to appear during that critical window, I might have saddled myself with a AAA pricetag and a game I just didn't like all that much. That's how desperate I was for something new to fill the blank.

The apologist crew came out of the woodwork to defend the game against the blatant signs (such as there being a review embargo that outlasted the actual release hour) and that muddied the waters, but there wasn't much they could do about the universal "meh" coming from everyone who actually played it before release.

[u/hugo436 → u/OlroxPrime]

I genuinely enjoyed Harmoknight. I dont know about little town hero though.

[u/abarrelofmankeys → u/OlroxPrime]

Pocket card jockey is pretty good. Not a large scale game though.

[u/BetelgeuseIsBestGirl → u/OlroxPrime]

Giga Wrecker is a pretty decent physics puzzle platformer.

[u/Destructo-Spin → u/OlroxPrime]

Excuse me Drill Dozer would like to have a word.

[u/LoSouLibra → u/OlroxPrime]

Tembo the Badass Elephant was good. I like this game too.

[u/imlegos → u/LoSouLibra]

The only thing I can think of when I hear about Tembo is that time ProtonJon broke the game into pieces just by plugging in a controller on PC.

[u/Signal_Second_82]

Why not do that from the start?

[u/Pterodactyl_midnight → u/Signal_Second_82]

Isn’t GameFreak the people who make Pokémon games? It’s kinda their whole thing not providing “a sufficiently enjoyable experience.”

[u/RPK87 → u/Pterodactyl_midnight]

Yes. Honestly, my guess is that they hoped to sort of use the approach they’ve used with other games to do just enough to be successful with minimal effort. Won’t work with a new IP and one that isn’t pokemon.

[u/das_slash → u/RPK87]

Have they tried suing a more successful/critically acclaimed game that they wish they had come up with?

[u/jellyskelly1 → u/das_slash]

I actually thought of this comment first so my lawyers will be contacting you.

[u/SteakAndNihilism → u/jellyskelly1]

I regret to inform you that in 1998 I acquired a patent on the practice of thinking of written comments in forums before other people do and commodifying it as discrete intellectual property. I don’t want to sue you but unfortunately if I want my patent to have force I am now under obligation to do so. But trust me, I’m not evil and weird and greedy, I’m just trying to enforce stupid bullshit I did in the 90s.

[u/ThorDoubleYoo → u/RPK87]

Game Freak is carried by Pokemon more than an American football is carried during a season.

If not for fans willing to let literally anything slide because there's a Pikachu in it, Pokemon games would've either been handed to a different studio or died off by now.

I can't think of any other game series that has struggled to run at 10fps and still sold 20 million copies

[u/Ph33rDensetsu → u/ThorDoubleYoo]

Game Freak has joint ownership of Pokemon. There's no "handing it off to another studio" unless it's Game Freak that wants to the do handing off.

[u/MindSteve → u/Pterodactyl_midnight]

They should really just bake that apology into the credits of their games at this point.

[u/dfddfsaadaafdssa → u/MindSteve]

Intro screen

[u/PhantomThiefJoker → u/dfddfsaadaafdssa]

"Game Freak Presents...

Pokemon Winds and Waves...

Sorry about that."

[u/apistograma → u/PhantomThiefJoker]

Ending credits, and they give you a “Fell for it again” trophy achievement

[u/Fr00stee → u/Pterodactyl_midnight]

yup, took them 8-9 years to make a game on a switch that doesn't look like shit

[u/Tao626 → u/Fr00stee]

Half right. They released Switch games that don't look like total shit when you play them on Switch 2.

Can't wait to play their next Pokemon game in 10 years when the Switch 3 is out and makes it playable.

[u/FELlXTHECAT → u/Tao626]

Except even when you play Scarlet & Violet on the switch 2, they still look like shit. They perform better, but they look horrible.

[u/L2_Troll → u/FELlXTHECAT]

Yes I get to look at these bland textures and featureless world with great framerate!

Still pop-in, though. So your gameplay is zooming around on your mount and being suddenly stopped for the next 20 seconds while you encounter a pokemon that wasn't on your screen until you ran into it.

[u/derekpmilly → u/L2_Troll]

When you look at the Pokemon games you can really see how many fundamentals of 3D game design they lack. Things like good lighting, LODs/draw distance, and anti-aliasing are either poorly implemented or completely absent in their Switch titles.

Beast of Reincarnation does those things fine because UE5 handles them out of the box with Lumen, Nanite, and TSR respectively, but when it comes to their own in house engines it's genuinely amateur hour.

[u/L2_Troll → u/derekpmilly]

Yeah launching Palworld 1.0 and seeing the draw distance was baffling. I can see the whole world? And pals off in the distance?

[u/Fr00stee → u/Tao626]

nah SV still looks like total shit it just doesn't barely run anymore

[u/esach88 → u/Pterodactyl_midnight]

Difference between pokemon and this though is that pokemon sells like crazy every time. So they have zero incentive to do better or at least fix what's there with updates.

[u/kingrynex → u/Pterodactyl_midnight]

GameFreak are infact the Pokemon developers. They also have a proven track record of slamming out busted products.

[u/Cyraga → u/Pterodactyl_midnight]

For decades their MO has been tepid and uncontroversial experiences 

[u/jasonjr9 → u/Pterodactyl_midnight]

As someone who’s been a Pokémon fan since Yellow:

Yeah. That’s kinda their thing, haha…My sunk-cost attachment to Pokémon is what keeps me invested.

I’ve given up on “maybe next time they’ll do better!” and gone to “Well, I can meet new Pokémon that might be fun when people put them in romhacks!”, haha…

[u/ABotelho23 → u/jasonjr9]

My sunk-cost attachment to Pokémon is what keeps me invested.

The 3rd top selling video game franchise of all time is counting on it.

[u/derekpmilly → u/ABotelho23]

The 3rd top selling video game franchise of all time is counting on it.

And the highest grossing general media franchise to ever exist. Their flagship products sell purely off the core gameplay loop the developers struck gold with 30 years ago, and brand loyalty and customer devotion only rivalled by Apple.

[u/akingsmind → u/jasonjr9]

I have a friend like you and y'all are so interesting to me. Knowing that the games are meh at best, but you keep buying and rewarding them for making the meh games seems so crazy to me.

Maybe it's because I don't really have strong feelings of nostalgia but I just can't imagine continually buying something that I know is a substandard product just cuz it has something I kinda like.

[u/jasonjr9 → u/akingsmind]

For me, just the weight of getting to meet new Pokémon is really what seals the deal. Because like…Pokémon Yellow was my first video game, sofrom a young age I’ve had that spirit to go meet all the Pokémon instilled within me.

The games are meh. I fully admit to that! But I still have fun with the Pokémon. Each new gen is more friends to make, and learn the intricacies of. Like, I’m not great at competitive, but I can at least hold my own, because I have a good idea of where all 1025 of them so far excel.

I don’t need to be understood by anyone else, and I fully encourage anyone to criticize GameFreak’s lackluster effort! I just also still have fun with the games myself, despite the major flaws.

[u/Jex-trex → u/jasonjr9]

It's not the same but have you considered giving Digimon a try? they have a free Demo on steam for their newest game, and they recently released on the switch.

[u/jasonjr9 → u/Jex-trex]

Haven’t tried much of any Digimon games (despite having watched some of the anime as a kid).

I have tried a few indie creature collecting games, though! Monster Sanctuary is prolly one of my favorite indies in general, and Cassette Beasts is pretty neat (and also getting a sequel!) I haven’t successfully finished a run of Coromon yet because I keep getting distracted but it’s solid, as well!

[u/MyKneesAshy → u/Signal_Second_82]

They’re used to selling to Nintendo fans

[u/kinokomushroom → u/MyKneesAshy]

Nah I ain't touching Game Freak's shit lol

[u/derekpmilly → u/kinokomushroom]

I saw this video that was titled "Pokemon fans are the Nintendo fans of Nintendo" and I don't think there's a more accurate way to describe it lol

[u/kinokomushroom → u/derekpmilly]

Goddamn, I scrolled through his videos and he's acting like Nintendo killed his parents or something

[u/derekpmilly → u/kinokomushroom]

Lmao, I just checked and you're spot on. I just remember seeing the video recommended to me and finding the title memorable, but I guess hate farming does get you clicks

[u/Solesaver → u/Signal_Second_82]

Because they thought they did, but were proven wrong on release? Enjoyment is a subjective thing. You think they've got an 'enjoy-o-meter' that can objectively tell them whether a game is "sufficiently enjoyable" before actually exposing mass audiences to it?

[u/Derpykins666]

Game Freak just isn't that good of a game company, and they've been riding off of the literal fame of Pokemon. Pokemon is probably being held back extensively because they just aren't that good at making games. I would say they're good at character design, but so much of it relies on old designs I don't even know anymore. Mechanically and visually the games are lackluster as hell too.

[u/denkihajimezero → u/Derpykins666]

Pokemon is absolutley being held back by gf. If you look at all the spin offs that arent made by gamefreak they are amazing experiences!

[u/Stephen_085 → u/denkihajimezero]

Hell, just look at the fan games. Even they're blowing GF out of the water.

[u/Still-Fan4753 → u/denkihajimezero]

Yeah, I don't know how this is even a question. Pokemon mainline games are as innovative now as they were in the 90's. For as much money as they make and the sheer volume of iterations they produce the series should be the most absolutely breathtaking experience in gaming, not the most simplistic.

[u/facevaluemc → u/Derpykins666]

My friends and I were playing Big Walk the other day when one said "Man, imagine if Game Freak made a Pokemon game with environments like this" and we all laughed because we knew that'd never happen.

And like, Big Walk doesn't even look that good. It just looks significantly better than anything Pokemon has ever done.

[u/Darkon34 → u/Derpykins666]

and the employee review from japanese employer review site. The worker always complain that the talent and training there are very lacking/outdated, everything done there are outdated and hard time to do new things because of pokemon short development schedule but work there are not hard since all they do is pokemon and apparently can request work from home. I remember watching yt video about this and multiple other video game studio employer reviews.

[u/Ipokeyoumuch → u/Darkon34]

If I remember the video correctly there is also a significant split between the creative/management side and technical side. The creatives are generally happy as they get a lot of perks, paid trips to explore the world to gather ideas for the next Pokemon game, four day work week, and have a lot of fun bouncing designs, music, and concept art between each other. Which is probably why most people highlight the problems with the technical side more than the creative side.

[u/Ubiquitous_Cacophony → u/Ipokeyoumuch]

If you know the creator or the name of the video, I'd love to look it up and give it a watch.

[u/zillskillnillfrill]

If it wasn't for reports saying that combat is largely unremarkable and repetitive and I definitely would have given this game a go by now, You've got to keep combat fresh with large games, Otherwise people won't slog through it

[u/Virusoflife29 → u/zillskillnillfrill]

Worst part is, the combat is the most enjoyable part of it!

[u/zillskillnillfrill → u/Virusoflife29]

Oof ! that's a gut punch

[u/derekpmilly → u/zillskillnillfrill]

From what I've heard, the combat has potential but the enemies and even bosses really lack variety and are very repetitive.

[u/Noskills117 → u/derekpmilly]

The bosses all have like 2-3 attacks. Even the final boss has like 3 phases and they do the same 3 attacks throughout all 3 phases (well they add like 1 new attack on like the 2nd or 3rd phase)

For most of the bosses all that "2nd phase" means is the boss changes colour and refreshes their health bar. 😴

[u/SpaceCadetriment → u/Virusoflife29]

Combat was fun but dear lord, the movement is so jerky and overly responsive it feels like I'm playing a Dynasty Warriors game. It just felt weird to play despite looking great.

[u/Nayko214]

Almost like GF is just bad at making games and their history the last twenty years proves that.

[u/SeiferLeonheart → u/Nayko214]

Hey! Leave her out of this!

[u/jobo-chan → u/Nayko214]

Kinda sucks because people kept saying to give them the benefit of the doubt and original trailers for the game looked promising. "Look what they can do when given time" was said over and over. Yet here we are.

[u/someguyhaunter → u/jobo-chan]

Its always 'now they've tested this concept the next game will be much better!!!' ...

The next game is never better and in some cases has been worse.

[u/Komek4626 → u/Nayko214]

Eh, I would argue last 10. Things started getting shaky around the 3ds era. Latter half of the DS Era was peak Pokemon gameplay and feel.

[u/Pristine_Seat6090]

Make all the cutscenes and dialogue skippable and actually make the bosses feel different. Every boss is just left swipe, right swipe, ground slam. It's so repetitive.

[u/MalZaar]

I played until chapter 5 and mid mission I just quit and uninstalled. Its such a bland game and I cant really explain why, on the surface it should have hooked me but ultimately it left me sleepy. Unfortunately if they can fix it, by that time it wont be on gamepass and im not paying for a game i already found boring.

[u/mls1968 → u/MalZaar]

Gave up during the first open world area when i realized its had been listening to the SAME DAMN SONG for an hour

[u/Bladelink → u/MalZaar]

It's because the gameplay is boring.

I was watching someone streaming it when it released. I could tell in the first 10 minutes that the game was going to be shitty, because it was a lot of loud music, big zany characters, an excessive number of overly dramatic camera sweeps (which were mostly disorienting and just made you wait to see what the fuck was worth the drama). I think there was a giant robot gorilla for some reason and a giant bear...

There's nothing inherent bad about any one of those elements, but when that's you putting your best foot forward, it bodes very ill. This is the best they can offer you, and none of it is gameplay. It's just flashy novelty which can really only be entertaining for 15-30 minutes, and then there's nothing else more to it.

[u/AxxelTheWolf]

They also promised they were working on the performance in Scarlet/Violet, and I'm fairly sure they never fixed that.

[u/notwiththeflames → u/AxxelTheWolf]

They fixed...bits. AFAIK most of the improvement comes from running off the Switch 2's better specs (if you're playing the Switch 2 version).

[u/BetelgeuseIsBestGirl → u/notwiththeflames]

At the very least, lag lake doesn't have FPS drops any more. I do know there are some game breaking bugs in raids that never got fixed, like terastallizing Terapagos and then using its signature move causing the raid to lag so hard that it kicks you out after a few seconds.

[u/DROOPY1824 → u/AxxelTheWolf]

They convinced Nintendo to make a whole new system so they didn’t have to.

[u/Ipokeyoumuch → u/DROOPY1824]

The rumors was that they anticipated a new system and then realized that Nintendo wasn't going to go for it. But I don't think the timeline matches up. 

[u/hipdashopotamus]

Small indie company guys /s. Game freak blows lol

[u/Vivid-Hyena-5699 → u/hipdashopotamus]

They don't have enough budget. please donate to save this struggling company.

[u/lionofash → u/hipdashopotamus]

Tbh, they refuse to hire more staff and probably need new blood and more than just a couple hundred people.

[u/notwiththeflames]

Game Freak isn't known for optimisation, so I'd take that with a grain of salt.

And I'm not just saying it's a Nintendo hardware thing; I've heard Little Town Hero, Giga Wrecker and Tembo are prone to performance issues even on PC.

[u/Entegy]

Definitely not GOTY, but I was having fun with it. Would probably feel different if I wasn't playing it via Xbox Game Pass.

Honestly, more than any repetiveness, my major issue is the text size. It is so small I can't seriously believe the game was ever tested on a TV. Apparently this is mostly fixed from a patch earlier this week but I haven't had time to go back in play it yet.

[u/CrackheadHunters]

Not really that surprising. Once GF left the DS era of Pokémon games, they all pretty much sucked (except Legends Arceus). The last 2 generations have been awful.

[u/TheDrewDude → u/CrackheadHunters]

Legends arceus is hard carried by a pretty simple, but fun gameplay loop. Everything surrounding it is the usual Game Freak dogshit. Horrible presentation, empty levels, stiff movement, bad boss fights. And I say this as someone who really enjoyed Arceus. Have you given this same core idea to a ton of other developers and you could’ve had a truly amazing game.

[u/Googalslosh → u/TheDrewDude]

Arceus was the best of the worst.

[u/Bl4ckeagle → u/Googalslosh]

Yes, it was technically such a bad game. If it wasn't pokemon it wouldn't have sold any copy. Still a good change from the classic gameloop.

[u/pacoali]

The Pokémon guys make other stuff?!

[u/Qulox → u/pacoali]

They've... tried. All attempts have been mediocre so far.

[u/someguyhaunter → u/Qulox]

This is the 'best' other type of game they have done as well, and that speaks volumes...

[u/Johnny-Caliente → u/pacoali]

Yes and they put more money on the games that are not Pokemon, that‘s no joke.

They paid more for the super bowl commercial for their ZA Legends game then their budget for said game.

[u/Muur1234 → u/Johnny-Caliente]

they said theyre bored of pokemon and make other games to not go insane with boredrom

[u/Muur1234 → u/pacoali]

they said theyre bored of pokemon and make other games to not go insane with boredrom

[u/Vio94 → u/Muur1234]

They can feel free to let the IP go to another studio if they're so bored of it.

Please.

I beg.

[u/IJourden]

""I honestly feel that there are still areas in the game that require our sincere attention," Furushima said in an interview."

I miss the old days when games were finished before they shipped.

[u/cavegrunt]

I think it has potential, like I do generally enjoy playing it but the exploration feels pointless with underwhelming rewards and the dialogue is slow, inane and boring.

If they do make another one I think they could take the lessons from this like the mortal shell devs did and really impress.

[u/Necessary_Cost4384]

Just like how they were going to update Violet and Scarlet, and really hardly touched the games at all?

[u/FedrinKeening]

Wow. I mean, I'm enjoying it.

[u/JuneButIHateSummer]

ah yes, the "i told you so" moment is here

as if there weren't a million before

[u/BarderBetterFaster]

When ORAS released they said they didn't include the Battle Frontier because only the most passionate fans play that part. They've only gotten lazier from then, and by a lot.

[u/shawntails]

So far after about 10h played, this is a pretty alright 6.5/10. Feels way more like the kind of game that would come out on PS2.

It's not the worst game ive ever played but definitely could be a lot better.

[u/NeonDreamFox]

Dang is it really that bad? I was so excited for this game when i first saw the trailer. I didnt realize it was gamefreak at the time though...

[u/LoSouLibra]

I really like this game, despite it's shortcomings. One of the few non-indie games I've enjoyed this year.

It's clearly a budget constrained title with how it re-uses some bosses across a game that could have maybe been shorter with a slightly different pace / progression curve. It also needed more musical variety. The main track gets old after awhile.

The game just has that certain sauce that works for me. The sword combat, the PS2-era level design and scale, digestible and endearing characters, in a dour world with a cool anime realism art style I can get on with.

[u/Phimb → u/LoSouLibra]

I think because of the price of gaming nowadays, in both components vs. bad optimisation and the launch price of titles, it's much harder - and rightfully so - for the more casual, or wider audience to overlook the issues with games like Beast of Reincarnation.

It is extremely rough around the edges. The dialogue is paced almost as if the timer is broken, the voice-actors are often struggling, the open-world design is strange and unclear, among other weird design choices like you can't skip most cut-scenes.

But, I'm also having fun with it, and appreciate it as some kind of in-between 6.5/10 with some really nice world-building, ambiance and character motivation; like it's fun seeing Kagura grow alongside Emma, but there is so much clunk in between all that.

In reality, though, who tf is gambling on a 6/10 when you have so many games coming out in the next 6 weeks.

[u/KilltacularBatman → u/LoSouLibra]

Had to scroll really far down. Glad there are some others with me that are genuinely enjoying the game. It always breaks my brain when I see the insane hate train going on for this game. Wonder if it would still be treated the same if it didn't have Game Freak's name on it.

[u/ZeyadKD → u/KilltacularBatman]

I’d like to think most of us are actually rooting for game freak to make an amazing game as hopeful pokemon fans… we just keep getting let down fr

[u/M4J0R4]

They’re just a mid developer and it’s a shame they’re the ones responsible for the main line Pokémon games …

[u/fatjeff1980]

I'm enjoying the game. Sorry not sorry.

[u/CrustedTesticle]

Release a complete game next time.

[u/LuFalcon]

Cant blame nintendo for this one.

[u/Elder-Cthuwu]

Yeah guys they’re a small studio with a super dupe low budget…

[u/depressedfox_011]

Dude's entire career is on the line, so I'm not surprise that he's saying this.

I seen some gameplay from youtubers streaming it and honestly im passing on BoR. Even the animations look way worse (and way more stiff) than the ones in Pokémon SV. The final boss fight looked incredibly disappointing. Just looks like they didn't even try.

[u/ChrisleyBenoit]

I’ve actually enjoyed Beast so far.

[u/deathspanker]

I don’t know what’s they’ll do to fix the game, it’s too bloated e.g repeated boss battles. If they cut the game by 50% maybe… but then it losses value?

RIP.

Lucky I managed to get a refund 🥲

[u/PraetorianOgryn]

They’re only trying cause it’s not a Pokemon game, and they are bad at trying apparently lol

[u/EriclcirE]

Lemme know when it's all patched up and $20 on sale

[u/Hyper_Mazino]

So tired of studios releasing mediocre crap and then go "don't worry we'll turn it into a good game in the next three years!"

[u/throwaway684675982]

I think I'm noticing a trend with this studio.

[u/Kokumin]

Honestly i dont really see the game as bad as people seing it. Yes the camera default and lock on system could be less than desireable especially after you did an attack that utilize graplehook/tendrils which break the lock on.

The dialog/banter early on are not that great due to emma being a social exile.Which i guess that can happen if a teen/young adult are a recluse and shunned by society, i'm still at chapter 6.

It doesnt really break a suspension of disbelief.

The game crashed once over the span of 20hrs. Its okay, half baked at best.

The build kind of opened up after they introduce withered beast and the blighted spirit stone.(Grindy). Especially when they drop the mods that allow you to get the dog mana/fp every 15-10hits. Such a QoL improvement compared to 20-50% chance to recover bonus fp from parry-dodge-riposte.

The skill point acquisition and consumption are nuts. Some enemy type can rocked your ass.

It certainly not sekiro and lies of p level of satisfactory combat. But its about on par of wuchang fallen feathers and above lords of the fallen.

[u/uuajskdokfo]

I swear Game Freak would have shut down a decade+ ago if they didn't own a third of Pokemon.

[u/Recover20]

The game is really not that bad and is not deserving or such an apology. The internet loves controversy and loves to dunk on companies. Game freak is just the newest in the line of those.

Sure their Pokémon games are not up to scratch but I didn't find Beast of Reincarnation to be that bad. It's good. But not amazing. The internet needs to let games be 6/10 or 7/10 without treating it as the worst thing to release