Game Freak has released a new patch for Beast of Reincarnation that addresses some of the game's main issues; however, the removal of some friction has left the community not entirely happy.
Beast of Reincarnation, released earlier this month, marked Pokemon developer Game Freak's first original console game since 2019 and marked a departure for the developer, as it went from its typical cartoony style to a realism-inspired aesthetic. The action RPG got fairly mixed reviews, with the GamesRadar+ Beast of Reincarnation review awarding it four and a half stars out of five, while other reviews were as low as two stars out of five.
Player opinions are almost as mixed, with Metacritic user reviews at 6.1, while its Steam store page holds a Mixed rating, with 63% of reviews positive.
This led to game director Kota Furushima apologizing that things didn't quite hit fan expectations, and now Game Freak has since patched the game to address some of the negative feedback, with Beast of Reincarnation patch v1.0.9 arriving today. This update adds some highly-requested features like Ultrawide support, more options for frame generation, the ability to sell charms and skippable cutscenes.
And while selling charms has been universally praised, some of the gameplay and balance tweaks haven't been as well received. One user on Reddit says, "I wish you could just pick what changes you wanted. I want to sell charms, but I don't want the 500 other things that are basically just 'made the game easier because people whined.'" While a response is confused why acid puddles are removed, and a particular boss fight is now able to be skipped.
Patches that make things easier have been pretty frequent in recent years, with titles like Elden Ring, Hollow Knight Silksong, and Crimson Desert all getting updates that made some of their toughest elements a bit less challenging. And while it does give some bragging rights for beating it pre-patch, it opens up a wider discussion about difficulty in games and removes agency from those who want to take on the harder challenge.
