Beast of Reincarnation's director Kota Furushima has said that Game Freak didn't have a certain art style in mind when creating the game. The team took on a new challenge with the game's photo realistic look, and are aware that it doesn't look like a typical Game Freak game.
In an interview with DenFamiNicoGamer that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Furushima outlines why he chose a more realistic style compared to the company's previous cartoony aesthetic. "I think the biggest thing for us is that it's a new challenge for Game Freak," he says. "When you first look at the visuals, I think it's the sort of game where it's difficult to tell the country it's made in. So I think a major point was that it's 'made by Game Freak.'"
Aside from the Pokémon franchise, which the company is most famous for, Game Freak has worked on a number of games with a simpler, more colorful look, such as Drill Dozer, Tembo the Badass Elephant, and Little Town Hero. Furushima knows that Beast of Reincarnation has a very different art style to any of the games in the studio's library, but decided that the game's core concepts linked it more strongly to Game Freak than a childlike look would.
"The first thing I thought was 'this doesn't really fit our vibe does it?'", he chuckles. "'This isn't a photorealistic graphics kind of studio.' That being said, we're not particular about specific styles. In terms of the concept, I think the major themes are not dissimilar to what Game Freak has worked on before.
"When I was building the prototype I began to realize that photorealism would be the best fit for what I'm trying to express here," he says.
Pokemon dev Game Freak says its history informed Beast of Reincarnation's feeling of "becoming partners through gameplay" despite looking totally different
