Is 2026 the year of the videogame sidekick? Grace had Leon to bail her out in Resident Evil Requiem, Hugh had Diana to hack kill-bots for him in Pragmata, and now swordmaster Emma has very good boy Koo to bring a bit of magical aid to her crossbow and blade in Beast of Reincarnation. At a recent BiliBili Game First Look event in Shanghai, I got to go hands-on with the first two hours of the stunning post-apocalyptic action-RPG from Game Freak, the development team best known for being at the helm of the Pokémon series for the past three decades. I’m happy to report that based on the opening chapter of Beast of Reincarnation’s story, Game Freak seems to have successfully switched from catching ‘em all to violently dispatching ‘em all in this gripping new adventure that follows a deadly dynamic duo.

Beast of Reincarnation hooked me from minute one. Its story opens smack bang in the middle of a warzone, and wastes little time in introducing the core combat concepts. Faced with hordes of blighted beasts that are the result of fauna fusing with flora – imagine Pokémon’s Bulbasaur in his absolute angriest evolution – Emma can pull off fast sword-slashing combo attacks, as well as parries to open up her gnarly enemies to satisfyingly grisly finishing moves. Additionally, Emma’s opening loadout comes with a crossbow strapped to her wrist, allowing her to take out flying foes at range with rapid-fire bursts that feel supremely responsive.

So far, so fairly standard. However, it’s the inclusion of Emma’s loyal dog companion Koo that adds a satisfyingly tactical twist to Beast of Reincarnation’s predominately blade-based melee system. Koo will automatically attack the enemies in Emma’s vicinity with a range of bites and tailwhips, but with a tap of a button the battlefield is briefly suspended in super slow-motion, allowing you to choose from up to six different special abilities at Koo’s disposal in order to gain the upper hand against the enemy hordes. I spent much of my hands-on with Beast of Reincarnation blasting enemies with fireballs from my furry little friend, but I was also able to draw roots up out of the ground to shatter the shields of more heavily armed opponents, and even tangle around the ankles of some of the bigger beasts I faced, binding them to the spot and allowing me to sneak in a few sword strikes with Emma’s katana while the monster struggled to be free.

What’s neat is how Emma’s and Koo’s unique abilities are strengthened by the special bond they share. Each of Koo’s attacks requires a specific number of fluorescence points to pull-off – effectively like using Mana or Magic Points in a JRPG – and the only way you can earn those points is by nailing parries with Emma’s sword. Thus parrying attacks is paramount, but thankfully the timing window for parries feels quite generous, so don’t feel like you’ll need to be a hard-tuned action-RPG aficionado to be able to pull off Emma’s throat-cutting counters. (And to be clear, Beast of Reincarnation’s difficulty can be dropped down – or ratcheted up – at any moment via the pause menu.)

Parrying attacks is paramount, but thankfully the timing window for parries feels quite generous.“

Equally, Koo’s attacks give Emma some welcome buffs in return. For example, whenever Koo blasts his fireball attack at an enemy, every hit that lands successfully will recover a small percentage of her total HP. If you manage to nail the onscreen quicktime events that trigger as each of Koo’s attacks are deployed, that will replenish an even more substantial chunk of Emma’s health bar. This was admittedly fairly easy to do during this opening stretch of the game, but I was told that the quicktime events will become more elaborate as Koo’s attacks grow more powerful.

Everything’s Going to be Vine

Once I’d battled through the action-packed but ultimately linear opening stretch, Emma and Koo were unleashed into Beast of Reincarnation’s post-apocalyptic slice of Japan. To be clear, there isn’t an open world to explore here, however Beast of Reincarnation’s story is set across multiple quarantine zones, each a sprawling sandbox packed with secrets to find, a variety of enemies to encounter both monstrous and mechanical, and a single major boss beast to track down and eliminate. Given that my time with the story was short I decided to focus on completing the main objectives, but I certainly felt the pull to explore the ruins of the Ogouchi Buffer Zone’s landscape, with the numerous collapsed structures and rusted-out mechs that littered the horizon just begging to be more closely examined.

Actually maneuvering your way around the wilds of Beast of Reincarnation is a consistent blast. In what might be the best use of a videogame heroine’s hairdo since Bayonetta’s magical mane was first let loose from her ponytail, Emma can use her hair in a number of interesting ways to find new paths through her surroundings. Her fabulous follicles bind together to form solid vines that can whip her to distant ledges like a grappling hook, but they can also form temporary stilts beneath her feet whenever you hold down the jump button, giving her a boost up to out of reach places like a pair of Hair Jordans.

However, my favourite use of Emma’s tricked-out tresses is her ability to form log-like platforms in front of her by holding down the right trigger. Not only is this useful for creating bridges across gaps in the terrain, but I found it to be a great way to get the jump on groups of enemies I spotted wandering the world. By scrambling up to a vantage point and beaming out a bridge in the air over their heads, I was able to drop down for satisfying stealth attacks and tear robot sentries to shards of scrap before they’d even noticed I was there.

Meanwhile, Koo isn't just a battleready buddy, he’s equally as useful outside of combat. Not only does he alert Emma to any enemies nearby, but he also sniffs out item crates that contain everything from crafting ingredients to armour sets and weapons. Oftentimes it’s not enough just to locate these treasure chests, though, since many of the ones I found remained trapped behind shuttered doors or required me to solve combination locks in order to open them, suggesting the need for some environmental puzzle-solving that I didn’t have time to slow down for during my hands-on.

In hindsight, I probably should have made the time to properly scavenge for those optional goodies, because I went into Beast of Reincarnation’s first boss fight a little underlevelled and got absolutely trounced by an enormous mutant stag. This was the first of the Nushi, the corrupted mega beasts that are unique to each of zone of the map, and I initially struggled to parry the powerful swiping attacks of its antlers and the deadly spikes it shot from afar, leading me to swift deaths in my first couple of attempts.

Thankfully, on my third try I located a campfire overlooking the monster’s lakeside lair complete with a strongbox containing chainmail armour to boost my defense, and I was finally able to lock-in and defeat the deadly deer with a combination of counters, Koo’s support abilities, and some well-placed shots from the longrange bow I’d swiped from a dying robot earlier. It felt truly triumphant to topple this rampaging Rudolph, but my celebrations were sadly short-lived. Though the battle was won, the war wasn’t over, and the wounded monster retreated to its lair likely to be encountered again later in the story.

Beast of Reincarnation may feature flashy combat and enjoyable exploration, but there’s clearly quite a lot more going on beneath the surface.“

Beast of Reincarnation may feature flashy combat and enjoyable exploration, but there’s clearly quite a lot more going on beneath the surface – and I don’t just mean deep within one of the numerous underground bunkers I was able to rummage around in during my hands-on. At a number of times my mission objectives would lead me back to Emma and Koo’s mobile base of operations, which was kind of like Death Stranding 2’s DHV Magellan only with fewer A-list actresses posing for photos. It’s here that you can hose the blood off Koo’s fur and arrange your loadout for your next objective, but at least during the story’s opening hours, it’s also where some playable flashbacks are triggered in order to flesh out the backstory behind how Beast of Reincarnation’s post-apocalyptic world came to be.

I’m hesitant to reveal too much about these sections for fear of story spoilers, but I will say that I enjoyed discovering the dramatic circumstances in which Emma and Koo first met and formed their unbreakable bond. Additionally, being without Koo for much of these story stretches forced me to really get to grips with the basics of Beast of Reincarnation’s swordplay, since I wasn’t always able to lean on my magical man’s best friend to bail me out during a battle.

We don’t have to wait long to find out if the thrills of Beast of Reincarnation’s companion-based combat, terrific traversal mechanics and imposing boss fights will go the distance, since Game Freak’s action-RPG is set to arrive on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on August 4. There’s still a lot to dig into here, from its skill trees to crafting and cooking systems, but based on its opening hours I can say that Beast of Reincarnation has already got its claws into me. And before you ask, yes, you can absolutely pat the dog.

Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN's Sydney office. He travelled to the BiliBili Game First Look event as a guest of the organisers.