Beast of Reincarnation Pushes Back on Soulslike Comparisons with Difficulty Options and a Clear Accessibility Goal
When Game Freak gave gamers a first proper look at its new franchise Beast of Reincarnation during the recent Xbox Developer Direct Show 2026, the initial read across social feeds was predictable: the atmosphere, the combat framing, and the overall pacing instantly triggered Soulslike comparisons. That label is sticky in 2026, because action RPGs that lean into deliberate timing often get pushed into that bucket on sight. However, Kota Furushima is now drawing a clear line in the sand, and the core message is simple: Beast of Reincarnation is being designed to be finishable and enjoyable even for players who are not action game specialists.
In an interview with Famitsu, Furushima says the team’s intent is to make the experience approachable, including the ability to choose difficulty levels, with an explicit recommendation that unsure players should lower the difficulty. That philosophy matters because it challenges a core identity trait of many Soulslike titles, where the difficulty ceiling and fixed friction are part of the genre contract. Game Freak is essentially taking a different product positioning route: keep the satisfaction of action combat and experimentation, but avoid building a game that demands the player bash their head against the same wall for dozens or even hundreds of attempts.
Furushima does not pretend the game will be effortless. He acknowledges there will be moments where players get defeated and need to iterate, which is still a healthy loop for an action RPG. The differentiation is the expected time to competency and the intended volume of retries. The loop is framed as trial and error through choices rather than endurance through repetition, with players encouraged to adjust their fighting style, rethink their approach, and reconfigure skill usage rather than simply perfecting a single boss pattern through sheer repetition.
That flexibility is backed by the game’s build system. Furushima confirms the protagonists, Emma the Sealer and Koo, each have 3 skill trees. The intent is to create multiple viable playstyles, not one correct path. In practical terms, Game Freak is signaling that combat is not locked to close range sword focused play. Players will be able to pivot into long range options, incorporate stealth actions, and also invest into passive upgrades that raise stats and recovery, which is exactly the kind of scaffolding that helps a broader audience stay engaged without hitting a hard stop.
From a market perspective, this is a smart accessibility and retention play. In 2026, a new IP is competing not only with other releases, but with backlogs, live service commitments, and short attention cycles. By giving players a clearer path to forward progress and letting them self tune friction, Game Freak is de risking onboarding while still preserving room for mastery. It is the kind of design stance that can broaden the addressable audience without diluting the core action RPG appeal, assuming the combat feel and progression pacing land.
Beast of Reincarnation is currently slated for a Summer 2026 launch window on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X, and this interview makes the strategic intent much clearer ahead of the next marketing beats. The game is not trying to win the harshest difficulty arms race. It is trying to deliver a premium action RPG that more players can actually complete, talk about, and recommend.
Do you prefer action RPGs that lock in a single difficulty for a shared challenge culture, or do you want difficulty options so more players can finish the story and experiment with builds?
