Game Freak's New RPG may actually be Pokemon's biggest threat

Game Freak has become synonymous with Pokémon franchise, with very few of their other games achieving much success outside of a small initial audience. However, that may be about to change with the launch of The Beast of Reincarnationa brand new action RPG that wants to push far beyond the realm of creature collecting and deliver a brand new experience unlike anything the developer has released before. An apocalyptic wasteland full of machines and gigantic monstrosities, The Beast of Reincarnation tasks players and their trusty dog ​​to fight for humanity and uncover the truth that awaits at the end of the world, using both knives and bites to take on everything that stands in your way.

What makes the game so interesting to me is what it means for it more broadly Pokémon series. If The Beast of Reincarnation is successful and draws in a previously untapped audience, then it could actually become a threat to future games in Game Freak's flagship IP. Many players have been frustrated by the quality of the latest Pokémon entriesciting performance issues, bugs, and just a general lack of interesting content, so assuming this new IP is a hit, many existing creature collector fans may feel like their favorite series has been neglected rather than something else. While the sales numbers don't seem to be slowing down anytime soon, I think it's still telling that we haven't had a super high score Pokémon game in quite some time, and that expectations will only rise with pressure applied from even more angles at once.

The Beast of Reincarnation is potentially terrifying for the future of Pokemon

When that Game Freak logo appeared in the The Beast of Reincarnation trailer, I was among the thousands of others expecting to see yet another Pokémon game drop later that year, but to everyone's surprise, we actually saw the first glimpses of something potentially special. For starters, there's no creature collecting, no monster training, and perhaps the only DNA left is in the form of your lovable dog Koo, who will play a huge role in the gameplay and story that ties it all together. Then there's Emma, ​​an outcast outcast with an affliction that has driven her to the fringes of society, but together they make a perfect pair who can take on formidable foes through synergistic powers and willpower alone.

From the outside, there appears to be no connection whatsoever between the IPs, and the differences are so vast that they even extend to the platforms, with no Switch exclusivity for The Beast of Reincarnation. But in the back of my mind, I liken this situation to having a shiny new toy to play with, while neglecting the ones you already have. What I mean by this is that there are already signs of it Pokémon struggling to keep up with the modern gaming landscape, purely from a quality and caliber perspective. Looking back over the last decade or two of the franchise, I don't think it's outrageous to say that the bar has really fallen from where it used to sit. It used to be every other year we got high 80s across the board from the mainline, but now, apart from that Pokémon Pokopia, which currently sits as the highest rated game in the franchise at 89, we're lucky to scrape past the 8/10 mark.

Modern Pokemon Releases

• Pokemon Unite – 70
• Pokemon Violet/Scarlet – 71/72
• Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee – 79/80
• Pokemon Sword/Shield –80
• Pokemon Legends: Arceus –83

The Pokemon of the 2010s Wave

• Pokemon X/Y – 87/88
• Pokemon Sun/Moon – 87
• Pokemon White/Black – 87
• Pokemon SoulSilver/HeartGold –87

Considering these much lower total scores, I don't see a world where Pokémon ever fades into obscurity, because there is too much scope and such a rich history that I don't see any world where a large-scale decline is realistic. But when games like Beast of reincarnation comes around, the question of why Pokémon is Struggling to get there becomes much more apparent, especially when you consider the lack of competition that exists in the wider genre. A good comparison to make is with something similar Halo and Fatewhere Bungie had a seemingly unstoppable force that, for various reasons both within the company and within the industry, became a shell of its former self rather than the coveted shiny new toy. Ironically, Fate now gets the same treatment thanks to the release of Marathonbut the point is that even in those cases where the games are sufficiently diverse in their content, this spread of internal resources almost always ends badly and comes at the expense of the original IP that had previously been on top of the world.

On the other hand, there are also recent instances where a developer has been able to distribute resources to different teams and find a considerable amount of success without coming at the expense of their mainline franchise. Look at Capcom, for example, where we've been showered with half a dozen Resident Evil games over the past decade, all incredible and serving as a second wave for one of gaming's most beloved IPs. They could have played it safe and just kept pumping out more bangers, but they took some risks with games like Pragmatics and in the end it paid off, and they ended up with multiple GOTY contenders within a matter of months. In addition, this evolving connection between IPs has turned into a very challenging debate, and in the case of a The Beast of Reincarnation and a titanic franchise that Pokémon​​​​​​, I won't be shocked if longtime fans get frustrated with Game Freak for clearly being able to create an incredible game, but not being able to translate those talents into such a base series.

Looking at the bigger picture, it can be easy to see only doom and gloom, especially with how controversial gaming has been recently and how complex consumer perception has become in recent years. I am optimistic and incredibly excited about this new chapter and genuinely curious about what it means for the future Pokémonwhether it will provide an incentive for the developers or serve as the first sign of a major studio change behind the scenes. Expectations are incredibly high on The Beast of Reincarnationand millions of players around the world now eagerly waiting to see what the hype is all about, so only time will tell if the bar is cleared and how big of an impact it will have at the next stakeholder meeting at Game Freak HQ.