Right now, Game Freak has many different games in development.Pokemonobviously remains first and foremost among its efforts, withPokemon Legends: Z-Adue out later in 2025 andPokemon’s tenth generation expected in the next year or two. There could also be other projects that The Pokemon Company is handling that need input from someGame Freakveterans. However, Xbox’s 2025 Summer Games Showcase just threwBeast of Reincarnationinto the pile, and it does not look like standard Game Freak fare. Opting for a realistic art style,Beast of Reincarnationwill likely turn out unlike any title the studio has been associated with.
First revealed in 2023 under the code nameProject Bloom,Beast of Reincarnationis an action-RPG set in post-apocalyptic Japan. Players take control of Emma the Sealer and her loyal dog Koo as the duo navigate a strange landscape where barren wastelands can suddenly erupt into vibrant, but dangerous, forests. What exactlyBeast of Reincarnationwill play like is still unknown, but the game has already touted difficult combat and drawn some comparisons to theSouls-adjacentBlack Myth: Wukong. It’s a strange premise to be attached to Game Freak’s name, but that may be due to how little it interacts with the studio’s regular work.
Beast of Reincarnation Isn’t Exactly Being Handled By Game Freak
Ostensibly,Beast of Reincarnationis developed by Game Freak and published by a new company called Fictions, replacing the Take-Two label Private Division that was supposed to handleProject Bloom. It’s directed by Kota Furushima, a Game Freak employee who has taken various planning and management roles on mainlinePokemontitles sinceUltra SunandUltra Moon. The only other person confirmed to be on the project is thePokemoncard illustrator Kazuma Koda, who provided the teaser concept art back when this game was stillProject Bloom.
If it feels like something is missing here, that’s because it’s not exactly Game Freak who is working onBeast of Reincarnation. Rather, it’s the company’s Gear Project initiative that is handling this game, which represents a fraction of Game Freak’s workforce. Founded in the early 2010’s, Gear Project served as an incubator for new game ideas when staff weren’t wholly occupied by work onPokemon. This initiative is responsible for all ofGame Freak’s modern non-Pokemontitles, consisting of:
Game Freak May Not Have Devoted Many Resources To Beast of Reincarnation
Even if most of the Gear Project titles were published by companies other than Game Freak, Nintendo, and The Pokemon Company, the initiative has led to a lot of games, and it might be difficult for Game Freak’s roughly 200 employees to develop them alongside its mostly-consistentPokemonreleases. It shouldn’t be too large of a shock, then, that Game Freak had help with making these titles. Being tied to one of the most popular gaming franchises, Game Freak has many industry connections that it already pulls on to get modernPokemontitles made, so tapping other developers to build smaller Gear Project titles makes sense.
Gear Project Uses External Help To Avoid Interrupting Pokemon
The split between Game Freak employees and other groups involved in Gear Project games is often only found in a given title’s credits, but it’s always there. For instance,Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!was co-developed by some Game Freak staff in leadership roles and the studios Infiniteloop Co. and Pixyda. The Gear Project initiative’s tendency to enlist developers outside Game Freak is whyBeast of Reincarnationlikely hasn’t dragged any essential staff off of thenextPokemongeneration, though it would be fun to see the two acknowledge one another.
