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Is Beast of Reincarnation a Soulslike? Difficulty Explained

Updated August 7, 2026 · Facts cross-checked against the sources listed below

Half-yes. Combat is parry-heavy and boss-centric like Sekiro, but there is no death penalty at all, difficulty can be changed any time, and the developers explicitly reject the soulslike label. Think “soulslike combat, none of the punishment.”
The Beast of Reincarnation difficulty selection screen showing the Story, Normal and Hard options
Official media © GAME FREAK inc. / Fictions, Inc.

What It Borrows from Soulslikes

  • Deliberate, timing-first combat built around reading attack wind-ups.
  • Large multi-phase bosses as the structural spine of each region.
  • Campsite rest that restores you and respawns regular enemies.

What It Deliberately Drops

  • No death penalty: you keep all Amber, XP and items, and respawn at the last campsite — full rules in the death penalty guide. This removes the genre’s defining risk loop.
  • Difficulty options, changeable mid-game — the opposite of the one-difficulty soulslike stance.
  • A co-protagonist: Koo actively tanks, staggers and follows up, which shifts fights toward coordinated pressure rather than solo endurance.

What the Developers Say

Game Freak’s director has explicitly pushed back on the soulslike framing, describing the game as a partner-action RPG — and saying they’d rather a stuck player lower the difficulty than retry the same section dozens of times. Reviewers most often compare it to Sekiro, Phantom Blade Zero, Mortal Shell and Onimusha.

The Three Difficulty Settings

DifficultyWhat Changes
StoryEnemy damage cut sharply, parry timing loosened. Parrying still matters.
NormalThe intended baseline experience.
HardMuch stronger enemies, very tight parry windows, quick deaths.

You pick one when starting a new game — the screen above appears right after the title menu — and can switch any time afterwards via pause menu → Settings → Gameplay. No trophies or content are difficulty-locked (see the trophy guide), so there’s zero mechanical penalty for adjusting.

Assist Options Beyond Difficulty

The same setup flow offers four auto-targeting toggles — Auto-Target for Attack, Parry, Switch and Aim — all enabled by default. They lock onto enemies for you, which meaningfully lowers the execution burden without changing damage numbers. If Hard mode feels unfair rather than tight, check these are still on before dropping difficulty.

So Should Soulslike Fans Buy It?

If you play soulslikes for parry mastery and boss spectacle, yes — the combat loop (build the Down Gauge, execute, spend Blade Arts) is the game’s strongest system. If you play them for high-stakes tension and loss aversion, this is a gentler game than its surface suggests — start on Hard for something closer to genre pressure.

Sources