Community Update: 23-Hour Clear Times, DLC Demands, and AMD Water Glitches in Beast of Reincarnation

Almost two months have passed since Game Freak launched Beast of Reincarnation, thrusting players into the unforgiving, blight-infested ruins of 4026 Japan. As the initial wave of release-window hype settles into sustained community engagement, a clearer picture of the game’s actual footprint is emerging. From surprisingly swift campaign completion times to fascinating interpretations of its core combat mechanics, the community has plenty to discuss.

Meanwhile, on the technical front, while Update 1.0.12 ironed out many early wrinkles, specific hardware configurations—most notably AMD’s Radeon 7900 XT—are currently experiencing bizarre rendering glitches that demand attention. Here is a look at what the Beast of Reincarnation community is buzzing about this week.

The Great Playtime Debate: 23 Hours vs. 40 Hours

Before the game’s launch, Game Freak projected that players would spend a considerable amount of time exploring the overgrown mountain settlements. Pre-release coverage heavily hinted at a robust journey, which you can read more about in our playtime expectation guide. However, recent reports from players rolling credits paint a slightly different picture.

A highly upvoted community post this week detailed a player completing the main story in just roughly 23 hours. This discrepancy between the expected 40-hour mark and the 23-hour reality isn’t necessarily a negative, but rather a reflection of how flexibly Beast of Reincarnation handles its pacing and progression.

If you focus strictly on the critical path, mastering the timing-based parry system early, and utilizing Emma’s vine-hair traversal to bypass challenging vertical platforming sections, the narrative pushes forward at a relentless pace. A 23-hour run indicates a highly focused playthrough that likely skips over farming specific spirit stones, engaging in the deep weapon upgrade systems, or tracking down the formidable optional malefact bosses hidden in the deepest blight zones. For players who want to see every corner of the shattered world and engage with the mid-game power scaling mechanics, the game easily stretches toward the 40-hour mark.

Decoding the “Turn-Based” Combat Impressions

One of the most fascinating observations from the recent 23-hour completion review was the player praising the game for its “blending of real time and turn based combat.” On paper, this sounds absurd. Beast of Reincarnation is fiercely real-time, often compared to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for its punishing parry windows and reliance on split-second dodging. So, where does the “turn-based” feeling come from?

The answer lies in Game Freak’s brilliant translation of their RPG roots into an action framework, specifically through the implementation of Koo, Emma’s loyal malefact dog companion.

When you issue commands to Koo in the heat of battle, the game employs a dramatic tactical slowdown. The frantic, high-stakes melee combat where Emma swings her blades and absorbs blight with her parasitic hair suddenly decelerates. During this window, you must make calculated decisions: Do you command Koo to launch a disruptive howl to break a boss’s hyper-armor? Do you direct him to pin down a smaller enemy while you heal? Or do you execute a synchronized pincer attack?

This stark contrast between the blistering speed of Emma’s parries and the deliberate, menu-driven pauses to command Koo creates a mechanical rhythm that feels strikingly similar to the Active Time Battle (ATB) systems of classic JRPGs. For a deeper understanding of how these mechanics intertwine, check out our breakdown of Koo’s tactical skills. It is a testament to the developers that they managed to make an action RPG feel comfortably familiar to turn-based veterans without sacrificing the hardcore edge action fans demand.

A Growing Appetite for DLC Expansions

Game Freak took a massive risk pivoting from their family-friendly, turn-based legacy to a bleak, photorealistic Unreal Engine 5 action RPG. Based on community sentiment, that gamble has paid off in emotional investment. The bond between the 18-year-old Sealer and her mutated companion has resonated deeply with the player base.

Now that thousands of players have witnessed the ending, the demand for post-launch content is surging. Players are taking to community boards pleading for premium DLC, eager to spend more time in this beautifully ruined vision of Japan. The base game leaves several narrative threads hanging regarding the true origin of the blight and the fate of other Sealer enclaves scattered across the archipelago.

While Game Freak has not yet confirmed any plans for a major expansion, the framework is perfectly set for one. A theoretical DLC could introduce entirely new, heavily corrupted biomes, introduce terrifying new species of malefact, and expand Emma’s arsenal with ancient, unearthed technology from before the 4026 collapse. Until official word comes down, players will simply have to continue optimizing their builds and tackling the punishing New Game Plus modes.

PC Troubleshooting: The AMD 7900 XT Water Glitch

Despite the overall positive reception to the game’s mechanics and story, the PC port continues to present isolated technical hurdles. The latest issue gaining traction involves severe visual artifacting for users with AMD Radeon 7900 XT graphics cards.

Players report that when navigating Emma close to the surface of any water—particularly in the flooded ruins of the early mountain settlement zones—the water texture begins to violently flicker and glitch. This artifacting completely shatters the otherwise immersive, gloomy atmosphere of the Unreal Engine 5 environment. The glitch appears to be tied directly to how the game handles surface reflections and camera proximity on this specific AMD architecture.

Currently, there is no official fix deployed for this specific bug in the game’s patch pipeline. If you are experiencing this on an AMD card, the community has suggested a few temporary workarounds while waiting for a developer response:

• Disable Screen Space Reflections (SSR): While it will make the water look noticeably flatter and less realistic, turning off SSR in the graphics menu reportedly stops the violent flickering.
• Lower Water Quality Settings: Dropping the global water quality from ‘High’ or ‘Epic’ down to ‘Medium’ changes the rendering method slightly and has helped some users stabilize the image.
• Roll Back GPU Drivers: A few users have noted that the issue became more pronounced on the latest AMD driver branch, suggesting that a clean install of an older, more stable driver from early August might alleviate the glitch.

For a comprehensive look at maximizing your framerate and visual fidelity across all hardware, be sure to review our PC settings and performance guide.

As Beast of Reincarnation moves further away from its launch window, it is clear that Game Freak has successfully cultivated a passionate, dedicated player base. Whether they are speedrunning the narrative in 23 hours, dissecting the nuanced combat pacing, or patiently waiting for graphics hotfixes, the community’s engagement proves that Project Bloom has blossomed into one of 2026’s most memorable adventures. We will continue to monitor developer communications for any hints regarding the highly requested DLC or upcoming technical patches.