There should’ve been a true follow-up to Nier Automata by now. I’ve thought it, you’ve thought it, we’ve all thought it.

Apparently so have several game developers, as Stellar Blade had enough similarities to prompt a crossover DLC, and now we have Beast of Reincarnation, a game that so obviously copied Yoko Taro’s homework that it’s shameless in the best possible way. “Sure, if they won’t make a Nier Automata sequel, why not do it ourselves?”

That must’ve been what occurred to director Kota Furushima and the team at Game Freak. Beast of Reincarnation oozes the same personality as Automata, including the simultaneously haunting and homely soundtrack. This is a semi-open world game with light exploration and Dark Souls-inspired combat, and it means the experience is probably going to feel pretty familiar to you if you’ve played any number of action games.

In case it isn’t clear, I don’t think Beast of Reincarnation is a particularly inventive or original concept, and the same goes for its story and characters. I feel like I’ve been here before, seen it all before, and yet, Beast of Reincarnation kept pulling me along, and I was happy to oblige.

You play as Emma, a purifier who is tasked with cleansing the land of malefacts. These are blighted, hostile creatures, and their spread is heralded by the Nushi, a series of giant corrupted beasts. Each chapter will have Emma and her canine companion Koo exploring an open chamber-like map filled with optional objectives that will eventually funnel you toward the Nushi.

For the first half of the game, this is a surprisingly satisfying loop. Emma is a purifier because of her odd abilities, and these can be used to traverse the world too. Her vine-like hair stretches down to the ground to lift Emma into the air, and it can also be used to stretch a platform out in front of you. Grapple points dotted around the environments will also allow you to instantly zip to certain locations.

This gives each area and encounter a decent amount of variability — will you assassinate foes from above by creating platforms from your hair, or will you fight toe-to-toe?

When in combat, Emma can parry and deflect incoming attacks, dodge, or unleash her own swift sword attacks. In addition to your basic attacks, you’ll slowly unlock a series of follow-up combination attacks, each inspired by the Nushi that you defeat. They require resources to use, but they’re incredibly powerful and give you a tangible boost from each boss you triumph over instead of just a pile of EXP — though there is that, too.

A literal skill tree – that is, it takes the form of a tree with branches – allows you to spend points to unlock new moves and upgrade your existing kit, and the same goes for Koo. Koo is an essential part of the combat flow, and she’ll be able to support Emma with buffs or attack foes. Shield enemies coming at you? Koo’s Bloom attack will blow them away.

You do have two ranged weapons – a crossbow and a bow – and they’re also perfectly capable of taking out foes without you ever having to get close. The skill tree has various modifiers and upgrades for every aspect of Emma and Koo’s abilities, so there’s a surprising amount to play with in regards to builds and strategies.

“All of these elements come together brilliantly in the first half of the game and ease you in wonderfully – but the second half of the game drops the ball.”

For most foes, I focused on inflicting the Shock affliction with lightning weapons to have them freeze before unleashing my various combos, but the well runs deep with unique approaches. If you want to take out most foes with a barrage of crossbow bolts that home in on foes and bounce to extra enemies, you can do that. Even better if those crossbow bolts match the element of your sword.

All of these elements come together brilliantly in the first half of the game and ease you in wonderfully – but the second half of the game drops the ball. My first tip-off was a repeated Nushi boss encounter, which morphed into repeats of every Nushi boss encounter across the game.

The cherry on top is that those open world chambers that each chapter took place in suddenly became much more disconnected and difficult to navigate without Emma’s abilities, in addition to being shorter, with less to see.

The latter areas can feel more like a boss rush with a short lead-up, instead of fully-fledged environments to explore and play in. A ruined city is a fun idea for a stage, but hopping between a limited few rooftops isn’t a fun environment to explore, unlike earlier, more organic stages.

It might be more easily forgivable if the story wasn’t quite so uninspired. It’s very easy to switch your brain off and simply enjoy the music and environments of Beast of Reincarnation, but if you attempt to understand the story, you will be met with tropes and elements that are far, far too familiar. The overarching story of the game is silly, especially if you’re familiar with its inspirations. But the heart of the story is better.

It’s not particularly original, but the jaded, emotional Emma opening her heart to the young girl Kagura and her massive wolf puppy, and becoming her own person, making her own decisions, is told reasonably well. It’s not the actual overarching story of the game – it’s not what the Beast of Reincarnation is, or why the malefacts exist, or why robotic Golems have replaced most humans – but it’s the game’s heart.

The heart and soul of Beast of Reincarnation is in the robotic, mobile home base where Kagura grows chickens and plants crops to cook dinner for Emma and the gang each night. These characters aren’t original or special, but they’re endearing and are what will carry most players through to the end of Beast of Reincarnation.

It leaves me torn. I really enjoyed my first ten or so hours with Beast of Reincarnation, exploring the various environments and uncovering secrets and optional fights, but the game quickly becomes more linear, more story-heavy, and quite a bit more predictable and dull. If each environment were fully fleshed out like the first few, and each had a unique boss encounter to cap it off, the tone of this review would likely be very different.

Whether it’s a case of scaled-back ambition or this was the plan all along, it leaves Beast of Reincarnation feeling uneven. The initial experience that drew me in never really manifested again past the first half or perhaps even third of the game.

The combat is consistently interesting and satisfying – especially when you deal the lethal blow to the toughest of Nushi enemies – but at a certain point, that’s all that’s really left. When the boss encounters start to repeat, you can’t help but notice that the enemy variety in the game as a whole is pretty low, leaving many encounters feeling the same as ones you’ve fought already.

Beast of Reincarnation is a good game. Ignoring how original or otherwise it may be, the combat has a satisfying weight to it, and the exploration mechanics are an interesting wrinkle as you delve through the various environments.

But there’s clearly untapped potential here, and the game can almost feel like a statement of intent from Game Freak. The first half of the game is so good that the team deserves to make a sequel where the full title gets the same amount of care and attention.