Beast of Reincarnation, the latest title from Pokémon developer Game Freak, does not contain a fully explorable open world. It has areas with secrets and side quests for you to find, but even with all that, its overall playtime is a lot less than you may expect from a modern action RPG.
Speaking with Game Informer, Beast of Reincarnation's director Kota Furushima confirmed that it has "approximately 10 'stages' [spanning] about 30 hours of gameplay." It's noted that once you get through the tutorial, you will see the world open up a bit, but it won't ever allow you to just run through the whole thing, spending dozens of hours chasing question marks.
Exploration is also supported by your wolf companion Koo. In Beast of Reincarnation, Koo isn't just a combat tool, according to Furushima, as your friendly canine fellow will often alert you to nearby enemies or items. "We didn't want Koo to become this autonomous tool that basically became just another weapon for the player, nor did we want to create a situation where the player had to be very attentive to [Koo]," Furushima said.
Beast of Reincarnation launches on the 4th of August.