Nushi

Overview

Nushi are extremely powerful Malefacts that serve as the major boss encounters in Beast of Reincarnation. These massive behemoths are the source of Blighted Forests -- corrupted, enemy-filled dungeon zones that spread across the landscape around them. Defeating Nushi is not merely about progression; it is essential to the game's ultimate goal. To ultimately defeat the titular Beast of Reincarnation, Emma and Koo must absorb the Nushi's immense power and acquire their respective skills.

Characteristics

Nushi are described as "massive behemoths" that are intimidating, agile, and dangerous enough to one-hit KO players who haven't mastered the combat mechanics. Each Nushi represents a distinct creature design -- a bear Nushi has been confirmed in late-game footage, and the variety of flower types that sprout in Emma's hair after each victory suggests significant diversity in Nushi designs throughout the game.

Despite their size, Nushi are not merely large targets. They are described as agile and dangerous, requiring players to master both Emma's parry timing and Koo's Blooming Arts to defeat them. Each Nushi likely presents unique attack patterns and weaknesses, demanding different strategic approaches and ability selections.

Blighted Forests as Dungeons

Each Nushi generates a Blighted Forest around itself. These corrupted zones are explicitly described as dungeons that players explore. The path to a Nushi is not a simple boss arena -- players must fight through the Blighted Forest, battling waves of lesser Malefacts and navigating corrupted terrain before reaching the Nushi at the forest's center. The forests themselves are hostile environments filled with enemies spawned by the Blight's influence.

The dynamic nature of the game's world means Blighted Forests are not static. The Blight causes the world to change in real time, with plains and wastelands gradually transforming into forests. In some areas, the transformation is abrupt, giving rise to unseen Malefacts. Blighted Forests represent the most extreme manifestation of this environmental corruption -- areas where the Blight's influence is so concentrated that it has created an entire hostile ecosystem around the Nushi.

Progression and Power Absorption

Each time Emma defeats a Nushi and absorbs its Blight, a new flower sprouts in her hair. These flowers serve as both visual progression markers and narrative milestones, visually communicating Emma's growing power to the player.

More importantly, absorbing a Nushi's power grants Emma and Koo their respective skills -- new abilities that expand their combat repertoires. This makes Nushi encounters the primary source of major power upgrades in the game, each one significantly expanding what the player can do in combat.

Analysis of gameplay footage from the Xbox Developer Direct and PlayStation State of Play trailers shows Emma with up to 11 flowers in late-game scenes. This suggests at least 11 Nushi encounters throughout the game. A bear Nushi was shown very late in the game during footage where Emma had 11 flowers, confirming that the game features substantial diversity in Nushi designs and a significant number of major boss encounters.

Combat Strategy

Nushi fights represent the ultimate test of the game's hybrid combat system. Players must master Emma's technically demanding parry timing to generate FP (Fuel Points), then strategically deploy Koo's Blooming Arts to create openings. The multiple combat approaches available in normal encounters -- melee aggression, ranged combat, stealth, and Koo-led engagements -- may all be relevant in different Nushi fights depending on the boss's patterns and weaknesses.

The difficulty settings affect Nushi encounters significantly. Story Mode offers more forgiving parry timing windows, making these boss battles accessible to players who struggle with precise reflexes. Normal Mode presents the intended challenge, while Hard Mode demands Soulslike-level precision where mistimed inputs are severely punished.

Emma's plant abilities create three-dimensional positioning advantages that may be critical during Nushi fights -- grappling to reach weak spots on massive creatures, using aerial attacks to strike otherwise inaccessible areas, and repositioning quickly to avoid devastating attacks.

Narrative Significance

The Nushi are far more than obstacles. Each one defeated absorbs power that is essential for confronting the Beast of Reincarnation itself. Emma and Koo's journey is a progressive dismantling of the Blight's power structure, and each Nushi represents a node in that structure.

The flowers that bloom in Emma's hair after each victory symbolize both triumph and burden -- every absorption draws her deeper into the corruption she fights against. As the Sealer who absorbs Blight, Emma grows stronger with each Nushi defeated, but the cost of that strength is an ever-deepening connection to the force she is trying to destroy. This tension between power gained and humanity potentially lost gives each Nushi encounter weight beyond the mechanical challenge of the fight itself.