Koei Tecmo along with EA announced Wild Hearts a short while ago and at first glance, I can see that the game takes inspiration from Monster Hunter but will it really be a competitor to this already huge series? Well we got invited to experience some of the game and I must say, I was actually impressed.
As mentioned above, the game has a nice blend of Monster Hunter but it also has the art design and feeling of Nioh and Ghost of Tsushima, with a slight sprinkle of Fortnite. It may seem like a bad recipe, but Koei Tecmo manages to just take what is great about each game and put them all together in Wild Hearts. What is more fascinating is because of how familiar I was with all those games, it didn’t take long for me to get the hang of the game and its mechanics.
If you ask me whether Wild Hearts could be a better Monster Hunter, the answer is a yes and no. In some ways, the game streamlines certain things like the no-fall damage or the removal of stamina for actions like attacking or sprinting (Dodging still consumes stamina). This might turn off those who are used to this or expect a much closer Monster Hunter experience but with the removal of certain things, the combat pacing is much quicker since you do not need to take breaks between attacks to recharge your stamina.
The game also allows you to build platforms, structures and gadgets called Karakuri on the fly and this was one of the features that scared me the most because with the constant fast-paced action I wondered if the player would have enough time to build things. I am happy to report that building these structures is easily done by just holding the right mouse button and pressing a hotkey which binds the block. It is also very easy to do on the controller by holding down L1 instead. The action of building blocks to climb and jump off from will feel like second nature as you hack and slash the monsters.
Speaking about monsters, the game’s monsters are called Kemono and they basically act the same as the monsters in Monster Hunter. There is no tracking in this game as it is streamlined but when you are in combat, the Kemono will run away once it reaches a certain stage where you must chase them to finish them off. You can dismember certain parts of the monster to get extra materials also but with the addition of the Karakuri, you can build boxes to jump off from or even spring pads which help you dash across the battlefield to dodge even without stamina or a setup for a dashing attack.
Obviously, there is crafting in this game with the materials dropped and it will feel familiar to some people but here you not only craft weapons and armour but also structures like campsites which are called Dragon Karakuri. With the open-world concept of Wild Hearts, you can basically create bases around the world and the game will remember the structures you build unless it is destroyed either by you or the wild Kemono. This gives each player’s world a unique sense of personality and if you visit other players’ worlds, you can see how their structures are laid out.
Weapons in the game feel unique from each other like the Karakuri Katana which can transform into a whip-like Renji Abarai from Bleach (If you still remember this anime). You achieve this by attacking and filling up a bar above your health and once it is filled you can use the Karakuri Katana Unbound move to switch it to a whip. All the moves and attack animations are satisfying especially the sound effect of multiple slashes hitting the Kemono.
The game features a max of 3 players co-op which seems like a weird number, but this was decided after much testing in-game by the developers that 3 players strike a good balance of what they like in co-op gameplay and is easier to balance down the line. You can join a co-op game at your campfire and select a session by filtering what Kemono you want to hunt.
Wild Hearts is an interesting game and its Japanese game art style makes it stand out compared to the rest. Koei Tecmo has taken what they learned with their years of experience and created what looks to me like a game which may interest both newcomers and veterans to the action-hunting RPG genre and is one of the games I will look forward to when it is released on 17 February 2023 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Origin, Steam and Epic Game Store.
