Electronic Arts
Wild Hearts sets itself apart in the hunting genre thanks to these great choices
After playing Wild Hearts for over a week, it’s become clear that the developers have made some great choices that set the game apart from its competitors.
With early access beginning soon, and its official release just around the corner, Wild Hearts has begun to build up a lot of hype amongst fans of the hunting genre of video games. Sure, it’d be easy to simply discard it as a copy or a clone of Capcom’s insanely successful Monster Hunter franchise, but after having played for over a week we can tell you that there’s something here for you if you’re looking to fight epic monsters in a big way.
While we won’t go into much detail at this time (since you can expect our final opinions soon enough), we’d like to go over a few of the things that we’ve found help differentiate EA and Koei/Tecmo’s Wild Hearts from its most direct competition. While the inspiration is obviously there, there’s plenty new and different that deserves the attention of players.
An arsenal to strike straight through the (Wild) Hearts
Taking place in a Feudal Japan-like era, one wouldn’t expect the weapons available to be very numerous or fantastical. Thankfully, this is a game about fighting giant elemental forces of nature, some of which are as big as literal mountains while others are basically gods. This is why you’ll be happy to know that there’s a wide selection of weapons that go from relatively straightforward to the absolutely insane.
There’s not really anything you would be able to call a “normal” weapon, but you do begin the game with an awesome katana. This one acts like your default starter choice, as it is a balanced choice with easy controls and a lot of variety. But even from here it starts to get crazy: as you use your katana you begin to fill a weapon gauge that, when full, allows you to activate an awakened state in which it becomes a sword whip with extended range and power to deliver some hurt on the monsters.
From there things get crazier: a giant hammer that throws you into a deadly spin, a set of dagger and claw that lets you use it as a grappling hook, an umbrella with blades on it that can be used to parry the monsters with grace, and even a cannon, that is literally just a medieval cannon that you carry around to shoot the giant beasties with.
Our favorite however has to be the Karakuri Staff, that is actually a transforming weapon that can change on the fly between five different forms and movesets, making it incredibly versatile but incredibly complex.
See that mountain? You can kill it!
What would a monster hunting game be like without interesting creatures to fight and hunt? Wild Hearts knocks this category out of the park thanks to its selection of Kemono: huge beasts inspired in Japanese nature and folklore that terrorize the world of the game, and which you’re meant to fight off to ensure the survival of one of the last bastions of humanity.
Admittedly, there’s not going to be a huge number at launch, with the developers confirming there’s 20 initial species to fight with, but what we’ve seen so far is incredible: every single one of these creatures are designed tolook both grotesque and beautiful, and they all do it exceptionally well. From the first few Kemono you encounter you’re facing off with gigantic porcupines that seem to be infested by electric crystals, racoons covered in sap and ichor that haunt the swampy areas of the map, and giant roosters that just seem weird and unwell. It’s almost enough to make you feel bad for them.
But soon enough the real monsters start to appear: the Lavaback is a giant gaunt gorilla covered in lava that when enraged becomes stretchy, drop kicking you out of the blue and capable of burning you down to a crisp. The Deathstalker is the first thing you fight in the game, and it kicks your butt with its icy attacks, and you’ve already watched a full fight against the Golden Tempest, which is an air-themed tiger that dances around hunters with ease.
Kemono continue to grow in size and menace, both enthralling in its appearance and intimidating in scope. There’s always something here to surprise you.
Build that Karakuri wall
In Wild Heart, it’s all about hunting monsters. But your weapons are not the only tool at your disposition: Karakuri are the game’s most original mechanic that’ll aid you during your epic battles, although it might not be for everyone.
Soon after you start, you’re given access to a mysterious artifact that allows you to magically create structures around the map. At your whim, you can put down blocks to climb and springs to launch yourself into the air. But as you progress through the story you unlock new devices and structures: you can suddenly raise a huge wall to stop a creature on its tracks, or a tower with a giant mallet to surprise enemies. You can create a fire tower, or a pad to launch with a small handheld copter and glide around the battlefield, far away from the danger.
There’s many options when it comes to choosing what to build, but even then you can combine them to create even more versatile traps: mix torches to create a firework cannon, or springs to create a hammer trap. Maybe you want to move faster around the map, so why not a mono-wheel bike?
All of these structures are set by you in the moment, and can only be destroyed by Kemono, or by yourself. This means that they stay in your world indefinitely, and could become helpful again after several hunts. They are semi-permanent fixtures that’ll be present everytime you visit that area of the map, and they can be placed to help other players in their sessions too.
In the end, it’s up to you to use them, as none of them are absolutely necessary to defeat a monster. If you choose to forgo them, the only thing you’re missing out on is a lot of strategy and incredibly useful aid to make things easier for yourself when fighting giant monsters. Your choice.
Whether you choose to jump into Wild Hearts or not, there’s tons of things to discover from this new title. We’re still working on a proper review to tell you all about the game, but the things you’ve read here are only a tiny fraction of the great choices made to differentiate this game from every other in the hunting genre.
Wild Hearts officially launches on February 16, 2023 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.