The tired adage about not judging books by their covers was never more true than it is with Wild Hearts. At a glance, the monster-hunting game from Koei Tecmo and Dynasty Warriors-maker Omega Force, seems like a Monster Hunter clone, but a closer look shows something much more creative and thoughtful. While Wild Hearts does wear its inspirations perhaps a bit too openly at times, it takes some worthwhile risks with its combat and monster design, builds a more coherent world around them, and offers a fresh
It’s always a bit difficult to believe Monster Hunter’s critters are the threats the game says they are. Outside the giant Elder Dragons actively trying to eat every human in sight, most of the monsters just seem at home in their environment – minding their own business in the oceans, mushroom forests, and fetid boneyards until you come along and kill them just in case they decide to cause problems later.
The Kemono you target in Wild Hearts are an evident problem from the beginning. Tiny mice mutate into giant, berry-sprouting, flower-bedecked rodents intent on devouring everything in their path. The Sapscourge is literally a scourge of sap, producing a dangerous surplus of the life-giving substance and threatening to enfold everything in its sticky embrace.
These are just some of the early Kemono. You’ll run across a giant fire monkey that wouldn’t be out of place in a Pokemon game, a murderous crow, a massive porcupine, and some even more impressive creatures later on, all heavily rooted in the environments they call home. The Kemono variety is welcome after Monster Hunter’s rather heavy reliance on reptiles of various descriptions.
The danger they pose to humans and nature itself is visibly obvious too, so hunting them actually comes across as less of a murder spree and more of a responsible way to maintain balance. It helps that, with each major Kemono, your hunter pays their respects before delivering a final blow, and instead of pulling monster parts off with a knife, you just have them appear in your inventory.
Wild Hearts undermines this respect slightly by making the finishing moves a flashy cinematic piece, and you still carve up lesser Kemono. Still, it’s a refreshing approach to the genre and one I appreciate.
The actual hunting and progression are what you’d expect if you’ve played Monster Hunter. You track down your quarry, attack them until they flee, and repeat the process until they draw their last breath. Quests outside the main story almost always involve hunting more Kemono or finding specific items in the wilderness, and you use your spoils to upgrade your gear and tackle harder challenges.
While the things you do in Wild Heart might be too familiar at times, how you do them is where Koei Tecmo’s hunting game really shines.
Wild Hearts drops you into an open world and lets you explore, build resting spots, and use your Karakuri – special gadgets you can build on the fly – to find your prey and get around more easily. There is, admittedly, not much to actually discover in terms of hidden quests or secret items, but the exploration itself is rewarding enough. Calling a game world beautiful or stunning is something of a cliche at this point, but the world of Wild Hearts is genuinely gorgeous.
You may be following a river to see what’s ahead and stumble across a ruined shrine with a massive glowing cherry blossom tree at the center or wind up in a dense bamboo forest with who-knows-what lurking around you. During one early hunt, I got distracted tracking a rat down by a Kingtusk – giant grass pig – rushing along a path of vines overhead, with tendrils of the stuff whipping out around it.
I can’t help but wish Wild Hearts used its world to more interesting effect or told more stories in these environments, but if nothing else, the abundance of natural beauty helps underscore the overall emphasis on your place in the world alongside the Kemono.
While Wild Hearts may not use its world to the full extent that it could, the same can’t be said for combat, which is excellent.
Wild Hearts eases you into your weapon of choice more effectively than Monster Hunter. There’s a wooden Karakuri bear you can train with and learn all the basic combos, which Wild Hearts actually tells you, instead of holding it back like forbidden knowledge and making you work for it. The range of combos is, admittedly, a bit limited, but the simplicity means you can – and should – weave combos together with ease. Some of the creations I came up with for even the basic katana surprised me with how effective and, frankly, cool they were, especially in their unbound form.
Most weapons have a unique trait or feature that activates after you meet certain requirements. The wagasa parasol has a meter that increases as you land successive attacks and gradually buffs the weapon, while the katana can enter an unbound state and add Karakuri energy to your attacks, which increases the power and range of your basic moves and combos. These features push you to focus on that weapon’s intended playstyle, and Wild Hearts is balanced to where any weapon can work effectively even on solo hunts.
What really sets hunting apart in Wild Hearts is the Karakuri, a broad term for a staggering range of contraptions you can build to help explore the world take down your quarry. Your selection of combat Karakuri is somewhat scant in the first several hours, but I was surprised at just how much you can do with a simple bouncy crate and a springboard that launches you forward.
Selection aside, the only real limitation is how creative you want to be with the Karakuri. You can build a barrier of bouncy crates to pin a Kemono against a rock wall, then maybe set up a deadly strike with a springboard leap for when it breaks through. Or you could climb the crate wall, trigger your katana’s unbound form, and leap down with a mighty strike. Strategically placed zipwires let you hide out of reach and recover or pepper your foe with ranged attacks.
You could also do none of this and just litter the battlefield with hammers that spring out of boxes and smack Kemono who get near. The personalized touch in each hunt and the fact that Wild Hearts not only gives you the freedom to be wacky and creative, but encourages you to use it however you see fit.
Wild Hearts’ multiplayer hunts are a blast, thanks in large part to the Karakuri. Whatever bizarre contraptions you’ve come up with, you can almost guarantee at least one of your hunting partners has something completely unexpected up their sleeve. Even if the approach isn’t entirely practical or useful, the inspiration from seeing how others are using Karakuri is welcome and gives you new ways to tackle fights with the same monsters.
The Karakuri infuse Wild Hearts with a different spirit from other hunting games outside of battle as well. A whole range of decorative Karakuri exists to help make your campsites and settlements feel a bit more like home or to spruce up your hangout spot with fellow hunters. It’s a minor, inessential touch, but it helps make Wild Hearts feel more alive and coherent – and also makes me hope for a single-player, exploration-focused expansion or sequel in the future. This is a beautiful world with plenty of potential. It just hasn’t been fully realized yet.
Score: 8/10
Tested on PS5 and PC
[Disclaimer: EA provided the copies of Wild Hearts used for the purpose of this review.]
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
