Developer: Omega Force, Koei Tecmo
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
Wild Hearts – Review
Monster Hunter is a massive name in the gaming industry and because of the fact that the series somewhat has a monopoly in the monster-hunting genre, other companies tend to avoid creating clones of this particular game series. It’s hard to compete with the absolute number one and it’s also a more complex type of game to mimic compared to Soulslike titles. That being said, it was about time that one company stepped up to the plate and try its hand at creating a similar yet unique experience. Enter Wild Hearts, a Monster Hunter clone with unique building components to completely change the flow of combat. We were intrigued and we were happy to give the game a go. With a few interesting elements and beautiful monster designs, we were quite entertained, even though the game is very rough around the edges.
Story
The story of Wild Hearts is centered around an unnamed hunter who is roaming the world of Azuma. You eventually come across the little city of Minato which is plagued by monsters known as Kemono. These massive Kemono have been driving the humans back and it seems that Minato will eventually also be destroyed in the process. You have awakened the powers of ‘Karakuri’ which means you possess a legendary skillset. Thanks to these powers you are able to construct items out of ancient thread allowing you to hunt these massive beasts.
The story itself will not win any awards. The plot is very basic, as you’re currently the only hunter that can prevent Minato from being destroyed. While the narrative may only be an afterthought for the most part, the game does have some interesting characters and there is just enough story value for those looking for something more than just cutting down Kemono.
Graphics
Graphically the game is a bit of a mixed bag. You’ll be treated to absolutely gorgeous Kemono designs, detailed environments to explore, and very good-looking NPCs. We were quite amazed by how the monsters looked and we loved the overall Kemono variety. We sometimes simply stopped to take a look at the monster we had to slay before engaging in combat with it. Sadly, the game also has a lot of graphical flaws. Many assets are of rather low quality and belong on a last-gen console rather than on our current-gen devices. We encountered so many clipping errors and graphical bugs that it sometimes ruined the overall immersion of becoming a versatile Kemono hunter. The very realistic-looking NPCs also felt a bit rough around the edges at times, mainly when it came to their facial expressions. All NPCs in the game have very realistic facial features, but they also lack emotions, as their faces hardly move, making it seem as if everyone is simply wearing a mask.
Sound
The game’s sound design is quite good. Wild Hearts has a very cinematic soundtrack and it helps set the right atmosphere. The tracks are never bombastic and they complement the events that unfold onscreen. The voice acting is also decent, but we did prefer the Japanese voice cast over the English one. For some reason it has been a trend as of late where English dubs are littered with random words from another language, making the dialogues sound so cheesy and forced. This is also the case for Wild Hearts’ English dub, where random Japanese words are forcefully added to sentences, thus making the dialogues sound unnatural.
Gameplay
Wild Hearts is an action RPG that’s all about hunting massive monsters, or Kemono as they are called in the game. The game is very similar to the Monster Hunter games, and so you’ll find yourself venturing out in the wild to find these Kemono. The game puts a heavy focus on hunting with friends (or strangers) online, making the game a bit more manageable in terms of completing missions as well as farming for materials. The overall mechanics are straightforward, but Wild Hearts does try to differentiate itself from Monster Hunter by adding an original building mechanic that revolves around ‘Karakuri’. This system allows you to use an ancient thread to create different structures to aid you in and out of battle.
Just like in Monster Hunter, you hunt massive beings and you will get rewarded for doing this. You’ll find materials to upgrade your weapons and gear, and we did enjoy messing around with the different weapons and their upgrades. Upgrading weapons in Wild Hearts is also not linear, as you may find yourself unlocking new stats and weapons from their respective ‘skill trees’. This means that you might sometimes unlock a weaker weapon in order to also use its characteristics on another similar weapon. Armor often has different buffs and debuffs, and these pieces of armor can also be enhanced further by the options of the Kemono or Humanoid paths. When opting to build armor from a certain path, you may unlock new abilities and skills when doing so. The system is fun to mess around with, but it will make very little sense when you start the game.
The Karakuri are somewhat the highlight of the game that sets this title apart from its direct competitor. This unique shtick lets you build special structures during combat that grant you mobility skills, defensive structures such as a wall, or even healing abilities and strong weapons. The system relies heavily on you placing these Karakuri blocks in the heat of battle and this can be quite tricky. In most cases, you will not just have to press one button, but you’ll have to remember certain button combinations as well as be able to place your blocks precisely to actually create specific structures. When you eventually get the hang of this, you’ll notice how rewarding it will be to place a few tactically placed structures during battles. Outside of battles, you’ll also be able to build different structures, ranging from a hunting tower that tracks down Kemono to other buildings and tools such as a tent, a campfire, and so on. On your map, if you meet the right requirements, you’ll be able to unlock Dragon Pits around which you’ll be able to build certain structures as well.
Controlling your hunter goes quite smoothly, but a few silly choices were made when it comes to controlling your character. For example, pressing the left stick will allow your character to sprint, but R1 also does the same. But, for some reason, only R1 will allow you to climb. We are used to playing so many games where the left stick is the sprint button, so it made little sense to us that the other sprint button was the one that had the double function. This is probably just us nitpicking, so this might just be a personal preference of ours. Other than that, positioning your hunter during combat is quite easy, but it did take us a while to get used to the fact that your dodging abilities are a bit underpowered if you are not used to building structures in combat. We did find it annoying when Kemono were able to hit us through indestructible static structures on the map. We were surprised to see the monsters just clip through these, and after it happened multiple times, we noticed that the environment could hardly be used to our advantage in combat.
All in all, the game offers an enjoyable gameplay loop, but the game is still suffering from quite a few bugs. We did encounter random crashes, characters being unable to move, getting knocked out even though our HP wasn’t depleted, getting stuck behind invisible walls or even falling through the floor. We would be more forgiving if we only encountered a minor bug or two, but we could almost keep a checklist at the ready to see how many bugs we could encounter during a play session. During our reviewing period, we saw a few patches being released, but these didn’t really solve that many issues.
Conclusion
Wild Hearts proved to be a rather enjoyable Monster Hunter clone with an identity of its own. The Karakuri mechanics proved to be interesting and quite satisfying while hunting the game’s gorgeous Kemono. We did feel like the story could have been a bit more interesting, but we didn’t mind that the narrative took the backseat during our monster-hunting excursions. Even though the game is entertaining enough, especially online with friends, we do hope that the many current bugs will get fixed in the near future, as it is currently dragging down the overall experience. That being said, if you’re looking for a fun alternative to Monster Hunter, you could do far worse than Wild Hearts.
Wild Hearts - Review,
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