Wild Hearts Review

Wild Hearts preview:  When Wild Hearts was first announced, it caught my attention but I forgot about it among all the other games. It suddenly came to mind with the videos released in the past months and thanks to the early access opportunity offered by EA, I have been playing the PC version of the game for a while now. 

With the game’s release just around the corner, there’s something I want to remind you of before we start our preview of my first impressions of the game. Keep in mind that this is not a review and is just a post about my first impressions of the game, so it won’t include much information about performance or the later parts of the game. Let’s get started now.

Wild Hearts preview

Hunting is a serious matter

Wild Hearts actually comes with a concept that we are not very unfamiliar with, monster hunting. When I say we are not unfamiliar with, I am talking about gamers of course, or if you live in Australia, your experience may be real. Anyway, back to the topic, Wild Hearts is our new EA Originals game in the monster hunting concept, which has been known for years with games like Monster Hunter, God Eater and Toukiden, and has become more well-known in the west in recent years with Monster Hunter World and its follow-up Rise.

Our main character is a hunter who comes from a different region and hunts creatures called Kemono. Our character, who thinks that he is not needed as a hunter in the lands where war is on the rise, finds himself near Minato village and our adventure begins. The game has an ongoing story and we meet many different characters throughout this story. Moreover, these characters are played by names we know from the world of movies and the internet. We embark on an adventure that will determine the fate of Minato village with characters brought to life by names such as Yuki Matsuzaki, Crystal Kay, Yurié Collins. 

Both Hunter and Carpenter

It is nice that the story is given importance in a game where we enter to hunt monsters, but our priority is clear, we are hunting! For this, it is necessary to get to know the weapons and equipment that the game offers us. There are 8 different types of weapons in the game, many different Karakuri devices that we can use in various missions, and many different types of armor. Let’s start with the weapons first.

Wild Hearts includes 8 different weapons, each with their own unique gameplay style. We start the game with a katana, but soon we gain access to other weapons. The weapon types come in the form of Bow, Karakuri Katana, Bladed Wagasa (Umbrella), Cannon, Claw Blade, Nodachi, Hammer and Karakuri Staff. 

If you have played any of the Monster Hunter games, you can quickly get used to most of the weapons, their general usage is almost the same. But don’t rush into battle just because you know how, the abilities of the weapons here are different compared to the MH games, they wear you out quickly in the field. I didn’t have the chance to try all the weapons very much, but the Bladed Wagasa, Claw Balde and Karakuri Staff are very fun to use as the game’s unique weapons. It’s fun to feel like an “Attack on Titan” character with Claw Blade or to have a Bloodborne-like style based on “parry” with Wagasa. I don’t want to go into too much detail here because it wouldn’t be nice to talk about weapons in the entire article, there are still Karakuri equipment that make the game’s fights unique.

Karakuri equipment is what sets Wild Hearts apart from other hunting games. Transportation and hunting become much easier thanks to the equipment that we can use in different types both in combat and outside of combat. We have three different types of Karakuri equipment: Basic, Fusion and Dragon Karakuri. While Basic and Fusion are useful equipment during combat, Dragon is useful in camping and transportation. 

With Basic Karakuri, you can put a box on the ground, stand on it and hammer the enemy’s head, or set up a spring system on the ground and dodge the attack at the last moment. Or there are different types such as adding elemental damage to attacks, making a small glider and launching yourself into the air. 

Fusion Karakuri is the name given to more advanced and useful equipment that is created by combining Basic equipment. We can prepare different equipment that will be useful in battle, such as combining boxes to form a wall or building a large catapult. Dragon Katakuri has many different equipment in our camp, such as preparing food, making new equipment, and building fast transportation vehicles between locations with vines. There are also vehicles for fast transportation, all of which are offered to us as we progress in the game. 

For Basic and Fusion Karakuri, we need to collect materials from the surroundings, and we can get them from places like trees and rocks. Dragon Karakuri equipment can be installed depending on the capacity we obtain by clearing the power zones in the area. The more you explore the map and clear the areas (not by killing monsters), the more advantage you gain.

Nature and Beasts

I am quite pleased with the variety of monsters we hunt in the game, up until now. I fought with different types and characteristics of monsters, and when their health drops below a certain level, I came across new forms that attack more powerfully and look more impressive. I am quite pleased with what I saw. Although some monsters came with small boosters or abilities that could be particularly annoying, I enjoyed the fights. I think I can talk about these in more detail when I write a review of the game. 

I am visually indecisive, sometimes the game shows great scenes, sometimes it looks really bad. I haven’t had many problems on PC in terms of performance, I am waiting for the graphics card updates and the first day patch for the ones I have experienced. Because most of the problems I have encountered can be fixed with updates.

Wild Hearts stands out as the first major game released under EA Originals. Having previously released small-scale indie games, EA Originals is taking on such a big project for the first time and seems serious about it. Wild Hearts was produced by the Koei Tecmo – Omega Force team, they are the same team that previously produced the Toukiden series, so they didn’t say “come on, make a game like this” to the newbies. So, did it work? I haven’t finished the game yet, I will present my final verdict with the review, but for now I am happy with what I played. 

Karakuri equipment is fun to use, weapons are fun, armors and upgrades are interesting. Wild Hearts is coming in a very promising way as the first big work of EA Originals. Let’s also note that the review of the game will be out this week.