Wild Hearts Review-In-Progress – Hanging By A Celestial Thread

The hunting genre has been a thing for quite some time, but for the entirety of its existence, it has been dominated by CAPCOM’s Monster Hunter series, which established it in the first place. Other developers tried their hands at the genre with varying degrees of success, and among the most successful attempts at creating a Monster Hunter competitor was Omega Force’s Toukiden series. Years after the release of the second entry in their series, the Japanese studio returns to the genre with Wild Hearts, which is, despite some issues, a very solid start for a new IP.

Wild Hearts takes place in the land of Azuma, a fictional land based on Feudal Japan ravaged by nature-infused beasts called Kemono, beasts that have the power to alter the landscape and cause all sorts of troubles to the population. The only ones that can take them and stop their rampage are hunters, individuals with extensive knowledge of special weaponry and the courage to wield it to take down these forces of nature.

The player isn’t just one of these hunters but a very special one. After the fight against the winter wolf Deathstalker, the hunter becomes capable of using Karakuri, a mysterious power fueled by Celestial Thread which allows them to conjure up all sorts of contraptions on the fly. Armed with this unique power, the hunter will eventually become the protector of Minato, a city hosting a number of Karakuri that was left to die by samurai clans too busy to war against one another.

From the story’s start, it’s clear how Wild Hearts has been massively inspired by the Monster Hunter series, as the premise is almost identical. While it is a little more central to the experience, compared to Monster Hunter Rise, however, the story is hardly remarkable. There is a limited amount of worldbuilding with optional documents scattered all over Minato and Azuma, and character development for central characters like Natsume, Ujishige, Toga-hime, Suzuran and Mujina, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been seen before. In truth, this makes sense for a hunting game experience, as the player’s focus should be on the hunting itself, so the uninspired story is hardly a problem.

The story isn’t the only feature inspired by CAPCOM’s popular series, as, at first glance, Wild Hearts plays a lot like the latest Monster Hunter games. Each of the game’s main story quests, and a good chunk of the sidequests as well, involve hunting one or more Kemono. By breaking their parts and taking them down, players are rewarded with items that can be used to create new weapons and gear, which come with a variety of skills that enhance the hunter’s performance, ranging from increased stats to better healing, enhanced critical hit rate, better dodging and so on. Select weapons also come with weapon-specific skills that can make them more fun to use, such as the increased parry window for the Bladed Wagasa, a unique umbrella-like weapon centered on counterattacks.

While the gameplay loop is pretty much the same as that found in the Monster Hunter series, many things set Wild Hearts apart from its illustrious inspiration. Chief among them are the Karakuri mechanics, which allow the hunter to build all sorts of contraptions on the fly. Karakuri, which can be conjured up only if enough resources are available, are divided into Basic, Dragon, and Fusion Karakuri.

Base Karakuri are geared mostly towards combat, allowing players to jump higher with the Crate, leap away with the Spring, or glide in the air with the Glider, but they can also be used during exploration. Dragon Karakuri, on the other hand, are used mostly to set up a camp, allowing players to place a Tent, a Smithing table, a Tower to pinpoint the location of Kemono and other important items or to improve traversal, such as with the Flying Vines which can be used to create a network of vines to traverse the maps faster. Dragon Karakuri, however, need elemental power granted by the Dragon Pits scattered all over the different maps, so awakening them gives players another good reason to explore around, other than to gather resources or befriend Tsukumos, which reward players with more resources that can be used to enhance their own little helpers.

The final type of Karakuri, Fusion Katakuri, are the most interesting. By conjuring up different Basic Karakuri in a certain order, it is possible to create some unique contraptions that not only can deal huge amounts of damage but also serve as a counter to certain Kemono’s special attacks. The sturdy defensive wall Bulwark, for example, can not only block most attacks but will also repel charging attacks, creating a much-needed opening against Kemono-like Kingtusk. Chain Trap, to make another example, can be used to chain down fast-moving Kemono temporarily, allowing players to go on the offensive or back down for some safe healing. Generally, the Karakuri mechanics expand combat options greatly, introducing a meter-management system into the experience that works great. It’s nothing new for the genre, as Monster Hunter Rise did it first with the Wirebug mechanics, but it’s twisted enough to be its own thing.

What makes Karakuri very interesting is how they synergize with all weapon types. Without these contraptions, the weapons themselves are rather straightforward, with very similar game plans. With only a few exceptions, all weapons in the game require some sort of setup to unleash their full potential. The Karakuri Katana, for example, gets extended reach and higher power by getting turned in a deadly whip once a special gauge has been filled by attacking Kemono. The Nodachi, on the other hand, requires charging to unleash its most powerful attacks. The Maul is another hard-hitting option that offers surprising mobility but requires a careful approach due to the length of the attack animations that leave the player defenseless. The Bow shows its true strength by alternating between two arrow types and strengthening shots appropriately, while the Hand Cannon offers a more powerful ranged option at the cost of speed.

While most of the weapons are rather straightforward, a few aren’t. The Bladed Wagasa, for example, requires excellent knowledge of a Kemono’s attacks to pull off counters which power the weapon up. The Claw Blade combines fast speed and excellent ground and aerial mobility, a combination between the Monster Hunter series’ Dual Blades and Insect Glaive. The Karakuri Staff is undoubtedly the game’s most complex weapon, requiring players to master different forms and find openings to unleash its most powerful yet painfully slow attack.

As mentioned above, by themselves, the eight weapons are very straightforward and do not feel particularly deep, except for the Karakuri Staff, and feel like they don’t leave much space for different playstyles. This isn’t the case in the Monster Hunter series, for example, as weapons allow for different playstyles, which may not be optimal but can be quite fun. One prime example is the Insect Glaive in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, which can be played as a grounded, aerial, and even ranged weapon. The Bow, to make another example, can also be used effectively at close range. This doesn’t seem possible in Wild Hearts, as the weapon’s basic limited moveset seems to push toward an optimal playstyle.

This apparent lack of depth is alleviated, thankfully, by the Karakuri system. Each basic contraption and a few Fusion ones open up new options for certain weapons, which expand their possibilities. The Karakuri Katana, for example, has powerful jumping attacks, so using Crates and Gliders works great. The Nodachi’s limited mobility and speed are less of a problem with Springs, which allow players to get out of the way or unleash a special leaping attack that can be directed freely in mid-air. There are so many possible options that it will be very interesting to see what players will be able to come up with when Wild Hearts gets into the hands of more hunters.

Despite a general straightforwardness, it’s undeniable that getting to grips with such gameplay mechanics can take a while. The first few hours in Wild Hearts can be quite frustrating, and not just for the lack of Karakuri options, which are gradually unlocked via a sort of Skill Tree, but also due to the Kemono combat design. The vast majority of monsters are huge, their attacks cover a lot of ground, recover very quickly, and have way too good tracking. Without a decent knowledge of the Karakuri system and the defensive options it can grant, it feels like the most viable strategy is hit and run with most weapons. This will inevitably put off some, but those that persevere will find a very rewarding hunting experience.

Being a hunting game, Wild Hearts has features that have become a staple for the genre, such as co-op multiplayer and a deep progression system. Playing together with other players is extremely convenient, as it is possible to both join in-progress sessions or ask other players for assistance against any of the twenty Kemono available at launch. In the pre-release phase, the game’s servers aren’t well populated, but when I was able to join in with other players, the experience was extremely smooth, even with those located outside Western Europe. With full cross-play available, there’s no doubt there will always be other hunters available once the game launches. Playing with other, more experienced hunters will be a great way to lessen the frustration that may come from attempting to take down some of the most intricate Kemono that players are forced to face early in the game, like Lavaback.

The progression system, like many of the Wild Hearts’ features and mechanics, will look familiar to any experienced Monster Hunter player. Hunters themselves don’t level up like in typical role-playing games, and any stat improvement or special ability is obtained by equipping weapons, armor pieces, and Talismans. Weapons are crafted via a dedicated tree with tons of connecting nodes that, combined with the ability to move select skills freely from one weapon to another, give ample customization options. Armor sets, on the other hand, don’t have a dedicated tree but can still be customized with a system that implements Human or Kemono-oriented improvements, which, in turn, determine the hunter’s alignment. Some skills are locked behind certain alignment values, so there is a lot of mixing and matching involved to get the wanted set of skills.

If Wild Hearts manages to deliver a pleasing, although not very original, hunting experience, it fails to deliver an equally pleasing visual experience. While the character, location, and monster design are generally solid, especially that of the nature-infused Kemono, the actual graphics don’t look particularly good, with a lot of low-resolution textures and a general blurriness that doesn’t do the solid visual design any favor. Draw distance, especially when flying using certain Karakuri, however, returns a decent sense of scale that goes well with the massive size of the Kemono, making the season-themed maps feel like real locations and not as simple playgrounds.

With such middling visuals, one would expect performance not to be a problem, but that is not the case at all. My journey in Azuma began with the PC version, which wasn’t very pleasant. While my system (i7-10700 CPU, RTX 3070 GPU, 16 GB RAM) manages to run the game at 1440p resolution, max settings at around 60, 75 frames per second, the moment any fight begins, the game starts dropping frames, running well below 60 FPS and sometimes even below 30 FPS. At 4K resolution, even by lowering all settings, my system never managed to provide a smooth experience, which is baffling, considering how the visuals do not look demanding at all. The occasional stuttering, some visual glitches, such as slow asset loading, and the lack of NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR support impact the experience as well.

The PlayStation 5 version fares slightly better, but not by much. On consoles, Wild Hearts offers Performance and Display Modes which target 4K, 30 FPS, and 1080p, 60 FPS, respectively, but fail to keep their target framerates consistently, as I had drops to what looked 30 FPS and lower during most hunts in Performance Mode. The main difference with the PC version is that there is no stuttering, so the game feels slightly more playable. As things stand in the game’s 1.0.2 version, I would recommend going for the PlayStation 5 version over the PC version if that is an option, as performance and technical issues seem to be widespread on a variety of system configurations.

After over 30 hours and many hunts under my belt, Wild Hearts is proving to be an incredibly engaging experience, one with the potential to be a real rival for the Monster Hunter series. If everything holds together well until the end of the main campaign, I can see Wild Hearts to be an excellent way to tide oneself over until the next entry in the CAPCOM series releases.

Tested on PC and PlayStation 5. Review codes provided by the publisher.