Since time immemorial, mankind has had an insatiable desire to find the biggest, meanest creature imaginable and hunt it until it’s good and dead. The primal urge to conquer has naturally carried over into video games with a certain sense of pride and satisfaction coming from taking down the biggest and baddest beast imaginable, with some franchises attaining quite a bit of success from the subgenre of monster hunting. Wild Hearts is the newest adventure to test the player’s ability to stalk the big game.
The player awakens as an anonymous travel in Azuma, a fictional land inspired by feudal Japan. This area is home to Kemono, beasts of unusual size resembling animals that have been infused with their naturals surroundings. These Kemono were once peaceful creatures but as late they have been rampaging across the land, threatening the lives of the inhabitants of Azuma. After an encounter with such a beast that doesn’t go particularly well our hero is revived as an ancient technology bonds with their heart. This device is called the Karakuri which essentially turns our anonymous traveler into a samurai Inspector Gadget.
The Karakuri is what makes Wild Hearts unique among the genre. This tool has a ton of uses throughout Azuma. With the Karakuri the hero is able to set up campsites, travel to otherwise inaccessible places in Azuma and craft various structures that are useful in the hunt. If a cliff is out of reach stacking boxes makes it the top in reach. Bridge out? No problem, just build a springboard and launch yourself across the abyss. A strong bullwark can stop a charging beast in its tracks or a giant springy mallet can hit much harder than any handheld maul. If Wile E. Coyote had a Karakuri instead of those curtate ACME products that roadrunner would have been dinner.
Armed with the Karakuri and conventional weapons, it’s time to start hunting Kemono but what exactly are these creatures? The Kemono are regular animals that have grown to a massive size and have taken on their surrounding features. An oversimplification would be giant animals with leaves and rocks growing out of them, but that’s not exactly an inaccurate description. They are majestic beats and a wonder to behold. During the preview there was almost some guilt about having to kill them, that is until they unleashed their hellish nature bending attacks that knocked out two thirds of a health bar in a single hit. The fights with them are actually very well crafted. The Kemono naturally have the size advantage, and being the damage sponges are they also have just about every other advantage one can imagine. But through strategic use of terrain and the Karakuri they can be taken down. The fights can get pretty long for a single one, but that only adds to the grandeur of the hunt. Figuring out which weapons and Karakuri forms work the best is part of the fun. Some require building a high platform in which to do a jumping attack, some are susceptible to giant mallet attacks while others are best dealt with from more defensive based structures.
In addition to the technical wizardry of the Karakuri the beasts are fought with conventional weapons and Tsukumo companions. There are eight different weapon types that can be weilded. These include weapons such as katana, bow and arrow, hand cannon, claw blade, nodachi and maul along with a couple less conventional weapons: the Karakuri Staff and bladed wagasa. The last two require greater skill to use but are worth the time it takes to master them. The Karakuri Staff can mutate between five different forms to offer a variety of attacks including projectile. The bladed wagasa is a tactical umbrella that is deceptively deadly, not only does it offer some incredible combo attacks it also has an extremely useful parry move. Getting the parry timing down has a bit of a learning curve but it’s a game changer once it’s mastered. The bladed wagasa is actually one of the most fun weapons available in Azuma. The Tsukumo are odd mechanical spheres that can be befriended in the travels across Azuma. These are support units that can distract and attack the Kemono and also heal the player so befriending as many of these guys as possible is recommended.
Taking on the fierce Kemono require high quality weapons and armor. Better gear gets unlocked for purchase as the player progresses but in order to create the new equipment materials need to be gathered and this can turn into a grind depending on how well equipped a player wishes to be. Getting the necessary items for the top equipment requires repeated hunts of large Kemono, which as enjoyable as the fights can be this practice can become time consuming. In addition to improving gear eating food found on the island can offer temporary buffs during the hunts, so it’s always a good idea to keep one’s hero well fed.
Minato ends up serving as a base of operations once the player arrives there. This is home to many individuals who have an assortment of tasks for the player. The Fisherman’s Guild has a multitude of quests, along with several other character that offer rewards in exchange for the player completing certain tasks for them. There is a bathhouse to be upgraded, which is recommended as it can benefit the player’s health. This is where new equipment can be acquired and upgraded along with meeting people who can explain the history of Azuma, the Karakuri and the Kemono, but mostly it’s a place to relax in between hunts and take in the oceanside scenery.
Wild Hearts isn’t the first time Omega Force has tried there hand at monster hunting, and while there was some enjoyment to had with Toukiden it is safe to say that Wild Hearts is a big improvement across the board. The Karakuri is the most unique aspect which does a lot to separate Wild Hearts from other games in the genre. This tool is an inventive approach to taking down the Kemono and figuring out which of its forms are best suited for each hunt is a large part of the fun. The uses for the Karakuri extend far beyond simply being a tool for battle. Building up campsites that can serve as fast travel points or zip lines to reach out of the way places add a new dimension to exploring the different islands. Not all Kemono are aggressive, there are many smaller Kemono roaming around and the player can extract resources from them using one of two methods. The first method is the predictable route that one would expect in such a game, the other involves sneaking up on the Kemono to pat it, where it then drops its material before scampering off.
Wild Hearts is simply a gorgeous game. From the photorealistic character models and environments to the fantastic beasts that the player so tirelessly hunts, this is a title that takes advantage of current gen console processing power. There isn’t a constant minimap are dozens of quest markers to clutter up the scenery, which is nice for aesthetics but given how much grinding for equipment materials can be required they are features that would have helped if included. Using the Karakuri to build different structures is surprisingly intuitive. The difficulty is pretty steep starting out but once the player acclimates to everything it becomes much more manageable though given the power of the Kemono it doesn’t ever really become easy.
Closing Comments:
Wild Hearts offers a fresh take on the monster hunting formula. The nature infused Kemono are an original approach to monster designs and some of them look so majestic you almost feel bad about killing them. Azuma is a gorgeous location, and using the different forms of the Karakuri to travel gives exploration a unique quality. The Karakuri in general really what sets Wild Hearts apart from other monster hunting, as its myriad functions add a new dimension to both exploration and battling Kemono. There is a bit of a learning curve and steep difficulty but learning the intricacies of Karakuri make overcoming the challenge a very rewarding and fun experience.
Wild Hearts
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
