Wild Hearts is the game for those who feel a void after the Elden Ring

Wild Hearts is a new competitor to the popular Monster Hunter franchise. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus was able to play the new action game from Koei Tecmo (Nioh, Dynasty Warriors) as part of Find Your Next Game 12 hours before the release and is thrilled. And that despite the fact that he could never do much with Monster Hunter.

I played Wild Hearts for the first time back in October 2022 – at that time with little enthusiasm. Hunting monsters, belling and building like in Fortnite sounded like a horror combination to me.

While I enjoyed Dauntless, Monster Hunter was always a little too playful and over the top for me. The huge guns, the lavish feasts – all a bit “too anime”.

But after 4 hours in Wild Hearts I fell in love with the way it was played and really enjoyed the game, so I was really looking forward to the new test. The developers invited me to play a preview version a week before release.

Now I’ve played Wild Hearts for another 12 hours, looked at the pre-completed version and delved deeper into the story. And damn: the game is really cool, even if it’s just a first impression so far. There are only a few points of criticism.

In the video we explain to you what exactly makes Wild Hearts so special. In the further course you will find my impressions of the first hours in the game:

I hunt giant monsters in the Japanese setting – But for tragic reasons

So what is Wild Hearts about anyway? I haven’t finished the story yet, so I don’t want to spoil anything. The initial situation is that people in the world Azuma are threatened with extinction.

Through a special power, some creatures of the wild have mutated into giant monsters, the “Kemono”. A total of 21 of these Kemono are available for release. For comparison, Monster Hunter World started out with 30.

The largest of the Kemono have the ability to alter their surroundings to suit them. However, this usually goes hand in hand with the fact that other living beings can hardly survive there. That includes people too.

One of the particularly nasty opponents is a bear as big as a mountain. A Bärg, so to speak, which I didn’t find so hard when playing:

As one of the few hunters left, we hunt down the Kemono and make sure we don’t get wiped out ourselves. We use the loot received to build new armor and weapons – which in turn help us in the fight against stronger Kemono.

However, we are not just any hunters, we have the ability to summon “Karakuri”. These are wooden constructs that can help us in battle and hunting. We build camps with them or use them for airstrikes and more.

Dark Souls steeled me, Wild Hearts is my playground

The combination of fighting and building sounds strange at first. In fact, Wild Hearts’ gameplay reminds me a lot of the Soulsborne games.

Take on huge bosses and smaller enemies with a variety of weapons, including fast katanas, oversized, slow-moving swords, or powerful hammers. Dodging, timing, and learning enemy movesets are essential to victory.

Everything exactly as I learned in the famous Souls games. Just not quite as punishing. Bosses still have abilities that almost completely kill me in one hit. But at least not every mistake means near-death.

In addition, Wild Hearts is more colourful, friendlier. If you’re looking for a game with a similar approach to Dark Souls or Elden Ring, but don’t want the oppressive atmosphere, you should definitely take a look around in the world of Azuma.

However, you must be prepared to familiarize yourself with completely new and unfamiliar mechanics. If, like me, you just wrinkle your nose at Fortnite, it will probably cost you a little effort. But it’s worth it.

“Build like in Fortnite”? No, that’s much more natural

I don’t want to explain to you too much of what I explained in detail in the first test, but at least briefly go into what is special about Wild Hearts.

Karakuri, the Wild Hearts “building system”, has two functions:

In my camp I can build tents as a respawn point, various constructs to process food or a field forge to improve my equipment everywhere. In addition, a hunting tower tracks down my current target and collection buildings provide me with building resources or fish. A nice extension that focuses the grind on the essentials: slaughtering monsters.

This is where basic karakuri come into play. This means simple shapes like boxes, springs or torches, with which I can perform powerful (and cool) air attacks, dodge better or ignite my weapons.

But what’s really cool here is “fusion karakuri”. By combining different basic Karakuri, they can be combined to create new constructs that can completely change the combat, such as:

These combos are only found when fighting certain enemies, but they can be used anywhere after that. An incentive for me, because the better I learn to master building, the better I become as a hunter.

There are also other karakuri like rope slingshots, wind blowers, and launchers that I can use to jump over chasms or even attack enemies more easily. I probably haven’t even discovered everything yet.

Co-op isn’t easier – just different

Unlike the first test, this time I spent a lot of time in co-op and looked at the world and some hunts with André Baumgartner from GameStar.

Wild Hearts can be played in co-op with up to 3 hunters in the party. What I noticed are the much harder fights. With a friend you’re not just a superior force, the Kemono are also more difficult. At least that was my impression.

We got a lot harder on the cap than when I played alone – although André is actually the better player. One of the first bosses poured us a lot and knocked us out several times.

Luckily, hunters can revive each other in co-op, preventing the hunt from ever having to be abandoned. That means: as long as one survives and manages to get his friends back in time…

If Kemono are wounded, they will flee. This happened more often in co-op – apparently the opponents can take a bit more. So it’s better not to simply overrun opponents. It is best to divide up tasks, because that is also possible in Wild Hearts.

Here you can see gameplay from one of our hunts together – there you can also hear the annoying sound bug, which I will address again at the end:

Armor and weapons provide roles like in an RPG

In Wild Hearts, weapons and armor can not only be crafted, but also improved and modified. The weapons are based on a huge skill grid, with which they can be specialized for a certain element and thus for a certain opponent.

But I find armor and talismans a bit more interesting. They already have certain perks that increase attack values ​​or offer stronger protection at night. There are also some properties with special effects.

There is, for example, the possibility of going fully into “provocation”. This means enemies are more likely to attack you when you wear this armor. You become the tank. Together with a big hammer you are there to attract and intercept monsters.

In addition, almost every armor can be adjusted to “civilization” or “wilderness” via mods. On the one hand, this makes them stronger, on the other hand, you unlock even more effects, depending on your armor.

I’m still pretty new to crafting myself, but I’m already so enthusiastic about it that I’m collecting materials in order to put together a build. Even though I didn’t even get to the endgame.

By the way: You are never completely alone, even when you are solo. The little machine Tsukumo accompanies you if you want and can heal you with his abilities, deal damage or even tank up.

There are still some bugs, but they are annoying at most

Finally, I have to mention one little thing that really annoyed me while playing: bugs and performance. This was already a problem during the first test and has improved significantly, but is still a bit annoying.

With an RTX 3090 on maximum settings (2 monitors, 1440p), the performance hardly comes above 100 FPS for me – but it is rarely below 60. I find it acceptable, especially since the world itself is really pretty and I like to keep it simple enjoy the landscape.

If it doesn’t flicker… because that also happened in a few places. There is also a rather annoying sound bug, which causes sounds to be delayed more and more until they can only be heard almost half a minute later.

In combat, locating an opponent who has sprinted behind me becomes impossible. In addition, from time to time dialogues are simply skipped and the voice lines come all at once. The problem resolves itself after a while, but takes away from the fun of the game a bit.

However, none of this is “game-breaking” and there is already a patch available today for the release of this preview. So it may be that all of this is no longer the case. Because these are really just small problems that can be fixed quickly.

Wild Hearts will be available on February 16 for PC and on February 17, 2023 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S as a buy2play title. After the release, further free updates will bring new monsters, karakuri and more. The game is also available as a 10-hour demo through EA Play and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The demo can even be played on EA Play from today, February 13th. No further monetization is planned.

The game features full crossplay, but no cross-progression. For me, it’s definitely something that I can also play with our PS Consolero Max Handwerk – and that’s exactly what we’re planning to do in the near future.

Apart from the minor criticisms, my first impression of Wild Hearts is consistently positive. Especially from the point of view of someone who is more enthusiastic about Dark Souls than about Monster Hunter, the hunts are a lot of fun – which surprises me.

Hunting a monster usually only takes a few minutes to half an hour, which keeps me going back and looking for that one improvement. I hope the endgame stays just as exciting.

In an interview, MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski has already spoken to the developers about what actually characterizes Wild Hearts:

How is the new Wild Hearts different from Monster Hunter? “We combine building with hunting”