Wild Hearts

After spending most of the last year on Sunbreak which I loved across platforms, Omega Force and EA's Wild Hearts is a perfect complement for Monster Hunter fans looking to play another great game in the genre. While it is unfortunately held back by technical issues, Wild Hearts does a lot that takes the genre forward, and I can't wait to keep playing the postgame through the coming months while we hopefully get more updates.

More than a Monster Hunter clone, Wild Hearts managed to be a worthy competitor to the Capcom series, thanks to its original ideas and handling of well-known concepts. Omega Force has delivered a new series that could well become a mainstay for the Japanese studio.

Wild Hearts is a massive single-player and co-op hunting game with an RPG backbone supporting it. The mixture of story, creative mechanics, thick strategy, and beautiful visuals makes this a top-tier hunting experience. If the controls could be improved a bit and break from traditional stuck-in-the-action sequences, it would be nearly perfect. Overall, it’s a great first go at a genre that is severely lacking in competition.

Wild Hearts has so much to offer. From the striking monster designs, distinct weapon variety, and engaging combat, hunters will have a new favorite game to join up with friends and take down enormous foes. Outside of some dips in pacing in the later hours, and a few repetitive encounters, there is little holding this game back from becoming a new name in the genre.

Wild Hearts is a class act and an impressive first step at a franchise that feels entirely original.

Wild Hearts does not invent the black thread at the time in hunting games, but it does offer some attractive game mechanics thanks to the Karakuri system, which dramatically changes the way you face giant monsters. Omega Force proves again that it is a versatile game studio with many talents and the ability to do different games. The result is a very entertaining title that will depend on its community to keep going.

Wild Hearts improves on all existing aspects of it's main competitor, Monster Hunter. The game adds a touch of originality with surprising and functional mechanics. Fun and challenging, the game is a visual spectacle that excites and also delivers unique rewards for the players.

Wild Hearts couldn't have been a better start for a new IP. While the experience shares more than a few similarities with that of the Monster Hunter series, the unique monster design, the great weapon variety and the Karakuri crafting mechanics give the game a unique flavor that makes it stand out easily among similar games. Performance issues, sadly, impact the experience considerably on all formats, preventing it from reaching greater heights, but even in its current state, the game is a more than worthy purchase for fans of the genre.

WILD HEARTS is a pretty fun monster hunter-like game that stands out for its use of tools called Karakuri. The gameplay is very fast, intuitive but simplified in a good way. However, at the graphic level I found some mix ups and downs but I enjoyed it a lot.

Wild Hearts is a more than solid proposal that manages to come out well from its comparison with Monster Hunter. Its distinctive points are clear and give the game a style of its own. The Japanese design and setting is convincing and although it is far from being a round IP, Wild Hearts could have a great future as a saga.

Still, that Wild Hearts gets so much right on its first tentative step into the arena is bloody impressive. Omega Force has created the first title I’ve played that is a genuine contender in the space and they’ve done more than enough to justify Wild Hearts’ place in it. The result is something meaningfully different in a genre no one else has been able to touch. It’s kind of like if someone made a Souls-like on par with an actual Souls.

Wild Hearts takes the hunting action to the next level with vicious beasts, a vast world to explore, and an array of powerful weapons. But that's not all—the magical Karakuri crafting system seamlessly blends with combat and exploration to offer an awe-inspiring experience. It's so fluently integrated into the game that you'll be amazed at how much it advances combat, exploration, and the engaging gameplay loop. Still, the adventure suffers from visual issues and a waning grind. Even so, Wild Hearts is my new monster-hunting addiction.

Wild Hearts is not only a great exponent of the genre, it can also be a highly recommended entry point.

Wild Hearts is packed with creative mechanics and delightful flourishes that make it a welcome and exciting addition to the monster hunting genre.

As a new IP, destined to be compared to one of the world's most beloved hunting action franchises inevitably, 'Wild Hearts' seems to have successfully secured its own identity by composing an original system and open world. Although the button arrangement for the console version is somewhat sloppy, It will most likely be a great option if you are looking for a new hunting action game.

If the developers were hoping to launch an IP that could stand side-by-side with other monster-hunting games, they can rest easy. Wild Hearts shares some mechanics with other titles in the genre, but it’s best when staking out unique territory. Hunting Kemono alone and with others, using the Karakuri, and just enjoying the game’s satisfying loop are all a lot of fun. Best of all, Wild Hearts has the mechanical foundation and potential for endless DLC and sequels. If they can live with its slightly disappointing visuals, fans of that “other” monster-hunting game have a viable and addictive alternative in Wild Hearts.

With great battle mechanics and karakuri crafting, Wild Hearts stands out as a unique hunting game. When playing alone it can feel a bit intimidating, but the difficulty becomes just right during multiplayer, which allows for interesting ways to chain different karakuri devices. While as a new IP there are certain elements of the game that could be improved upon and while there are some technical issues that hold it back, Wild Hearts is a game without any real major flaws.

As you can probably tell from the dozen mentions of Monster Hunter in this review, it’s tough to separate Wild Hearts from what it’s inspired by. These games both fit into their own niche genre of action game, and both excel at different things. But even through all my frustrations, and all the times I shut the game off after getting knocked down a single time, I still want to return to Wild Hearts with friends to get better gear and take down bigger Kemono – and that’s a good indicator that this game is doing something right.

Through its inventive Karakuri real-time building system, Wild Hearts finds its own stride amidst efforts to emulate the Monster Hunter formula. The ability to create huge walls to stop monsters in their tracks, or automated hammers to knock them down gives players more flexibility in how they choose to tackle each mission, and in turn makes multiplayer hunting particularly engaging.

Though it can be a blurry mess at times, Wild Hearts does plenty right to justify a play by both monster hunter veterans and newcomers to the genre. The Karakuri system is genius and enhances an already fantastic combat experience, and co-op is wonderfully implemented, making it easy to group up with other hunters. Wild Hearts is a fantastic first attempt by Omega Force, as it goes toe-to-toe with an established franchise and gets in a few attacks of its own, and I’m excited to see how the team builds upon this victory, Karakuri-style!

Wild Hearts puts in the legwork of making the player learn and respect the world they’ve been dropped into, and the indigenous life therein.

Don't get it twisted - Wild Hearts is, by all means, a Monster Hunter clone. But dare I say it - it's one of the best ones. Some faults are mitigated by excellent combat and the incredible Karakuri mechanic.

Despite all of Wild Hearts‘ faults, it’s hard not to be be taken in by its charms. Omega Force has really tried to create a solid Monster Hunter contender with this one, and it mostly succeeds. There are some genuinely neat ideas here, and its monster designs are a welcome breath of fresh air. Overall, it’s a great game in its own right, but it’s more exciting when you consider it a base to be improved upon with further iterations.

Yes, Wild Hearts has copied the Monster Hunter formula, but it manages to go beyond that by distinguishing itself with elements never before seen. The use of Karakuris, these structures that can be invoked to help triumph, brings a lot to the gameplay of the game. The game then gains in intensity, in strategy, but also in the possibility of combat, which makes the confrontations epic and quite enjoyable.

Wild Hearts isn’t a perfect game, but it distinguishes itself due in part to the magical charm of its karakuri mechanic and monsters that are mysterious and fascinating. It may look and sometimes play like a Monster Hunter game, but the more you get into it, the more fights you win, and the more karakuri you build, the more it feels like a breath of fresh air.

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.

Arguably the best Monster Hunter clone ever made and while it’s not quite as good as Capcom’s series it does have some unique and interesting ideas of its own – despite initial impressions to the contrary.

While the premise remains the same throughout, the battles each offer unique enough enemies to ensure your tactics have to change per fight and progress is a must to move on. Well worth a look if you’re into lengthy epic boss battles.

A solid alternative to the Monster Hunter series that sincerely surprised us with its combat flow and complex karakuri system. There's definitely a lot of balancing to be done, and the PC version has some clear optimization problems... still, this is a great action game that we wholeheartedly recommend, and has a lot of potential for the future.

Wild Hearts is a worthy competitor to Monster Hunter, boasting brilliantly creative weapons and fearsome beasts to match, scuppered only by an infuriating camera. Omega Force deftly avoids delving into colonist themes, and Wild Hearts is all the better for it .

Without revolutionizing the genre, Wild Hearts offers a direct approach to the game of hunting. With the mechanics of the Karakuris, the fights take advantage of a strategic dimension thanks to these constructions that are effective both against monsters and to adjust the levels in its own way. Far from forgetting the essential, the experience of Omega Force offers a nervous and dynamic gameplay, characteristic of the studio, supported by a limited, but varied arsenal.

Wild Hearts’ building mechanics add a very fun twist to its familiar but well-executed co-op monster hunting formula.

While the game stumbles here and there regarding camera issues, story, and a lack of enemy variety at launch, Koei Tecmo's Omega Force and EA's latest game still manages to land on its own two feet. A brilliant crafting system makes Wild Hearts unique and a lovely addition to the hunting subgenre.

While the community will ultimately decide whether or not Wild Hearts lives on as long as any given Monster Hunter iteration, I hope it does.

From the story and the karakuri to the kemono monsters themselves, Wild Hearts has some world-class mechanics and writing behind it. It falters in a few important places as well, especially regarding performance, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time and money. If you love taking down fantastical beasts of every shape and size, this time in a world inspired by feudal Japan, there’s no substitute.

The team at Omega Force have done a commendable job with Wild Hearts, as it does just enough to stand out from the Monster Hunter games that Capcom has created. This ambitious project boasts a beautiful high fantasy feudal Japan setting and an intuitive and game-changing Karakuri building mechanic. However, the high cost of entry and performance issues hold it back from being truly captivating.

Wild Hearts is, at times, an utterly thrilling game. It's a game that will leave you kicking yourself for a poorly timed dodge or a missed opportunity, and jumping out of your chair when you finally topple a troublesome foe with a last-ditch, go-for-broke attack. There's a handful of technical issues, a mite too much repetition, and some quibbles about the difficulty, but the core monster hunting experience is spectacular enough that the joys far outweigh the frustrations.

I loved Wild Hearts from the moment that a giant flower-infested rat spawned an entire towering cherry blossom tree in the middle of our epic first fight, and my love only grew as I experienced its weapons, gadgets, environments, music, and other creatures.

Wild Hearts treads familiar ground as you hunt one monstrous beast after another, but Omega Force has added new tricks and gimmicks that help separate it from the games it draws inspiration from. At the end of the day, it proudly stands as a unique experience with its own identity.

Naughty Monster Hunter clone struggling with technical issues. The highly innovative Karakuri and hilarious monsters save the hunt from falling into oblivion.

In an era when Monster Hunter dominates the space, it's nice to have a newcomer step up to the plate and offer some competition, and Wild Hearts is a good start. It has a solid core with fun monsters to fight and the Karakuri system is genuinely great, setting it apart from its peers. While performance woes can hinder it, Wild Hearts is still a good time overall, and hopefully the start of a bright new future for the IP.

Wild Hearts have dismantled the beast, and retrofit its parts into something more accessible and highly addictive in its own right. Obnoxious exposition and an uninspired narrative can sometimes get in the way of its well crafted gameplay loop, but the thrill of the hunt is more than worth it.

Wild Hearts seems to have the right ideas about what a modern monster-hunting game needs. If it could inject some of the flashier bits from their other games, then Omega Force would definitely have a fierce competitor on its hands in the monster hunting genre of games. Right now, it does of course stand in Capcom’s shadow, but suddenly this subgenre has started heating up. Competition breeds innovation, and it’s exciting to wonder what we’ll see next.

Technical issues affect both the performance and visual quality of Wild Hearts to a considerable degree. However, the visual style, the gameplay structure, the great use of Karakuri for hunting and exploration, as well as the very good co-op make it a fun and original title. If you have the patience to wait for updates and the technical problems to be resolved, it is certainly a great option in the hunting genre.

Wild Hearts is a solid MonHun genre title and there are solid refreshing elements like Karakuri building system. Eight weapons and four vast maps are enough for practicing skills but uneven difficulty spikes and some bugs can be challenging. On the other hand, three player co-op is a welcome addition and preferred way of gameplay

Wild Hearts is a Monster Hunter-like adventure with its own ideas that delivers something different, even with a flawed execution.

It may not be the "Monster Hunter killer" many people were waiting for, but Wild Hearts has some good ideas that would have just needed more time to reach their maximum potential.

Wild Hearts is most fun when it's fair and unfortunately that often requires multiple players. Monster Hunter players will feel right at home in the world of Azuma, but will still be surprised by the innovative and constantly evolving Karakuri system. However, the high degree of difficulty, technical flaws and the uninteresting story will mainly scare off newcomers to the genre.

Wild Hearts is a decent proposal for the hunting genre and especially for those that seek something more accessible. At the same time the karakuri (construction) mechanism is a good and quite clever addition to the genre.

The hunts may feel derivative, and the crafting more of a cumbersome crutch, but there’s still a fascinating world for hunters looking for their next challenge. [Issue#25, p.74]

This is a solid game, even though it’s not good looking at all and it borrows perhaps more than it should from its peers. The karikuri system is, however, a high point which the developers should accentuate even more in the future.

Wild Hearts is a great gateway to the online hunting genre and a worthy alternative to Monster Hunter. The idea of ​​constructions is the future of this type of games and its rhythm, like a musou, makes Wild Hearts dynamic, original and fun. Its a pitty what happens with the camera, its performance issues and its broken progression system that requires you to grind to death and doesn't allow you to complete the game if you are a lone wolf.

Wild Hearts is indeed a serious competitor to Monster Hunter. If the game is not so different from its model, the form is another story. The Karakuri completely change the dynamics of hunting and exploring and make the whole thing very dynamic. It's extremely generous, there's plenty to play for many, many hours and it's well written, as surprising as that is for the genre. Alas, even if Wild Hearts has a beautiful Japanese art direction, technically it's clearly not up to scratch. Not only are there glitches almost everywhere, but the game can be very ugly at times, especially because of its droopy textures. A few patches will therefore be necessary to get the most out of it. Too bad, we were close to an absolutely huge title. However, if you get past the not-so-sexy packaging, Wild Hearts might just surprise you.

The lack of gear and infuriating combat mechanics leave much to be desired from what could have been a gorgeous and fun game about monster slaying.

EA and Omega Force’s unlikely venture succeeds by being the perfect entry point to the hunter genre. This is the accessible radio single to Monster Hunter’s prog album odyssey: it’s silly, flawed and probably not destined to be an all-timer, but if you’re in the right mood, my god is it fun. Whether it’ll continue to dig its talons into me remains to be seen, but after years of frustration, I finally feel ready to dive further into this once-impenetrable genre.