Wild Hearts

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.