Sitting down for my probability to preview Wild Hearts, I used to be struck by how the Hunting Action style has virtually effectively and really been dominated by Capcom’s flagship collection. Back when the PlayStation Vita was a supported platform in Japan, it felt like each Japanese firm beneath the solar needed to attempt their shot at a recreation to tackle the king of the style – but for all their price, titles like God Eater, Freedom Wars, Soul Sacrifice and Toukiden have all however dried out. Yet, with Monster Hunter: World’s huge success – promoting over 20 million copies – it felt like solely a matter of time earlier than some main Western firm threw its hat into the ring. Enter EA and Koei Tecmo’s collaboration with Wild Hearts, a brand new 3-person co-op Hunting Action title.

First issues first; this recreation shouldn’t be Toukiden. Despite Koei Tecmo’s earlier foray into the style, Wild Hearts is its personal tackle an analogous concept. While gamers will as soon as once more take management of a hunter inside Japan-inspired locales – Wild Hearts has gamers tasked with killing Kemono, as an alternative of extra conventional Japanese demons. As one thing of a singular twist, Kemono themselves are akin to a dwelling power of nature. While every of the three I confronted resembles a type of animal, such because the Kingtusk which is clearly an enormous Boar meshed with a tree, all of them have their very own distinctive parts that particularly come into play every time a Kemono enrages.

As a current-gen unique, even within the preview construct’s early stage, it’s hanging simply how a lot the atmosphere warps to the Kemono’s actions. When a Sapscourge enrages, it’s going to begin flinging scorching magma-like sap all over the place, coating giant parts of the sector, and forcing you to adapt your playstyle. When a Kingtusk turns into offended, giant parts of the atmosphere will grow to be enveloped in tree branches, stumps, and even waves of jutting wooden that require the participant to successfully determine when to weave nearer to the Kemono to assault.

Karakuri is a characteristic distinctive to Wild Hearts, which permits gamers to craft equipment that can be utilized to assist alongside a hunt. These might be so simple as blocks you may bounce off, barricades that may counter a Kemono’s assault, and environmental weapons equivalent to bombs and hammers. Outside of fight, gamers can expend power gained from purifying Springs to create mechanisms equivalent to watchtowers to assist monitor down Kemono within the area, tents that may be positioned at potential campsites to broaden quick journey capabilities and even create your individual zip traces that may aid you extra simply entry hard-to-reach areas.

Combat itself is pretty much like Monster Hunter – there’s a weight to your assaults which may not attraction to everybody, however after a while getting used to it the weapons really feel proper at residence to anybody who has performed their justifiable share of Capcom’s personal collection. They’re not carbon copies in fact, however extra completely different – but comparable takes – on weapons. For instance, Wild Hearts’ equal of the Longsword doesn’t have the spirit combo from Monster Hunter; but when you refill its bar, you can begin spamming assaults that flip the sword right into a type of segmented whip.

It’s exhausting to get a really feel for the places of Wild Hearts after only some hours, and going off of solely one of many recreation’s 4 areas; EA states that every area is supposed to represent a season, with the part that press received to play representing Spring. Although the sport isn’t correctly open-world, every zone itself is lots giant and open in and of itself. In different phrases, you received’t be feeling constricted everytime you’re transferring across the atmosphere, searching your prey. 

Visually it’s a bit troublesome to guage; components of the sport look phenomenal at this level and actually showcase how completely different a current-gen unique can look with how dynamic the environments react to the Kemono’s actions. Yet different features look noticeably decrease constancy; contemplating what we performed was a transparent work in progress, and optimization has but to be executed, it’s most likely a secure assumption that the ultimate recreation will look and run higher. Hopefully, no less than – stuttering was a really actual concern, going by the demo. Considering what number of Japanese PC releases have suffered from shader-compilation stutter in recent times, we are able to solely pray that shaders are pre-compiled come the complete launch down the road.

All in all, the present state of Wild Hearts is extremely promising; whereas it’s removed from good, there’s greater than sufficient room within the business for video games to try to compete in opposition to Monster Hunter. Whether the complete recreation will dwell as much as that promise is one other matter fully, however for now I can’t assist however be excited to discover the remainder of the sport come its February 17 launch date.