The comparisons are inevitable, but Koei Tecmo’s new monster hunting adventure Wild Hearts is a legitimate competitor to Capcom’s hallmark series. This is a wholly original and beautiful boss-fighting experience, filled with gorgeous environments to explore using the game’s karakuri. Wild Hearts surpasses certain aspects of recent Monster Hunter games, and it’s otherwise happy to echo the very best parts, standing alongside it as a fantastic companion option for fans.

Wild Hearts' setting is a dreamy, folkloric Japan named Azuma, a series of interconnected islands which echo the four seasons. Players become a drifter hunter imbued with the “celestial thread” of the karakuri. Wild Hearts’ version of the traditional mechanical puppets comprises most of the game’s culture, extending to combat, navigation, agriculture, and its other varied systems and storytelling beats. The story treats it much like Pokémon as an ingrained way of life, with the main character incorporating depth of karakuri as the game progresses.

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Like Monster Hunter, Wild Hearts has one primary function around which the entire game revolves: to set up extended battle sequences against huge monsters. The creature design is superb, with the game’s strong bestiary further expanded by volatile variants. Each kemono takes a real-life animal and corrupts it with elements of nature. The Kingtusk, for example, is a large six-eyed boar, its legs and tail mutated from an oak tree, whereas the Lavaback is a highly-mobile gorilla built out of volcanic rock.

Wild Hearts Review Kingtusk

Some kemono are larger or louder, but even the lowliest can be deadly. Wild Hearts’ early game poses the greater challenge, as the primary mechanics are slowly tutorialized, while certain other ones are glossed over or outright ignored. The onboarding is toughest with the karakuri, which first seem meant to be placed out in large map areas to assist in climbing walls safely, or placing down a campfire, like how Death Stranding’s mechanisms help conquer the landscape.

However, Wild Hearts' karakuri are impressively dynamic, as they serve these functions while also being indispensable weapons that level out the odds in kemono fights. Constructing them is near instantaneous, so learning the right button combinations to deliver the intended tools begins to feel like learning combos in a fighting game. There are even “fusion karakuri,” combinations of multiple smaller tools that become oversized contraptions.

Wild Hearts Review Dreadclaw

By mid-game players will be poring over dozens of karakuri options to select the best campsite tools and weapons, even styling loadouts for specific kemono hunts. If that weren’t enough, Wild Hearts ships with eight distinct weapons, and they give the Monster Hunter armory a run for its money. There are basics like the Maul, a massive hammer with slow windups, and the Karakuri Katana, the first one made available to the player. Other armaments are esoteric, like the Bladed Wasaga, an umbrella which is the only item that can parry attacks.

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Wild Hearts’ weapon trees are lengthy and encourage different build types to alternate between outings. Much like Monster Hunter, no weapon swaps are permitted on-the-fly, with players committing to one prior to heading out on a quest. There are a healthy range of side quests and upgrades available after the main town hub Minato is unlocked but, predictably, they all revolve around fighting kemono in one shape or another.

Wild Hearts Review Zipline

Luckily, Wild Hearts battles are worthy, memorable, and often desperate encounters. Spotting new kemono out on the field is always a thrill, a novelty which lasts through much of the playthrough. As wounded kemono escape to their next chosen arena, they create new opportunities to scout out better angles of approach. Karakuri which can fling the player up the cliff sides of many beautiful biomes, straight up 30 feet into the air, or fired directly at their quarry make closing distance an engaging puzzle of planning.

The primary downside is a surprise: Wild Hearts’ user interface is a mess. The various maps and status screens can be confusing at the best of times, even hours into the game. The character menu is befuddling, there are two layered maps with no legends, and Wild Hearts is a game which really needs this info cleanly presented. Some game mechanics are completely obscured, like the bath house (which can increase health) being hidden in a far-off corner of the town, never even alluded to.

Wild Hearts Review Minato Paper Lanterns

Wild Hearts should thrive in its post-launch life as new updates accrue, while players devise and trade loadout strategies and boss techniques. Additionally, Koei Tecmo has stated that no microtransactions are planned, with new karakuri, weapons, kemono, and quests expected in the coming months. Our review encompassed single player only, and the game is a completely reasonable and satisfying challenge in offline mode, with an engaging story that builds to some gratifying peaks. Wild Hearts is a class act and an impressive first step at a franchise that feels entirely original, in spite of its direct Monster Hunter competition looming large.

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Wild Hearts releases on February 16 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. A digital PS5 code was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.

Source: WILD HEARTS/YouTube