Monster Hunter’s rival Wild Hearts is almost here, and everything we’ve seen of EA’s published fantasy game from Koei Tecmo’s Omega Force division is shaping up to be a serious contender for Capcom’s crown. The idea of beating Monster Hunter at its own game with a first entry might be a little bold, but Wild Hearts pushes a few things forward in a way that fans of Monster Hunter and the genre in general will be excited for. coming.
I have played over 2000 hours of Monster Hunter World. It’s long, and it’s not something I say lightly, but I say it with confidence, because it’s a game that grabs your attention. I didn’t play it that long out of weird obligation or because I was firmly stuck in a rut, just having fun. I’ve also put several hundred hours into Monster Hunter Rise, an even more impressive game than World in some ways despite its intentionally smaller scope.
After all this time, you realize the little things, and Wild Hearts is ready to make some key improvements that Monster Hunter would do well to learn in the future. Among these is full cross-play for PC, PlayStation and Xbox players, including the in-game voice chat option as well as the text chat and emote options you’ve come to expect online with. Monster stickers and Hunter’s greetings. This is a very welcome change, especially since my fellow gamers are kind of scattered across multiple platforms these days.
Hunts in Wild Hearts, much like their Monster Hunter counterparts, will fail after three knockouts. However, the ability to revive teammates and save yourself in one of your three chances makes the appeal of taking on Wild Hearts’ toughest monsters in a party even more appealing. Some of the toughest fights in Monster Hunter World and its Iceborne expansion almost seemed easier on their own, because you weren’t sharing that misfire meter with a large group that could see the hunt end with a devastating attack.
Another welcome improvement is how Wild Hearts camps work. Much like Monster Hunter, you’ll be able to build additional camps as resting points around the world. However, as YouTuber ‘Ms 5000 Watts’ (seen below, at 9:33) demonstrated, you can put them anywhere you want and then build them however you see fit, including zip lines and the like. Wild Hearts tools to help you get in and out quickly.
Again, this is a nice evolution from the systems seen in Monster Hunter World and Rise. On top of that, you can eat food at any time for stat buffs, as long as you’re not in combat. Newer Monster Hunter games have made improvements to allow you to eat at camp once you’re out hunting, but being able to do it anywhere is an even better feature.
Such changes allow you to focus on your task without being punished for forgetting the perfect order of activities, which is easy for veterans, but can be another obstacle for newcomers. On a similar note, Ms 5000 Watts shows off the Wild Hearts training area (around 6:28 in the video above), giving you a full step-by-step guide to your weapon in addition to adopting the moveset Monster. the corner of the screen (something obviously missing in Rise).
In addition to aiming to facilitate the experience for new players in a more seamless way than Monster Hunter has ever been, Wild Hearts promises easier accessibility settings, including a screen reader, text-to-speech options, and text-to-speech, and other settings such as colorblind tools to help players enjoy the game as intended.
As a die-hard monster hunter, it won’t surprise you that I also spent a lot of time on Dauntless, a more arcade take on the format from Phoenix Labs and Epic Games. While this game was a pretty solid take on the genre, it certainly leaned a lot towards the faster, simpler side of things, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that it had some influence on Capcom. . Wild Hearts, by comparison, seems to aim much more directly at the scale, scope, and spectacle that World gave us in 2018.
There’s still no word on Monster Hunter World 2, but it seems pretty sure Capcom will want a direct sequel to its best-selling game of all time. Hopefully Wild Hearts turns out as good as it looks. However, whether it does or fails, its mere existence should inspire Capcom to make Monster Hunter even better in the future. Competition benefits us all, in the end.
Wild Hearts will launch on February 16 on Steam, Epic Games Store, and EA Store. In the meantime, check out more of the best games like Monster Hunter, as well as some of the best co-op games if you just fancy some fun with friends.