Wild Hearts hands-off preview — blood and thunder

EA and Koei Tecmo are teaming up for an awe-inspiring hunt.

Besting giant beasts using nothing but human ingenuity is an age-old power fantasy. It’s why Capcom’s Monster Hunter series has become a global phenomenon, and plenty of other studios are getting in on the titan-slaying fun now.

Wild Hearts is the latest contender in this blossoming genre. Brought to us by the somewhat odd pairing of publisher Electronic Arts (EA) and developer Koei Tecmo, Wild Hearts makes crafting know-how an essential part of hunting — arrogant fools that believe blades alone will do the trick need not apply. The skill ceiling is high and pretty daunting, but once everything starts clicking together, Wild Hearts turns into something special.

Set in a beautiful high-fantasy feudal world known as Azuma, Wild Hearts tasks you with the arduous task of taking down enormous animals that have been terrorizing residents. These brutes, called Kemono, use magic to grow exponentially in size and manipulate nature. Interestingly, each mimics a real-world creature — no dragons, dinosaurs, or mythical beasts exist in Wild Hearts. Kingtusk, for example, is a city-bus-sized wild boar with tree roots growing out its back. It’s not the sort of quarry you can take out with just a bow.

Thankfully, Azuma is a land where hunters are also genius inventors. Karakuri, a construction system that lets you build helpful contraptions like springboards and gliders, is what sets Wild Hearts apart from something like Monster Hunter. During a special presentation, whoever was playing made a miniature helicopter that allowed them to get above the giant boar and avoid its brutal ground attacks. It was quite a death-from-above scenario, ending with the hunter’s sword slicing off a tusk. According to Koei Tecmo, you can build a staggering amount of Karakuri, ranging from small trinkets like zip lines to massive walls. Weapons alone come in eight different types with more than 200 craftable variations. It’s a safe bet that theorycrafting enthusiasts will probably love picking-away at Karakuri recipes.

Sometimes it takes more than cunning carpentry skills to defeat a Kemono, though — which is where multiplayer comes into the equation. At virtually any moment, up to three people can team up for hunts in Wild Hearts. “Hunter gates” are spread throughout the overworld, letting players join each other’s games easily. Every quest, hunting excursion, and moment throughout the roughly 30-hour campaign is playable in co-op. However, an extra helping hand likely won’t instantly make fights easier since the overall difficulty scales depending on how many players are together.

Kemono encounters dramatically change depending on what sort of biome you’re in as well. Wild Hearts has four major open-world zones, each with a different seasonal motif. The Kingtusk’s area contains massive cherry blossom trees from which every creature draws power. While I didn’t get to see much of the other three regions, it was obvious that Koei Tecmo’s team is putting in loads of effort to make Azuma feel like a living, breathing world.

There’s tons of ambition going into Wild Hearts, and everything looks promising from what I’ve seen. Whether it sticks the landing or not is tough to predict, but we will find out when Wild Hearts comes out on Feb. 17, 2023, for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.