There's a thinness to the gear system, too. That shallow monster soured me on advancing through the campaign, because each new chapter made me slug through the same monsters-except now they dealt more damage-or variations that didn't feel significantly distinct. Wild Hearts has 22 kemono, and of those only 15 are unique (including the final boss and a gimmick fight I can't see myself wanting to repeat many more times). There just isn't nearly enough downtime between reruns. Big hits, fast hits, unique karakuri attacks: each matchup feels different and there's loads to chew on here. The interplay between Wild Hearts' weapons and kemono is fantastic. The lavaback, a giant flaming gorilla, seems straightforward until he's enraged-then suddenly he uses his molten arms like stretchy rubber bands to slingshot himself at you feet-first. Some of the kemono really surprised me in a good way, going beyond their obvious gimmick. I expect these skills will pay off for specialized endgame builds, but through much of the campaign they seem far less important than just finding armor that can help you survive a few hits from the right monster.Įvery kemono has an elemental affinity and a "Mother Nature got shitfaced" design, like the sapscourge, a sap-covered, pollen-spewing asthmatic nightmare, or the goldshard, a porcupine with giant crystals for spines. There are no little steps here to make yourself feel incrementally tougher, just upgrades that give your armor a human or kemono "affinity" which seems woefully underbaked, with a few scattered skills related to either alignment. In a game about constantly accruing resources, I was bewildered by how stingy Wild Hearts was with its armor. The system just isn't reliable enough.īuilding feels like the rough draft of a feature that could be great in a sequel, and the same goes for the progression systems. I lost count of how many times the game missed one of my button inputs or didn't place one of my karakuri in the right spot, leaving me with a worthless pile of torches and springs stacked in front of me and an empty resource meter. Karakuri can lead to thrilling moments, like using a spring to just dodge a monster's charge and unleashing your own attack mid-leap, but much of the time it's frustratingly clunky. At first you're spawning simple crates to leap off or springs that'll catapult you towards a monster, but soon you'll unlock fusions that erect a defensive wall or shoot off a harpoon to stun a monster and deal big damage. Then there's the big gimmick: the karakuri, the traps and tools you build mid-combat with button combos on a controller or a few key taps on mouse and keyboard. It's the only weapon in the game with a defensive option, which kept me alive and made me look like a cracked Mary Poppins in action.īuilding feels like the rough draft of a feature that could be great in a sequel I loved the bladed wagasa umbrella, which attacks by spinning like a top and powers up when you parry a kemono. There are only eight weapons, but the lean arsenal is full of delightful surprises. Wild Hearts does excel in the moments you're flying through the air with a claw blade latched into a monster's back, turning yourself into a projectile Edward Scissorhands, or when you land the third hit in a hammer combo string to crumple a monster's face in. The reward is some sweet, sweet crafting material to use for your next piece of armor or a slightly more powerful weapon. The goal in every fight isn't just to win, but to break specific body parts-usually the face, the tail, the claws or wings. Each one has the complexity and ferocity of a boss in a Japanese character action game, with a set of telegraphed attacks to learn and a few even more powerful moves to throw at you when they become enraged. Just like Capcom's Monster Hunter before it, Wild Hearts sets you on the trail of giant beasts that need culling. Wild Hearts won't technically allow me to wipe the species from existence, but it's good to have dreams, right? At least I can now do the next best thing: wear that dead tiger's skin as armor to go on a genocidal rampage. Wild Hearts is a hunting game that pontificates on the delicate balance of nature at every opportunity, but there were more than a few moments where I was ready to raze all of feudal Japan and be done with some of this game's more tedious fights and aggravating performance problems.
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