There’s plenty to kill in Wild Hearts, but even more to love.

In a short group interview and with some hands-on time, we learned more about the hunting game’s unique approach to exploration and battle, what to expect from the 50-hour campaign and what post-launch plans the studio has for Wild Hearts.

The action role-playing game is publisher Electronic Arts and developer Omega Force’s entry into the hunting genre so far mostly dominated by Capcom’s Monster Hunter. It is also meant to serve as a new pillar franchise for the Koei-owned studio famous for its work on the Dynasty Warriors games.

Five minutes into the game and it’s clear that Wild Hearts has achieved all of that and more. The Kemono monsters – each fantastical revisions of real animals, lumber, spring, fly through the colorful, varied, lush landscapes of Azuma. There is a captivating story that draws you effortlessly through hunts and missions. The selection of eight weapon types with forty to fifty variants and eclectic mix of armor fills your downtime as you tweak the look and feel of your hunter. But the biggest differentiator is the thing that makes Wild Hearts a draw even to those who might not be fans of the original genre: the Karakuri.
Karakuri are traditional Japanese mechanized puppets meant to trick the viewer, but in the game the Karakuri are contraptions created by tapping into the natural magic of the land with a device attached to your character's wrist, allowing the player to create objects out of thin air to help with exploring, setting up base camp, or even in the middle of combat.

Takuto Edagawa, one of the game’s director’s, calls Wild Hearts a new kind of hunting game because of the introduction of this on-the-fly crafting mechanic.

There are a few types of Karakuri. The basic ones allow players the ability to drop a crate on the ground, or stack them, mostly for getting to hard to reach locations, but soon you’ll be using more advanced Dragon and Fusion Karakuri to find the Kemono, set up a base camp, and even attack the creatures. You'll also have to upgrade Dragon Pits to expand the number and size of the Karakuri you can use in that area.

A few hours into the game and you’ll unlock those Fusion and Dragon Karakuri, like the ability to build a bulwark out of a massive wall of crates to block attacks. You can also stack three springs three high, which turns the stack into a giant mallet that automatically pulls back and smashes whatever is in front of it for massive damage. Another Karakuri allows you to shoot a vine zipline. Eventually, this can be upgraded to hit Kemono for damage and even to add a more effective harpoon. And there’s so much more from gliders to self-fishing boats, to chain traps. Players can unlock new abilities in a skill tree by using a form of experience point, or they may unlock a new creation on the fly in the middle of a battle.

This ability to tweak your battlefield on the fly and call forth what are essentially siege weapons in a throw down with the Kemono are what make the game feel so different from other hunting titles on the market. There’s a greater sense of tactics and control; planning traps ahead of time, plotting out springs so you can quickly move around an enemy; watching for breaks in a Kemono’s attack that allows you to plant a Karakuri attack; keeping an eye on the amount of raw material you have on hand (Celestial Thread powers your ability) so you can keep using this ability.
Even outside combat the Karakuri has a huge impact on play. It’s easy to find yourself exploring the colorful settings of the game when you have boxes, ziplines and wind-powered launch pads – known as wind vortex in the game – at your fingertips.

The game takes place in Azuma, a land inspired by feudal Japan that is quickly losing its inhabitants thanks to the nature-infused beasts rampaging across the countryside.

After the game’s introduction and spending a bit of time hunting your first Kemono, the player arrives at Minato, the only inhabited town in the game. It’s here that you will recover from battle, upgrade weapons and armor, unlock health boosts in the bathhouse, sell your loot, and find new missions to accomplish and Kemono to hunt.

The town is beautiful, a living creation bristling with activity and colorful homes. Built around a small ocean cove, Azuma’s verticality is dazzling. Docks are home to the boats that can take you to nearby islands, higher up you’ll find marketplaces and homes, higher still the blacksmith you befriended, in another area of town, overlooking seemingly everything, are training grounds. But even above that is the town’s steward in a small cottage tucked away in the cliffs. Finally, towering above the town is a massive stalled windmill; and fluttering in the distance, kites dipping and rocking in the buffeting wind. All of it is explorable, packed with little walkways, wooden spiraling staircases, bridges, and tucked away tunnels. You’ll run into people singing softly to themselves, carrying on with their lives, some will even call out to you. And, of course, there are fun little Easter eggs and items to retrieve for the completionists.
In a masterful design decision, the developers decided to allow players to create Karakuri basically anywhere they'll fit. This means you can use them to zip around town, or to try to get to the top of some mountain that seems insurmountable during a hunt. The impact this has on the ability to explore this world is hard to overstate. And despite seemingly being able to wander into every nook and cranny of a map, there always seems to be some sign that a developer was waiting for you to discover that particular hideaway. It’s a meticulously crafted world with such beguiling, broad beauty that you might initially think the details will fall short, but after hours of exploration that still manages to surprise. 

Of course, the heart of the game are the Kemono and your hunt for them. The developers describe Wild Heart’s broad game loop as locating the beast, preparing the battleground with Karakuri, deciding whether to hunt alone or with two friends, gearing up for the hunt, and then diving in.

So far, the developers have unveiled ten different Kemono. Each is designed around nature-infused real-world animals. When you take them on, you have to worry not only about their straightforward attacks, but also their ability to call forth nature-powered attacks. For instance the tiger-inspired Golden Tempest can summon powerful winds, the molten gorilla Lavaback can cover an area in dangerous molten rocks and cause eruptions beneath your feet, and the Spineglider is a flying Kemono modeled after a flying squirrel that secretes a liquid that turns into rock. It uses these perches to launch devastating gliding attacks. 

To make matters a bit more complicated, the environment in which you face off against a Kemono can also impact some of its abilities and fighting style.

It’s important to know what you’ll be facing when you’re preparing the battleground and figuring out how best to take the creature down.
Kotaro Hirata, another game director on Wild Hearts, said they were inspired to design the Kemono as a fusion of nature and wild animals because they view both as something you should fear and also be inspired by. 

“We wanted to fuse those two together to create Kemono,” he said, adding that the visual design of the creatures was in part inspired by Ukiyo-e, a 17th through 19th century form of Japanese art usually produced as woodblocks prints or paintings.

While most hunting action games tend to lean into the cooperative play experience, Wild Hearts' developers also wanted to make sure that they could provide a good gaming experience for players who wanted to work their way through the game on their own.

That’s one reason why the game includes Tsukumo. These ball-like mechanical AI companions can be upgraded to help players out in a pinch during their one-on-one matches with Kemono. They can carry extra Celestial Thread for you, and help with defense, distraction and even attacks. 

“It’s up to you to use the Tsukumo to gain advantage in your fight against Kemono,” Hirata said. 

Of course, if you want coop play, you can invite other players to a hunt with the click of a button. But only two can join you on a hunt.

Edagawa said the team were initially considering supporting four-player coop in Wild Hearts, but after running through some play tests, they realized that three players gave them the best balance.

“The Karakuri in the game has a very high synergy effect,” he said. “You can use the Karakuri the other player placed and be really creative and strategic. But we still wanted the battles to have some tension and that is why we decided to limit it to three players. 

“Also, it’s easier to get three players together rather than four.”
The game’s vast open world and the campaign that powers you through it should take about 50 hours to complete, according to the developer. But that won’t mean you’re done with the game. 

Omega Force explained that the team already has plans for free content updates hitting in March and April. March will see new weapons and armor variations, more high-difficulty quests, and of course more subspecies and “deeply volatile” Kemono. April will see new Kemono, weapons and armor variations, Karakuri, and quests. April will also see a weapon and equipment enhancement system go live. 

“We’re particularly focused on adding Kemono,” Edagawa said. “Completing the story is not the ultimate goal of this game. There’s so much to do after you finish the campaign.”

Hirata added that while the campaign does have a final boss battle, it’s actually not the hardest Kemono to beat.

“You have to find it after you finish the main story,” he said. “And Kemono like that will be added post launch. To beat those Kemono you’re going to have to hone your skills and equip nice weapons and armor.”

You can pre-order and wishlist Wild Hearts here.