Wild Hearts, an action RPG by Koei Tecmo and published by EA, has not seen much success since its release in early 2023. It’s a game all about hunting the living embodiments of nature called kemono. It’s similar to the Monster Hunter games in many ways, but the more well-established series defeats it in certain areas. Popularity is among those aspects. However, there are certain areas that Wild Hearts gets right and actually does better than the current Monster Hunter games.
A More Detailed and Deep Plot
As most fans of the mainline Monster Hunter fans know, the plot has never been a huge part of the series. That’s not to say that there isn’t any real plot. Each game does have a story with the ecology of monsters playing its own part. However, these plots are known to not be well-written with plentiful plot holes, contradictions, and characters that aren’t all that interesting. That’s not to say that focusing on the actual monsters is a bad thing. The giant creatures and how players hunt them with giant weapons are the main selling points of the gains.
With Wild Hearts, the monsters are a main focus too with a roster of unique and powerful kemonos to discover. But unlike Monster Hunter, the plot feels like it has a large focus too. At certain points of the game, it even dives into dark territories and actually shows the devastating impacts monsters can have on humans and their communities. Areas of the storyline are emotional and impactful and truly give a reason for players to hunt each monster. This is especially true when they stumble upon someone who sadly lost their life after being overwhelmed by one of these giant beasts.
Actual Character Development
With a deep plot also comes actual character development in Wild Hearts. This goes for the player character as well as the many NPCs that they meet. One of the earliest characters players meet is an ex-samurai general who is down on his luck and has a very bleak outlook on life. He changes throughout the story and even becomes one of the hunter’s best friends. Other characters have impactful storylines such as that one, but that is the most heartwarming example. Meanwhile, the player character starts as a hunter forced to leave the lands they’re used to. As the story progresses, they’re given a larger purpose, a crucial reason to keep hunting.
While this could be said about certain characters in the mainline Monster Hunter games, most of them don’t experience this sort of development. Until Monster Hunter Rise, Capcom didn’t even give the NPCs actual names. For example, in World, the hunter’s handler is simply just called The Handler. This is a character that consistently talks to the player throughout the game, helping with the basics and navigation through certain quests. Still, she is a nameless character that acts the same throughout the entire game.
A Truly Interactable Environment
Along with the unique monsters and storyline, the interactable environment is a big feature in Wild Hearts. Players learn and use summoned tools called Karakuri to make camps around locales and traverse environments. Many of these tools are permanent features unless players choose to destroy them. Karakuri can also be used to attack and defend against monsters. Being able to interact with the game’s environment this way adds to the immersion. Combined with monsters being able to destroy and alter environments, it makes the locales in the game feel alive and breathing.
The environments within the Monster Hunter games are immersive in their own right. The games, especially the most recent ones, are praised for having beautiful environments that also feel alive. Monsters can destroy certain parts of said environments, and players can interact with natural traps and consumables littered throughout the maps. However, Wild Hearts adds to that and puts a unique spin on it with its mechanics. That’s why in terms of a truly interactable environment, it wins.
How Monster Hunter Wilds Will Compare
As one can probably gather, the comparison between Wilds Hearts and Monster Hunter does not include Wilds. As trailers have shown, the story in the upcoming game seems to be more fleshed out and focused on. Just like in Rise, the characters are named too. It even appears that more focus will be put on voice acting, especially since the player character and their Palico companion are voiced. In Rise, the player character did have some voice acting, but it was never in cut scenes like the trailers for Wilds have shown off.
Since Wild Hearts wasn’t successful compared to recent Monster Hunter games, Wilds is guaranteed to defeat it in scale and popularity. That’s especially true since the support for Wild Hearts has practically come to an end. Until players learn more about Wilds and experience it for themselves, it will be difficult to determine if it beats Wild Hearts in terms of plot, character development, and interactable environments. The world will just have to wait and see what the upcoming action RPG has in store.
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