Koei Tecmo and EA team up for a new take on Monster Hunter called Wild Hearts, one created by the studio behind Dynasty Warriors.
EA isn’t exactly known for publishing games made in Japan. The studio’s bread and butter comes from mostly western titles, be it sports sims like FIFA or shooters like Battlefield.
The newly announced Wild Hearts is well beyond its wheelhouse, but that’s not a bad thing, even if the developer they’ve chosen to partner with is Koei Tecmo’s Omega Force – the studio behind Dynasty Warriors.
Wild Hearts is set in a feudal Japan-inspired fantasy world called Azuma. Wild Hearts sees players (alone or with up to two others) “restoring balance to the region” by hunting Kemono: magical monsters that range from stony golems to giant boars that can pull vines out of the ground.
It’s very easy to make comparisons to Capcom’s own Monster Hunter, although it seems like Wild Hearts puts a lot of emphasis on traps. Instead of relying solely on strong weapons, you must use various devices called Karakuri to defeat the beasts.
A few examples from the trailer are some sort of spinning fan to help you glide above an enemy and what looks like a big wooden mallet to hit monsters on the head.
As it sounds, you’ll need to collect materials to create these special mechanisms, which Yosuke Hayashi, executive vice president of Koei Tecmo says, are the “core of the experience.”
“With Wild Hearts, we not only wanted to show the evolution, the infusion and the real threat of Kemono, but we also wanted to make a game where crafting was at the heart of the experience, redefining what can be possible in a beast hunt. game’, he explains.’
“We took great care in designing our Karakuri to fit into battle, and we’re excited to see players use these powerful mechanics to fight giant beasts and traverse the world.”
Although Dynasty Warriors has few fans in the West, one of the few unrelated games is Omega Force Monster Hunter clone Toukiden: The Age Of Demons and the sequelwhich was actually pretty good.
The game will also be released under the EA Originals label. It has been used so far for many smaller projects such as It takes two and Randomly lostmaking Wild Hearts the label’s first true triple-A project.
This means it’s much more expensive than other EA Originals titles, with EA already pricing it at $70 meaning it costs £70 here in the UK.
An expanded gameplay trailer is scheduled for next week, October 5, and the game launches in February as a PC and next-gen console exclusive. Full cross-play will also be available at launch.
Wild Hearts launches on February 17 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
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