Wild Hearts – remind you of anything? (pic: EA)

East meets West in a team-up between EA and the makers of Dynasty Warriors, which results in the best Monster Hunter game never made.

We always feel there’s not enough collaborations in the games industry, of unconnected developers and publishers working together to make something outside one or the other’s comfort zone. Given that almost never happens, the idea of EA publishing a Monster Hunter clone by the makers of Dynasty Warriors is one of the strangest pitches we’ve ever heard for a video game. Even stranger is the fact that it’s turned out as well as it has.

We’re not Dynasty Warriors fans and find their cheaply made, mindless action unappealing on almost every level. Some of the spin-offs, such as Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity, have been tolerable but the only games by developer Omega Force we’ve actively enjoyed are the two Toukiden games from the PS Vita era, when every Japanese publisher in the country was trying to make their own Monster Hunter clone.

Exactly how Wild Hearts came to be we don’t know but the obvious assumption is that Omega Force, and their owners Koei Tecmo, wanted to make a new Monster Hunter style game but didn’t have the budget to make it work on modern home consoles. This is a problem for many Japanese developers, who can’t afford to make games for anything other than Switch unless it has a good chance of selling well in the West. So the fact that EA has embraced the collaboration, and the game has turned out so well, is very encouraging.

We don’t mean to suggest that Wild Hearts will only be of interest to Japanese gamers; Monster Hunter may have been that way for a long time but Monster Hunter: World became its breakthrough hit, that established it as a major worldwide franchise. What we mean is that rather than EA’s support coming with the proviso that all the cultural influences be taken out, this is still a very Japanese game, with Japanese protagonists and no obvious attempt to pander to a Western audience.

Even if you’ve never played a Monster Hunter game before you’ll already know exactly what they’re about, thanks to what is one of the most endearing blunt game titles since Capcom’s own Dino Crisis. The basics of Wild Hearts are exactly the same, as you tour an open world wilderness in search of giant monsters to kill, ideally with the help of online friends.

Monster Hunter’s creatures are mostly based on dinosaurs and dragons and so Wild Hearts tries to distinguish itself by having a line-up composed mostly of giant mammals, like warthogs, tigers, and porcupines. Some of the designs are a bit too similar to real world animals, but as well as just being bigger they’re also infected with corrupted flora which gives them a range of unusual elemental attacks, including ice and poison (which in turn makes them seem rather like giant, evil pokémon).

The weapon types range from quick wielding katana to staffs, portable cannons, and some Monster Hunter-eque giant hammers and swords. Apart from a deadly attack umbrella they are a little lacking in imagination, but each has a powered-up form, which transforms the weapon into a more powerful configuration for a short time.

What really distinguishes Wild Hearts from Capcom’s games is not the weapons or creatures but a concept called Karakuri, which the game struggles to create any plausible story explanation for but means you can instantly craft traps, equipment, and fortifications out of thin air. These start off simple, with a torch or a trampoline-like crate but eventually you gain the ability to fuse these basic contraptions together to make something more complex, like giant mallet traps and impenetrable walls.

Many Karakuri are also useful against specific types of creatures – a fireworks firing mortar is handy against flying monsters, for example – but since even the simpler ones have multiple applications there’s plenty of scope to improvise. There’s little chance for them to unbalance the combat though, as the celestial thread needed to construct them can quickly run out, with you often needing to pool your resources with other players to build the more complex options.

Unfortunately, the game is not only less fun on your own but noticeably more difficult, since when you’re playing with others they can quickly revive you if you fall. The game does seem to be aware of this though, as the largest category of Karakuri, which usually aid in transversal in some way and including things like zip lines and a giant wheel you can sit in, can be shared with other people in other games.

This works a little like the co-operative features in Death Stranding and if nothing else creates a nice since of community with other players, whether you’re actually playing with them or not.

Wild Hearts – something’s happened to Sonic (pic: EA)

The fact that you can’t stop thinking of Monster Hunter at any point is always going to be Wild Hearts’ biggest flaw but there are some mechanical issues as well, including a lock-on system that gets easily confused during the heat of battle. There’s also a lot of grinding necessary in the game, as you fight the same creatures again and again to get needed resources, and while that’s also an issue in Monster Hunter it’s notably worse here.

Wild Hearts feels more like an unofficial sequel than it does a truly separate game but we’re not sure that’s a problem, since if it was official it’d be hailed as a very worthy follow-up to World. The game does sidestep some obvious opportunities to make Wild Hearts seem more unique though, with banal storytelling that’s even more tiresome to sit through between hunts; even the way the attack animations work, so you can’t interrupt them, is exactly the same as Capcom’s games.

Although they do look a little low-tech at times the graphics are easily the best Omega Force has ever created, even though it feels like a change in setting – something more sci-fi perhaps – would’ve created at least a bit more distance between the two franchises. Although the one major advantage Wild Hearts has over Monster Hunter is that it’s much easier to get into, with far less in the way or arcane menu systems and needlessly complex matchmaking.

We do wonder whether EA might have helped with that, or perhaps it’s just the advantage of starting from scratch, but either way this is a successful alternative to Monster Hunter whether you’ve played the Capcom games or not. We’re fascinated to see where this and other collaborations might go in the future but in the meantime, while this might not surpass its inspiration it’s just different enough to work as a welcome alternative.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £69.99
Publisher: EA
Developer: Omega Force
Release Date: 17th February 2023
Age Rating: 12

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East meets West in a team-up between EA and the makers of Dynasty Warriors, which results in the best Monster Hunter game never made.