Koei Tecmo’s WILD HEARTS is out in just a few weeks, though EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can access a time-limited trial on February 13th. Executive producer Lewis Harvey provided new details in a Reddit AMA, like Mighty Kemono as High Rank-esque monsters, Volatile Kemono in the endgame, free post-launch DLC, and so on.
However, some features won’t be present for Monster Hunter fans. For instance, Turf Wars, which see two monsters duking it out, will rarely happen between Kemono in WILD HEARTS. Interestingly, along with the hub city of Minato and the four regions, Harvey said other places were a secret.
Another missing feature is the lack of separate armor sets for female characters. You can “mix and match armor pieces, and some of our armor allows you to alter the look to be more human-focused or Kemono-focused. The stats will change with these transformations too. We also have cosmetic ornaments that can be crafted and equipped to your armor for extra personalisation.” Feedback on female sets will be conveyed to the development team.
Finally, in multiplayer, other players can interact with your Karakuri and build their own. However, “Only the world host has the permission to proactively destroy Karakuri. It has been designed specifically to avoid that kind of potential toxic behavior in multiplayer.” Difficulty also dynamically scales up or down depending on the number of players, and the multiplayer infrastructure is peer-to-peer based.
WILD HEARTS is out on February 17th worldwide for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. For more details on Xbox Series X/S and PS5 graphics modes, head here.