With Wild Hearts edging closer to its release, fans continue to draw comparisons to Capcom's beloved Monster Hunter World and Rise. Recent previews of the EA title developed by Omega Force suggest a game with multiple layers from its unique enemy and environment designs, to the fast-paced combat, containing a different play style.
Given the massive amounts of praise and popularity the Monster Hunter titles maintain particularly World, fans will be anticipating many features in terms of Wild Hearts' gameplay and multiplayer experience to take inspiration from the aforementioned games, and it could possibly stand as a potential competitor.
5 Tracking Monsters
Based on the gameplay trailer revealed, it appears as though players will be following trails of monsters known as 'Kemono' to take down, similar to Ghost of Tsushima's wind-guiding feature. Given the likelihood of each location being vast and open for exploration, this was an expected feature to be included in this title. While this is essentially confirmed, it is not entirely clear whether tracking monsters will work by just scanning the area alone or picking up trails such as footprints, this is an area that should take inspiration from Capcom's titles.
Within Monster Hunter World, players can identify trails such as footpaths, Dung, and many other monster materials that reward them with research points, and also allow hunting another time to be much quicker than the first time around. This is crucial to Wild Hearts' gameplay loop, as this is what enables a real hunting feel rather than the title giving it away every time, and developers should certainly focus on this aspect.
4 Plethora Of Weapons & Upgrades
One thing Monster Hunter World and Rise excel at is the number of options players have in terms of their equipment, and the long and expansive upgrade trees that were accessible to players. Not only are these still currently contributing to the maintenance of the high player base for both games, but it gives the player far more incentive to play through the game again using a different character, or building an entirely new class in terms of their elements with a new weapon or the same one.
From what publishers EA and Koei Tecmo have shown so far, players will have access to a variety of different weapons at release, and based on Capcom's track record of releasing DLC later down the line for their Monster Hunter games, Wild Hearts could follow the same path. This is an opportunity for developers to make a unique experience by potentially releasing DLC in the future that adds new weapons to the table.
3 Character Creation
Considering the title's genre as an action RPG, many fans will certainly be looking towards Wild Hearts' character creation, and whether this will be in-depth or not. Monster Hunter World's character creation contains a variety of options for players to use to customize their own character to their liking, and Capcom managed to do a great job in this region. While some would debate that World's customization is the bare minimum compared to other RPG titles, it still does enough to please players.
If developers at Omega Force wish to appease those who hold RPG character creation closely, Monster Hunter World would be one of the better options to start from to build a foundation of their own unique and greater levels of customization. As mentioned, this would be incredibly beneficial to the game's replayability factor, giving players the motivation to start fresh with a new character and look.
2 Extensive Armor Sets
Out of all of Monster Hunter World's biggest attractions, many fans will know that its incredible amount of armor sets stands out as one of the most pivotal. From low rank to high rank, and to master rank, players can form multiple unique and shiny new sets of armor, that keep them coming back for more and more. This stood as one of the main reasons as to why fans loved the title and continues to allow the game to flourish.
Taking down new or old monsters was all necessary to gain access to new armor pieces, with certain materials needed to craft them. If Wild Hearts can replicate this to the degree that developers at Capcom were able to in any way shape or form, it will instantly give this game a boost in its chances of standing as one of the recognized monster-hunting-like games.
1 4 Player Co-Op
Unfortunately for many players, Wild Hearts is confirmed to only allow 3-player co-op which comes as a disappointment, as the director Takuto Edagawa said it would make the game too easy with the 'Katakuri' tools players have access to. While this will be the case at launch, it does not completely rule out a potential change in the game's future.
If developers can find a way to increase the difficulty, or allow the Kemono to be far more aggressive once the player number increases akin to Monster Hunter World, it could give fans of the genre more of an obligation to play and help other friends take down monsters.
Wild Hearts is set to release on February 16th on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.