A new gameplay preview trailer for the RPG hunting game, Wild Hearts showed off three unique weapons for fighting the beast, Golden Tempest.
Electronic Arts (EA) and KOEI Tecmo dropped a new gameplay trailer this Thursday for their hunting RPG, adventure game, Wild Hearts. The PS5 gameplay preview highlighted three unique weapons while also showcasing how each character utilizes the game’s version of mana/energy called Karakuri to build certain structures and devices that can aid the player(s).
The preview displayed three different hunters in Wild Hearts trying to take down a beast called Kemonos, which was explained to be “the embodiment of the power of nature.” This trailer had a Kemono called the Aragane, also known as Golden Tempest. The three hunters featured these three weapon classes: the Claw Blade, the Cannon and the Karakuri Staff.
The Claw Blade looked like a light short-blade. This could be favoured for players who want to dish out quick attacks versus heavier, high-risk damage. The Cannon appeared to be a really cool ranged weapon that shot out green orbs, dealing small chunks of damage with regular attacks. There seemed to be a nice balance for this class of building a bigger cannon with resources and some building time. It was sort of like how Torbjorn is effective in Overwatch.
The Karakuri Staff was like the heavy hitter weapon of choice; however, the staff could stay in staff form other than its heavy-looking sword. So, it looked very versatile in its own right. It looked like every character could do some sort of building to aid them in taking down Golden Tempest. Some of the structures they previewed were a wall and a contraption that looked to be a hammer-catapult triggered by an enemy, or it immediately attacked in the direction it was built. It was not very clear.
What made the Fortnite-like building balanced was that players needed to pre-plan their resource gathering before entering big fights like this. Each character seemed to have a helicopter-like device too that allowed them to glide in the air, another Fortnite element I found similar. But it was awesome to see how the building style was implemented, with the backdrop of fantasy feudal Japan and the wooden structure aesthetic. It artistically reminded me of the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe.
The building portion was not just limited to fights either. That wheel vehicle used by General Grievous in Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith was also somehow mimicked in this game. With the use of resource gathering, it looked like players could build a wooden version of that water-wheel-like transportation as a way for players to traverse the lands of feudal Japan.
One of the best parts of Wild Hearts was that players could play solo or up to three-person parties. The whole combat system and co-op system were reminiscent of the Souls or Elden Ring-style games. The concept of hunting down these big creatures also looked inspired by Monster Hunter, or the great concept but poorly executed Evolve.
The HUD and art style of combat was also reminiscent of the newer Final Fantasy games as well, with a synergistic feel and attention. This was a nice contrast to KOEI Tecmo’s Omega Force studio work on the Dynasty Warriors video game series, where the player was typically larger-than-life, taking on mobs of enemies. This was sort of like the opposite and more concentrated idea of those games—just with monsters.
Wild Hearts will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (EA App, Steam, and Epic Game Store) on February 17, 2023. The game will feature crossplay across all platforms and will have specially recorded voiceovers done in English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Hopefully, this will be a great hunting RPG title to add to its successful similar predecessors rather than the failed games.
