Wild Hearts S Co-Op Review
The original Wild Hearts was a bold attempt by Koei Tecmo and EA to steal some of the Monster Hunter market with some cool new mechanics and a more coherent story. While it never reached those ambitious heights, it did offer a more than competent alternative for monster hunters everywhere. Well, now the game has hit the Switch 2, and Paul and Matt are here to see if the transition has been a successful one.
Matt: I have to say, I have a little bit of a soft spot for Wild Hearts. It was a cracking take on the Monster Hunter formula that brought some fun additions to the mix, so I was pretty keen on seeing how it handled on the new Nintendo platform. After all, Monster Hunter has its roots in portable gaming systems, so it seems only fair that Wild Hearts gets that chance too. That optimism was crushed pretty quickly, though I have to say.
Paul: I love Wild Hearts. There’s not been many genuinely good Monster Hunter-like games, but Wild Hearts is one of them; in fact, I’m crossing my fingers and toes for a sequel. It makes sense for the game to be brought to Nintendo Switch 2, given the absence of Monster Hunter on the platform, striking first while they have the chance. That said, I won’t lie to you, I quickly found myself disappointed by this port. Not because the core game is bad, no, it’s brilliant, but this port is pretty lacklustre. We’re going to pull that apart shortly, but let’s discuss the game itself before all that. You have that soft spot for Wild Hearts. What makes it tick for you?
Matt: For me, and what really sets Wild Hearts apart, is the Karikuri system. This, for lack of a better explanation, is the ability to build traps, buildings and boosts magically on the fly. While it can be a little clunky to use in the heat of the battle, the fact it adds so much more variety to encounters is worth a little awkwardness. Combining different types of Karikui into even bigger buildings or traps is a treat, and even the small individual pieces can make a world of difference in battle. It really helps Wild Hearts to forge its own path, and frankly, I couldn’t get enough of that part of the game. What about you?
Paul: The Karikuri system was excellent and was a wonderful alteration to a long-established formula, and I loved how the size and scope of the construction could expand as well. The monsters (Kemono) were also another massive highlight, and while they weren’t all perfect, the Golden Tempest in particular was a bit too unbalanced; taking them on in some pretty epic encounters was awesome. So with all of that said, I was pretty damn excited to play the game on Switch 2, just to be able to take the experience portably. That’s what makes the state of this version so depressing. What issues did you experience?
Matt: I want to skip over the immediately obvious things for the moment and talk about the game itself. There are some seriously annoying bugs and framerate slowdown in play here. I had a number of occasions where mission markers wouldn’t activate in the game, especially in the tutorial missions. This forced me to jump out to the main menu and back in again, replaying some parts of the mission just to get something simple to activate. As for the framerate, anything that involved more than one monster in any sort of weather effect caused some chugging. Not massively, but boy did it make me miss the 60fps versions.
Paul: I guess I was lucky that I didn’t hit some of those mission marker problems much, perhaps once or twice in my time with the game, but the performance, and even visual problems, were the facet that irritated me the most. I’m not much of a framerate snob, but having experienced a better (and a steady one at that) performing version of the game previously, the lack of stability in this regard was awful to see. Then there’s the environments. The pop-in was awful, draw distances were pretty terrible, and the textures, hoo boy, I was thinking that in some cases it was just a pop-in issue, and I had to wait it out, but then the surfaces would never come good, and I realised it was one of those downgrade issues. The character and Kemono models look fine, but everything else has seen a pretty significant decline in quality, and that’s really disappointing for the Switch 2 crowd.
I never expected the game to run or look as nicely as the PS5 version I played, letalone a PS5 Pro or even what a PC could muster, but I did expect better than what we’ve got, and with the Switch 2 audience being a fairly pivotal one to the franchise’s growth, especially the Japanese portion of the community, I worry that the chances of getting a Wild Hearts 2 are about to take a nose-dive because this port isn’t up to snuff.
Matt: I suspect much of this work was done to make the game work on the original Switch, but then the porting team held it back for the Switch 2 because they couldn’t get it to a place where it ran well. This really feels like a Switch 1 port, not something for the newer, more powerful system, and that is a huge shame. I’ve seen what the Switch 2 can do with something like Cyberpunk, and while that is still a reduced version, it is light-years ahead of this. Once word gets out, I feel like this is going to bomb pretty hard because of that simple fact. Add to this, you can get it on the PC/PS5/Xbox for under $20 on a regular basis, and things aren’t looking good here, both literally and figuratively.
All that said, there is still fun to be had here, so if the Switch 2 is your only system, well, it will get the job done. Everything is content complete, and the core loop is still a blast. Gameplay is king as always.
Paul: You’re right, the game is great, and I will concede that I’m getting stuck on the less-important aspects of the product. If you’re able to overlook the performance and visual flaws, then the game at the core is excellent and well worth playing. Wild Hearts, just like modern Monster Hunter, sings in multiplayer as well, so if you wish to party up with some mates, it’ll improve the experience even more.
Please, give me a Wild Hearts 2… and if a patch can fix some of these Switch 2 woes, then please deploy it.
Matt: Yeah, there is a very specific circumstance where this is a good purchase. That circumstance just happens to be that there are no other options. I mean, until Capcom get around to putting one of their own Monster Hunters on the Switch 2 (which is surely coming right?), this is the only place for Switch 2 owners to get their fix. Is that enough? Well, probably not, but I hope the franchise doesn’t live or die based on the sales of this somewhat lacklustre port. Play Wild Hearts, by all means; it is fantastic. Just play it somewhere else if you can.
Wild Hearts S was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 with codes kindly provided by Koei-Tecmo.
