Take a cursory look at the upcoming Wild Hearts from Koei Tecmo and EA, and it's simple to assume this is just a few publishers attempting to hop on the ever-expanding monster-slaying genre audience created by Capcom and Monster Hunter, in the wake from the surprising global success of Monster Hunter World.
Previously a genre primarily adored through the Japanese market, it never really seemed to find its footing with Western markets until World, which shaved away some of the game's complexities and eccentricities, and maybe more importantly, launched on something which wasn't a portable console.
The truth is, Koei Tecmo (and its internal development team, Omega Force), is completely no stranger to the genre, already having found success in its own riff around the genre with Toukiden, a monster hunting game set a medieval fantasy Japan. Toukiden did very well in its real estate market, on the portable console that only Japan seemed to really love, the PlayStation Vita, where it had been the highest-selling game around the console for the country in 2013.
But five years after releasing a well-received sequel to Toukiden, it appears like Omega Force has almost completely gone to enter board for its next foray in to the genre, with the hope of earning the respect of people that happen to be so taken with Monster Hunter in the last decade.
Standing in the Shadows of the Colossus
'When we look back at Toukiden, we can’t really express it would be a real success when it found through an international reach,' says Kotaro Hirata, co-director of Wild Hearts. He and fellow co-director Takuto Edagawa spoke to GamesHub using a translator within the week before the game's release. The team at Omega Force had seemingly observed quite a few lessons in the years because the success of Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise.
'I think we really understood exactly what the importance of the prey was, as with, what we should are in fact hunting. I think that people were a lot more mindful of it this time around,' he explained.
In Toukiden, the player is tasked with fighting huge demons and monsters from Japanese mythology. Naturally, we can assume that markets without any real connection to this folklore wouldn't possess a particularly strong connection with the topic. So, while Wild Hearts still carries a setting deeply rooted in Japanese culture, the team took a different method of the prey.
'We looked at something which we're very familiar with, but we also have a healthy dose of fear for- which is nature, and the animals out there,’ said Hirata. This resulted in the development of the beasts the game calls 'Kemono', which are still rooted in mythology, but undertake far more familiar forms – we assume the word derives from 'bakemono' a category of Japanese spirit (yokai) that may shapeshift into animals or plants.
Enormous boars, wolves, apes, birds, along with other animals are fused with rocks, fire, along with other natural elements – trying to invoke both beauty and terror from the natural world. But according to the directors, the game isn't solely regarding your capability to take these giant beasts down.
'A running theme throughout the game is the fact that it’s about life,' says Hirata. 'It’s about the cycle of life and how all of the different beings here – whether human or Kemono – they’re all there to survive.'
This theme can there be in the beginning of Wild Hearts. During the game's tutorial, you're asked to find an unknown prey. When you finally meet up with it, it's revealed not to be a formidable beast, but a deer. After sneaking up behind it using long grass as cover, you're given two options: Pet it, or slay it. Both options provides you with the time you have to continue, but it’s your decision to consider its fate.
It's an unexpected twist on the genre that's seemingly so laser-focused on ferocious beasts and just how better to slay them.
Hirata continued, 'Sometimes you’re choosing life, but at the same time, you’re also consciously choosing to kill or take away that life as well. There are specific Kemono… where after you work on slaying that large Kemono, you really have to do one final step, the last kill action.'
'And that means you have to take a step back and think about the truth that this Kemono only agreed to be attempting to survive itself, and you need to be very, very mindful of the fact that you’re taking that life away.'
'Just like petting, this is a show of respect for that life that Kemono has led.'
The influence of the Western publisher
Of course, another major difference with Omega Force's latest outing in to the genre is in its publishing partners. Parent company Koei Tecmo is a publisher itself, but the cope with EA through its EA Originals label – presumably a concerted proceed to help reach a larger audience – appears to have were built with a major impact on the game's development and final form, that will hopefully translate to a far more globally approachable game.
On the main topic of EA's influence, Edagawa asserted the publisher 'held very regular, massive user tests- and so we had feedback from these user tests on a very regular basis, and that really fed back to our development process. The procedure itself really was different for the reason that sense.'
'One thing that really left an impression was with regards to tutorials,' he continued. 'I think should you take a look at Japanese games, usually we’re very detail oriented within our tutorials and it’s really step-by-step – this is the way you need to do things.'
Anyone who's keen on Japanese-style action and role-playing games will certainly be very conscious of exactly what the director is talking about.
'What EA said was, “No, to have an international audience, we don’t want to teach them fully. They want to learn through experience. They want to be more in control of their very own learning, and we teach them allowing them explore and learn on their own”. I believe that was really eye-opening.'
The cutting room floor, and also the little details
The relationship between creatures and nature had seemingly been a core thematic component of the game, using the co-directors alluding to previous iterations of Wild Hearts that explored the concept diversely.
They described certainly one of their first prototypes, where every player character was designed with a little bow, and each arrow that missed and landed in the ground would instantly generate a tree, changing the landscape. It spoke to the idea of nature reclaiming itself after the intrusion of beasts and humans, but was eventually removed. 'Thinking back on it, it would happen to be quite dynamic and really interesting to determine something of that nature happen,' said Hirata.
Other little details and concepts like this still stay in Wild Hearts, however. For Hirata, his favourite touches range from creations that replaced the tree-growing arrows: the Karakuri. Inspired through the technology of the Industrial Age, they're mechanical, automated devices of all sorts that players can craft on the battlefield, and employ for their advantage.
'I hope that people understand the degree of detail inside. Should you look cautiously there’s all these little parts which are moving, and i believe when you notice how these little parts move and communicate with each other, you’ll obtain a further knowledge of the way they could possibly really function, which I think is actually interesting.'
For Edagawa, his favourite touches would be the life the NPCs bring to the world, and also the joy they get from Karakuri. 'If you go in to the capital of scotland- Minato- and say, you place a small box before one of the NPCs, they'll like, jump back in surprise. Or you craft a zip line somewhere, when you are back you’ll see people actually playing with it. So then we have all these different Karakuri things to craft, and you'll observe that the people around all react to the various stuff that you depart behind. You depart an indication in which you go.'
Despite the game's primary focus on challenging the grandiosity of nature and also the beasts you hunt, it's pleasing to see that the team continues to have time to flesh out the rewarding minutiae around the globe too. Perhaps that's the secret formula to creating an attractive world to hunt monsters in.
Wild Hearts will be available on 17 February 2023 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, with early access for EA Play members beginning 13 February 2023.
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