Among a deluge of Game Awards announcements, EA struck us with a new Wild Hearts gameplay trailer, showing off its ferocious monsters.
Also known as Kemono, these beasts will tower over players as they work together to track them down and ultimately slay them, employing a variety of weapons and gadgets.
Wild Hearts will see EA partner with Japanese studio, Omega Force, creators of the Dynasty Warriors franchise and its many, many spin-offs.
As we mentioned in our first look at Wild Hearts, there’s plenty of overlap with Omega Force’s Toukiden series. Although this new game features an authentic Japanese style, it won’t have an emphasis on slaying demons, instead pitting players again giant monsters.
We were lucky enough to play Wild Hearts ahead of its 2023 launch. Here’s what our resident Monster Hunter expert, Nic, had to say:
Wild Hearts is shaping up to be a unique take on the genre that we’re very excited to play more of. It’s both similar to a lot of what we’ve seen before, and yet is pushing the envelope at the same time. Some of this comes from the extreme flexibility that you have in taking down your enemies, but equally there are the arguably smaller things like armour being gender neutral and the game asking for your preferred pronouns. Whether it shapes up to be the first title in a new and successful series remains to be seen, but I, for one, will be crossing my fingers for a game to truly rival one of my favourite franchises of all time.
Wild Hearts is launching early next year with a confirmed release date of February 17, 2023. It will be a full-priced title, available for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.