Get Ready for One “Wild” Ride!
Wow. It’s always the games you least expect to impress you that actually do. I’ve never really been into the “Monster Hunter” vibe of games. The ones I have tried (Monster Hunter and God Eater) all felt very repetitive and, after a while, tedious. I honestly was expecting more of the same from Koei Tecmo’s Wild Hearts S, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The original version of the game came out in 2023 and was widely criticized for its performance issues. With the release of the new console (Switch 2), Koei Tecmo has an opportunity to right that wrong.
You play as a travelling Hunter, who happens into a story of helping the local people from the infection of monsters called Kemono. These Kemono are literally shaping and destroying the local areas and making it hard for the humans still there to survive. If you purge the Kemono from an area, the world returns to normal.
It’s not much of a deep narrative, but even so, the story and its characters within are very well presented. The voice acting, as well as a narrative in which you have some input as to the direction it takes, is far more engaging than I thought it would be. The game also has some cutscenes that give credence and authenticity to keep the single-player campaign going for its approximately 40-hour run time. With extra content, you could easily extend that to approaching 100 hours.
The world you are in is, artistically speaking, very interesting. Although not an uber-detailed world like you would find in such games as Horizon Zero Dawn, what they do have here is rich in colour, interest, and diversity. The world is a fabulous place to explore to find all the nooks, crannies, and pathways. Doing so will also yield items to use to craft, build, or use for the game’s RPG elements.
Here’s this game’s typical gameplay loop: There is a monster in an area. You need to eliminate it for various reasons. Upon finding said monster, you will have a three-stage fight. Defeat the monster, end the scene. All very standard stuff so far.
The way you can interact with this game is rather quirky. Wild Hearts S, in my humble opinion, is one of the most well-thought-out and designed games I’ve played in a long time.
Outside the hub towns you can utilize, you can set up a camp anywhere at any point in the game! This stroke of genius means all the facilities you might need whilst out on a hunt are at your fingertips. It also means that if you find an area rich in resources you might need, setting up camp there means it’s easily accessible to go back quickly via fast travel over and over.
Even better is your ability to craft items via a system called Karakuri, which help you get around. Found a rock face too tall to climb? No problem, build and stack boxes to reach the top. An area high up over yonder? No problem, build a zip line to get there. Want to jump off a high cliff to get down? Build a glider to bring you there safely. It’s cute, it’s ingenious, and it works and fits with the world perfectly. However, there is more. You can use these items that you can craft in battle to gain an advantage too.
Combat was a little hit and miss; quite literally. There is a vast array of weapons you can eventually lay your hands on, but you start with the trusty katana. Aside from a bow and a hand cannon, everything else is a short-range melee weapon. A simple and tight control system soon had me slashing, stabbing, and dodging my way around the battlefield. The game then suggested using my crafting abilities (Karakuri) to gain an advantage in the fight, the first being those boxes. Crafting out some boxes and climbing up them automatically springs you off the top. If you do this within range of an enemy, pressing an attack button helps you slam down on them for massive extra damage.
It sounds absolutely bonkers on paper to even think about this during battle, but it works! You can also craft things like springboards to zip away from an attack or right towards an enemy. This literal “thinking outside the box” mechanic during combat is implemented so well and is so fun, it starts to become the norm.
There are other things to craft as well as the fights get more challenging. This adds an extra layer of tactical thought process behind each battle. However, if you are struggling, calling upon online buddies or random people to help with the fight is quick and easy. In all the online battles I had with random people, the game ran smoothly enough and was fun to interact with.
I believe the game scales up the difficulty the more people in your lobby; however, the comfort of playing with random people felt a little easier than taking on these fights by myself. And these fights can at times be EPIC! I took on an early boss fight on my own, and after 3 stages and twenty-five minutes, it was slain!
After breathing a big sigh of relief, I sat back and literally said out loud, “That was so much fun,”. Another cool design choice is that after each stage of a boss fight, the enemy runs off to a different area. As you chase and follow it, you can pick up supplies and health items to get ready for the next stage. I absolutely adore the design work for details like this.
However, the only issue I really had with the game has to do with the combat. The aforementioned boss fight highlighted something I found happening a lot. I got backed into an area where I couldn’t see what was going on due to the horrible camera angle. I backed into a rock face and couldn’t get out or do much of anything simply because I couldn’t see. So, I got pummeled and killed.
As well as bad camera angles, there is a lot of clipping (for example, enemies walking through things that look solid on-screen). When you add the occasional bad camera angles and clipping together, it also means it was hard to judge when a swing of my sword or an attack from the enemy would actually make contact.
Having a stamina bar means you can’t just spam the attack buttons and get away with it, so each swing mattered.
At times, it was frustrating to find I’m swinging away at thin air, only for the monster to turn and thwack me, even though I thought I was out of range. This only really happened with the extremely large boss fights, which meant I enjoyed the smaller monsters a bit more.
It isn’t game-breaking by any means, and 90% of the time, I did land a hit when I thought I would. It’s just a little frustrating reading the enemies’ attack patterns correctly, only to miss them when you have your window of opportunity.
This leads me to the game’s graphics and performance. Performance-wise, Wild Hearts S on the Switch 2 ran perfectly well for the vast majority of the time, both online and offline. The game did occasionally chug and have frame rates slow down some, but these were only brief moments and never really interrupted the flow of the game for long.
However, the graphics, or lack thereof, are also another downgrade for the game. As mentioned, the artwork is superb, but the detail isn’t. In this day and age, especially for a young two-year-old game, I would have expected better. It’s perfectly fine what you do see, but that’s it, fine. Lighting is average, and the backgrounds are blocky. There is some texture and lighting pop in as well. It’s the textured, weathered detail and fine pixelated effects that are sorely missing. The animations are also just okay, but the larger the monster, the easier it is to read what they are doing.
As average as the graphics are, the music is most certainly not. Guttural monster roars in the distance did send a shiver up my spine the first time I heard it. “I’ve got to go and fight…THAT?!”. Then, as the battle ensues, authentic and hefty weapon sounds add to the experience alongside a musical score that rouses you to an emphatic finale!
Lastly, Wild Hearts S is the definitive version of the game. All the bells, whistles, DLC, extras, and updates are included in this package. As it reportedly runs better on the Switch 2 (I haven’t played other versions, but I have researched how it plays on other consoles/PC), I would also say it’s the best way to experience the game. It also has a pretty hefty demo available to download for free, which, if you enjoy, you can upgrade and keep your progress. I’d highly recommend giving it a try.
Summary
So, when you finally put all these pieces together, it’s the experience of the game that shines through. The thrill of the hunt. The exploration of an interesting world. Solid combat mixed with new ideas. Grabbing people online to help with your cause or going solo. It’s all so well designed, made, and eminently playable. Even though I’m playing other games, I keep coming back to this one. The game gives you such a buzz, despite a few limitations and drawbacks. It’s intoxicating, fun, and yes…it’s WILD! Go join the hunt!
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2
Release Date: 25th July 2025
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Wild Hearts S was provided by the publisher.
