EA and Koei Tecmo’s co-op beastie-bodyer Wild Heart will combine katana, large animals, and oddly crafted weapons when it launches in February. Studio Dynasty Warriors revealed their collaboration as part of the EA Originals label today, and it’s sure to move some of that into it. Monster hunter energy. Check out the first trailer below and tell me you don’t want a handheld helicopter.
Wild Hearts is set in a fantasy tinged version of feudal Japan. Your samurai-ish character can team up with two others for three-player co-op. They will need to use a crafting technology called Karakuri to defeat monsters that look like giant versions of regular animals, such as wolves, birds, and wolves. These cheeky overgrown monsters have been infused with the power of nature to become beasts known as Kemono, and you don’t want to mess with that unless you have some nifty ancient technology. use in hand. Well done there are all sorts of stone wooden doohickeys about that that can help, such as single-person helicopters, giant comedy hammers, and rope traps.
Koei Tecmo directors Kotaro Hirata and Takuto Edagawa said to IGN that Wild Hearts is not an open world game, but has a zoning system similar to Capcom’s Monster Hunter series. Some Karakuri technologies can be created instantly in battle, according to the directors, while others can be combined to create new Karakuri. They can also be used to build entire hunting grounds if you have enough materials. They say the combat in Wild Hearts won’t be like Omega Force’s Dynasty Warriors or Monster Hunter series, but will feature jumping, grappling, sliding and other “highly flexible actions,” Hirata told IGN.
We first report on Wild Hearts a few weeks ago when EA and Koei Tecmo discreetly announced that they were collaborating under what was considered an indie label, up until that point. The developers of Toukiden Omega Force have been working on the game for four years and the project will be in the hands of fairly competent people with their experience with that action RPG series. It’s still a bit odd that an experienced studio belonging to a major publisher is benefiting from a deal set up to promote smaller studios, though now EA says it’s supposed to be “for those dare to explore,” in their most recent press release. and “the home for studio partners – like Omega Force – to create new ways of playing from bold creative visions”. I guess with each of their own.
Wild Hearts launches for PC on Steam, Origin, and the Epic Games Store on February 17, 2023 and will cost $70 (UK TBC pricing). It’s pretty hard, I imagine. You can learn more about the game at the official website here.
