The new game that is kind of like Monster Hunter but not actually Monster Hunter is out today. Koei Tecmo and EA have released Wild Hearts on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on the PC via the EA App, Steam, and Epic Games Store.
Players will embark on an adventure in a fantasy version of medieval Japan. Thanks to the help "of a sophisticated technology known as Karakuri, players will battle giant nature-infused Kemono beasts that are rampaging through the land of Azuma at the cost of its citizens' lives."
The short of it is that Wild Hearts is a lot like the Monster Hunter games. You're going to be taking on giant beasts alone or with others using a variety of weapon types, tools, and the like.
From the sun-soaked Amaterasu hawk to the massive Kingtusk wild boar to the commanding Golden Tempest wind tiger, Kemono wield the power of nature to reshape their surroundings to suit their needs. After a dreadful fight with the winter wolf Deathstalker, players become wielders of the ancient Karakuri technology and are compelled to restore balance across the region. Dormant for many years, the now restored Karakuri technology allows players to adapt and shape their environment into creative hunting grounds ideal for taking down the giant Kemono.
Players must learn to master WILD HEARTS’ Karakuri systems – whether constructing a basic crate, spring and torch Karakuri, learning Fusion Karakuri to counter Kemono attacks, or drawing power from the land to construct massive traversal Dragon Karakuri. How players use each type of Karakuri to enhance their combat abilities will be entirely up to them.
In WILD HEARTS, players journey through Azuma as a lone wolf or pack-hunt with up to two friends thanks to the game’s co-op and crossplay features across all platforms. Players can expand their battle plans and go on special missions while pack hunting, join other hunters in the world, or take on Kemono on their own.​
Players must learn to master WILD HEARTS’ Karakuri systems – whether constructing a basic crate, spring and torch Karakuri, learning Fusion Karakuri to counter Kemono attacks, or drawing power from the land to construct massive traversal Dragon Karakuri. How players use each type of Karakuri to enhance their combat abilities will be entirely up to them.
In WILD HEARTS, players journey through Azuma as a lone wolf or pack-hunt with up to two friends thanks to the game’s co-op and crossplay features across all platforms. Players can expand their battle plans and go on special missions while pack hunting, join other hunters in the world, or take on Kemono on their own.​
Wild Hearts starts at $69.99 (USD) on every platform. This includes the PC release of the game.
That brings us to the issue with the PC release. I haven't tried the game myself yet, though the interest is there. However, initial impressions from Steam users and across the Internet say that the performance on PC is absolutely terrible. One of the top rated user reviews on Steam puts it simply by saying, "The price is higher than the FPS you will be able to pull in this game."
There are a couple of workarounds that you can attempt that may help you. First and foremost is this "quick fix" for those on Nvidia cards as posted by TheMagicalBacon on the Steam forums. I have slightly edited his instructions, seen quoted below, to clean up a few things.
- Open the NVIDIA Control Panel
- Go to Manage 3D settings
- Click the "Program Settings" tab
- Click "Add" then "Browse" and navigate to the Wild Hearts install directory.
- Find the Wild Hearts executable file and add it.
- Back in the "Program Settings" tab, scroll down to find "Max Frame Rate" and set this to 60 FPS
- Next, scroll down to "Power management mode" and select "Prefer maximum performance" from the dropdown.
- Scroll down to "Threaded Optimization" and change this to "Off"
- Click "Apply" on the bottom of the Nvidia Control panel
- Launch Wild Hearts and disable the in-game V-sync
Hope this helps people with this game until patch has dropped.​
Interestingly, there is another fix being suggested and it's one from the EA support forums. This particular fix for the framerate suggests changing your audio settings.
We thank you all for your patience and while you wait for a permanent fix, we have confirmed reports that in some cases, switching your “output settings†in the in-game Audio settings from Stereo to 71.ch/5.1ch can yield performance improvements for some.
This workaround doesn’t work in all cases and players already running recommended spec at over 60fps are unlikely to see an improvement but while we investigate and work on the patch, please try it yourself and see if it improves performance for you.​
This workaround doesn’t work in all cases and players already running recommended spec at over 60fps are unlikely to see an improvement but while we investigate and work on the patch, please try it yourself and see if it improves performance for you.​
