Whether it be taking a side quest from a villager or trudging along the main questline, there’s no shortage of things to do in Wild Hearts, and the consistency of upgrades made it worth sticking through. After a dozen hours myself, there was simply no end in sight. Howlongtobeat lists the game as a 50-hour experience, and twice the amount of time if you’re a completionist. Something that is important to note is Wild Hearts‘ play time: it’s far from a short affair.

Anyone savvy with Monster Hunter knows how long it takes just to whittle away at a humongous health bar, so this early encounter gives newcomers like me a strong idea of how fights will play out. It’s a planned-failure moment, a trope in gaming that can temper players to understand how tough enemies can be and how strategic you’ll need to play going forward. When the time comes to encounter your first monster in Wild Hearts, you’ll soon realize that you’re ill-equipped to deal with the foe in front of you.

It’s a comprehensive way to personalize yourself, even if most of your focus is on monsters. Along the way, you’ll be able to determine your backstory, and fully customize your character down to the cheekbones, voice, and scars. Handily, in addition to a solid tutorial to learn traversal, all of the button inputs are displayed in the top corner of the screen so you won’t have to do any experimentation or be left guessing. Wild Hearts starts you out in pursuit of a deer-like creature called a Kemono. How does this iteration compare to the likes of the genre’s kings? Electronic Arts took note and created Wild Hearts, aiming to capture the same intense combat and world-building with Koei Tecmo helming development. With Monster Hunter: World being one of Capcom’s best-selling games of all time, topping the likes of Resident Evil 4 and any Mega Man, the demand to hunt beasts is higher than one may expect. Monster Hunter has seen a bevy of imitators, but none have managed to dethrone the legendary series.

Wild hearts game demo