Very neat, easily the best "Monster Hunter-like". Hopeful that this foundation could lead to a better sequel.
tldr; Do you need to play it?
If you are done with the current MonHun release, and desperately need to scratch that itch before the next one, go nuts.
If you're not that down bad, you can probably skip this, but still keep an eye out for a sequel.
Extra Thoughts
Simultaneously a bunch of interesting new ideas, spins on the genre, and QoL changes not found in MonHun. While at the same time creating new problems that reintroduce tedium issues that were smoothed out of later MonHun games. (Reverting weapon upgrades with 100% material return, very cool. Making the meal system insanely more intricate and making item farming more like PS2 MonHun, literally who wanted this, I hate this).
It feels like its a solid 50/50 split of choices being either because "it would be cool if [blank] was in MonHun", and "we should do [blank] to be different from MonHun".
The first half being fun twists, like having a building mechanic functionally replace, and addon to, the classic MH items (like Flashbombs and Traps). The later half being kinda wack stuff, like making all skills be hyper-specific ints/percentages, and then attaching those to an equipment alignment system, so the whole thing feels way more complex than it needed to be.
I ultimately enjoyed my time with Wild Hearts (at 50% RRP), but have little urge to play more of the post-game. I think a sequel to this could really be the competitor Monster Hunter needs to keep it honest and innovating. I think a sequel could be a game people stick with for far longer, and I have two big notes for it: (Other than increasing the monster amount which isn't really fair on Wild Hearts, since MonHun has been building its monster list for 20+ years):
1. Having 6 base Karakuri, but only being able to equip 4 feels like a big misstep. Outside of the annoyance of finding out through the skill-tree (or external means, that this genre has being wisely trying to avoid the last couple of years with additions like in-game Monster databases) that you missed unlocked specific fusions because you didn't bring the right combo to a specific hunt, or the "inspiration" moment just didn't trigger.
It puts the player in a constant situation where you are being punished for not knowing in advance the correct buildings for a monster. In MonHun you can bring every item you would ever need to every hunt, and as you learn the game you know what items you might not need. It feels weird in the game that is trying to remove the friction of needing to prep disposable items by replacing them with buildings + one global health item, that it would reintroduce said friction by limiting the building that can be done.
Assuming a sequel would have 6-8 basic Karakuri, I would suggest while holding L1, that the 4 face buttons and 4 d-pad buttons would contain all 6-8. Then keep R3 as destroy mode, and swap L3 to bring up the Dragon Karakuri menu. I feel like this was the biggest friction point that didn't need to exist, and without it the game could be far more fun. After all the specialisation in playstyle should come from the weapon choice, not Flashbombs.
2. I'm gonna harp on this again. The best thing to happen to Monster Hunter was basically removing the need to load up a map and collect materials (I only did this in my hundreds of hours in Sunbreak, I think a total of one hour to hit an amount of money I would never run out of).
Not only did I have to load up maps multiple times to either get specific ore or get materials from specific small monster. But the food system resulted in having to put harvesters + up to 4 types of food prep across multiple maps, which the only way to improve was to spend time "open world exploring" to get items to level up the max capacity for each map and I wanted to rip my hair out.
Please just do the Monster Hunter food system verbatim and make all weaps/armour materials from monsters. Anything that isn't hunting monsters isn't fun. I just want to hunt the monsters PLEASE.
tldr; Do you need to play it?
If you are done with the current MonHun release, and desperately need to scratch that itch before the next one, go nuts.
If you're not that down bad, you can probably skip this, but still keep an eye out for a sequel.
Extra Thoughts
Simultaneously a bunch of interesting new ideas, spins on the genre, and QoL changes not found in MonHun. While at the same time creating new problems that reintroduce tedium issues that were smoothed out of later MonHun games. (Reverting weapon upgrades with 100% material return, very cool. Making the meal system insanely more intricate and making item farming more like PS2 MonHun, literally who wanted this, I hate this).
It feels like its a solid 50/50 split of choices being either because "it would be cool if [blank] was in MonHun", and "we should do [blank] to be different from MonHun".
The first half being fun twists, like having a building mechanic functionally replace, and addon to, the classic MH items (like Flashbombs and Traps). The later half being kinda wack stuff, like making all skills be hyper-specific ints/percentages, and then attaching those to an equipment alignment system, so the whole thing feels way more complex than it needed to be.
I ultimately enjoyed my time with Wild Hearts (at 50% RRP), but have little urge to play more of the post-game. I think a sequel to this could really be the competitor Monster Hunter needs to keep it honest and innovating. I think a sequel could be a game people stick with for far longer, and I have two big notes for it: (Other than increasing the monster amount which isn't really fair on Wild Hearts, since MonHun has been building its monster list for 20+ years):
1. Having 6 base Karakuri, but only being able to equip 4 feels like a big misstep. Outside of the annoyance of finding out through the skill-tree (or external means, that this genre has being wisely trying to avoid the last couple of years with additions like in-game Monster databases) that you missed unlocked specific fusions because you didn't bring the right combo to a specific hunt, or the "inspiration" moment just didn't trigger.
It puts the player in a constant situation where you are being punished for not knowing in advance the correct buildings for a monster. In MonHun you can bring every item you would ever need to every hunt, and as you learn the game you know what items you might not need. It feels weird in the game that is trying to remove the friction of needing to prep disposable items by replacing them with buildings + one global health item, that it would reintroduce said friction by limiting the building that can be done.
Assuming a sequel would have 6-8 basic Karakuri, I would suggest while holding L1, that the 4 face buttons and 4 d-pad buttons would contain all 6-8. Then keep R3 as destroy mode, and swap L3 to bring up the Dragon Karakuri menu. I feel like this was the biggest friction point that didn't need to exist, and without it the game could be far more fun. After all the specialisation in playstyle should come from the weapon choice, not Flashbombs.
2. I'm gonna harp on this again. The best thing to happen to Monster Hunter was basically removing the need to load up a map and collect materials (I only did this in my hundreds of hours in Sunbreak, I think a total of one hour to hit an amount of money I would never run out of).
Not only did I have to load up maps multiple times to either get specific ore or get materials from specific small monster. But the food system resulted in having to put harvesters + up to 4 types of food prep across multiple maps, which the only way to improve was to spend time "open world exploring" to get items to level up the max capacity for each map and I wanted to rip my hair out.
Please just do the Monster Hunter food system verbatim and make all weaps/armour materials from monsters. Anything that isn't hunting monsters isn't fun. I just want to hunt the monsters PLEASE.