Hands-on: EA and Omega Force’s Wild Hearts looks fantastic so far
Recently, press were able to attend a Wild Hearts hands-on session, and the game is shaping up to turn some heads when it arrives on February 17, 2023.
Here’s how things are shaking out so far, with a bit of background from Koei Tecmo producer Yosuka Hayashi, and executive producer of EA Originals, Lewis Harvey.
Hayashi kicked things off with a pre-recorded message, and specifically brought up the Toukiden series up (which had releases in 2013 and 2016) as part of Koei Tecmo’s history with the genre: and noted that the company had “unfinished business” with hunting games.
Wild Hearts is very much inline with his thesis for what he wanted another hunting game to be about: “an action game everyone can play together.” “Four years in the making,” this hunting game brings Kemonos (monsters) front and center, with “animal and nature” fusing together (in many cases, literally) to form the setting.
Before heading out, Hayashi noted that EA has the “global experience Tecmo Koei lacks,” so the partnership was a good fit for them.
As for what help EA gave explicitly, the “full force” of the partnership was employed; things like “user research” (testing/data to fine tune the game), and reaching a “broader, more western audience,” with “tutorialization, onboarding, and clarity of UI and mechanics.”
You can really see this in action when playing the opening moments of Wild Hearts, as the tutorial involves a straightforward hunt that showcases the game’s dynamic environments and some basics. There’s a lot going on with this game (especially with the traps), and most of it is clearly communication on-screen.
Following up on Hayashi’s focus on the Kemonos themselves, Lewis Harvey calls them the “stars of the show,” as giant
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