Recent reviews by Sigilavox

WILD HEARTS is ultimately a game about overcoming stagnation. Stagnation in nature, and stagnation in the monster hunting genre.

Hard Experience (Gameplay, Mechanics):
Blending weapon combat with very intuitive and dynamic Karakuri combat makes this entry stand out among Monster Hunting titles. While the depth of its weapon move sets isn't quite so complex or masterful as certain Monster Hunter weapons can get, such as the Charge Blade (most being about on par with Long Sword from recent titles in terms of complexity), the use of a very diverse and fun Karakuri system is a huge plus for prospective fans looking for a different monster hunting experience.

Note that i-frames are very generous compared with Monster Hunter, closer in style to Dark Souls in length. In exchange, kemono tracking is very accurate compared with Monster Hunter's monsters.

You can plan out each of the four locales by setting up your own respawn/teleport location Camps, ziplines to cross the map, and more. This results in an engaging experience initially, but willful hunters will quickly find the optimal places to put their forges and recall points and will keep them there moving forward, so it's more of a first-time-round boon.

The story should take newcomers about thirty to seventy hours to complete, depending. After that, however, the endgame is quite grindy and doesn't provide as much incentive to keep going given how relatively small or hard-to-get the gear augmentations or layered armor is. The roster doesn't expand much post-game as well. For seventy dollars, you're essentially getting the first playthrough. Think about how much you'd imagine enjoying those few dozens of hours, and evaluate whether it's worth your buck or not.

But before you do that, let's talk about the other stuff.

Soft Experience (Aesthetic, Music, Story, etc.)
The most unique aspect of this game is the aesthetic. This is, frankly, a beautiful game. For starters, its soundtrack runs the gamut between somber and reverent to dire and overpowering, with a nice book-end of first and last monster themes that can even be considered playful, though for entirely different reasons. The visuals of each Kemono and each region are breathtaking, assuming your computer can handle at least moderate graphics, and even without them, the brushstroke color palette and world design bring it about as close to a Ghibli-style action video game as I've ever seen.

As for hunters, armor choices are excellent in visuals for both sexes and draw inspiration from all sorts of Japanese and other Eastern-style attire. Layered armor lets you look how you want in the post-game. Karakuri looks really cool and your hunter's movements and attacks make you really feel the weight and heft of your attacks far, far more than something like Monster Hunter Rise (albeit that isn't a high bar).

Its story is also very engaging despite building on the same core of hunting genre RPGs where the problem ultimately must be hunted, and it presents the world, characters, and thematic core of its world far, far, FAR better than any Monster Hunter game. Like, Jesus Christ. The game does an excellent job of presenting the world and its stakes, and Minato is full of people you can care about, as opposed to the bare-bones, comparatively surface-level scripts that make up Capcom's Monster Hunter story and character designs. If you're the type to get attached to the emotional story a game tells you, this game will take you places with soaring highs and crushing lows. After this game, it's very hard to take Monster Hunter's non-ecological world-building with any semblance of seriousness.

Finally, you can unlock a free, unlimited-use character creator modifier that can even change your hunter's sex and name, so that's automatically a massive plus from Monster Hunter's 3-4 dollar character edit vouchers.