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Wild Hearts is a brand new action role-playing video game that is quite similar in theme to the Monster Hunter franchise. Wild Hearts is developed by Omega Force and is published by Electronic Arts under its EA Originals label.
With the release of Wild Hearts, many fans of Monster Hunter were elated at the thought that the Monster Hunter franchise will finally have an actual competitor. This consensus from the Monster Hunter community came as a result of massive disappointments with how content is being handled in the latest Monster Hunter game, Monster Hunter Rise. A lot of fans had been complaining that there was a lack of variance among the monster roster in the game. Aside from that, there have been complaints with the lack of innovation when it came to the weapon classes in Monster Hunter.
That being said, when Wild Hearts was released, a lot of these Monster Hunter players as well as content creators decided to pick it up and see if it can truly be the one Monster Hunter competitor that is so badly wanted. According to reviewers, Wild Hearts is a brand new experience that takes the best parts of Monster Hunter and innovates upon it. With that said, considering how similar these two games are in their themes, it is only right to compare the two and see which aspects of their games makes them stand out.
Gameplay and Combat
When it comes to these two games where fighting and hunting unique monsters is the name of the game, the combat systems and the gameplay mechanics are what will stand out to the player the most. This is also what usually makes or breaks the game. Because of this, it is very important that this aspect of the game will stand out and keep the player engaged or else it can turn into a boring messy game where every task or farm will feel like a chore.
That being said, according to players and reviewers, the weapons and combat of Wild Hearts feels very impactful where the hits to the monsters can be felt and every motion done by the character does not feel wasted. The combos done by each of the weapon classes feels like it is an impactful slap to the monster being hit. This impact from the weapons is what helped Wild Hearts cement itself as a serious competitor to Monster Hunter as Monster Hunter always made sure that their weapons always exhibited this.
However, with the latest entry in Monster Hunter, Monster Hunter: Rise Sunbreak, there were criticisms with how some of the weapons did not feel as impactful from previous games. It also did not help that the Wirebug Skills of each weapon bloated the amount of weapon skills such that they felt less impactful compared to previous games. However, this does not mean that the weapons are any less enjoyable. Compared to Wild Hearts, while some weapons lack the impact they deserve, the Monster Hunter weapons are more refined when it comes to their identity. This stems from the fact that the game has refined and innovated on the weapons over the years.
Another point of comparison between Wild Hearts and Monster Hunter is their unique hunting mechanics. In Wild Hearts, there is the Karakuri system. This Karakuri System allows the player to make constructs that help the players with their hunt. According to players, the Karakuri System in Wild Hearts first had a lot of people doubting it since it felt like they were simply integrating the Fortnite build system in a monster hunting game. Thankfully, the actual experience is highly different from that perception. It felt more akin to getting a lot of traps in Monster Hunter and placing them all over the area. It gave the players a sense of needing to prepare and plan around the monster they were hunting.
In comparison to the Karakuri System, Monster Hunter’s unique hunting mechanic is called the Wirebug. The wirebug takes inspiration from its variant in Monster Hunter World, the clutch claw. However, unlike the clutch claw, the wirebug focused more on supplementing the hunter rather than being a required extra hunting mechanic. This helped the wirebug to become a more beloved mechanic in the series as it is what helped the hunter to have a more expressive play style while still having the creativity they wanted while hunting.
These two unique hunting mechanics are often compared when looking at the two games. However, it feels unfair to compare these two as these are entirely different experiences. The Karakuri System allows the players to set up and plan out a hunt while the Wirebug serves to make the player feel the fluidity of the motion. These two hunting mechanics serve different purposes for the players. Thus, it can be said that this can be left to the preference of the player.
Graphics
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When it comes to the comparisons of the graphical quality of Wild Hearts and Monster Hunter, there are varying opinions among the players about which one is graphically superior. Currently, there is an ongoing problem with the graphical performance of Wild Hearts. Because of this, many have said that Monster Hunter Rise is graphically superior. However, when looking at both games objectively, players have had split opinions.
On one hand, there are those that prefer Wild Hearts with its more realistic graphics. Some have even said that it does a better job with its environment compared to a previous Monster Hunter game, Monster Hunter World.
In comparison, the latest Monster Hunter Rise had players feeling that there was a graphical downgrade compared to the previous entry. This is because originally, Monster Hunter Rise was a Nintendo Switch Exclusive. Monster Hunter Rise was developed and made with only the Nintendo Switch in mind which caused its graphics to appear less detailed and more fantastical. Despite this, there are those that prefer these kinds of graphics. These players are typically long standing fans of the series. They believe that the graphics of Monster Hunter Rise is the true Monster Hunter experience as it is a kind of return to the roots type of experience.
When looking at the two games, it could be objectively said that Wild Hearts has the more superior graphic fidelity as compared to Monster Hunter Rise. However, this goes to Monster Hunter if the PC platform is being talked about until a fix can be found for its performance issues.
Conclusion: Monster Hunter or Wild Hearts?
When making a decision which among the two games is better, that is typically left to the player’s preference. For this case however, it is better to give a solid recommendation to the players to help with this preference. With that in mind, it can be said that Monster Hunter is the better choice over Wild Hearts should the player prefer a game with a much more dynamic and spontaneous gameplay. This means that these types of gamers would prefer a game that is more open to randomness with very punishing effects.
On the other hand, Wild Hearts is the way to go should the player prefer a game that has a fresh spin on the genre as well as weapons that make them feel like they are simply flying through the monsters. This fresh spin would mean that these players would prefer the more set playstyle with a reduced random factor when hunting these monsters. In addition, Wild Hearts takes the cake for players that prefer the realistic graphics over the classic Monster Hunter graphics.
With all that, it is finally great to see some real competition in this genre and with this, the future of the monster hunting type of games is looking quite bright.
