Creature capture games have been around for decades, and an extension of this genre, especially in the 3D realm, is the creature-hunter genre. Rather than capturing critters, fighting your bouts for you, and treating them with love and/or kindness, creature hunter games such as Monster Hunter and Dauntless are about a group of players hunting large, deadly, ferocious, and wild monstrosities to destroy limbs, shatter bones, and use these these materials to craft new weapons, armor, and accessories to then go back out into the wilderness and hunt even more monsters with improved gear. This genre used to be a lot more niche, but as we have seen with Monster Hunter Wilds selling more than 10 million copies earlier this year, it can be tough for other creature hunter games to make a similar scope. Still, that doesn’t stop Omega Force’s Wild Hearts S from being released exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2 in the console’s launch year.
Wild Hearts S
Developer: Omega Force
Price: $66.99 CAD
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2
The writer was provided a code for review.
Sinking hundreds of hours into the Monster Hunter franchise and 300 hours into Dauntless, Wild Hearts was a game I missed out on a couple of years back, even though it was very popular. Now, with Wild Hearts S, I was able to finally explore this expansive and fresh new world. Omega Force may not be a developer many know at first glance, but they are best known for the Dynasty Warriors series and Dragon Quest Builders 2, and will be developing the life simulation Pokémon Pokopia for release in 2026.
Like Monster Hunter, the powers that be usher you into the world of Wild Hearts S, with rampaging creatures abound. What starts off as a simple quest to find an NPC takes you to extravagant environments, multiple maps, and protecting innocents from these nature-infused beasts. The game has 8 different weapons to wield, but players will have to progress through the game’s main missions to unlock them all. Standard weapons like Bows and Katanas are here, but weapons like the Bladed Wagasa, an umbrella-type weapon, alongside the Karukuri Staff that can change forms, provide new ways to hunt creatures in the genre.
Weapons are in a skill tree in Wild Hearts S, and different weapon paths can be taken to make optimal builds, and inheriting skills to future weapons, as long as the routes on the weapon trees are chosen, so you can mix and match skills in the same weapon types. One aspect of Wild Hearts S that makes it stand out from other creature hunter games is Karakuri. Karakuri are automations with gears and other contraptions that you can create on the game’s maps. With enough resources, you can create boxes to climb over, gliders to fly around, and springs to leap around the environment.
Wild Hearts S’ Contraptions and Kenmomos Create Catchy Consequences
One of the wildest and extraordinary aspects is the ability to build different Fused Karakuri in real time, such as creating a massive wall for a Kemono–nature-infused beast–to tackle or permanent ziplines to roam a map faster. Karakuri is used to make pickling jars and drying racks, and, if a flash of inspiration strikes, to fight certain Kemono, a fusion Karakuri is unlocked, such as bombs or fireworks. It’s pretty cool, and though it can only happen in specific hunts against new Kemono encounters, I was in awe to see what new fusions could be made, and how to use these contraptions in the environment best. Though each map does have a limit on Karakuri placements, these will increase over time through exploration, alongside finding Dragon Pits to upgrade. You cannot just make a bunch of ziplines as you see fit on any map; there will be a limit, so there is strategy involved in placement and traversal elements. Hunting Towers allow you to see more of the map, and by finding Tsukumo that are your tiny spherical hunting mates, you can upgrade your helper to attack, provide healing, and gather more threads for Karakuri contraptions. There are 50 Tsukumo on each map, and I loved getting to check every nook and cranny to upgrade these little but potent hunting helpers.
I spent all of my playtime playing the game solo on Nintendo Switch 2, but I was invested in really losing myself in all of these different environments and discovering new ones with new materials or beasts to slay. Like other creature hunter games, it’s definitely recommended to hop on an audio call with a mate and hunt monsters together. However, all of this is still doable and enjoyable alone. Bringing this game to Switch 2 seems like a perfect fit and reminds me of the hundreds of hours I played Monster Hunter Rise on the original Switch. There can be a little finagling to get used to button-wise, since you have Karakuri placement, weapon configurations, and submenus galore to track. At the same time, gargantuan beasts swipe, pounce, and roar, which sometimes makes me place something incorrectly. I still found so much lovely experimentation with this gameplay system that it could serve as a traversal, defensive, and aggressive boon in every hunt I was on.
The Final Word
Wild Hearts S’ Karakuri system is intricately and excitingly crafted with player experimentation abound. The Giant Kenomo feature breathtaking designs to rival Monster Hunter’s creatures in complexity and ferocity, especially from the art portraits each Kemono has in the game’s Cyclopedia. If you’ve done everything there is to do in Monster Hunter Wilds and are looking to dive into an exclusive on Nintendo Switch 2 with mates, Wild Hearts S delivers a tough challenge for experienced monster hunters.
MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
