“With the latest PSSR update, Silent Hill f now delivers an even smoother gameplay experience than before,” said Konami’s production team. “Fine details – from swaying blades of grass to shadows cast across the ground – are rendered with greater clarity, deepening immersion in the fog-shrouded Japan of the 1960s.” A short new trailer highlights the difference between the current PSSR and its upgraded version with the latter pretty much eliminating any flickering.

Ninja Theory head, Dom Matthews, noted the team’s excitement to collaborate with Sony while also being impressed by “the quality of particle effects with this latest update, helping to bring key gameplay moments to life through enhanced visuals.” Remedy’s graphical technical director, Tatu Aalto, also noted how the improved image upscaling resulted in “efficient stochastic sampling without sacrificing image stability” and how it “responds quickly to visibility changes in games, keeping motion clear while improving temporal stability.” The result is even “better, more stable image quality” in Control and Alan Wake 2.

Those worried that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on consoles would never fully depict the beauty of its characters’ hairstyles should also rejoice. Director Naoki Hamaguchi notes how “fine details such as character’s hair are naturally restored.” Of course, “less flickering and afterimage feeling” is also a bonus. You can also expect sharper edges for wildlife scenery in Nioh 3, whether it’s foliage or various flowers.

And while Capcom didn’t provide any additional comments on the technology, it will be available for Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon’s Dogma 2. Resident Evil Requiem was the first title that leveraged Upgraded PSSR, and the results have been quite stunning thus far. Stay tuned for more details on other titles that will implement it in the coming weeks.

The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

Outside of Team Ninja’s own games, however, Lies of P was the major inspiration thanks to how well bosses in the game utilize well-timed guarding and evading. The attack animations of the bosses and how they often incorporate key parts of their designs also served as “great stimulation in giving me inspiration,” he said.

“In addition to [Lies of P‘s] solid action that requires careful use of guarding and evading, I really had a lot of fun in the battles against the bosses, who had a wide variety of designs,” Fujita explained. “In particular, the bosses’ attack actions made full use of their distinctive designs, so it was great stimulation in giving me inspiration when thinking about the yokai actions in Nioh.”

Nioh 3 was just released on PC and PS5, and has seen quite a positive reception. In our review, we gave it a score of 9 out of 10 thanks to its incredible combat and fun progression mechanics, among other factors. We also made a note of how well it was able to pull from Team Ninja’s previous games.

For players that might not want to buy Nioh 3 immediately, there is also a demo available on PC and PS5. As of earlier this week, even the demo has proven to be a hit, with Team Ninja celebrating a million downloads. It certainly helps that players can carry over their save data from the demo to the full release as well.

The story of Nioh 3 revolves around protagonist Tokugawa Takechiyo, who was set to become the third shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate to help bring in a new era of peace following the century-long Sengoku period marked with war and turmoil. However, Takechiyo’s brother Kunimatsu wanted to be the shogun himself, and, driven by envy, decides to gather up all the Yōkai he can find to march on the capital and take the title for himself.

To deal with this, Takechiyo now has to travel across the realms, both through time and space, alongside his guardian spirit Kusanagi to put an end to Kunimatsu’s reign.

While Nioh 3 is currently only available on PC and PS5, Xbox Series X/S players won’t have to wait for too long to get their hands on the Soulslike action RPG. A trailer from earlier this month had confirmed that it will only be a PlayStation console-exclusive for six months. While this doesn’t mean that we’ll see an Xbox release happening the moment this exclusivity period ends in June, the studio has likely already been working on a port.

WORLD DESIGN

As open world games, world design is a crucial element in all three of the games we’re discussing here, but they’re not all equally good in the department. Rise of the Ronin’s open world is fairly by-the-numbers and often feels static, which means exploration never elevates itself to the heights that you’d want. On the other hand, between Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima, the competition is a little bit more- well, competitive.

If we had to pick a winner, however – which is the whole point of this exercise – we’d probably have to go with Ghost of Tsushima. Yes, Shadows’ map is beautiful and a constant joy to explore, and unlike Rise of the Ronin, its world feels wonderfully alive and dynamic (thanks partly to a system of regularly shifting seasons). Ghost of Tsushima, however, feels like it’s on a different level, whether that’s because of its incredibly strong sense of place, how effective the world is at distracting players with its bevy of optional content, or any number of other factors.

VISUAL DESIGN

Once again, we can comfortably say Rise of the Ronin is the first to be eliminated in this category. Team Ninja’s open world game does have its share of striking sceneries to show off from time to time, but from a technical perspective, it’s quite rough around the edges. Ghost of Tsushima and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, on the other hand, back up their gorgeous art and visual design with strong tech driving the ending under the hood- and once again, we’ll probably have to pick Ghost of Tsushima. Liberal use of bright, bold colours and stunning vistas of natural beauty combine to create what has to be one of the most memorable and distinct open world settings in recent memory. Shadows has of course taken cues from Ghost’s visual design in how it depicts its feudal Japanese setting, but in our eyes, Sucker Punch’s 2020 samurai epic has yet to be dethroned in this category.

TRAVERSAL

Unlike the two categories we’ve been through so far, we’re going to have to place Ghost of Tsushima dead last here. Don’t get me wrong, making your way around its map is fun enough, but gameplay options on that front are fairly limited. Compare that, for instance, with Rise of the Ronin, which at least begins making up for its otherwise underwhelming world design by making sure that navigating that world is a lot of fun. Equipped with a horse, a gliding contraption, and a grappling hook, Rise of the Ronin makes traversal a ton of fun.

We are, however, going to have to give this one to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. This is a franchise that has always prided itself on its traversal gameplay, and Shadows is probably the best it has been in this area for a long time. There’s multiple factors contributing to that- Naoe is perhaps the most nimble and best-moving Assassin’s Creed protagonist to date; her grappling hook is a ton of fun to use; parkour feels much more precise than it has in any previous Assassin’s Creed action RPG. Without a doubt, traversal is one of Shadows’ biggest strengths.

COMBAT

We have our first category where all three games have plenty to be proud of. Ghost of Tsushima, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Rise of the Ronin all tout great combat, each going for a different style- but which one comes out on top? For our money, Rise of the Ronin is the winner here.

Ghost of Tsushima’s parry-based and stance-based combat deserves a ton of plaudits, as does Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ slick evolution of the Origins-Odyssey-Valhalla style. Combat, however, is the one thing that Team Ninja has always had unimpeachable expertise in, and for all of its faults (of which it has many), Rise of the Ronin doesn’t buck that trend. It’s mechanically tight and satisfying, and also manages to be much more approachable than past Team Ninja titles without sacrificing any of its depth. This is the one area where Ronin deserves unreserved praise.

STEALTH

Stealth is part of the core loop on all three games we’re looking at here, but they each place different emphasis on it. Rise of the Ronin is a combat-focused game first and foremost, which means stealth often ends up taking a backseat- which means this is another category where Ghost of Tsushima and Assassin’s Creed Shadows are duking it out against each other. And as close as the competition is here, Shadows ultimately nabs it.

For the first time in years, an Assassin’s Creed title feels like a stealth game above all else, delivering a much tighter and more enjoyable stealth experience than Origins, Odyssey, or Valhalla did. Like with traversal, stealth, too, is driven by Naoe first and foremost, whose impressive toolset combines with an expanded base moveset, significantly improved stealth mechanics, and an excellent new dynamic light and shadow system that sprinkles a dash of Splinter Cell into proceedings.

STORYTELLING

This one is really one-sided, which is a shame, given how important this category is. Rise of the Ronin’s storytelling chops are nothing to write home about (which is putting it mildly), while Assassin’s Creed Shadows also disappoints in this area, even if it does have two excellent protagonists and the odd moment of strong storytelling in its main story here and there. Ghost of Tsushima, on the other hand, feels like it is firing on all cylinders with its main story from beginning to end. Full of memorable moments, epic set pieces, actual stakes, and strongly written conflicts, themes, and characters, Sucker Punch’s open world title tells a gripping tale, and tells it really, really well.

OVERALL

If you’re looking for a great open world action-adventure game set in a historical Japanese setting, then you have some good options here, and, depending on what you want, you will find at least two of these games to be the best in class. Rise of the Ronin is the obvious weak link here- while it wins with combat and performs reasonably well in the traversal category, it comes in dead last everywhere else.

The other two games are a lot more closely matched- people who favour traversal or stealth will get the most out of Assassin’s Creed, and if you want an amazing, gorgeous world with great storytelling, Ghost of Tsushima is probably the game for you. Honestly, both of these games are worth playing, but if we absolutely had to pick just the one, it would be Ghost of Tsushima. In addition to winning the most categories in this comparison outright, it also comes in in second place in most categories that it doesn’t win. So sure, if you are in the market for just the one Japanese flavoured action-adventure game? Go with Ghost of Tsushima. But we really can’t stress this enough, when you have the time, definitely at least take a look at Assassin’s Creed Shadows too.

Where Ghost of Tsushima was a resounding success, Rise of the Ronin proved to be more divisive from a critical perspective- which means there are some very different lessons that Assassin’s Creed Shadows can (and, in our opinion, should) take from the two games. Here, that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about, as we discuss the lessons that we hope it take in terms of how to go about things from Ghost of Tsushima, and how not to from Rise of the Ronin.

WHAT TO LEARN FROM GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

OPEN WORLD

Ghost of Tsushima’s biggest strength was the the compelling design of its incredible open world setting, and that’s by far the most significant lesson that any game hoping to achieve similar things should take from it. Sucker Punch absolutely knocked the ball out of the park with how well-designed the Tsushima map was and how it encouraged exploration, constantly finding ways to let players organically stumble on addictive optional content, of which it had an abundance scattered throughout the vast map. In terms of both design and how it has players engaging with and exploring their surroundings, Assassin’s Creed Shadows needs to take a step up from its recent predecessors if it’s going to do justice to its long-awaited setting. Our hope is it’ll have looked to Sucker Punch’s 2020 hit for inspiration.

VISUAL DESIGN

To a great degree, this goes hand in hand with what we just talked about, because Ghost of Tsushima’s open world wouldn’t have been anywhere nearly as well-received as it was if it hadn’t been so visually arresting. The game managed to find the exact right way to portray the abundant natural beauty of its setting, and that’s what we’re hoping to see in Assassin’s Creed Shadows as well. Thankfully, this is an area where the Assassin’s Creed franchise has usually had a pretty solid track record, even with what are deemed the weaker of its entries. Based on all of the footage that has been showcased for Shadows leading so far, it looks set to follow in its predecessors’ footsteps in this area with a visually striking open world setting.

COMBAT

Assassin’s Creed’s track record with combat tends to be pretty hit or miss. 2020’s Valhalla, for instance, wasn’t without its merits in the combat department, but after the slick and addictive combat loop of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, it felt like a bit of a step down to many. Shadows has the unenviable task of making significant improvements- but so far, it seems well positioned to. Of its two protagonists, Yasuke is going to be the more combat-focused one, and his fighting style certainly seems to have taken some pages from Ghost of Tsushima’s book. Of course, as an action RPG, there will be several factors that’ll set Shadows apart from Ghost here, from significantly greater weapon variety to progression mechanics, abilities, loot, and more, but with a greater focus on more precise and slick strikes as opposed to the bruising style of Valhalla, it certainly seems to have the right idea so far.

STORYTELLING

Assassin’s Creed hasn’t always succeeded at telling compelling stories, but when it does manage to do so (like the highs of the Ezio trilogy), it does so with flying colours. Whether Shadows will be able to hit those highs is anyone’s guess, but it does still need to deliver a strong, well-told story. Ghost of Tsushima knew exactly how to do that in a manner that felt authentic to its period Japanese open world setting, so yes, Assassin’s Creed Shadows absolutely should be looking to it for inspiration. Thankfully, Shadows’ development team at Ubisoft Quebec has proven with the likes of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Odyssey that it knows how to tell good Assassin’s Creed stories with likeable protagonists. Hopefully, Shadows won’t buck that trend.

WHAT NOT TO LEARN FROM RISE OF THE RONIN

SIDE CONTENT

Though Rise of the Ronin wasn’t without its strengths in areas such as the combat and the traversal, where its open world was concerned, it left many disappointed. Chief among the reasons for that was the quality and nature of the side content the game had on offer. By-the-numbers design and cookie-cutter optional content made the entire experience feel a bit too rote, to the extent that exploration was often nowhere near as fun or captivating as it should have been on paper. Assassin’s Creed as a franchise hasn’t always had the best track record with its optional offerings, so our hope is that Shadows will try and avoid the pitfalls that Rise of the Ronin fell in.

DEAD CITIES

It wasn’t just the open countryside in Rise of the Ronin’s open world that often felt static and empty. Major cities like Kyoto, Yokohama, and Edo were highlights of the map on paper, but actually exploring their streets and alleys was a letdown. From the lackluster crowds to the atmosphere of the cities in general, there were far too many knocks against Rise of the Ronin’s urban environments for them to be anything more than superficially interesting. Yes, they did boast strong visual design, and yes, the traversal was undeniably enjoyable, but that’s far from enough for open worlds looking to convincingly deliver a strong virtual historical tourism experience (as Assassin’s Creed always does).

CLUMSY WRITING

We touched on this aspect when speaking about Ghost of Tsushima’s strengths in the storytelling department- but we want to zoom in on the writing in particular, because this was another area where Rise of the Ronin felt like a letdown. On paper, it had all the pieces in place to tell a strong story, especially given the period of Japanese history that it chose to focus on, but clumsy writing, unnatural sounding dialogue, and paper-thin characters dragged the whole experience down. Assassin’s Creed Shadows needs to not make that mistake. Writing hasn’t always been this series’ strong suit, especially in recent years. But Rise of the Ronin has shown us exactly how painfully poor writing can waste a conceptually strong setting and story. Hopefully, Shadows will have learned that lesson during development.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

Rise of the Ronin was Team Ninja’s first ever open world, so the studio definitely deserved some leeway in this area, while there’s also no denying that the game didn’t necessarily have too many major technical issues upon release. It had enough smaller ones though, from wonky animation glitches and texture pop in to lighting bugs and what have you, which all came together to make for what was a rather rough gameplay experience. That lack of technical polish also arguably weakened what was an already weak open world experience. If Assassin’s Creed Shadows is to make the strong impression right out the gate that series fans are hoping it will, and if it wants to get the most out of its undeniably promising setting, it needs to be as technically polished as possible.

Understand the Karakuri

One of the biggest ways WILD HEARTS differentiates itself from genre giants like Capcom’s Monster Hunter is its Karakuri system, which basically allows you to build things of varying complexity to help you out in your hunts. Karakuri come in three varieties: basic, fusion, and dragon. Basic Karakuri are simple objects like blocks, springs, and torches. These can simply be thrown down and used instantly. For example, blocks let you jump at a higher height than your usual jump, while springs let you dash in a direction, giving you a generous amount of invincibility frames in the process. You can even mix and match, like putting a spring on top of a box to dash at a height.

Fusion Karakuri are made from combining basic Karakuri in different configurations, turning them into a more complex machine. The simplest example of this is the Bulwark, which is made by putting two columns of three blocks each side-by-side. These are often best used when you have an opening on a monster to complement your own attacks. Fusion Karakuri also have situational uses, like the aforementioned Bulwark being useful against Kemono that are about to charge at you, blocking their charge and throwing them on their back, opening them up for a flurry of attacks.

"One of the biggest ways WILD HEARTS differentiates itself from genre giants like Capcom’s Monster Hunter is its Karakuri system"

Dragon Karakuri are more permanent structures, like camps, tents, forges, and hunting towers. These allow you to build bases wherever you might like, and are a great way of customizing any hunting zone to your liking. These can range from regular base building, to even setting up a network of ziplines—called Flying Vines in WILD HEARTS —to help you zip through the map faster.

Use Karakuri Freely

While Karakuri might be quite extensive, it’s important to get comfortable using them. Even just constantly using the spring Karakuri on your way to a Kemono helps speed up the down time and get you back into the action quicker. And, of course, the fact that you can build bases and ziplines anywhere you might like is a great way of encouraging exploration and customization. When it comes to resources needed to build the Dragon Karakuri, WILD HEARTS encourages experimentation by letting you freely destroy unwanted structures and refund the resources. During the hunts, it’s important to experiment with different basic and fusion Karakuri, and learn what works best with your weapon of choice.

Make New Camps to Make Fast Traveling Across a Big Map Easier

An important part of using your Karakuri is also setting up new base camps. The various maps in WILD HEARTS have their own loose recommendations of spots that would make for decent camps—marked by a tree that can refill your healing items—but the freedom in putting down a tent or a forge anywhere you want is quite underrated. Since you’ll be interacting with Dragon Pits as you explore the maps anyway, it’s a good idea to use those resources, rather than ignoring them and letting them stagnate. And setting up new camps also allows you to fast travel between different areas of the same map.

Find Your Favorite Weapon

Speaking of which, in true monster hunting fashion, WILD HEARTS has eight different weapon types to choose from, all of which are incredibly different from one another. While experimenting and playing around with all of the different weapons is a great idea, it’s also quite important to learn at least one of the weapons and make it your main.

Each of the weapons offers different play styles, from the never-ending flurry of attacks that the Maul and Claw Blade encourage, to the more methodical approach to finding openings, like the Nodachi promotes. Defense-oriented players have options like the Bow and Hand Cannon, which let you maintain your distance, and the Bladed Wagasa—an umbrella with sharp edges that lets you dodge around, pull off aerial attacks, and is equipped with the ability to parry attacks. There are a lot of options in WILD HEARTS, and familiarizing yourself with a few core choices will end up with you having a much better time.

"WILD HEARTS has eight different weapon types to choose from, all of which are incredibly different from one another"

If you’re ever confused about how a weapon works, training dummies—Dragon Karakuri that can be built where you want—also give you access to small tutorials for every weapon that gives you a general idea of how they’re used, and how they work with different basic Karakuri. For the sake of context, it took me around 10 hunts before I started heavily favoring the Claw Blade as my main weapon of choice. And I’ll still keep switching weapons around for future hunts.

Don’t be Afraid of Failing Hunts

As is also the case with FromSoftware’s SoulsBorne games, failure in monster hunting games is meant to be a learning experience. As such, don’t be afraid of biting off more than you can chew when you’re thinking of what Kemono to hunt. Sure, you might fail, but on the bright side, you’ll likely have learned more than enough about the Kemono’s attack patterns to make future encounters with it easier. It might also end up being a wake up call to remind you that maybe your equipment is getting too outdated, and that you should probably work on a few optional side quests and upgrade your stuff.

Baths and Food are Awesome

Underneath the relentless action in WILD HEARTS lies a surprisingly in-depth buff system. At its most simple level, food gives you temporary buffs that last for a single hunt, while baths give you more permanent upgrades, like increased health. How these two systems work, however, can be surprisingly intricate.

Food can be freely gathered in the wild when you’re out and about on your Kemono hunts. Grabbing random vegetables, fishing, and hunting smaller Kemono for their meat is a great way to stock up, especially in the early game. You’ll want to start refining these foods as soon as you can, however, through structures like the drying rack. Doing so makes the buffs these foods give more potent. As a general rule, having multiple drying racks for the sake of getting more food refined quickly is a good idea, especially if you, like me, have the habit of picking up just about everything as you run through an area.

"Food can be freely gathered in the wild when you’re out and about on your Kemono hunts."

Baths, unlocked after an early story event, are quite easy to make use of. Essentially, you’ll start getting options for fancy baths, which require special materials to unlock. These materials, while tricky to find, are quite worth going out of your way to get, since baths will give you permanent health boosts.

Tsukumo Upgrades Add Up Over Time

Your little Karakuri buddy that travels with you, helping you hunt Kemono, becomes a surprisingly integral part of your hunting experience. Of course, when you start out, Tsukumo isn’t going to be doing much in the hunts. Explore the game’s various maps and find the hidden Tsukumo, however, and you can upgrade your Tsukumo in various ways. If you want your Tsukumo to focus on dealing some damage, you have that option. If, on the other hand, you’d rather have your Tsukumo provide timely healing or extra threads for your Karakuri, go for it. Just remember to actually upgrade your Tsukumo, which can be done by interacting with any campfire.

Learn to Use the Hunter Arm

An important part of hunting Kemono in WILD HEARTS is breaking various parts and causing wounds. Hunter Arm allows you to jump on these wounds—which are giant blue glowing patches on Kemono’s body—and suck out some thread to fuel your own Karakuri. While the extra thread alone is a great reason to be using Hunter Arm, there are also several armor skills that enhance it. An early game armor, for example, also heals you when you use the Hunter Arm. Another armor piece will give you an attack bonus. Sure, it’s easy to forget to use this ability, but Hunter Arm is surprisingly important and versatile, and the sooner you learn how to use it, the more interesting your hunts will be.

Learn the Human/Kemono Divide (in Gear)

While you’re going to be upgrading your weapons and armor quite frequently, especially in the early stages of the game, an interesting feature is the ability to make your armor lean more towards the Human side or the Kemono side. Aside from having passive bonuses associated with this option, there are also relatively-powerful armor skills that require you to fully commit to one side or another. That’s not to say that you can’t mix and match, however, since there are also passive stat bonuses to consider. Switching your armor either way also gives that piece of armor a boost in defense and elemental resistances.

"An interesting feature is the ability to make your armor lean more towards the Human side or the Kemono side."

Don’t Forget to Upgrade Your Karakuri

WILD HEARTS has an entire tree where you can find upgrades for your different Karakuri, and take this from personal experience, it’s incredibly easy to forget this. Upgrading your Karakuri simply involves spending currency you get from doing hunts and going down a long tree. These upgrades range from ridiculously-simple—like unlocking a decorative lantern as a Dragon Karakuri—to incredibly important—like letting your Flying Vine hit Kemono and do damage, or upgrading your capacity of carrying healing items. Remember to upgrade!

Side Quests Are Pretty Useful

While they can be largely ignored, side quests in WILD HEARTS actually do quite a bit to not only fill in more of the various characters’ storylines, but also in giving you some materials so that you don’t have to go out there and grind out Ore, for example. Side quests are a great way to go on hunts that you have to repeat anyway, since you’re going to need a lot of materials for your next update. Side quests are also a good way to fight some Kemono earlier than the main story would have you encounter them, letting you get some notable upgrades relatively early.

Don’t Rush the Story

The WILD HEARTS story might be plenty of fun to play through, but it’s important to take a break and sell the roses every once in a while. Taking a break to take on some weaker Kemono for the sake of completing side quests is good practice, and will quite easily keep you up to date with your gear. Another great way to pass some time is just picking a map to explore, and ultimately build an entire speed-traveling infrastructure with camps and Flying Vines. And, of course, material gathering shouldn’t be ignored either. Even early game materials like Corestone end up being important for weapon upgrades down the line.

"Taking a break to take on some weaker Kemono for the sake of completing side quests is good practice"

The Fisherman Quests

Aside from the actual tutorial in WILD HEARTS, there is also a softer tutorial through a series of quests given by the Minato Fisherman that encourages you to do various simple things in exchange for useful rewards. These quests are quite simple, ranging from gathering a certain amount of timber, to hunting a certain number of Kemono. You can hold 5 at a time, and it’s always worth checking in with the fisherman to see if you can turn in completed quests and grab some new ones. These quests are often just completed in the course of regular play, so those material rewards are essentially just free items if you think about it.

Co-op Things to Keep in Mind

Much like any hunting game worth its salt, co-op is an important aspect of WILD HEARTS, and much like the game’s other aspects, a way for it to differentiate itself from its contemporaries. The number one thing to remember for co-op hunting is that, unlike in Monster Hunter, if a co-op partner falls in battle, they can be revived. Doing so before the timer counts down actually prevents the loss of the limited lives that every hunt has.

Co-op is also a fun way to build an entire infrastructure for the different maps in WILD HEARTS. It’s important to remember, however, that only the host’s game will continue to have all of the Karakuri built by players. They’d have to rebuild them in their own game to get access. It’s also important to note that only the host can destroy Karakuri, even if it was built by other players.

And finally, co-op is also a great way to try out some fun synergies between various weapons. Players can go for the classic tank-and-dps role by having one hunter use the Bladed Wagasa while the other uses the Hand Cannon. Or, use a Bow alongside a Claw Blade to keep pelting the Kemono with constant damage. There are a lot of options to choose from, and with the capability of co-op with up to 2 other hunters, the possibilities are endless.

And make no mistake, WILD HEARTS definitely has a fair number of ideas on how it can try and differentiate itself from its contemporaries. Having spent altogether too much time playing the game, I can safely say that I have a firm grasp on whether WILD HEARTS’ gamble pays off, or if it’s just going to be yet another forgotten Japanese monster hunting game like the studio’s earlier attempts. Spoiler: it pays off.

Let’s get some of the more superficial aspects out of the way; WILD HEARTS is a great looking game. It may not boast the highest resolution assets or the biggest numbers in its polygon-count, but the art direction is incredibly strong, making the game’s feudal Japan-inspired aesthetics spring to life. WILD HEARTS goes for a vibrant, colorful look, and it pays off in spades, resulting in not only gorgeous vistas and jaw-dropping arenas to fight the game’s monsters—dubbed Kemono—in, but also in clarity when it comes to actually figuring out what’s happening in gameplay.

"WILD HEARTS goes for a vibrant, colorful look, and it pays off in spades."

Not only are the big Kemono that you have to hunt as part of the game’s quests clearly visible, each with a unique silhouette that makes them easily identifiable, but even the smaller aspects, like resources that can be gathered, fishes that can be fished, and rabbits that can be pet are visually obvious. Despite WILD HEARTS’ borderline oversaturated color palette, things never get muddled with the background, and you can just about always make out the most important things.

On the audio side of things, WILD HEARTS has some soaring orchestral tracks that make heavy use of strings and traditional Japanese musical instruments, and it meshes quite well with the Japanese aesthetics the game is going for. Needless to say, when it comes to how it looks and sounds, I did not find WILD HEARTS lacking.

Now for the meat and potatoes: the core gameplay. WILD HEARTS, like any other hunting game, is more or less defined by its offering of weapons, and the targets you use those weapons on. Let’s start by talking about the weapons of WILD HEARTS.

Despite offering only 5 weapon types at the beginning—expanding into 8 distinct types of weapons once you reach a certain point of the story—variety is never a problem. Owing to the limited selection of weapons, each one has unique gameplay elements attached to them. Mechanics unique enough that other games might use a single weapon type as the core basis of their entire gameplay.

"Each weapon has unique gameplay elements attached to them."

When it comes to actually using and learning these weapons, there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve. A training dummy, available in the early game right outside the camp, and eventually manually-constructable (we’ll get to the building aspect soon), does quite a bit to alleviate this learning curve by giving you a quick run down of some of the combos. However, players coming from games like Monster Hunter Rise might find the tendency of the weapons in WILD HEARTS to constantly move the character in a certain direction fairly off putting. It’s an important aspect of the game’s core combat design, however, as the beasts you take on are incredibly mobile, and giving the player just a tiny bit of extra mobility through their weapons actually does quite a bit to help balance the scales.

There are plenty of options in the creatively-designed weapons too, from the constantly-growing and shrinking Maul, to the arrow-swapping gameplay of the Bow, and even to the Attack on Titan-inspired flashiness of the Claw Blade, just about every kind of player will find a weapon they love using. I personally got quite attached to the transforming Karakuri Staff, the hard-hitting Nodachi, and the quick and agile Claw Blade.

Really, the only real problem with the core combat of WILD HEARTS is that its camera can often have trouble keeping up with the action. If you find yourself fighting Kemono in a forest filled with trees, or more often than not, if you’re trying to climb a Kemono’s body to try and deal some damage to a weak point, the camera often goes haywire, and unfortunately, this also has the side effect of making your directional controls go haywire. Coupled with the unfortunate implementation of the lock-on system which insists on keeping the target in the center of your screen at all times adds quite a bit to the learning curve. WILD HEARTS could do well with a target camera system like Monster Hunter World or Rise.

"There are plenty of options in the creatively-designed weapons too."

Of course, the other core aspect of the gameplay in WILD HEARTS is the ability to build things. Players can place down structures of varying complexity, be it something as simple as a crate or a spring, to more complicated structures like a spring-loaded hammer, to entire base camps and buildings. These structures are called Karakuri, and they form the central basis of the WILD HEARTS story. Far from being just a gimmick, Karakuri are actually one of the most interesting aspects of WILD HEARTS, and the biggest way it differentiates itself from the recently released Monster Hunter games.

Essentially, the Karakuri that players can build are split into three distinct categories: basic, fusion, and dragon. Basic Karakuri, as its name might imply, is simple stuff like crates, springs and torches. Fusion Karakuri are combinations of basic Karakuri that turn into more intricate contraptions, like a bomb or a spring-loaded hammer to bonk Kemono with. Dragon Karakuri is where you find your base building stuff, like tents, forges, and even traversal structures like ziplines.

Karakuri, especially the basic and fusion kind, quickly become yet another tool in your arsenal during hunts. It’s surprising how natural it quickly becomes to just put down a block for a jumping attack, or a spring for a quick dash away from danger. And once you figure out openings in Kemono attack patterns, you can make use of Fusion Karakuri to plant a bomb. When it comes to just fighting, the possibilities are surprisingly limitless, and cater to just about every play style out there.

"When it comes to just fighting, the possibilities are surprisingly limitless"

On the subject of base building, WILD HEARTS offers an incredible level of freedom on the level of Death Stranding. Much like Hideo Kojima’s strand game, you’re not only free to build an entire network of ziplines covering the whole map, but you’re downright encouraged to do so with how well the maps in WILD HEARTS play with verticality. Considering how big and dense the maps can get, you’ll also want to freely build new base camps that allow you to fast travel between each other. It certainly helps that you can destroy anything you’re not using to get a full refund on the building resources. Experimentation is encouraged, and more often than not, rewarded when it comes to building in WILD HEARTS.

Speaking of maps, WILD HEARTS has four distinct regions, each with their own themes, flora, fauna, and interestingly, seasons. This means that every map gives you a different vibe altogether, be it enjoying autumn-time hunting in the Akikure Canyon, or an icy hunt in the frozen Fuyufusagi Fort. Every single map has plenty of secrets hidden away in their cliffs and canyons, and offers interesting arenas to fight the Kemono in.

Alongside the Karakuri and the weapons, the Kemono are the absolute stars of WILD HEARTS. Not counting a few variants, all of the Kemono are incredibly varied, with even the largest among them offering nothing short of a breath-taking, cinematic battle. WILD HEARTS does incredibly well with the design of its beasts, mixing animals with nature for some truly unique designs. Right from the beginning, the Ragetail and Sapscourge are interesting hunts in their own right, but the deeper into the game you get, the more interesting Kemono designs become. I was often surprised by how often I stopped just short of starting fights with these monsters to just observe them and their intricate designs.

"When it comes to just fighting, the possibilities are surprisingly limitless."

Of course, every Kemono has its own unique set of armor, with a few twists along the way. Much like in Monster Hunter World or Rise, armor in WILD HEARTS gives you different skills that improve your ability to hunt. What sets WILD HEARTS apart, however, is its unique take on upgrades. You are encouraged to invest materials into pieces of armor to make them take on more human aspects or more monstrous aspects inspired by the Kemono whose parts were used to craft the pieces.

Alongside the endless possibility for fashionable outfits, this also introduces a new level of customization, since going down the human path or the Kemono path activates and deactivates unique armor skills. This, coupled with the way weapon upgrades can inherit their own unique skills along a vast upgrade tree means that the min-maxers among us will have a lot of fun figuring out the most optimal ways to deal damage.

And like just about everything else in WILD HEARTS, the armor sets are also meant to invoke a feudal Japanese aesthetic, be it through thick samurai armor, agile ninja gear, or even intricate kabuki masks. There’s no shortage of choices here, despite the singular aesthetic throughline cutting through it all.

Last, but not least, let’s talk about the story. WILD HEARTS places a surprising amount of emphasis on its story. Rather than simply having a story as an excuse to put you into fights with bigger and badder beasts, WILD HEARTS instead wants you to learn more about its characters, and over time, maybe even grow attached to them. While much of the character development is left for side quests that often take the form of multiple-part quest lines—each one with its own self-contained plot—the core cast of characters still get quite a few moments to shine.

"Rather than simply having a story as an excuse to put you into fights with bigger and badder beasts."

An easy example, without spoiling anything, comes with the first cinematic hunt of the game. Characters like the blacksmith Natsume, the aging samurai Ujishige, and the scholar Suzuran all get moments to shine in helping your character fight off a dire threat, with all the incredible swells in the game’s orchestral score you’d expect from a heroic scene. There are also several side characters that, while not altogether present in the story, have a surprising amount of storylines through side quests. For example, the merchant Kogyoku has an entire murder mystery plot that revolves around a specific side quest chain.

Whether you actually end up enjoying the characters or not is entirely subjective. While just about everything is played for drama with little in the way of comedy, I personally found the characters quite endearing, especially once they started accompanying me in some of the story hunts, letting us get to know them and their backstory better in the process.

It’s also worth noting that, alongside its visual aesthetics, the writing in WILD HEARTS is also incredibly Japanese. Even with the English voice acting—which, incidentally, is quite well done—characters have an obvious Eastern Asian accent to them, and conversations will often see Japanese words peppered throughout. Rather than just saying “thank you”, an NPC is more likely to say “arigato”. Just about everything in WILD HEARTS has a thick layer of the Japanese aesthetic to it, and while this may put some players off, it actually works out quite well in the end, be it the myth and folklore-inspired Kemono, the Japanese architecture, or environments that are almost definitely inspired by Japanese artwork.

Depending on how long you spend farming for new equipment, the story might take players anywhere from 25 hours to 50 hours, depending on your level of skill. Completionist runs will likely take even longer. But honestly, most of your time playing WILD HEARTS will likely be spent in multiplayer, regardless of whether you end up joining random players to help them out with hunts, summoning in help for tough battles of your own, or just hang out with friends as you try and build a cozy base along the shores of Natsukodachi Isle.

"But honestly, most of your time playing WILD HEARTS will likely be spent in multiplayer."

When it comes to negatives, WILD HEARTS is surprisingly sparse. Like I mentioned earlier, the camera could certainly use some more refinement, especially when it comes to trying to scale the Kemono in the middle of a hunt. Some players might also face performance issues, depending on their hardware. I faced a few dropped frames here and there while playing WILD HEARTS on a PC running on a Ryzen 5 3600, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, and 32GB of RAM, but nothing serious enough to hinder my enjoyment of the game. I was largely able to maintain a steady frame rate of 60fps for the vast majority of my play time. It is worth noting that players have been reporting performance issues with the 10-hour demo that is currently available through EA Play.

I do imagine that a fair number of performance issues likely stem from the absurd level of customization WILD HEARTS offers in the form of allowing you to build various structures that can quite freely be used and destroyed, alongside destructive elements of the environments. It’s easy to imagine the kind of strain destructible structures and environments might put on processing power, especially on lower-end hardware.

WILD HEARTS is a great new entry in a genre that’s more or less dominated by a single franchise. Despite taking many ideas from its competition, WILD HEARTS manages to forge its own identity through a healthy mix of incredible creature designs, a fun story, gorgeous environments, fun weapons, and intricate construction abilities. Rather than coming off as a cheap knock off, WILD HEARTS instead feels like a revitalizing new release, offering some much-needed competition for the recent Monster Hunter games. A few issues that will likely see fixes through software updates aside, WILD HEARTS is an admirable fresh attempt at monster hunting.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

In a post on the game’s subreddit, Omega Force stated that it is continuously working on improving the performance of WILD HEARTS on all platforms, but that PC players can look forward to a post-launch update next week that will alleviate CPU throttling.

The studio has also announced that it is working on bringing DLSS and FSR support to WILD HEARTS down the line, but currently the studio hasn’t given a definitive release date for the update.

WILD HEARTS has received a series of trailers leading up to its release date today, the most recent of which give us a glimpse of the game’s story, along with showing us quite a bit of gameplay.

WILD HEARTS is out on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on February 17. The game is also slated to not have any microtransactions after launch, and post-launch DLC is set to be released for free.

Those subscribed to EA Play Pro on PC can access the Karakuri Edition. Along with the base game, five Chat Stamps and an emote, it includes the Karakuri Samurai and Karakuri Ninja armor sets, a Decorative Tsukomo Lantern, and three more emotes for $90.

WILD HEARTS launches on February 17th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. It features a main story that will take about 30 hours to complete, 20 Kemono to battle, eight weapon types, and various armor sets to craft. After the story, players delve into the end-game with Volatile Kemono and other threats.

EA Play members can now play up to the gates of Minato and explore WILD HEARTS for up to 10-hours with EA Play’s early access trial!

EA Play Pro members have access to the full Karakuri Edition NOW! pic.twitter.com/tGa9ZyI2ot

— EA Play (@EAPlay) February 13, 2023

“When we look at [the toughest Kemono in the game], those I die [against]. If I’m not properly prepared, I’ll go in, and I’ll be killed.” However, co-director Kotaro Hirata says he’s “totally awesome at [WILD HEARTS].” So opinions may vary.

One thing is for sure: The Kemono, the massive beats that one must hunt, initially felt too strong. Instead of nerfing them, the Karakuri were added to even the odds. “Before [the Karakuri system] came along, the Kemono were way too strong for the players. They were just massive creatures with too much power. But then the Karakuri idea came in, and then we realized, ‘the Karakuri system might be too strong now!'” Hirata said.

“We wanted to make sure the Kemono were strong and difficult to beat because we wanted the players to feel the sense that it was a challenging endeavor. But trying to find that right balance between the actual strength of the Kemono versus the strength of the players was the hardest balance to figure out.”

Ultimately, the best WILD HEARTS players will be those who master the Karakuri. If you’re facing trouble, then help isn’t too far away, thanks to cross-platform multiplayer support. Hirata believes that new players can learn a lot from veterans when playing in co-op.

WILD HEARTS launches on February 17th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. Check out the latest gameplay trailer, which showcases the various citizens of Minato Village who will help you out.