Verdict
An impressive port that struggles with performance issues towards the end of the game, Wild Hearts S delivers an action-packed twist on this sub-genre of ARPGs, and the brilliant Karakuri adds a great element of strategy to the tried-and-true monster hunting fun.
Monster Hunter Rise is my favorite of the recent games from Capcom's iconic franchise, and there's a good reason for that. It's fast-paced action felt more suited to my style, and while Wilds does blend the action with World's slower hunting style, it didn't land nearly as well. Fortunately, Wild Hearts S is not only a great rival but a Rise-style experience that does a lot better, but it's also got some issues that a sequel could fix.
It's no secret that Capcom's push for better visuals and an open-world adventure with Wilds has led to the series' latest entry skipping out on Nintendo's handheld console. Fortunately, Wild Hearts S is here to fill a gap in my Monster Hunter-loving heart, and it's certainly a brilliant Switch game that provides a satisfying hunt.
You play as a custom character, a nameless hunter who heads to the distant land of Azuma to avoid the warring samurai and the lack of a good Kemono hunt (the game's larger-than-life creatures). After a fight against a Deathstalker, a wolf using ice abilities, your character is left fatally injured, but a mysterious character activates a Karakuri seed in you, granting you the ability to use celestial threads to create Karakuri inventions (more on those soon).
You're tasked with heading to Minato, but not before saving some locals who need help from the nearby Kemonos, and you'll quickly realize that the creatures of this land harness powerful nature-altering abilities, which become a major part of the world and the overall story, forcing you to hunt down the Kemonos affecting Azuma.
It's a decent enough story, but it's all just a wrapper for what is essentially one of the best action games on Switch 2. You've got your typical Monster Hunter gameplay loop of heading to one of a few locations, which are large maps with numerous Kemono across, and hunting down your choice of monster. Fortunately, you have access to crafting special armor and weapons using materials, granting you stronger gear or ones that can use a Kemono's weakness against them.
There's a heavy focus on the action part of an action RPG, with your character pulling off fast moves with a katana or diving around the unfortunate target of your hunt with the clawblades, my favorite of the bunch. There are a few heavier weapons, like the nodachi or the cannon, but Wild Hearts S feels most fun when you're using the lightweight armaments, especially when combined with the game's main mechanic - the Karakuri.
To slim it down for the sake of brevity, Karakuri are the bread-and-butter of Wild Hearts S. They're special and magical inventions that you can summon at any time, so long as you have celestial threads, allowing you to pull off stunts like fire attacks or creating barricades that stun Kemono and protect you from incoming damage. Dragon Karakuri also exists, and so long as you have opened enough Dragon Pits in each location, you can summon various tools that help you before your hunt - like camps, hunting towers, or forges.
It's a simple system that works wonderfully well in the genre, giving you another layer of strategy for each hunt. Should you glide into the arena before your battle to get a head start, or save those threads for a later part of the hunt, ensuring you can protect yourself when the Kemono eventually gets enraged? The idea of constantly shifting your plan keeps the game exciting, and it puts your knowledge of your Switch 2 controller to the test, as you need to use Karakuri fairly often and quite fast.
Of course, Kemono hunting isn't smooth sailing, and neither is playing Wild Hearts S. I played the original version when it launched on PC, so I know my way around a good ol' clawblade combo, but the performance on my budget gaming rig forced me to update my aging hardware. I was cautiously optimistic for Wild Hearts S' chances on Switch 2, and while the experience is surprisingly smooth (if not for the fairly poor texture quality), the latter parts of the game do struggle with frame dips and stutters at times.
However, it remains one of the best RPGs I've played, and Wild Hearts S is a brilliant port for Nintendo's new handheld. Despite my concerns, it's an impressive version of the game that I hope gives the IP life once again, even if it's a complete miracle that this initial game works on the Switch 2. If you're missing that Monster Hunter action that every other console is enjoying with Wilds, Wild Hearts S will be sure to offer you a great time.