Who doesn’t want to sit inside a giant wheel and chase down a massive, raging porcupine? Your hunter will utilise a sort of natural energy source to construct their own Karakuri to fight with. This seems to involve a bunch of glowing lights and some swirly DIY version of a Power Rangers morpher mounted on your hunter’s arm. When powered up, that gadget can build a wall out of thin air to, say, smack a giant rat that’s leaping towards you in the face. Every time I see Wild Hearts pull this kind of thing it seems more and more like Monster Hunter meets Looney Tunes. Ed had a go with Wild Hearts back in October, and came away thinking the Karakuri helped set it apart from Capcom’s Monster Hunter series. “Karakuri weren’t essential for the fights I took part in,” he said, “but they were certainly very helpful in conjuring helpful scenarios out of thin air when faced with an enormous marsupial crossed with a cherry blossom tree and an equally enormous lava badger. It was neat being able to take advantage of a stunned monster by immediately hopping off a stack of boxes and delivering a massive plunging attack.“ Wild Hearts bounds onto Steam, Origin and the Epic Games Store on February 16th 2023, and should cost $70 (UK pricing TBC).
