Wild Hearts S Review
When I first reviewed Wild Hearts back in 2023, it was a mixed reception. I always quite enjoyed the core gameplay loop that powered the game; but it wasn't without its problems, particularly when it came to the technical aspects of the game. In the time since, Digital Foundry went out of their way to call the original release the worst PC port of 2023 - in retrospect, I agree. When the game was confirmed for a Nintendo Switch 2 release via Wild Hearts S, then, I was concerned about how the game would look and run on Nintendo's latest hybrid console. The fact that the game ditches the original release's 3-player co-op to make way for 4-player co-op didn't help assuage those worries, either. Thankfully I can happily report that those concerns were mostly unfounded, and the port is an acceptable if not amazing conversion for the platform - one that with just a few small tweaks I would be happy to recommend.
I'm not going to go over the entire game again, I stand by my original review and all the praise and criticism. I love how different each weapon type feels, and how distinct they are from the obvious inspirations in Monster Hunter. Weapons like the Clawblade are unlike anything in Capcom's hunting action series, and alongside the Wagasa go a long way to ensuring that Wild Hearts maintains its own identity, even when certain fights and plot beats radiate a sense of desperation to ape some rather core elements of Monster Hunter World.
As always, I still love the Kemono designs, and how their rage states tie directly into a facet of nature that each monster represents. The way in which Karakuri tasks players with contemplating how best to connect parts of the game world, to facilitate easy travel from one end of the map to the other without inviting destruction in the middle of a hunt. When Koei Tecmo wasn't chasing Monster Hunter World, they showed they had the chops to bring a real competitor to the genre. That's still as true now as it was 2 1/2 years ago.
Setting those aside, let's talk about what's new. First and foremost, this is the game running on a Nintendo Switch 2. All told, it looks and runs better than I expected; it was completely impossible to get the original release working on a Steam Deck, and yet despite some clear downgrades the game does work and run acceptably even in handheld mode. It would be nice if there was an option to cap the framerate, since the game's performance varies quite a bit, but in handheld the delivered result is about as good as I could have hoped.
Docked, things follow a different story; while the game is clearly using TAA upscaling, and the title supported DLSS on PC, there's no DLSS upscaling at play here. There's rather heavy ghosting, and some egregious post-processing sharpening makes the image rather distracting. You can get used to it, but one lategame story segment that sees the hub village of Minato locked in an unending rain showcases an extreme where image quality can fall apart dramatically. Most of the time things look alright, but I do wish if nothing else we could tweak or disable the sharpening filter applied on top of the image.
Performance while docked is targeting 60 FPS. This target is met more often than not while playing in singleplayer, but dips are noticeable, and especially so when you connect online. Since the Switch 2 doesn't support VRR in docked play, these drops are more distracting than they otherwise would be - and I'm unsure a lower internal resolution would have helped matters. Visual downgrades are of course quite noticeable from the PC and other console versions of the game, but divorced from that it still looks good. I had the chance to test out online play - considering the main selling point of Wild Hearts S is 4-player co-op, it felt important to see how things work in such a scenario - and this is by far the most conflicted I've felt about the port.
In an ideal world, where you're hunting with 3 other players, the game's multiplayer and netcode works great. I had no issues with lagspikes or disconnects, which was especially notable when the vast majority of the players I connected to were clearly playing from Japan or Korea. That being said, the game's multiplayer already feels like its in a precarious state. While its fine for now, I do question if in a few weeks time there will remain an online playerbase at all. On the one hand, Wild Hearts S does support local play; but it feels like a problem with an obvious solution.
If you already own Wild Hearts on other platforms, why would you pick up Wild Hearts S unless you really loved the original release? Or, vice-versa. While Wild Hearts S is $50 new, you can easily grab the original release for $20 or less. The content is the same, but crucially multiplayer is crossplay between PlayStation, Xbox and PC. I can believe that Wild Hearts' multiplayer will still exist in some form 3 years from now on those platforms, but I simply don't trust that the same will hold true for Wild Hearts S.
While it might have been some extra work, I don't understand why Koei Tecmo hasn't updated the original release of the game to account for the new balance changes and 4-player co-op. Cross-play feels like it would have been an immediate boon to the port, and the lack is sorely felt less than a month in. While the original release was co-published by EA, seemingly that was no obstacle to releasing this port. Regardless of the reason, I can't see how the disparity helps anyone. While it's not perfect, the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game is good. I'd love to recommend it.
If you have a dedicated group of friends that is ready and willing to play through the game together, whether that's in person or online, Wild Hearts S is an easy recommendation. If you're hoping to do multiplayer with randoms, then it gets a bit trickier. Wild Hearts S is a great game, but make sure you understand what you're signing up for before picking it up. While it's one of the best 3rd-party releases for the Switch 2 so far, it's a real question for how long the community might last.