Fact Check: Is Wild Hearts a completely open-world game?

With Wild Hearts finally getting its official release for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, fans of the monster-hunting genre are quite excited to try the title out.

Koei Tecmo’s take on the genre seems to be quite a successful one. Apart from performance issues, the game has had a fairly positive reception across each of the platforms.

This has led many in the community to be curious about some of the features they can expect from the title. One of the more popular questions is whether the RPG is a completely open-world game or a limited sandbox with semi-open world features like Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise.

Those looking for a completely open-world experience will be disappointed as Wild Hearts follows the conventions of other games in the genre and features a semi-open world setting.

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What Wild Hearts offers as a semi-open world game

Wild Hearts is set in the land of Azuma. Players can explore the different regions of the map at their own pace. The design is semi-open, much like Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise. Hence, at least in terms of world-building, Koei Tecmo is not reinventing much. That being said, other aspects of the game, like the core combat and traversal mechanics, are quite different from Capcom’s titles.

One of the features that sets the title apart is the Karakuri building system, which adds a completely new dynamic to the monster-hunting genre. While it may seem gimmicky at first, many players have gone on to state that the Karakuri becomes one of the core combat features and starts to click in as one progresses through the game.

Additionally, players can activate and go for a Kemono hunt at any point from the map screen. They just need to travel to the main camp of any region and make their way to “free hunts.” This will allow them to encounter any Kemono of their choosing in the game.

While it is a semi-open world title, Wild Hearts allows players to explore Azuma quite a bit and set up different Karakuris to gain a strategic advantage over some of the hardest encounters in the game.

Each Azuma region has a different season and elemental layout, which will, in turn, affect the type of Kemono that players encounter there.