In Wild Hearts, the ultimate goal is to stop the wild Kemono from taking over the land by any means necessary. How you accomplish that goal is entirely up to you, as you can not only create your own weapons layouts and unique building instruments, but you can also choose to go it alone or play with friends.
If you’re like most people who love the monster-hunting genre, it’s likely you’ll want to hop into Wild Hearts with either a group of friends or via matchmaking in online co-op. When you start playing, though, you may be confused as to why the title only allows up to three players in total at one time.
According to Game Directors Kotaro Hirata and Takuto Edagawa, this decision was made in favor of gameplay.
“In the beginning, we were considering four-player co-op but the tests we ran showed that three players was the best balance,” said Edagawa. “The Karakuri system has a very high synergy effect.
You can use the Karakuri other players have and be really creative but we still wanted battles to have a bit more tension. That is why we eliminated having more players. Also, it is much easier to get three players than it is to get four!”
Considering how much the developers have reiterated the importance of difficulty scaling in Wild Hearts when playing co-op, this statement makes complete sense, as adding in a fourth person would completely throw off the balance that the team has seemingly already created.
Wild Hearts releases in full on Feb. 16, 2023, for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. If you can’t wait that long for more info on the game, be sure to check out our official review, in which we praise the game as helping pave the way for the future of the monster hunting genre.
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