In the monster hunting game. wild hearts, the creatures you face are a mixture of animals and nature. There are towering boars made of wood and giant rats covered in glowing mushrooms. And the game’s first major post-launch update will add a new monster perfect for the season: Murakumo, a beautiful fox covered in cherry blossoms.
Although it will come after the release of the game, wild hearts Director Takuto Edagawa says that the new creature has been in the works since the beginning of development. “We wanted to include a fox or a vulpine creature from the beginning,” he explains. “And we wanted it to be a special creature because they have a very special meaning in Japan in terms of faith and religion.”
For the Omega Force development team, part of making Murakumo special was making him something players just waited to see; you won’t be able to fight him until you take on a mission that takes place after the main campaign is complete. The creature is also the first to focus on ranged attacks. He has the ability to slide on cherry blossom platforms and can control thunder for attacks, which should introduce some new strategies to the game.
As with all creatures in wild hearts – called kemono in the game – the Murakumo was designed by combining natural elements from the real world. “To create them, we focused on a fusion of two elements that everyone knows and fears: the power of nature and wild beasts,” explains Kotaro Hirata, who also served as game director. “Kemono is the lynchpin on which all of the game’s features, worldview, stage design, and gameplay are based.”
After the kemono were created from the fusion of nature and wild beasts, we started working on the world design and hunting areas. In particular, we discuss the question of ‘how do we approach nature’ when we think about the world’s environment. Throughout human history, nature has always been something feared and adored. However, we do not believe that nature intentionally punishes or rewards humans. It just exists, whereas humans like to assign intentions to it on their own. We would love for players to experience this beauty and cruelty of nature and consider these human feelings towards it through this game.
That design process involved a lot of research: the team looked at a lot of nature documentaries and encyclopedias, and even took a few field trips to the zoo, as well as the typical trial and error inherent in game development. Instead of recreating specific animals, they tried to merge elements of existing wildlife to create something new. As an example, when it came to sound effects, each kemono used various animal noises.
“In the end, we decided to combine different animal sounds to create original sounds for some of the kemono,” says Hirata. “Spineglider is a cute and relatively small kemono, so we wanted to give it a high-pitched voice, which we created by combining the squeaks of some rodents, like mice and squirrels, as well as some dolphin sounds. In contrast, the Dreadclaw’s sounds not only combine rooster sounds, but also pig, lion, and elephant sounds to enhance his ferocity. And for Kingtusk, which is one of the biggest kemono in the game, we had staff members make the sounds during trial and error in the early stages of development.”
“It had to be beautiful but also terrifying.”
For the new Murakumo, one of the biggest challenges was balancing the intrinsic beauty that comes from the fox and cherry blossom motif with being a deadly animal that players ultimately have to fight and kill. The creature was designed by the artist. Yuuki Morita, which he worked with the Omega Force team to bring to life. “It had to be beautiful but also terrifying,” says art director Marina Ayano. “That balance was very important. The kemono is very pretty to look at when you’re not fighting, but once you get into battle and he rages, you’ll see his nine tails and the thunderous powers of him, and that’s the scary part. It was a very fine balance.”
Since all the gear you create in the game comes from the beasts you hunt, the introduction of the Murakumo also means new weapons and armor to collect. There are pink flower-infused axes and umbrellas and a fairly new outfit. Additionally, the game adds a new karakuri, a type of ancient technology that players can build to aid them in battle, which is like a deadly top.
According to Edagawa, the goal with this batch of post-launch content, and those that will come after it, is not just to make the game more difficult (although Murakumo does looks like a pain to fight). Instead, it’s to give players more reason to continue exploring the world after the campaign ends.
“Just adding more difficult missions, I don’t think it’s enough,” he explains. “I think the players will get bored of it. We want to focus on game and player growth and make that process fun. We want to tweak the system so that it’s fun to fight the same kemono over and over again. To give it a different feel, so that with these updates we can make the gaming experience more diverse.”
What’s new (and free) wild hearts the update is available starting today.
