In the game of hunting monsters wild hearts, the creatures you encounter are a mixture of animals and nature. There are towering wild boars made of wood and giant mice covered in glowing mushrooms. And the game’s first major post-launch update will add a new monster perfect for the season: Murakumo, a sweet fox covered in cherry blossoms.
Although it will come after the launch of the game, wild hearts Director Takuto Edagawa says the new creature has been in development since early on. “We wanted to include the fox, or vulva, from the very beginning,” he explains. “And we wanted to make it a special creature because it has a very special meaning in Japan in terms of faith and religion.”
For the development team at Omega Force, part of making Murakumo special was making him something players would have to wait to see; You will not be able to fight him until you complete the mission that takes place after the main campaign is completed. 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 into the game.
As with all creatures in wild hearts – Called kemono in the game – Murakumo is designed by combining natural elements from the real world. “To create it, we focused on integrating two elements that everyone knows and fears: the power of nature and wild beasts,” explains Kotaro Hirata, who also served as a director on the game. “Kemono is the axis upon which all of the game’s features, world view, stage design, and gameplay are based.”
After creating kimonos from the amalgamation of nature and wild beasts, we began working on designing the world and hunting grounds. In particular, we discussed the issue of “how do we engage with nature” when considering the global environment. Throughout human history, nature has always been something to be feared and worshipped. However, we do not believe that nature intentionally punishes or rewards humans. It just exists, while humans like to set their own intentions. We would like players to experience the beauty and cruelty of nature and consider these human feelings towards it through this game.
This design process involved a lot of research — the team looked at plenty 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 incorporate existing wildlife elements to create something new. For example, when it comes to sound effects, each kobono uses sounds from multiple animals.
“In the end, we decided to combine the sounds of different animals to create original sounds for some of the kimono,” says Hirata. “The Spineglider is a cute, relatively small kimono, so we wanted to give it a high-pitched sound, which we created by combining the squeaks of some rodents, such as mice and squirrels, as well as some of the sounds of dolphins. In contrast, the Dreadclaw’s sounds combine not only rooster sounds, but also Boar, lion and elephant sounds to enhance its ferocity. And for Kingtusk, which is one of the biggest kimonos in the game, we actually had staff perform the sounds during a trial and error period in the early stages of development.”
“It had to be beautiful but also scary.”
For the new Murakumo, one of the biggest challenges was balancing the intrinsic beauty that comes from the shape of the fox and cherry blossom while being a deadly animal that players would have to fight and ultimately kill. The creature was designed by the artist Morita Yuki, who worked with the Omega Force team to bring it to life. “It had to be beautiful but also scary,” says artistic director Marina Ayano. “That balance was very important. The kimono is very beautiful to look at when you’re not fighting, but once you get into battle and get angry, you see her nine tails and her thundering powers, and that’s the scary part. It was a very good balance.”
Since all of the gear you craft in the game comes from the monsters you hunt, the introduction of Murakumo also means new weapons and armor to collect. There are axes, pink parasols, parasols, and all-new outfits. Additionally, the game adds new karakuri—a type of ancient technology that players can build to aid them in battle—such as a deadly spinning top.
According to Idagawa, the aim of this set of post-launch content, and those to come later, is not just to make the game more difficult (although Murakumo’s Do Sounds like a pain to fight). Instead, it gives players more reasons to continue exploring the world after the campaign ends.
“Just adding more challenging missions, I don’t think that’s enough,” he explains. “I think players are going to get tired of it. We want to focus on game growth and player growth and make that process fun. We want to tweak the system so that it’s fun to fight the same kimono over and over again. To give a different feel, so that with these updates we can make the gaming experience more diverse.” .”
New (and free) wild hearts The update is available starting today.