In a Reddit Ask Me Anything this week, the developers of Wild Hearts stated that they already have plans for post-launch updates, and they'll all be free.
"All post launch contents will be free, including new Kemono and more! We don't have any plans to feature MTX," they answered in one of the AMA's most-asked questions.
"Kemono" are the jumbo-sized monsters of Wild Hearts, which you'll be hunting and trapping in an action game that obviously owes a lot to Capcom's Monster Hunter. The monetization also seems to be following Capcom's lead: with the recent Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise, Capcom added free monsters and quests for many months, without ever charging for specific battles. If anything, though, Wild Hearts sounds more generous: there are more than 200 bits of cosmetic DLC for Monster Hunter Rise, while Wild Hearts' devs, Koei Tecmo, say they have no plans to offer microtransactions. Then again, it's a lot easier to sell little bits of DLC in a series that already has millions of players and is known for being ludicrously replayable.
"No plans" doesn't mean future DLC couldn't happen, of course, and I think it's likely that we see a paid expansion for Wild Hearts if it's a hit, like last year's Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak.
Here are a few other details from the Wild Hearts AMA:
- The Steam Deck will not be supported at launch (though it's ambiguous of this simply means it won't be Verified, or won't work at all)
- There will be more than 20 monsters at launch, with more planned for post-release
- You can play solo, offline, and pause mid-hunt
- Difficulty scales dynamically with number of players (so if someone joins or leaves mid-battle, the difficulty will change)
- Multiplayer is peer-to-peer and isn't region locked
- Monsters can fight each other, though it's "a rare occurrence"
- As in Monster Hunter, monsters have breakable body parts
- There are eight weapon types
- There are two difficulty tiers of monsters past the end of the campaign: "Volatile Kemono" and another one the devs are keeping secret
- No capturing monsters
- Elemental statuses like fire, ice and poison (I guess poison is an element?) are part of combat
- EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can play a 10 hour trial beginning February 13
Wild Hearts is out on February 17—check back before launch for our review.
