Wild Hearts character creator, so far, has been getting a lot of praise from the fanbase, especially in comparison to the reception of the game's performance altogether. In the game, players create their Hunter within the first 5 or so minutes of playing, and there is a ton to customize.
But, as is often the case, people don't want to spend an entire hour creating their perfect character before even playing the game at all. This is a large reason why many games offer some sort of appearance editing system (or a Transmog system) in the game as well. Thankfully, Wild Hearts also has this, but it's a bit more work (and time) to unlock it than one might think.
How To Alter The Player Character Appearance In Wild Hearts
As is the case with many games, the 'alter appearance' feature in Wild Hearts is tied to a specific item, a mirror, that players interact with. It's called a 'Looking Glass' and it's a Dragon Karakuri that players will need to spend their hard-earned Kemono Orbs to unlock.
Dragon Karakuri, for those unaware, usually serve one specific purpose and aren't meant to be used in the 'heat' of combat. They don't cost any material resources to build, and the only thing stopping people from building an infinite amount of them is the limits of their elemental types in the Dragon Pits. The Looking Glass is a Dragon Karakuri that takes up a hefty amount of the water-type Dragon Pit resources, and can only be placed in 'safe areas' (noted by the tent icon in the bottom right of its own icon) which includes just about every Camp placement, though almost everyone just builds it in Minato.
When Is The Looking Glass Unlocked?
Thankfully, unlike a lot of the Fusion Karakuri or even some specific Dragon Karakuri, there isn't really a specific Kemono that players will need to encounter to 'unlock' the Looking Glass. However, its unlock 'node' is about 18 levels deep into the Karakuri Upgrade Tree if the player follows the middle vertical line only. Then, just one spot to the left should be the Looking Glass unlock.
So, it's going to take some time and a hefty amount of Kemono Orbs in order to unlock everything in this vertical path before this item and then unlock the Looking Glass itself.
Luckily, players that know about the item and are trying to steadily work towards unlocking it throughout their playthrough comfortably they can do so around the start of Chapter 2. But, if a player puts the work in within Chapter 1 to grind out Kemono Orbs through:
- Solo hunting a bunch of Kemono
- Joining in on plenty of online hunts
- And always making sure to take advantage of the glowing spots on the Kemono to use their 'Hunter's Arm'
Then they can absolutely get the Looking Glass unlocked this early and can even help other lobbies they join or their friends by placing Looking Glasses down for them when they join their Minato as well.
What Options Are Available In The Looking Glass?
Some players may also be wondering, is the Looking Glass the exact same character creator as the intro of Wild Hearts? And the answer is yes, it is, with the only real 'difference' being the backdrop behind the player based on where the item is put down. In this character editor, players can change their build, personality type, undergarments, facial features, hair, tattoos, and much more. There's nothing 'locked off' from them that's only available in the tutorial of the game.
With all that said, there are still a few common complaints that people have had with the implementation of character edits using the Looking Glass so far, such as:
- The time of day and lighting of the area the Glass is placed can make customization harder or easier.
- Time isn't frozen while customizing, so players may start customizing, the game turns to night, and they can't see their character, so they'll have to save the current changes, go rest until morning, and then hop back into the character editor.
- There's no method of keeping a character's facial appearance while also changing their core 'build' or 'face type'.
- It's not clear which Hairstyles have additional options such as Top of Head, Back of Head, or Hair Pieces until the player actually selects that Hairstyle to see, which is tedious.
- Players trying to make full-body tattoos will find that it's impossible to connect the body tattoo to the arm ones without a bit of empty space in between.
- The previews for each Voice don't include the 'hurt' sound for the voice, which is likely the sound bite players will be hearing (or putting up with) the most.
- The total lack of any sort of piercing options. Yes, there's a slot for earrings in the Ornaments menu, but as of Chapter 5, there still haven't been any craftable earrings in-game.
Of course, overall the character creator in Wild Hearts is fantastic and shares a strikingly large amount of similarities to the character creators in games like Nioh 2 or what has been seen in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
Wild Hearts is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.