Wild Hearts is Omega Force and Koei Tecmo’s new take on the hunting game genre, and it's right around the corner. Set in the fantasy land of Azuma, Wild Hearts blends the beauty and power of nature into every corner of its world, from its bamboo canopies to its ferocious Kemono. According to the game's directors, such a striking aesthetic became possible thanks to the power of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, but it wasn’t always planned that way.
In an interview with Game ZXC, we sat down with co-directors Kotaro Hirata and Takuto Edagawa at Omega Force to discuss how the team brought the world and creatures of Wild Hearts to life and the challenges that came with crafting Azuma on new hardware. As the PS4 and Xbox One gradually begin to phase out more and more over the next couple of years, fans will see less and less cross-generation games, and Omega Force shed some light on how that decision was made. Unsurprisingly, the console version of the game was intended for PS4 and Xbox One as well before the focus became solely on PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Wild Hearts Was Originally Planned for the PS4 and Xbox One
Wild Hearts is one of the first triple-A titles this year to shed the previous generation console and launch solely on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and the PC this year. However, throughout our discussion, Omega Force disclosed that solely focusing on next-gen consoles wasn’t always the case. Consulting with EA in the game’s early days, Omega Force and Koei Tecmo saw fit to develop only for the then next-generation of consoles. While the internal discussion about Wild Hearts launching on the PS4 and Xbox One was brief, Omega Force does give a glimpse at how studios launching games today were thinking about cross-gen development as the pending console generation was on the horizon.
“We originally assumed we would support gen eight, like the PS4 and such, but I think it was with the advice of EA that they said, ‘Well, let's focus just on gen nine,’ and so we made that decision quite early on in our development. The time we spent considering gen eight was actually quite short. Most of our time was spent just focusing on how we would work with gen nine.”
In the two years that the PS5 and Xbox Series X have been around, both consoles have seen a shortage of next-gen exclusive titles. There are myriad factors involved with why that is; however, with EA launching the recent Dead Space remake only on new-gen consoles and PC, it seems like 2023 is the year that the publisher seems keen on embracing the next generation of hardware--and that decision was made quite some time ago. In some other circumstances, there may have been a version of Wild Hearts that existed on the PS4 and Xbox One without the intervention of EA, but Omega Force believes the push to solely focus on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S made for a development environment that could better deliver the studio's vision for Wild Hearts.
Wild Hearts is Leveraging the Power of Next-Gen Consoles for an Immersive Experience
With Omega Force going full steam with PS5 and Xbox Series X, the developers were quick to mention how these consoles were able to realize their vision for Wild Hearts’ world. Wild Hearts is all about thematically blending the awe and horror of nature into everything from its Kemono monsters to the earth that players walk across. Omega Force states that these themes and motifs would certainly not be as impactful or immersive without the use of next-gen hardware. However, there were some questions that Omega Force had to ask itself as it worked to bring Wild Hearts to life and the changes that came with working with the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
“One of the biggest changes that come with gen nine is in global illumination and how you could actually portray the environment and create a world where players want to remain in and stay immersed. It's [now] possible because of the fact that we can really create a realistic environment, and for us, the whole portrayal of nature was extremely important. I think we were able to bring out the beauty of nature thanks to the tech of gen nine. So that was a big part of it. Also, we had worked on combining various objects with nature, and that's how the Kemono were born. It was a combination of nature and looking onto the field as well. When you do that, there's a lot more information that is really suddenly there available to you. And that's something that I think that we could only express because of the gen nine technology.”
A new console generation is always an exciting time as the limits of what is possible graphically and technically reach new heights. In that vein, Wild Hearts has a lot to prove as one of the first solely next-gen only titles; however, it's clear that the game's graphical priorities lie in immersion and how it brings out the themes of the game using the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Shiny ray-traced reflections, accurate shadowing, and pushing the polygon count will always turn heads, but the team behind Wild Hearts has a different approach to using new hardware. For Omega Force, the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are realizing Wild Hearts’ rich themes of man against beasts and nature and offering a world that the team hopes will keep players in their seats for hours on end.
Wild Hearts launches February 16 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
