You start with what are known as Basic Karakuri, the first of which lets you produce a wooden crate that launches you into the air when you climb on top of it. In action, it's a fast-paced crafting system that serves multiple functions, opening up your available options both in and out of combat. In the fiction of Wild Hearts, Karakuri is an ancient technology used by hunters to conjure impressive pieces of technology out of thin air.

Sure, it has plenty of familiar elements, but the novel Karakuri system gives the game a unique identity that sets it apart from its contemporaries.

With Wild Hearts, Omega Force hasn't just set out to create a simple imitation, though. Developer Omega Force has explored the genre before with the Toukiden series, and those two games represent perhaps the best examples of the monster-hunting genre outside of Capcom's own influential best-sellers.

Both games are about exploring large, open areas-either alone or with other players-to find and defeat giant monsters, then harvesting and using their parts to craft better weapons and armor. You only need to glance at Wild Hearts for a moment to see the similarities it shares with Capcom's Monster Hunter series.

From opening our wild hearts