I’m Tired of Post-Game BS (Wild Hearts)
Contributed by DJMMT
I’ve been playing Wild Hearts since day one. I’ve finished the campaign for both games, and now I’m just pursuing the platinum trophy and finishing up the post-game content. Let me start by saying that the game is excellent. Wild Hearts is without a doubt my favorite game in the giant monster hunting genre, with Monster Hunter World being at an admirable second place. The major reason I prefer Wild Hearts to MHW is the same reason that I prefer Nioh to Dark Souls. Koei Tecmo took the original formula and streamlined it to be more accessible, faster paced, and generally easier to jump into without having to waste countless hours trying to understand obscure stat values and making builds. For the most part, you can just login and start playing the game. And that will take you very far. In fact, playing with only a surface level understanding of the various layers of mechanics will take you all the way through the end of the base campaign with very few troublesome roadblocks to your constant progression forward. This is how I like my games to work. What I don’t like is when games have a lack of gameplay/difficulty consistency in late/post-game content.
Very few things in game design irritate me more than a game that’s long and inconsistent in how to play it from start to finish. Especially when those inconsistencies only start to rear their ugly heads after I’ve already finished the campaign and played it for 60+ hours. With Wild Hearts, I’ve played just about every day since it launched. I try to do at least one hunt a day. I’ve played for more than 100 hours. With games like this, there’s always a learning curve at the beginning where you have to figure out which type of weapon(s) you’re going to main and how you will approach the gameplay. When it comes to the regular campaign, there are many right ways to play, and few objectively wrong ways to play. For the most part, you can do what feels comfortable for you, and ultimately have a good time while steadily progressing forward. But once you finish the campaign and get to the post-game monsters, that freedom to your gameplay approach quickly starts to erode away with each new monster introduced. Sadly, the game devolves into certain weapon types being way more effective than others. Worst of all, like so many games with heavy gear management elements, it becomes way more about builds and less about skill.
Skill definitely plays a factor in the Wild Hearts late game. I’ve only managed to make it as far as I have with skill, because I’m actively fighting the idea of developing new builds I don’t want to make. But for the average player, that will only take you so far. Other than the perfect players who make absolutely no mistakes, the only real way to succeed at bringing down later monsters is by creating effective builds against each of them. And if you’re not using the right weapon types, then you very well may have to change your main weapon(s) as well. In my opinion, this is flawed design. If I didn’t have to care about builds or use specific weapon types for the first 60 hours of the game, then I shouldn’t have to do it for the next 60 hours of the game either. Players should be able to maintain a consistent play style that they’ve developed and grown comfortable with over the course of completing the game’s campaign through to the end of any additional content, barring drastic alterations to the gameplay as a whole. If I could use a maul (hammer/axe) and not care about builds without struggling too much to bring down monsters for the entirety of the campaign, I shouldn’t suddenly have to adopt a new weapon type and care about builds to fight the added post-campaign monsters. I shouldn’t be asked to put in more effort to continue enjoying a game than I did to originally beat that game. It’s really that simple.
My love for Wild Hearts stayed consistent for at least 60 straight hours, as I played through all the main and side quests in the game. But the newly added monsters seem to more and more be forcing players to drastically change their play styles and builds to be able to defeat them consistently. In a game where you’re forced to fight the same monster multiple times to get the parts you need to build better armor and weapons, this type of design philosophy is just not OK. Players shouldn’t be forced to stop playing a game the way they like to play it to continue enjoying it. Because at that point, it devalues the effort I put in to develop a play style that was effective for me. By giving me the choice in how to play the game and then gratifying my choices by making it possible for me to progress steadily, the developer allowed me to make the game mine. I could choose how I best enjoyed it. Whether that was by casually focusing on base stats or caring to create specific builds that give the player bonuses they feel are effective, the game let everyone play it their way and feel like a winner while doing it. The late-stage content starts to take that away by basically forcing players to build and play in specific ways, thus homogenizing the experience and removing player agency.
I’m not saying that games have to give players agency and can’t offer homogenized gameplay experiences. I’m fine with linear games built with a one size fits all gameplay loop. In fact, I often prefer that. Because then I know I’m playing the correct way, if I’m progressing. There can be no question about whether or not I’m doing things right. But if a developer is going to offer freedom of choice in approach to players, they can’t suddenly remove that feature tens of hours into the game and force players into one narrow style of play. That’s especially annoying when your style of play is drastically different from the new “required” style of play. That’s the major reason that a game that I’ve spent many hours enjoying has suddenly turned into a game that I’m now just eager to finish (get the platinum trophy). Because the newer monsters are trying to force me to change how I want to play the game; even though I’ve already beaten the game.
If I can get through 90%+ of the content of a game with the same approach to the gameplay, and not have to do any outside research to do so, I shouldn’t suddenly have to Google builds and switch around all my equipped gear and buffs to make my way over the last hurdle(s) to reach 100% completion. That’s stuff you do early in the game. Like anything under say 40% completion is fair game to make the player have to implement fundamental changes to their approach. But if I’m past 50% completion and the game suddenly starts trying to make me completely alter how I’ve been playing it, that’s not cool or dynamic. It’s just annoying. Because I’ve already done the work. I’ve created my ideal build. I’ve developed muscle memory for my play style. I’ve learned how best to use the specific buffs and skills that I chose to develop. Don’t ask me to change after that’s all been cemented. I don’t have the patience or time for that.
I want to clarify, that this is not the first time something like this has happened to me. This is just the latest example I’ve encountered this type of design in. This is a common problem that has been around for years and seems to be getting worse. And once again, the worst part about it may be that it has become so common that players have normalized it as usual and possibly even ideal. Try making a post in the Wild Hearts subreddit commenting on balance issues of a newer monster, and you’ll be inundated with comments telling you to make a new build, look up a build guide, or that you’re using the wrong build, while completely ignoring the fact that you’re already this far into the game and haven’t needed to focus on special builds at all to reach that point. They think the thing that’s the entire problem is actually the solution to the problem.
I don’t think it’s ridiculous to expect the gameplay experience in a game to be consistent from start to finish. The entire point of leveling up gear is that once you find tools you like you can continue to strengthen them so that they remain effective. If the game forces you to change all your gear later on, all the resources and time that went into developing that gear is wasted. And at that point, the entire experience of playing the game feels like a waste as well. Or I guess we should just stop playing post-game content. And to be clear, I’m not against games having build mechanics. I’m against build mechanics, and other such troublesome nonsense, not being a clearly necessary part of playing the game from the start. If you establish in hour 0 that players will need to constantly be changing their builds and play style every step of the way, then I have no problem with that. My issue is when that wasn’t necessary to not only play but thrive in a game only to have that become a requirement so late into the game that players have already established how they prefer to play, thereby forcing players to completely morph their approach to playing the game at a point where doing so becomes a ton of wasted time for little in the way of long-term rewards.
