Wild Hearts S review — Kemono are finding a new home on the Nintendo Switch 2

Azuma is a wondrous and entrancing land that’s overrun by powerful Kemono, massive beasts with the power to influence nature and change entire landscapes. Wild Hearts released on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC in early 2023, and now we can take our Kemono hunting adventures on the road in Wild Hearts S, the official release for Nintendo Switch 2. With Monster Hunter games already calling Nintendo Switch systems home, it was only a matter of time before Wild Hearts would make its debut on the platform. However, with ports to less powerful platforms, you have to wonder, what are the trade-offs?

Before anyone comes after me about the Nintendo Switch 2 jab, you cannot deny the power of other platforms in comparison. Equipped with SSDs, better central and graphics processors, and other hardware advantages, it would be foolish to claim the Switch 2 competes on the same level. However, that doesn’t mean the Nintendo Switch 2 doesn’t have some decent horsepower for taking your games on the go. Nintendo Switch titles have benefited from the upgraded hardware, and while it’s not always as smooth as butter, there’s not a single platform that can claim perfection. Wild Hearts struggled at launch 2.5 years ago across the board, with reports of stutters and frame drops as well as occasional grainy visuals. Wild Hearts S experiences some of the same issues, however, I feel like it’s minimally disruptive and still something to be expected.

There aren’t many games that can reach, let alone maintain, the Nintendo Switch 2’s 120 fps cap, even with lowered overall graphics and resolution settings. It’s also important to note that Wild Hearts S is a big game, even with the world divided into sections. That being said, graphics for Wild Hearts S have been tiered down a notch compared to its larger console (and PC) counterparts. The game still looks beautiful. However, the devil’s in the details and the details have been reduced. There are fewer flowers in the fields, fog obscures distant objects, and the game gradually loads the environments as a design feature to make up for lower processing power, similar to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (and Tears of the Kingdom) and Immortals Fenyx Rising. It’s not pop-in as if the game is struggling to render so much as it is an intentional design to improve performance.

Even with these changes, frames will still fluctuate, and I can recall only one instance of the game reaching 120 fps. Otherwise, it did seem to maintain around 60 fps with an occasional dip to 30 fps during some transitions, such as when Kemono interactions were triggered, and sometimes during traversal. For those of us who have become fps junkies, this can be a little jarring, but it isn’t a deal breaker by any means and is hardly a deviation from what I’ve come to expect. I’m not excusing these performance struggles; I’m just saying that this is not any more or less the unfortunate state of ports, and games in general.

I didn’t play much of Wild Hearts S in handheld mode, primarily because of my vision issues making it very difficult for me to see, especially on-screen text. Unfortunately this also means I don’t have a lot to compare performance in handheld versus when the Switch 2 is docked. What I can say is that I prefer docked regardless, and I prefer free-handed joy-cons on top of that. I’ve played Wild Hearts on mouse and keyboard, and I’ve played it on an Xbox controller. It turns out that I have enjoyed my Wild Hearts experience the most when using the joy-cons above all other input methods. I wouldn’t be surprised if this just becomes my standard going forward for all games on the Nintendo Switch 2, if I’m being honest. Being able to move my hands freely and independently made it easier for me to react, attack, and fall back without any hitches.

So, are the trade-offs of reduced graphics and performance worth it? I certainly think so! Wild Hearts S belongs on the Nintendo Switch 2. I was actually surprised when it didn’t launch on the Nintendo Switch back in 2023 since Monster Hunter Rise had already been there for nearly 2 years, however it’s still been worth the wait. If you want to know more about Wild Hearts, you can check out our original review on Xbox.

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