Wilds Title Update, Wild Hearts and AC Shadows

 

Hello. Like usual I didn’t fit everything I wanted to say in the last post because I didn’t feel like they fit with the theme so this’ll be just some random bullshit. Realized I hadn’t said much of anything about Assassin’s Creed Shadows yet which surprised me. I’ll start with some Monster Hunter stuff that I’ve probably mentioned before then some more about Wild Hearts into AssCreed.

            So, I don’t know how to have fun in MH Wilds. The new title update came today (time of writing) and it added a couple monsters, big deal. They’re supposed to be harder than what we’ve faced before so we’ll see when the boys are around to play but like after fighting them then what? I know you’re “suppose to” do the Artian grind for weapons but I don’t wanna. After that it would be grinding for “perfect” decorations but I don’t care. So when that’s the last things you’re “suppose to” do but don’t then you have nothing to do. In the stylized, arcade-y Monster Hunters you have a check list of quests to do so at least there’s that. Most of the ones I still have left in Sunbreak are usually “fight 2 or 3 of some god awful bullshit” and I’m like “yeahhhh, or I could beat up a Bishaten.” I was watching a video talking about the like, final boss of low rank in Wilds and speculating that it is in fact the Equal Dragon Weapon from some lore book in the past and they were talking how it has moves and music similar to all the Fatalis’s and I thought about and was like “you know what? I don’t think I’ve EVER fought a Fatalis in my Monster Hunter life.” Once I get to the hunter rank grind to unlock “secret” quests I’ve lost interest. I don’t want to grind hunter rank. It’s the same thing when I get to max level in WoW, “what do I do now? Why keep playing?” I think the only time I’ve come close was back in MH3U. I think I unlocked the Alatreon in the village quests and nearly killed it but it carted me three times and I never tried again. I thought about going into Sunbreak and trying to unlock the last few quest because I’m in the high 130s. I’d like to see Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax, from what I hear on Reddit the risen fights are quite ridiculous. The one thing I have found fun in Wilds is crown hunting. I’ve never really bothered in previous MHs but it’s fun to go out and look for the smallest or largest monster and once you find it it’s like finding a rare Pokemon. I wish after you do get one it would say “New Smallest Updated” like the old games do and maybe it does but I don’t notice? Make it noticeable, have a chime maybe.

            *Next day update* As for the title update, I have now fought the Mizutsune, a Tempered Mizutsune and a Zoh Shia and a half (I came in halfway to the hunt) and for the most part I don’t understand why everyone was saying these were “SO HARD.” I wasn’t using my “best” armor set (I’ve made some layered armor sets but since I don’t exactly like that I’ve made armor sets based off my layered set, so it’s some hodgepodge mess that doesn’t have the best skills) and yet I did just fine against them. So I don’t know why people are that are having a rough time. I assume they’re the same group who is about getting the “meta” gear and using the Artian weapons but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they haven’t upgraded their armor? I don’t know but I still don’t know how to continue the fun in the game. After we fought both of the new boys it was like “…now what?” I think part of it is we know there will be an expansion in a year or so and so the game just feels unfinished or something. We started with 3 Ultimate then 4 Ultimate. When Generations came out we played pretty hard until it was apparent that G-rank wasn’t here yet and we’d have to wait for Ultimate. I feel like I liked Rise enough, more so when I got it on PC with some QoL mods but Sunbreak just added so much to the weapons and the maps themselves so it just feels like we’re treading water until master rank comes. Also, it seems the Mizutsune and Violet Mizutsune have merged? When the Mizutsune gets to the second stage of it’s fight it starts sending out fire bubbles and doing more Violet things so it seems like they are one in the same in Wilds.

            On to Wild Hearts. Trying to play a little bit on my PC and the thing is still a laggy mess, I guess they didn’t do anything with it at all after saying “we’re all done.” Guess they meant it. But I do like the vibe of the game. How do I say this right? The karakuri and kemono really feel like a part of the games world, as it should. Like, it feels like an alternative ancient Japan, like a parallel universe. They fit together and work so well with the game world and the story. The story is actually decent and if I remember right there’s no cutscene requirement for you and your friends? When I was trying to play I was making a new character and I liked how at the beginning of the game the weird little tengu man or whatever he’s supposed to be kind of gives your character a back story by asking you questions. Questions that I’m sure don’t matter or come in to play later but just based on however you decide your character to look his questions are basically like “oh you’re an outsider that’s why you might not look like everyone else in the game” which I kind of liked. When I started Rise I kind of felt out of place with my character’s hair color where everyone else had very typical, normal hair colors whereas in Wild Hearts, even though my character had three different neon colors going on she didn’t seem out of place with the world being so unique. She was just an outsider, an oddball, Monster Hunter feels more grounded than that to me. I don’t know. I really want to know if they will be adding content to the Switch 2 game or not, I kind of feel like they’re not. I feel like they’re just going to release Wild Hearts on the Switch 2 just because they can and maybe they can make some money from it. It seems weird to put it out but not do any new content or update the other versions so there could at least be some crossplay viability. With how small that games community no doubtedly is and it now having four people to a party instead of the original three, I don’t really know if a Switch 2 only version will really thrive. One guy on the internet will be happy though. I came across a steam thread of this guy just freaking the fuck out that Wild Hearts was only three player co-op and not four with no real reasoning. Like I could understand if you have three friends so all of you couldn’t play together but he made no mention of that, just that four is the common co-op number and that’s what it should be. Personally I’ve only got two friends who actively game with me at the same time so three people is perfect for us but even then, Monster Hunter, Helldivers, we play just the three of us without a fourth and do just fine. So that was something. So yeah, I’d really like some more information and/or I would really enjoy it if they fixed the problems on the PC end. I was kind of thinking about getting a used copy somewhere local for the PS5 but then I remembered I would need like PS Plus or something to play online. I mean overall it would probably be cheaper than getting it for the Switch 2, but if I were to get it then they’d be like “oh yeah boy we’re adding TONS of new things, you won’t want to miss THIS!!!” *air horn air horn*

            I think part of what makes me want to play Wild Hearts so much is just because of all the Assassin’s Creed Shadows I’ve been playing. Overall I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying it more now that I’ve got some skills that make combat more manageable; I was having a real hard time early on. It still has that Assassin’s Creed jank to it though. Part of the problem, I’m guessing is the “cannon” option I’m playing on. If you don’t know at some points in the game there are times when you can spare someone or not, make different choices, blah blah blah, and I don’t want to do that and this game has an option so you don’t have to. Well there was a point where I was at a shrine or temple and heard a woman around me talking and typically if someone is talking then it’s usually important so I found her and then I got all sorts of gear and xp and was like “huh?” I looked at my objectives board and this circle showed up with this woman in it and it said I “spared” her. Odd. Hours later I’m doing other quest and in order to find something out about a guy I have to kill all of the Twisted Tree samurais or something like that and I look at the objectives and it’s the group she is a part of but now there’s like seven more people. Oh, okay, that was weird. Later on still I’m looking for lost pages at a temple, picking up resources and notice a blue dot off in the distance so I go towards it. Turns out it’s another one of these Twisted Tree fellas so I fight him. I die, I fight, I die, I fight, I win, other dudes show up, I die. So I decide I’ll kill him and then run cause that’s what ninjas do and as I’m running away the camera does the slow pan thing to show that another target is here, they’re at the front gate. Okay, whatever. It pans again, and again, AND AGAIN. Excuse me, what the fuck?? I ran away, came back a little, tried to fight them, killed a couple, ran away, ran back, died. Looked at my objective board, they were all from this same group! I spared another one during all that somehow and there were still two left, the two that killed me and are now just sitting at the main gate. I think the first guy I fought with was their father so I don’t know if by fighting him it alerted all his children? I don’t know, it was odd. A few things I would like is when you’re on the horse and have the GPS on that the horse would just follow the GPS like it did in Origins. I don’t understand why it doesn’t. I half feel like someone just forgot to do it like “…I feel like I’m forgetting something…” Something that would be nice is the swat turn from Splinter Cell. I think it was in Pandora Tomorrow where you’d be on one side of an open door then do this little spin to the other side and continue on your way. I feel like it was only ever used in that one game and we’ve never seen it since. Another thing I would like to work better I guess is the ninja bells, or I just don’t understand them. I’m trying to play Splinter Cell here and I throw a bell and the dude I want to distract doesn’t move. He doesn’t seem to care or notice but sometimes I toss it in a spot and people across the room hear it but not the dude right in front of me. Sometimes I throw it right at peoples feet and nothing so I don’t know, I don’t know how it works. Maybe there’s a skill in the skill tree later on that makes the bells louder or something (there are upgrades apparently, will they work better though?). Something else I’ve noticed and heard people talking about online is there’s an armor for Naoe that when you assassinate someone you automatically throw a kunai at the nearest person but it doesn’t work most of the time. It should just be an instant, automatic thing but people are saying you either have to look at the person you want to hit with a kunai, some are saying you actually have to look and press another button. I was trying it and it worked once but another time it just wouldn’t happen but I also didn’t have any kunai so that could’ve been an issue to. Like I said, it should just happen if someone is close enough.

            Yeah, so that’s that. I kind of hate how much I want to play Wild Hearts right now. I’ll probably break down and get it for the PS5 this week. Other than that how are you having fun in Monster Hunter Wilds right now? I kind of want to make a Reddit post asking the question but feel like it will be taken poorly. Do you have any interesting stories from AC Shadows? And how do you feel about Wild Hearts now or when it first released? Let me know below, until next time, bye-bye!

            @AztecSauce