How Hub Worlds Shape Video Game Design

Monster Hunter Rise came out in March. Like its predecessor, Monster Hunter: World, Rise tries to make the game a bit more friendly to game--and franchise--newbies. But as the series increasingly embraces the adventure side of the action-adventure genre, the more its hub world, where you craft weapons and armor, snag and stow items, and eat food and chat with NPCs, feels off. Rise's hub is like the Monster Hunter villages that came before it, but in Rise the characters have been fleshed out a bit. Even Kamara Village, the hub in Rise, has its own history of sorts. But the NPC characterization feels more like a series of smushed-together archetypes than a collection of fully realized people.