Help! I need money to pay off the mob! www.patreon.com/ArchitectofGames Apparently they also take Twitter followers as payment??? twitter.com/Thefearalcarrot

And not a single mention of the greatest Hub of all times, from the unquestionably best videogame of all time: Where ist the Lego Star Wars Cantina?

Video in one word: HOME - All cultures have this concept, even if they are nomadic their "home" is the portable shelter/bags/supplies they carry with them. It might not be 100% Safe, or Comfortable, or Clean, but it's Constant and Familiar, two concepts that are a luxury in a crazy complex world that wants to kill you, both IRL and in Video Games. Great Video

"A tradition my team developed was a pre-mission drink, followed by throwing our mugs into the drill to piss off our supervisor." I like you. I hope KZfaq doesn't screw you over one day like it does virtually everyone else.

Dishonored 1 mastered the Hub. The pub (that’s not a typo) was a safe place to explore, try powers in a safe place, trade, and sleep. [spoilers] The Loyalists betraying you *in the pub* and you getting knocked out in your own bedroom totally violates you. THE safe place is where the lowest blow was given, and when you finally return it’s been emptied out by the Loyalists, signifying how the safety you once felt is stripped away. It even literally has the corpses of your friend laid out in plain sight.

In addition to this, I want to point out Hub Worlds similarity to Home Bases. Often when I'm playing Minecraft, or Terraria, I'll setup a base that has all the crafting equipment, gear, tools, storage, and looks nice. The Home Base is where I'll create new tools, plan want to do next, chill out for a bit, etc. It acts just like a man-made Hub World. I think The fact that I'll create my own Mini Hub World when I can proves the importance in Hub Worlds, especially in games like Dark Souls and Mass Effect.

Hubs are cool things to have for sure, especially the bit you said about when they change over time to fit the game's overall changes. I'm suprised that point wasn't leading to another 'Firelink also...' section, because the slow influx of NPC's into the Shrine, making it feel like a populated place, only for those same NPC's to leave again and inevitably decay into death and madness, really gives Firelink a great weight of loss rather than hope by the end. Assuming you care about the NPC's at all, it kinda gives the Shrine it's own little three-act structure, of the final flow and ebbing of the First Age of Light.

I'll never forget the moment I returned to Firelink to find the Bonfire snuffed out and the fire keeper murdered by Lautrec; it's one of those moments that stuck with me, in a game where you can always pick yourself up and try again having something permanent taken from me really left an impact. That made it all the more satisfying when I hunted down Lautrec in Anor Londo.

Hubs let you have a break from the game, without having to stop playing the game. Especially for people like me who like to use game to 'escape' for a few hours into another world, hubs allow you to 'live' in that world for a while. Constantly moving forward without a break, like you would in Doom, can be a little exhausting. And as far as I know your brain also needs the pause from constant action to actually process the new information in order for you to learn and get better at it. That's an unconscious process that only really kicks in when you are not consciously thinking about it.

I think a good term for your expanded definition of a "hub" would be "conceptual anchor". They don't need to be a physical place, but they're something you use to contextualize your relationship with the game. And it's actually not 100% exclusive to games, though they definitely do have them most commonly. For an example, read The Zombie Knight (it's a really awesome web novel) and consider the role of Garovel. As a millenia-old spirit and an exposition source, he's the main way that ideas and plot points are introduced to the readers, in the form of him giving Hector quick explanations of the things Garovel expects him to have to deal with soon. He's also a good way of establishing the several parts of the story's tone. Black humor and people doing the best they can are major fixtures of the story, and Garovel epitomizes both ideas better than almost any other character.

I love how Dark Souls gives you this feeling of homesickness when you venture too far from Firelink, progressing through a level, not knowing that is to come next.

"Firelink acts as a nexus" Demon's souls says hi.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the fact hubs (most notably those like in Monster Hunter World) serve as a "home". The player can usually feel safe and relax here, and it provides a *massive* immersion bump. Some of them even have living quarters with functional home furniture, such as the aforementioned's beds that you can actually rest on if you for some reason feel like doing that.

Hub worlds are home. They're a place to decompress, relax, and immerse in story rather than gameplay. TTRPGs have relied on them for ages as a way to make players care about the world around them, and in those games they're quite literally a home. It's not uncommon for the player characters to have a controlling interest in a small tavern or inn, or possibly each have their own project where they work as a blacksmith or a library or temple, etc. In those cases, it's often a whole city district that makes up the home base. Sometimes it's literally a castle that they own and run. Point is, they're safe. 99% of the time. If something's attacking you at home, it's because it's the big kickoff to a major plot shift. The riots in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided are an excellent example of that.

The skeletons also provide a low stakes enemy to practice new weapons such on. The hollows before New Londo give you a punching bag to see your damage numbers freely. There was a lot of thought put into Firelink

Hey look, another free design class. Thanks friend.

One of my personal favourite hubs -> Overlord (the game) tower The tower starts all broken and missing areas. As the story progresses, it is repaired and all upgrades the player collects in game are added to the tower, sometimes unlocking new areas. If the player is chaotic evil the sky Will gradually turn into a cloudy dark red. If he is lawful evil, it stays a clear sunny day. I like how it changes with player actions and progress. (It also has some costumization as a bônus)

Well, the hub in Mass Effect *does* actually have several important story moments. The scenes where the Normandy gets attacked and having to move around in this burning wreck of a place that is very familiar is itself a pretty powerful effect, not just a transition set piece. ME is not the only game to do this, see also e.g. Mother Base in MGSV.

The hub worlds protect the lug nut worlds

I think the reason more people beat wolfenstein over doom has more to do with the fact that wolfenstein is a story based experience vs doom which is a gameplay based one. People want to see the end of wolfenstein whereas doom youre pretty much doing the same thing throughout its more lethargic

side note: many hub worlds are also sometimes used to hide some loading screens and loading times, while the player does things in the easily loaded and cached hub, the game can load the next chunk. doesn't apply to everything you said, but it's another neat little thing they can be used for.

Firelink is the dark souls of hubs. xD

"Isn't that neato?" best line I heard all week

Not any mention to the bastion from Bastion? That was an amazing hub.

Another good hub i’d say is dirtmouth in Hollow knight, It offers access to a lot of areas, has many vendors and a place to test out your new upgrades and charm builds. Also i find it interesting how the same thing happens in deus ex machina as similar to the city in that game abondoned crossroads becomes a lot more dangerous than it was originally.

I'm a sucker for the Hubs that slowly upgrade/devlop as you go, Examples Include: - YS8's Castaway Village -Little King Story's Kingdom - Mario Galaxy 2's Ship

Man sure was getting hyped for some Hello kitty island 4: Lair of the flesh god at 9:56 but i suppose some Dark souls thing will do...

Delfino Plaza is maybe my favorite hub ever. It does such a good job at setting up the atmosphere for the game, and makes the whole game feel like a real place, in a way. Exploring it for new entrances to secrets and worlds, blue coins, and such in between doing actual levels is a lot of fun and the widening circle of light is a nice indicator of your progress through the whole game. And there's plenty of space to play around with the controls, especially for the nozzles as you unlock them

Honestly I think one of the most important functions of a hub is as a pace changer.

Isn’t Bloodborne’s hub the Hunter’s Dream rather than Yarnham

the two hotline miami games had a really good hub with the houses of where your characters live im not sure if that counts as a hub but i really liked staying in them for a while to get the feel of each character before they inevitably died

I really like Clock Town in Majora's Mask as the hub/home base. Thematically, geographically, and mechanically, it fulfills the role of both a place to reset and a place to drive learning and interaction with the game systems and story

Nevermind me, just spewing observations on games I've played. Spyro 1, 2, and 3 have hub worlds called home worlds. They contain portals to all the other levels, or worlds. Spyro 1 does it the least well, in my opinion. They are exactly the same as any other world, populated with enemies. Spyro 2 and 3 have their homeworlds devoid of enemies, with calm, relaxing music, and their atmospheres are the same. The only hazard that some home worlds have is falling into the void, which the first home world in each of the two does not have so that by the time the players get to home worlds that do have falling hazards, they're experienced enough to know what jumps they can make. They still have collectibles littered all around, which encourages you to explore the world and get familiar with it. They're also mostly linear, guiding you to different worlds in a distinct order, giving a subtle hint as to what order the player should play the worlds in. (Although this order is strictly inferior to the optimal one in both games, so I don't know what the devs were thinking.) Kingdom Hearts would benefit from a hub world, in my opinion. Or, more accurately, an anchor. Primarily as a way of reflecting a changing tone as you progress the story. That would've been pretty cool. I wouldn't say to replace the world map, as I feel that would work better both functionally and thematically for choosing worlds, but perhaps have a world that players have to keep coming back to every few worlds or so, and give them new things to do there each time, such as new shops, new areas to explore, etc. Have recently-made friends hang out in this world, and give the main character a cutscene with the friend to tell how the character's getting along in the world and what they've been up to. Perhaps the friend set up a shop or a new training ground and such. It would help to show the main character's ever-growing repitoire of friends, as friendship is a big theme in Kingdom Hearts. Also, give it a big change when the final battle is coming up. Have the big baddy smash it or something. I think Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days had a hub world, but I haven't played it myself, so I can't reflect on it.

I think it fair to include JRPG "Airships" as Hubs, using the definitions in this video. Many iconic character conversations occur in the iconic airship found in many JRPGS, especially the Final Fantasies. This is doubly so in Playsation 1's Xenogears, where almost half of the main story dialog takes place inside the Yggdrasil - your main ship throughout the entire game.

I don't know why... but the fact that you said "Kirkensen" instead of "Jonathan Kristensen" really blew me out of the credits. The back of the head was screaming that something was wrong and I had to go back 2 times to realize what bothered me, watching the credits only at the side xD

Perhaps you never played it, but Silent Hill 4: The Room also had a fantastic hub world. The actual levels were all in 3rd person, while The Room (Hub) was presented entirely in 1st person. It was the only place where you could save the game, stash away items, or just relax without fear of an invincible spirit finding you. You also get to watch the outside world go about its business, but are never able to interact with it, even if you try. It was in many ways dull, lonely, mundane, but it was safe. Its purposely does everything it can to let you get connected to The Room, despite it being your prison. But then your safe space starts to be invaded, as slowly the room begins to be subverted, and all of the mundane objects become twisted and dangerous. This continues until The Room, your safe hub, becomes the most dangerous place you can be. You never know what you new thing in the room would become cursed. Where the bloody footprints might appear, the new hole to another place might open, or even if you can use the stash without consequence. Eventually the player is faced with a choice. Stay in the levels where you at least know what is chasing you down, or go back to The Room, which may have warped in new ways. But of course, you must always go back to The Room eventually, even if it kills you.

Well, Doom's gonna be solving the 'nonstop action tiring out the brain' bit with the new Fortress of Doom. So that's great. :)

I've noticed that I tend to like TV shows that have a central location that is almost a character in and of itself, like The Office, for example. Supernatural has Dean's car, but a major theme in the show is how the brothers don't have a home to come back to. In fact, time and time again, Dean's car is destroyed and rebuilt, further symbolizing how they have no place to call home.

Described but not mentioned explicitly: immersion. Hub worlds have always provided a great deal of immersion for me. Add a player home that can be upgraded with money/items earned from playing the actual game and I find myself much more engaged in the world. So much so that I can enjoy just wandering around looking at the scenery, or sit in front of my in-game fireplace while eating my actual dinner rather than watching youtube etc.

Perfect Dark had an amazing hub that let you play around, do little challenges and get to know your support NPCs. I loved it and spent so much time screwing around there.

It is so satisfying in the beginning half of dark souls, then fighting your way through only to find the short cut back to firelink shrine. Furthermore, in the second half of the game, traveling further from firelink made the bosses feel that much more grand.

The order of the games on the description helps sooo much when you don't know what that game is and you wanna play it. Thank you a lot, Sr.

On Metro 2033 and Last Light there's the usual city stop where you get to learn about the different places in Metro, and also buy resources which you will be needing in the future. There are even extras in which you can watch a show or even lap dancing.

Great Video ! Also, I just want to say that I love that Humanity Sprite avatar :D.

Nice video. Another great hubworld that deserves a shoutout: The Bastion from Bastion. In a game with strong themes of rebuilding that's taking place in a world that's literally fallen to pieces, having a hubworld that you regularly expands, upgrades and occasionally bring more survivors to was a brilliant move. Plus that *spoiler* thing that happened that someone will probably mention in the replies.

Your take about how hubs are place to rest is spot on. Movie and books have total control over their content's pace, but video games are all about agency. By making a hub world, you give the power to control the pace itself to the player, which is just awesome.

6:43 "isn't that Nito" fuckoff lol How did no one else see this?

9:15 Ok pretty cool. Thing raises itself out of the water. NOPE NOPE NOPE! ALL THE NOPES!

''that sure is Neato (or Nito as in Gravelord)'' as he talks about the tomb of giants

Love well done hubs and other places similar to this, especially if they have good music. I remember playing Monster Hunter3 and dark souls 2 and the longer the play session went, when I got to the hub, the more I just stayed and enjoyed the scenery and music. Hubs allow you to immerse in the world while also taking a break. Another thing I like are "safe spaces?", Where you can take a quick break in the game, kinda like the barricaded rooms in left for dead or the save rooms in re4. My favorite darkest dungeon when you camp during a quest. You're in a hostile area, you're in danger, supplies are running low or maybe you're preparing for a boss fight; but right now, you can take a break, you can reflect on what you need to do to survive and make the best use of supplies. Best of all, keeping with the games theme, you're not really safe in the camp because unless you prepare against it, you can be ambushed when you finish the camping break

Hub worlds are like your virtual homes. When the Normandy gets invaded at the end of ME2, it felt personal.

oh god, that ancient space rig in DRG brought back some memories.

You hit the nail on the head. There's a scene in Link to the Past that still sticks with me twenty-five years later. And it's not even a scene per se: after defeating Aghanim and being sent into the Dark World, Kakariko Village -- previously a safe haven -- acquires a patrol of guards under Ganon's control. It's just two basic enemies, posing minimal threat, but their mere presence had such an emotional impact that I still think about it today as one of my formative gaming experiences.

Oh my gosh, I never considered the Normandy as being a hub...It fits all the categories...

YES! Someone finaly mentioned oxygen not included to make a point!

Awesome vid! Thanks so much! I don't think you were reaching at all with some of those hubs. They do the majority of the things you mentioned hubs do and we're a great insight into games overall. Thanks so much!

Regarding the skeletons in firelink: I started my first DS playtrough as the "deprived" which begins with good stats and a club against which the skeletons in the graveyard are weak, meaning they can be killed in about 3 blows. So I thought the graveyard was a "training area", and since I had heard so much about how punishing and unforgiving the game was I decided I wouldn´t explore much until I mastered the graveyard and the items it gave me. long story short, when I went to undeadburg I was one-handing the zweihander. Made undeadburg a lot easier

Ive always loved hub precisely for the change of pace they offer Awesome vid !!

Thank you for showing directly the bgm you are using in your video

I think the music also plays a great part in cementing Firelink's place and vibe overall. The only time you hear music aside from creating your character and the intro (which are kinda parallel), is in Firelink the safest place in the game, or during bosses, the most vulnerable place in the game

Nothing will mellow me out like walking into firelink and hearing the music swell into existence

Good video, your explanation of hubs was intriguing.

Hollow knights dirtmouth applies a very interesting twist, if you can fast travel, you can get to dirtmouth and back, meaning it encourages you to check back there to see how the place is doing. It's also quiet and mostly abandoned, contrasting everywhere else's infected chaos.

Shanate and the Pirate Curse's hub (Scuttle Town) world, which changes a lot and is used for story a lot towards the end of the game was really cool. Spending time there througout your whole playthrough leads to you REALLY wanting to stop Ammo Baron (and the Pirate Master later) and finish the last acts of the game once Scuttle Town undergoes reconstruction, is reconstructed, and finally shrouded in darkness with a drastic change in music once the Pirate Master takes over. 10/10

Whiterun city, especially the smithing stations and shops near the city door checks all the boxes in Skyrim. Its the first of such densely packed places with most things you need to craft/upgrade which is also right next to the fast travel point.

I'm glad you made this video hubs are one of my favorite parts of a big world game. They kinda remind me of how Disney Land is Laid out with the park center Leading to the different parts of the park. My favorite games are like this in how there are ways to bypass the hub and go to a neighboring area in the game giving it an almost open world feel but not too much

for DRG my first 10h of the game We litteraly pass 5h just in the hub What a great wait to lose time with friends

You go to your Minecraft House to store many resources you collected, but don't need yet. And you take the Resources you need. And it's the place where you skip many Nights & the Place where you respawn. Your Minecraft house is basically your Customizable Hub World, or better said: Hub Building, in your Minecraft world.

One of my favorite hubs will probably be Sanctuary from Borderlands 2. I spend so much time there, often doing stuff completely meaningless to the actual game but it still kept me entertained. Sure, some of that stuff might have not been intentional - like jumping around the rooftops (even though I'm not sure if the panties thing is a wanted easteregg or not) - but that doesn't change the fact to me that Sanctuary always felt like - well, a sanctuary.

Honestly, one of the things that could have made Dishonored 2 Improve on its formula more than it did, would have been to have a Hub more integrated into the city. Overall, there was less of a feeling of things going to hell than in the first game (such that rats and blood flies felt tacked on) and instead of being on a boat seeing Karnaca from afar, having your lair in a hub connecting to a breathing district where you can see the impact of your actions on the populace would have felt great. Imagine seeing the winds of the dust district getting clear of dust, the miners in the taverns no longer coughing ash and blood after you complete that level, the blood fly infestation slowing down or getting out of control as the chaos meter moves, etc... And also having a story all About karnaca rather than starting and ending in Dunwall would have made the game as a whole more cohesive.

The part about making the hub world change reminded me of Cave Story. At the halfway point, when the story turns dark, you get thrown into the Labrynth instead of returning to the village, and when you finally do get back to the village you discover that every single person has been kidnapped. If you're playing through for the first time rather than the "good" ending that is the last time you visit the hub level because without the mimigas, there's nothing left there. (On later playthroughs you'll cut through it 1-2 more times for sidequests).

I love your videos, man. Keep up the good work!

I really wish you mentioned the hound's pit pub and how it was turned on it's head and suddenly became an overtly hostile area, and how the flooded district serves as a hubworld when playing as daud but as bowsers castle when playing as corvo.

Was hoping Wolfe stein would get mentioned. Only recently picked this gem up off a sale. So good. A must play!

"WoW has spaceships now. I hate it." WoW had spaceships in its very first expansion...

One game I love is Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. It has a main hub full of friendly Pokémon, you have a shop, and other useful services, therefore you will find yourself interacting with these characters often, and learning more about their lives and becoming friends with them. They always have something new going on all the time as you progress through the story, some personal problems and drama, which makes you curious to keep interacting with them. Then at one point you become outcast by the town. You don’t get to chat to the friendly residents of the town anymore. You’re stuck going back to a hole in the side of a cliff as the hub now, and it leaves you feeling lonely every time you beat a dungeon and come back to this hole. These feelings only add to the amount of relief you feel when you redeem yourself and you are welcomed back into the town. You get to see familiar faces again after what feels like too long. It’s joyous and it connects you deeper into that town and to the characters.

Sweet transitions, very creative

Good video, though i'm not sure I'd agree with the statement that Doom never gives you a break - that's just not true. The game gives you a TON of exploration quiet time after every major fight - I spend roughly half my time in the game just walking around, even when I'm not hunting for secrets.

Ein absolutely loooove overworlds that have some extra stuff to do, even when it's just basic. Delfino Plaza in Sunshine, the island in Diddy Kong Racing, DK islands in Donkey Kong 64, Capital B's hub in Yooka-Laylee, Showdown Town in Banjo-Kazooie Nuts&Bolts (this one is especially giant and awesome to explore).

Good video. I think the hub worlds in deus ex human revolution and mankind divided are some of the best examples of hub world design.

Just want to say I like the new cut-in avatar. It gives this feeling of "The Architect peaking out from behind the curtain". Really appropriate.

A good changing hub is the hub area in GRIS. It does an amazing job of showcasing how new colors change the world and bring life back into it.

you Kind of mentioned the real perfect hub... its gruntys lair in Banjo kazooie where you sometimes get really tested bevor entering the actual levels

I'm impressed. This is something I haven't paid much attention to, other than "I just keep getting lost in here..." until I explore. Not only do you put hubs in another light, to me they've started to glow on their own. Btw, give Overlord's hub a try. It's really satisfying (if you don't get lost and don't know what's going on).

In minecraft and similar sandbox games, i can’t stress it enough how important it is to beautify your home. Often i grew tired of an entire save just because i worked in a dirt hut to rush to the end, not very fun

Huh, that really is something I have never thought about. You really gave me sort of a new perspective on it.

Here's an example I think sums it up pretty good: Super Mario Galaxy 1 vs 2. 1's Observatory was one of the best hub worlds in any game I've ever played, where you had to explore and climb about the ship to find the next level. 2 had a generic "world map", with an optional "hub world" you could explore if you wanted to, but all your stuff was in just one place so you never had to. 1 always felt like a perfect game, 2 always felt like it was... missing something.

ODST also had a changing hub world it changed the lone wandering as the game went on, along with crash bandicoot taking you out of a level in a hub where you could use your jumps/new powerups in CB3 without actually having to try them in a level first.

>Complain about spaceships in modern WoW >Ignores that WoW has had spaceships since TBC when the Dranei were introduced

I liked that video a lot! Thank you for making quality content :D

Your Orbiter in Warframe accomplishes the same thing as the hub in Wolfenstien, Warframe is constantly about action, but there are huge amounts of things to do within an extremely small hub, that allows you to pause and think. This also is amplified by the two Open World areas which each have their own hubs, and the worlds themselves can act to give you a break of the regular straightforward missions!

I believe you are referring to downtime. Not an industry term but one I'm used to. In various Halo games they would give you tanks when they wanted you to take a break. Especially in CE because every encounter on foot was a challenge. (at least in the harder difficulties) The tanks gave you time to relax and watch things go boom

Ooh, Wandersong! That game doesn't get enough love. Can we expect to see more of it on your channel? I would love that

"Isn't that Nito?" I see what you did there :D

You... you pronounced Zweihander correctly. I am in awe.

Thank you for making this video! It made me understad how hub worlds work. So basically hub worlds are a break from the game, a place where you can chill and look at the progress you've made,while also training you to become better prepared for the game.

9:56 "Hello kitty island 4: *Lair of the flesh god"* The horror...

Funny how I never finish Wolfenstein TNO but I did finish DOOM 2016 in a week or so.

it's why it's nice to come back to your crib in VtM: Bloodlines

KZfaq recently started recommending me your videos so I hope you know what that means you’re about to start to blowup and you will definitely, your videos are of the highest quality and prove that nobody has to follow the average channel formula, if you don’t believe me then look at tier zoo my friend. they started off smaller than you but in all fairness appeared to a more massive audience, gaming on KZfaq is still one of the biggest audiences to appeal to and boy oh boy do you hit the spot and I definitely support you my man I’ll see you hit a million and beyond