I am being one hundred percent sincere when I saw Gemma's stupid fashion show is the stuff they should have leaned into for Wild's base version story. Not the entire time, but it's the exact kind of tutorial mission the game needed if it was going to focus on characters or whatever and appeal to casuals.
>has you craft and wear specific layered armor pieces
>differentiates between alpha and beta sets for male and female hunters
>gives you things to chase if you don't already have them
>shows a bunch of funny clown suits on hunters
>colors in all the NPC characters with short but illustrative interactions
They should have had a cooking mission. They should have had a gathering mission. They should have had a heavy object carrying mission. They should have had a combining mission. If they're going to go full casual, at least make it entertaining and actually teach the casuals stuff instead of just burying them in menus.