I can't believe how much they go out of their way to contradict themselves in terms of design
>ohh this spooky evil forbidden land that nobody goes to that also always existed btw
>but also you have a super intelligent mount that always knows where the monster is and you have a claw thing to grab anything immediately and your have all supplies perfectly ready by a guy and cat at the camp and this Indian kid also manages to have an overabundance of resources so you never ever have to worry about item materials and weapons and armor are also easy to make :)
If they really wanted to sell the feeling of a hunter going into dangerous, uncharted territory, they did nothing remotely of the sort
Older games pretty much did this better without even trying too hard (it got easier over time, of course) by expanding the village resources as you progressed through the game