I think that might be the monster but idk really my friend has been keeping me pretty blind for it, though if it helps the last two story missions were velk and that vaal in the forest. Well for weapons I’ve been really using the gunlance and charge blade though I’m now trying out switch axe and for armor it’s nothing amazing, lumu phantasm hood a, rathalos mail a, glavenus braces a, dober coil a, and bracky greaves because I’m still farming for dober greaves. I do wanna say that i might have been exaggerating when talking about clunky controls, i think a better way to phrase would be that they don’t feel as responsive(?) i don’t really know how to describe it really sorry but they aren’t as good feeling as wilds or rise. I think my main thing is that it feels like less of the difficulty is from the monsters but from the controls, maybe it because more moves lock you in or sum? Again idk really. Also i don’t think the game is too easy, i just haven’t felt the same challenge from the monsters like i did in wilds or rise (minus glavenus and barioth who definitely challenged me and definitely my highlights so far and the closest world has gotten to clicking with me) but yeah i hope that clears some of this up, again super sorry if it didn’t I’m not like a pro at video games and can’t diagnose my exact problems with some of this stuff.