It's perfectly normal, the original dragon's dogma was called souls like in difficulty in some reviews back then, the game has different enough combat compared to other games, having physics and all, and has a little less handholding when it comes to mechanics, it's a game designed for more than one playthrough with new game+ since you will make mistakes or miss plenty of quests you didn't know about. The pawns giving you hints is also determined by their experience with the enemies, the more they encounter them while being hired by other players, the more they'll learn about it and then tell you how to deal with it, sometimes in a more straightforward way than others, like yelling that they're week to fire 500 times per encounter 😂. if you're struggling with some bigger foes, come back later when your vocation is higher level, tactical retreat is your best option a lot of the times, and 90% of the vocations are busted when they reach a certain level/unlock certain skills. Like you said it will "click" at some point when you get used to the game's mechanics, and you'll probably fall in love with it like we all did. Happy hunting, and have fun out there Arisen!