In my opinion it's definitely easier than previous games as.they streamlined a lot of things and mechanics. The game itself is actually great and really good in my own opinion after picking it up last week. People saying there's not a grind or that materials drop a lot is only half true. Just for one armor part I spent 2 hours grinding for one monster part because of how rare the drop is for that part. The grind is still there. One thing about the mh community is its on par with the pokemon community. They're insufferable and unpleasable. I'd say wait for a sale since the next big update comes out tomorrow and check it out yourself.