Yeah, so I had to drop Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. It was extremely frustratingly difficult. But I really liked the idea and the game mechanics, so I looked to a different title in the series, MH Portable 3rd. Considerably more forgiving than MHFU (which I read is probably the hardest MH game). Enjoying it quite a bit.
Oh man, I`m currently playing MH4U on my 3DS and the single player mode is so extemely difficult that I don`t even want to continue playing, but in Multiplayer I suck because of not having decent equipment. MH4U really is much harder than MH3U which I started playing the MH with.
BTW: I`ve read several times in other forums that MH4U might be the hardest one. Never played the PSP titles, but that`s what I heard.
From what I've read, at least for PSP, MHFU was ridiculously unforgiving with its hitboxes. MHP3rd is a Japanese import and I'm playing it with an ISO via a temporary custom firmware. A lot has been translated to English for the ISO, but a lot of it is still in Japanese.
I will say that I didn't even get past the two star village urgent quest on MHFU, because I couldn't build up good enough equipment, like you. But with MHP3rd, It's a lot more forgiving and I'm actually now on the five star village quests and am level HR4 at the guild.
The problem that's really screwing me over is that the analog stick on this PSP is pretty much screwed (apparently a common problem). I have to push up on it REALLY hard to get it to move. If I let go, the screen character will move in the down direction all on its own. VERY hard to chase monsters around when your character keeps stopping because you can't push the analog stick hard enough. Leaves you very vulnerable. So with that, I've ordered a replacement analog stick and will re-install it, and hope for the best.