Barroth was easier? Damn, I found him to be the hardest.
The only Monster Hunter I've ever played was like, the very first one on PS2, and I uh never actually made it to the actual big stuff or anything, so basically that doesn't really count, I guess. I thought this one was one was fun. I basically only used the heavy bowgun with the shield and the machine gun special ammo, though - tried them all out in the practice mode, but only took that Greatsword out on an actual hunt (against Barroth).
I enjoyed it, though I didn't try multiplayer.
First hunt was easy, as advertised. I managed to get 'em despite not noticing you could run and not realizing circle reloads your special ammo, so I kept doing poorly with my HBG.
Second hunt didn't go quite as well - I rolled with the GS instead, and I was kinda unused to getting my licks in with it. Barroth kept running around and I kept going for big heavy whacks and such. Second time around I picked my HBG back up, but something exploded out of the ground and instalkilled me while I was fighting. It was some kinda huge wyvern, and it proceeded to totally kill me two more times and chase me across the map while I was trying to put Barroth down. Timed out again. Third time was the charm - the big gross mud thing took offense to my existence once I got Barroth down to the watery area, but I managed to shoot it to death that time.
Third was pretty easy again. I had to do it twice though, on account of spending like ten minutes unable to find any tracks the first time.
I heard that the HBG is about big ranged damage, but I felt like I was really doing plinky-damage the whole time. Barroth was understandable, since it was like, two-thirds of it was armor, but I was doing 5 against the others, and that was with the attack charm on. I guess balance with being able to stay far away?