One thing I will mention, MH4U is by far the most newbie-friendly Monster Hunter in the series - and I'm surprised to say this given that the overall difficulty of the game seems to be increased from MH3U, too! The game has a much better tutorial and the singleplayer missions do ease you into the gameplay quite nicely, without being too slow, as you're often given multiple missions to do at a time, each with different tasks to do (one could be, for example, to grab some Wyvern Eggs from an area, while another could be to slay the Great Jaggi) -- The singleplayer part of the game is definitely the best in the MH series, and also very much the most newbie-friendly. There's even seperate optional tutorial missions teaching you how to use EACH weapon class in the game.