heres my 2 cents:
all games are pretty much same...they are afterall "clones" from MH games...except in MH u cant jump! other games, u can jump. And in MH, most of the time u will want to battle dragons like the infamous Rathalos...(now that poor dragon looks so noob with so many weapons accessable...in PS2, that dragon was one of hardest to kill...I had to sneak up to it, play distraction, and ended up failing n failing...but in PSP MH3, it looked so easy....

anyway, to compare with other games...

Toukiden - samurai era where u kill weird monsters and some monsters from Japanese folklore...
Soul Sacrifice - post apocalyptic fiction present time line...
Ragnarok - same as toukiden...except its a spinoff from Ragnarok game.
God Eater - also post apocalyptic era. where u weird a transformable gun/sword weapon...

true if u playing first monster hunter. its damn hard!! getting the rathalos sword made is bloody hard enough...imagine slashing a dragon with a cheap weapon which keeps getting blunt all the time!

MH 2 is ok, MH3 is easier ..u can hire cat to help u in battle....

MH tri is easiest!! try hiring a gang of ur frens (AI driven) and cats to be bait for u...