I'm a few hours in, made it to the lava monkey fight after the exploding forge bit.
Can confirm this game is wayyy too easy in the early game, but its still fun. I'm liking the changes to the bow and bowguns, and having new insect monsters is nice, the Lala Barina is pretty cool. The hub areas still feel cluttered and kind of devoid of personality, but are generally less annoying to traverse. The weapon/gear designs are actually good, though I dont know how to feel about brain-in-a-jar palico armor...speaking of palicos, they finally added a fluffy version so I am able to perfectly replicate my irl cat, which is nice.
So unbelievably grateful for the cutscene skipping because oh my god there is too much story. Who are all these strange natives that they're begging me to care about and why is there no cute quest maiden.
I hope we never find the little Indian boys' village and I hope he gets eaten.
Rise had it right; "Hey pal, the cozy place you live in is getting fucked up by the rampage and this big purple guy (and some weird flying snakes we dont know about) so go kill those guys. Here's a dog and some Spiderman powers. Get to it"