Hard without reason
Ok, so now you have a good equipment, you know the way around and you are ready for battle... well... not just yet. There are some things like herbs and mushrooms that you'll be abelt to find on the earth. You'll need to search for them in order to combine them and create items like health potions or flash bombs. Once you have learned how to get to this point you'll be fine. The thing is that all of these is not as good as it sounds.
This game would be a lot better if you were able to leave the village without taking any quests, but the thig is that you can't. You are oblied to take a quest so you can get out. And all quests have some time limit (40-50 minutes in real time). So if you plan to take a quest (you have to pay to do it) just to get out and go mining, earth-digging, and maybe get some skins, you better do what the quest requires. You may tak a gathering quests (ex: go and find 3 of X mushrooms), those quest don't finish untill you bring back what you're told to bring. So you get out, find what's needed and then you are able to expend all the time you want in whatever you want.... or maybe you just do that first and then abandon the quest... but that' will make you lose money. So in my own opinion htis game would be better if you were able to go out, prepare yourself with good armor/weapons/items and THEN go for quests... but life's never easy.
Also the controls are difficult not because their complexity, it's just that they are bad. To use your weapon you have to use the R analog (is not that easy...), the aiming has no lock, and the camera is a pain (it colides when you're against a wall... GET FAR FROM WALLS!)
The map is not an open map as it seems to be in the screenshots, it's divided by areas, and most of them are very small. So if you thought that you'd be able to hide yourself, lure your prey, stealth to the place it is and then charge on it... you are wrong. All the hunting is made in very open places, and there's no hiding at all. Of course you can set some traps like explosive barrels and use some poisoned meat as bait, but you'll have to figure out how to use them. That's one of the game greatest flaws. Many things you'll learn them in forums, FAQs and walkthroughs... the game tutorials are more than basic. Ex: "You may use THIS to get to THAT" So you're like: "Ok... but... how do I get THIS, and how do I use it?" ...Good luck at finding out...
The game has an online mode, but since I'm not sure how to connect the ps2 to internet I haven't played it online yet.
This extended more than I wanted... well, in resume:
The game has great ideaas, but they are not well developed. Yet is still a fun game that will bring you many hours of entertainig and prehaps if you don't suck as much as I do you'll see it as one of the greatest games ever. If you can, give it a try.