Vague comments again. It's not poorly designed. It's a complex game that requires players to learn some basics because it has its own style as it's not a clone of anything. Basically whatever I said in my last comment. Nothing of the following is clunky or unecessarily complex or unintuitive, everything serves a clear purpose in a unique, expertly designed series that's unlike most anything else out there.
Triangle - basic attack
You use these combined into special moves and simple combos that differ for each weapon. You need to learn their benefits of each.
Circle - alternate attack
X - evasion manoeuver which differs for each weapon. It can be a roll, or a leap back, or whatever else. Huge weapons obviously mean lesser mobility. You can't do them all the time as they drain stamina. With the weapons sheathed, X will perform a roll regardless of weapon type, or a dive if you're sprinting.
Square - it doubles as a sheath button and item usage button. With sword + shield you don't need to sheath to use items so press R + Square to use an item instead, to differentiate it from when you want to sheath your weapons still even with the sword + shield.
R - its function differs for each weapon. For example, with sword + shield, great sword, lance + shield, it blocks. For dual swords, it enables a stamina draining mode that has stronger attacks and different specials. With the weapons sheathed, held down it lets you sprint, which drains stamina.
L - tap it to recenter the camera looking to the direction your character is facing. Very useful as often you know more or less where the monster is without seeing it, so you just move the character toward it for a split second and recenter the camera instead of move it manually.
D-pad is used to control the camera. I understand that's actually clunky (fixed on Wii since you have a 2nd analog stick there with the classic controller, or the d-pad on your right hand with the remote + nunchuck setup) but it's sufficient enough to use L to recenter the camera after pointing your character to the direction you want to look at, or to move the camera while you're performing other functions. This is the PSP's fault more than anything, remember it's PS2 game ports, and most all PSP games have camera issues, including the Metal Gear Solid games. The game's design shouldn't change into being some kind of Zelda or Phantasy Star Online clone with lock on just because *one* of the platforms it's on is flawed in such a way when it comes to input methods.
Other than that, in slightly more complex territory (but not that complex, isn't that similar to how you'd select items in a Metal Gear game as well?), to highlight the item type you want to use with Square, you hold down L and then use Circle and Square as if they were Left and Right on a d-pad, to browse through your items. If you have different ammo for ranged weapons, you switch them in a similar manner, except using Triangle and X as if they were Up and Down on a d-pad.
To fight you see how the given monster behaves, see what attacks it has, learn to avoid them either with running, or with the current weapon's evasion maneuver (if it's a roll, roll to the sides, if it's a step back, either step back, or if you want to go to the side first look toward the opposite direction you want to go in, simple), and when you have enough (time) room to attack. Evasion is as important as attacking since you can die with few hits from the tougher monsters.
So, imo, the fighting mechanics are fairly simple, they just have a pseudo realistic aspect to them. You walk around carrying massive blades or hammers, it's obvious your character shouldn't move like a ninja with them on, so all moves have animations that play out. If you're swining a giant hammer above your head you can't suddenly stop it and perform a roll to dodge an attack, instead you should have seen that attack coming and not begin the swing at all. If you're carrying it you can't just leave it on the ground and start drinking a potion, so you first put it away. Etc. The same goes for the monsters though. If they begin an attack that misses its mark they can't stop it, giving you room to attack them yourself after dodging whatever they attemped to do for example. You can also block, but that usually still leaves you in front of the monster ready for more attacks so it's often best to dodge instead. Their attacks will often have long animations that after dodging will give you time to do whatever you want. Attack, use potions, position yourself better, turn the camera, browse your items etc.
It's fairly simple, once you grasp the basics. I suggest starting with the sword and shield as a newbie weapon, the ranged stuff and the slower weapons should be tried after you know how everything else in the game works, so that you don't try to learn their quirks at the same time. They counter their great attack power or great range with other downsides that take more experience to overcome, as they should.
The actual complexity comes, outside the different evasion and attack moves you need to learn to exploit for each weapon, firstly from the different monsters and how they have radically different behaviours, and specials and AI that you need to learn, and secondly from the RPG-like aspects of the game: Your weapons degrade so you have to use a sharpening stone every so often, your stamina will also lower over time (actually, in Tri monsters also have stamina and they willl attempt to recover it after it degrades stopping them from doing certain attacks) so you use a ration or some kind of food you've cooked from before (even buff yourself to have more stamina before setting out on the quest, or eating before you begin the hunt), the monsters have different strengths and resistances so again you craft gear suitable for each, and so on and so forth.
Outside combat the controls are even simpler as you press Circle in most points of interest, either to carve a dead body, or to gather herbs, or whatever else. Or using tools with the item use button again in the points of interest. Fishing rod to fish, bugnet to catch bugs, pickaxe to get ore. Hardly complex, though I believe it's been streamlined in Tri so that, as long as you have a pickaxe or whatever, you just go to the point of interest and press a button, you don't first browse to it.
But all these outside combat aspects aren't really seen or useful in the demos which give you great gear and lots of supplied items to use rather than force you to create them on the spot (which you don't generally do in the full games either, you just gather items, go back to the village and make supplies and buffs and armors and weapons to use in later hunts - though finding items you can use on the spot is sometimes a lifesaver, like making potions from herbs and shrooms if you run out, or just eating the herbs instead though they aren't as good as a potion, or finding a rock to sharpen your sword with after you run out just before killing a boss, but it's not something you rely on, that would be bad, heh). There are tons of tools to craft in the full game, from potions, to traps, to throwing knives and bombs like some the demo gives, but they're all used in the same simple manner. Swallowed, thrown, or placed on the ground.
Here's a video showing a decent fight that can show you how to implement the controls explained above. Though this is a Tri monster, not United. You can see him use items to increase his stamina, use a flash bomb to give him time to sharpen his weapon, dodge attacks, easily track the monster with the camera, and generally make short work of it even though the sword and shield is the weakest, yet very mobile, weapon type. He also uses shield bashes to stun it at a point but that's not available in United, only certain weapon types can stun, but it shows you need to use specials when appropriate etc. Crappy quality.
It doesn't require complex Street Fighter-esque combinations and timing to pull off tons of diferent moves like say, Devil May Cry, or anything of the sort, it just requires a very different and methodical pseudorealistic approach in taking down the bosses.
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