It’s just that as a Switch Axe user of many years, the very idea of guarding anything is still very foreign to me.

I played MH: Wilds after couple of weeks of playing God of War, and I kept trying to block attacks by pressing L1. It was only my seikret rescuing me again and again and having tons of potions that let me survive the fights. Fortunately got the hang of the controls after a little while.