Armored Core: Last Raven, AAGH!!!!

A friend of mine likes to buy games on the cheap to expand his library, even if he doesn't play the game to completion or anything. So he bought Amored Core: Last Raven for the PS2 when EB was having a big sale, and decided to let me borrow it last week.
It's essentially the first AC I've ever played(loved the demo for the first PS1 one, but never got around to buying one), but even understanding the controls I can't belive how hard it is. I got stuck at a point where I could only do one hard mission and just restarted for the second time. Even though I only did about four missions before each restart, I'm already getting kinda annoyed.
So I have a question: am I really, really bad, or is this game extremely difficult and cheap? I'm almost positive it requires you to have played the two previous games before it to have all the best parts already in your inventory, and it's not a game for n00bs. Still, I'll keep playing.
It's essentially the first AC I've ever played(loved the demo for the first PS1 one, but never got around to buying one), but even understanding the controls I can't belive how hard it is. I got stuck at a point where I could only do one hard mission and just restarted for the second time. Even though I only did about four missions before each restart, I'm already getting kinda annoyed.
So I have a question: am I really, really bad, or is this game extremely difficult and cheap? I'm almost positive it requires you to have played the two previous games before it to have all the best parts already in your inventory, and it's not a game for n00bs. Still, I'll keep playing.