Gran Pulse is exactly where I would've saved the message about monsters being too hard for. I also found it completely amusing and yet irritating that for how long the tutorial is, it never really explained well how upgrading worked. I don't like playing a 20+ hour tutorial, which it is... if you're levelling your Crystarium up all the way on each segment to discover "Hey, we didn't explain this you're going to have to look it up on Gamefaqs" I think it was the flaw some games get where the tutorials are overly interfering with the basics but there's not enough optional tutorials to give deeper insight in to game mechanics. Something I'd appreciate more.

Still The early chapters if you don't just blitz through them and enjoy going for a grind to level your Crystarium up is actually really enjoyable.