Difficulty judgment change?

I went to do Golvan's quest line, like, yesterday. Total level ~850. Coill dungeons went by without a hitch (well actually a death because I forgot sprites had heavy stander but whatever) but when I got to the theater mission, I found it to be incredibly difficult. I literally would not have survived had I not randomly decided to start ranking ranged attack a week ago (and thus been able to pick enemies off individually), and the Giant Castle Wall Golem forced my demi both times.

I spoke to a friend about it and he was surprised that it was difficult for me at all. I asked for his levels, and he was just a little bit lower than I.. I asked for his exploration and how recently he had done the quests and a theory clicked.

See, at the time he had done his, his combined total level was JUST shy of 1000 (like 990) whereas I was in the 1200s. Is it possible that the system has changed slightly to take into account exploration total? Possibly only for Theater Missions, and that I was doing it on Hardmode? I am still unable to take regular shadow missions at Hard difficulty.