I am assuming that something with the database restore has made it non-functional. My guess (again, total amateur) is perhaps the mediawiki configuration files are referring to my old database's location, name, and password (I re-created the exact same name, but am not 100% sure on the password, and the location is certainly different). Do you guys think that is the issue?
Yes, taht seems to be the case.
If so, how can I amend the configuration so that it will work properly? Is there a file anywhere that explicitly spells out what database, where, and with what password it should be accessed? If so I'm assuming I can just change that? I know with wordpress its actually very simple, its literally the wp-config file and it has the DB name and password and location all right there.
Yep, just edit your LocalSettings.php file.
Good luck
-- daniel