The food situation needs adjustment at the beginning of the game before you reach Sacrament.
Like anyone else unused to this sort of game in the beginning I had to use food a lot to heal myself. However I had no idea resources would not respawn so I used my food more liberally than I should have. By the time I reached the boss I didn’t have much left and I didn’t have enough money to comfortably restock. And because nothing respawns it’s difficult to make money. I ended up just making a new character and starting again instead of trying to get by on the tiny scraps of food I had left.
Essentially I got punished for not knowing resources would not respawn even though the game does not make me aware of this, while simultaneously getting punished for being new to this sort of game so I had to use more food than veterans of souls-like games.
The same thing happened to a friend of mine who is also inexperienced with this sort of game. She also gave up and made a new character.
- Suggested solution:
Have the blacksmith give the player food at regular intervals after he has moved next to the Whisper. For example he could give you food the first time you speak with him at the Whisper, and every four wipes you have on the boss afterwards. Players would still have to be careful about food use, but would no longer find themselves with no options to replenish their stocks.
To prevent players from cheesing this to make money by selling it and/or by having huge stocks of free food; make the food be a unique meal only the blacksmith has, limit the amount to one full stack, and have its sell value be zero.
And before anyone says “this is a souls-like so it should be kept as it is” keep in mind that the beginning is the only point in the game in which you can run out of resources and have no way of restocking. It would be a different story if the entire game was designed to have food resources be extremely limited.
Aside from the above I have no issues with the beginning of the game. It’s otherwise great. I had a blast.