Just finished the game, and it was generally absolutely lovely, with gorgeous graphics and all well put together. One quite major aspect did, however, quite seriously impact my enjoyment of the game, and my kindest advice would be to try to avoid this phenomenon in the future games in the series.
Namely, the resource starvation. Playing on "normal", which I always do, have the monsters hitting you quite hard, specifically since they level up in mostly the same speed as the player. A typical hit would deplete 1/7th to 1/6th of my max HP. This is not a problem, and I enjoy the battles not being push-overs, but in some dungeons, I had to use three or even four full-health potions, of which it's only possible to create one per story day. Mostly, it didn't matter, but at some points, I was on the verge of running out of ability to heal myself. Had I not been diligent in gathering herbs at every point I could in the game (even when the story didn't really allow for detours) I would have run a serious risk of ending up with a "cursed save" - a save game which is impossible to continue from (not enough resources to proceed, and no ability to gather new ones.).
Some 10 to 15 hours in, this worry of resource starvation and the risk of cursed saves and threat of being forced to replay large portions of the story only because I'd run out of healing pots, only grew. In the end, I didn't want to explore or revisit old areas, for fear of new battles that would deplete my ever so shrinking supply of healing pots. I couldn't risk running too low, lest I would find myself in an impossible situation. This unfortunately sapped much of the fun out of the game.
Sure, one can always play on "Easy", but that's not really my point. I'm not after easy battles and push-overs. I appreciate that battles matter, and the difficulty on Normal was well aligned and much satisfactory. But resource starvation, and specifically the threat of cursed saves, doesn't really have a place in 20 hour long games. I ended up switching to Easy, not relly enjoying the fact that now, no battle really mattered (they really didn't - everything died as I looked at it), but at least I could now explore some and afford detours and revisits without serious worry. It worked as a hotfix, but felt like a "less bad" solution.
Having completed the game, I do suspect that my switch to Easy might have been unnecessary, and that I maybe wouldn't have run out of healing pots either way. That, however, does not make my worry during the game less real. If I could wish, in future games in this series, do not limit the player's ability to recover from battles. Let us be able to visit, explore, revisit and take our time, even if we enjoy battles that matter. If players will have to grind for herbs to achieve this, then so be it. But please don't set a hard limit. The worry to run out and end up in an impossible situation shouldn't be a part of an otherwise fantastic adventure game.
Viewing post in Briley Witch Chronicles (C64) comments
I will agree partly, Normal was harder than I was expecting, and in some situations, I ran from battles as often as I could. However… that was part of the challenge heh. Also I’m not sure what gave you the impression you could only create one full health potion per story day, I was making as much as I could when possible. Admittedly near the end of the game, I was buying potions from the town shop as I was low on resources to create enough to keep myself going.
It was the scarcity of herbs. One Full Health potion required 3 pieces of 2 herbs, of which is was only possible to pick 3 per day. (It cost 2 of each to make a Hi Potion, and then another one of each to make a Full Health potion out of that)
And money was pretty scarce too, though I admit I had enough for several potions. As I said, it do think my resources would have sufficed in the end, BUT of that, I had no idea while I was playing. So the sense of confinement and fear to paint myself into a corner and end up with a cursed save was very much there, and is did tear very much at the fun of the game. I felt I didn't want to explore, and as I used 2 or 3 potions in a dungeon near the end, I was constantly worried that I'd end up standing before the final battle with too few potions, having to replay the entire game.
In-game worries is one thing. But this was a game-save technical issue, similar to the worry of a crippling bug. Lifting the forced limitations of healing wouldn't have made the game worse; it would have made it much more entertaining.