Well then, look who's back! Thought you'd escaped me the first time, huh? Well, I had time to spare and thus I did a longer playthrough! This time, I actually beat the game! This makes it the perfect time to come back here.
Since people mentioned UI stuff, I want to instead focus on the gameplay and presentation. I'm going to focus on the first one, since I think it matters more.
Before I get into it, I do want to note that the issue I brought up before about the card stack isn't fixed. Put some 200 items in your inventory and you should see what I mean. :P
To begin, how big of an area would you imagine this place is? Like, how far do you think the player is traveling? The reason why I ask is because the map itself isn't all that big. Like, if I look at the size of drawings and roads and try to extrapolate it into an actual walking area, I'd wager it'd only take a day to go the long way to the boat.
One thing I had been feeling when I played it is that the world should be "bigger" with time passing more slowly when you're not performing actions. This, in turn, would spread enemies and obstacles out. It'd also allow for a lot more options in terms of new paths. This brings me to the next issue: replayability. Right now, once I've beaten the game there's nothing for me to play again. It's not like the map changes or locations of hordes and enemies change. I think this is where things need to be worked on next, to make it fun to keep changing.
Next, there should be more info to explain to the player what the crafted items are for. I don't want to waste items on a campfire if I don't know how it'll benefit me. In a similar vein, a bit of explanation of how combat works (specifically what the numbers mean) would also be good.
One thing that I found infuriating while playing was the high chance for luring away to fail. I had a time where I attempted to lure four times and every one failed. Given the amount of energy and time this takes, it can be infuriating for it to fail. I'd say the failure rate should be lower, or that the cost to energy and time should be less so it's not putting the player on the backfoot so easily.
I loved the option for points where you can easily recover water. Thanks to these, I don't feel like the speed in which water drains is a problem. However, I do feel the speed for food is. Just thinking in general about how long a person can survive without food makes me feel this should be changed. Since the game is supposed to take 9 days, here's what I would recommend: making the food meter drop a little slower. When the meter empties, it begins to drain energy faster. This would feel more realistic to what the body is capable of. This would, in turn, allow the player to strategize when they eat. Similarly, all food should provide some energy no matter what.
And just for context to the above, I have personally gone 3 days without drinking anything, but I've gone a week without eating anything. When I had nothing to drink, it had a toll on my body. However, the most that happened when I wasn't eating was I felt more tired. This is why I suggest things the way I am.
I also think maintaining health should be a bigger deal. It wasn't until I began making huge use of sleep and rest that I noticed that doing either recovers HP. However, the amount gained felt way too big to me. I'd say make those gains much smaller, but in exchange make enemies a bit weaker. This would then allow for more strategy.
Finally, there should be a combat option if you run out of items. In fact, I would argue that the player should always have a non-card option for combat though with a drawback.
