Ok after playing this with several friends who have played it for the first time and honestly even my own experiences.
The start of the game definitely needs more direction. While I certainly had more of an idea of what I was doing it was vastly enhanced by watching a stream and being told "You need to escape".
Yet none of my friends had any idea of what to do even when I told them "you need to escape the island"... They just mindlessly wandered, spoke to everyone, and kind of turned up empty (especially finding enemies weak enough to fight... until I did a few extra quests.) and made it rather painfully obvious to me how much displeasure they were receiving from this early game.
It was no better between the ones who played DOS1 and those who didn't.
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While I certainly don't want a game to handhold you... Unfortunately in this case perhaps having a bit of a starting lead beyond Dennis (who is kind of meh, "ohh no she killed someone!")
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Idea... with huge spoilers...
Perhaps that Elf in the Trial... should instead be a named character who joins you early on... perhaps being another prisoner on the ship. Gives you an idea of what to do and a person to talk to...
BUT gets sent to trial very early upon entering the town.
It also benefits by having the whole... Trial thing be more tragic.
