ahoy. I gave Sinathir a go, and it's been some time since my last playthrough. As always, I tried going in as if I was a brand new player and going off the information given to me. You'll be pleased to hear that this was the first version that really clicked with me, where I was able to play for hours without getting stuck due to lack of food or dangerously low morale. Things made sense, and I think that's due to your improved tutorial and the dialogue with John! I'll try to have my impressions here be chronological since I think that's what's most beneficial when trying to examine the early game.
Firstly, I think the sound volume is louder than before, which is fine since there's a sound menu. But, on the sound menu you lack a Master slider! I turned everything down a bit, but it would be nice if it was only one slider that I needed to tweak.
Moving on, I did the tutorial as always. It's slightly different than I remember, but things went smoothly. The game starts and John has some advice for me. I remember that from before, no issue there. I go to Billy (and he's home!!), and he has some unusual dialogue. Something about him being sorry I had to witness something? But as far as I can tell his sprite is just chilling in his living room. Either way, I learn some basic tasks from him and do some work. Next week, john tells me about planting seeds, and that I should go to Billy. Cool stuff, so I do, and now Billy isn't here. This is a much better way of doing things, since it's a HOOK. You had a routine with Billy at this point, and now he's not here! Sweet. I do some things before resting.
Next week, John again, asking me about the harvest and telling me I should cook the 'taters before eating. Only issue is, I didn't harvest since I didn't work for Billy that time (he wasn't home!). No matter. Off to Billy and I use his kitchen and crafting stone to get seeds + food, then back home. Eventually I cook what potatoes I harvest, and I feel like this is a much better food introduction. Now I have a steady and easy (although weak) supply of guaranteed food. Only issue is I'm a level 1 cook, so I can have 3 points! That's TINY for potatoes, so if you misused your time before this (like chopping wood without a tool, which I did) you can get in a pickle. Perhaps a quest (incentive?) to get a higher cooking skill to help with this, or at least more acknowledgement for this, so that the player is aware that he needs to figure something out and he will eventually become hungry.
Another thing about Quests/Logs is that, if you're listening to John for his tip - he eventually walks off. Forgot (or missed?) something he said? Too bad, he's gone now
Eventually I find the beer on the left of Billy's farm, and this time I drink (and become an alcoholic). Got the achievement for it, which has some text issues ("where are my ke2r" or something, instead of keys). Billy also doesn't wanna talk to me when drunk. I like it, it's funny. Kinda hardcore that I became addicted to alcohol after only having one beer, but I guess I am a 10yearold girl with no tolerance.
Next week, I meet the Kobold and do the quest for him, which pays a TON (30 silver compared to 5-6 I'd get from being bad at a job). I like this dynamic. My reward was also the Kobold follower who could 1 shot the mutant chickens, so him and I farmed some feathers around, and he would also give me free meat. Perhaps he's a bit too good?
Eventually I visit the town and the church a few times. I decide to become a member of the church and do the blood stone quest. A hint I get is to talk to Helena, but she doesn't have anything to say about the quest? Sometimes the hints don't really line up with reality, which might prove to be confusing for players. Another instance of this is in the Inn. The help bubble there tells you to get mood by talking to important NPCs, but there's nobody to talk to. Just one table with 2 guys, who I can't speak to. Thought it was perhaps bad luck and to try again later, but I never saw anyone there.
I got stuck looking around for the stone, saw Billy talking to bandits, and decided to stop here after getting drunk again since I already have so much to write about. Having played for 2-3 hours uninterrupted, and only reaching my first roadblock here feels much better than getting stuck on low-food in the early game 5 minutes in. I guess all that's needed now is just polish, with a better introduction loredump/exposition and some character visuals or so. Overall John and Billy make the introduction much better, and I think it's easily understandable for newer players. I also managed to forget where Suong was and was unable to find that spot again - perhaps some location information could be useful (ie: Billy says he's at Suong's. Perhaps he can say "..To the East of XYZ location" or something)
Some minor issues I found dealt with confusion labels. Ie, putting food in your stash says "You have: 5. Will make: 6". So does that mean I'm adding 1 item of food? That's just a wording issue, and you get used to it seeing crafting done, but you can get cirumstances like this that're hard to understand for newbies. In my case, it was dealing with a new item type which I didn't try before, so I wanted to see how much food value it had.
Anyway that's a giant paragraph and I think that's enough for now. If I think of anything else I'll get in touch