I maintain an opinion from the last time I played this that the game is at its best in combat. Whenever you're fighting enemies, you're having a lot of fun. Whenever you're doing anything else, you're most likely not.
While starting the game proper with a fist is nice, you should give players a better weapon during the tutorial, because a bad weapon might make for an bad (and inaccurate) first impression that turns them away.
It would be nice to know how much XP one stands to lose by dying at any given time. Maybe have it be a cash-in at the tent rather than an outstanding count, because it is not clear in the HUD how much you've earned since your last visit.
The UI has lots of unintuitive jank in general but I'm sure you already know that.
The land-to-enemy ratio is too high. Traversal is slow to begin with, and that's especially aggravated by the fact that running slashes your SP cap. Maybe disable that penalty while you have no aggro from any enemies? Movement speed is too slow in general. I know you're supposed to increase it with stats but this is just DS2 ADP syndrome where that decision makes the game so so much worse.
I got to the dungeon again where I saw those water pipes, and that's not a mechanic I ever want to play with again.