thinking about this again cause my friend is playing through it now (he loves it btw) and he ran into the same issue with the first 5 hyena fight you encounter where he had trouble beating it and actually asked me if it was supposed to be beatable lol. I think maybe if you gave people a burger and dazzle blast right before the fight it might help since most people are gonna use early items probably a bit faster. It makes it more clear the items are gonna be needed for that fight and as a lil backup so players don't accidentally softlock themselves at the start until rng goes in their favor. Plus if someone gets there and still has the first burger and blast it's a lil bonus that will make the fight easier for players who played well.
Glad to hear you passed on the word despite the issues you had with the game (And that he enjoyed it!). That said, I still have no plans to chance the items going into that battle. If you collect everything in Haven before heading out, you go into that fight with 2 hamburgers, 3 surume, and a dazzle blast. IE, 2 full heals, 3 partial heals, and an item that refills your energy AND keeps it from draining for several turns. If I was asking people to do that fight with no items, or less items, I'd agree it's a pretty hard fight to start the game on. But with those items it shouldn't be an issue. You just have to use them smartly. That said, we are now at two people who have had an issue with it, so noted. If there are enough complaints I'll be forced to reconsider, but for now most people haven't seemed to have any issues with that fight, even as an annoyance.