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.