Some thoughts on the game design & balance

[thufir]

Could always try the game on hard difficulty, ironman, with single-use crystals. In that situation your herb situation will strike you as barely adequate, even with an alchemist. Trust me on this one. Most of your difficulty concerns will evaporate under those circumstances.

Yes It will probably fit me better, I agree.
I dont think it will exactly resolve the problem at the root though. As in, it feels weird that I d have to go through a 100 heal pots to finish the game. Not sure to explain it, but it felt quite "right" in LoG 1 that availability of ressource was very low ( I really liked that you needed a glass bottle to make a potion too, sad to see that go). Using a heal pot was kindof a last resort kind of thing, I didnt want to waste them. Having tons of them and drinking them for every injuries makes me feel like I'm playing Diablo or something. It makes the pots feel less valuable and their use less interesting.
However, you are right, I will have to give a try to the hard mode.

It's still limited in its way. It really requires a fair amount of walking around to get potions and even then you might not have enough or be able to use them fast enough in a dire strait. I got cornered in the Herder's Den before I had made my first save (hubris...) and went through 20 or so potions and still wiped. Lost 5 or so hours of play there. You'll need every potion you can get and even then one error will make it so you don't have enough.

[blob]

Ok I'll give it a try
Never tried ironman before, that should be interesting.

[thufir]

The hard difficulty + ironman + the single-use-crystal is the real deal. I did hard/ironman earlier but with unlimited crystal use it was too easy. The crystals come back way too quickly and every time you use them everyone comes back to life with full hp and no injuries.

[blob]

Hell yeah! Single use crystals was the one thing I was missing in LoG1. Was super happy to see the option now available