I recently redeemed my copy off of Humble Monthly and been having a blast the last 20 hours, so I will for sure get the DLC needed (Three Brothers) and enjoy the improvements!
I highly suggest anyone giving the game a try, be mindful of how food provides long bouts of regen when you eat it based on what it is, Fruits will give Stamina regen and will help with sprinting and combat stamina significantly, Meats will give Hp regen and along with Bandages will help you recover after fights if you take hits, and Turmmips and Fish will give you Mana Regen, which normally isn't natural or easy to accomplish outside of Reveal Soul + Spark to glean mana off of dead bodies of humans.
So be aware, and you can keep yourself alive with the meat of animals and the berries off bushes alone! Play smart, and you'll find the weather and resource management is a piece of cake to keep in line.
Also, and I cannot stress this enough, invest in a good backpack with lots of room. Nomad Backpacks easily bought early with the 50 space are the bare minimum, and you don't need everything you take with you, especially when meat is easily found. And basic iron bandit weapons and machetes and Guisarmes are crapola and are better off broken down for Iron Scraps instead of carried around to sell. The Brutal Weapons they sometimes carry or you find as treasure are worth a small fortune early on and are 100% worth carrying back to a City or Soroborean Trader out in the wilderness if it's closer.
And one last thing. Equipment Weight Doesn't Matter if you have it Equipped, so having heavy armor and a big weapon isn't a big deal as long as you aren't unequipping it into your pouch or bag and over encumbering yourself. Stick with a good club and shield, or two hander early on and keep that space free for good gear to sell and turn into gold bars or put away for later at your house.
Hopefully this early advice will help any and all of you with the early game and enjoy your adventures! As long as you keep an eye out and pay attention to what the game is trying to tell you with it's enviromental stuff, like "Ghost pass has enemies my normal attacks can't hurt, what's with all this Spiritual Varnish everywhere?", Cheronese as an early region will prepare you for anything.
And don't be afraid to die, as you can be returned to town, rescued by friendly folks, or led into interesting scenarios by Defeat, just don't leave home without stashing most of your valubles just in case things go poorly, and don't let bandits kill you if you can help it, haha.
One last thing, if you plan on "farming" enemy encounters by purposely getting ambushed in a dungeon or right outside Cierzo by repeatedly resting without time spent guarding, please don't get greedy. After you get defeated, several days can pass, and Cheronese is one of the only areas that has a seasonal change... and you don't wanna try to survive a Cheronese Winter unprepared. You can rest all you like at home to pass it or prep with Fur Armor and making lots of campfires, but ultimately that stops being an option when you start progressing with Faction Quests, so get stuff done and explore outside the region after when you feel confident.
And one last, last thing. Many folks will train you in basic passives and active skills for 50 or 100 silver throughout the world, and while you can spend a whole lot more to get one of three total "Breakthroughs" on different trainers to get advanced techniques, you will Always benefit from getting the cheap passives wherever you find them, especially the one the Kazite Trainer in Cierzo gives that ups your hp by a whopping 25, wowza!
So explore, but use your head and manage your bag space and eat things, and you'll be good to go. Have fun on the 17th! Or earlier : P
