Game is terrible for "raw" playthroughs that include no save scumming or internet searching.

I get very bothered when I feel I have to resort to what is basically cheating in videogames by save scumming or looking up stuff on the internet. This game just hit me with a triple whammy that I simply need to vent.

First, I couldn't find an advisor for the barony's economy. I thought the tiefling girl might be able to fill that role but I couldn't find a way to her quest location that didn't have me traveling through high levels areas so I figured I was supposed to do that later. In the meantime my kingdom was suffering so I figured maybe Jubilost would be able to do it.

Except I failed his cart sequence and was met with a poorly done quest in order to get him as a companion. He wants to find the dwarven fortress but runs out of the map and says we may meet again. So I play for hours and get a quest update when I discover the fortress to go tell him... Well I don't have him so I figure he comes up later and I visit tons of locations around just hoping one will have him. At this point I've wasted so much time I'm worried for my kingdom's survival so I betray myself and use the internet to find him and it turns out he is back at the carriage location just sitting there? He and his gnome friends literally left the area and said something about meeting again but now they want to chill by their cart which was supposed to be capsized with all the merchandise lost.... There was also no quest marker for him on the worldmap. If I had just savescummed that stupid cart none of this would have happened.

Then when I was reading on a wiki about Jubilost to confirm if he would even be able to do the advisor part (since I was ready to just abandon him instead of going with my cheat discovery of his location) I accidentally read that the tiefling girl was also an advisor. So now there is literally nothing I can do to not be cheating unless I abandon both companions and hope to find an advisor later assuming my kingdom isn't destroyed.

Then there's the relics. So if I miss one piece all the rest were for nothing? This is just begging to be accomplished through internet searches.

The encounter design in of itself is save scummy in nature. Tons of times I've wandered into an area just to get into a fight with an enemy I have no change of beating. I'm I seriously supposed to just remember to come back to that spot when I am higher level as if I have nothing else going on? It's not organic at all.

I almost forgot about the Verdant Chamber quest. I had to research a way to change companions without going back to the Hold because I just couldn't get from point A to B by myself. Because the game doesn't explain that at all, that's cheating. Then I can't even figure out what I'm supposed to be doing in there because there is a huge locked door. Turns out I'm supposed to click the magnifying glass button at a big tree (which I discovered through the internet, I'm just very flustered with the game at this point). Then I get attacked by super high enemies and I have to save scum using potions of invisibility to get past them. THEN I have to savescum to get a good stealth check to get past the enemies. Oh. My. God.

I actually really like the game other than this. It really kills my immersion.