I only raaly noticed at certain spots. Elfland and the Vampire town in particular(God that Knight armor cost a fortune!). But i played a 4 fighter once and after the obnoxios vamp town i couldnt spend the money fast enough! I'm stuck on Chaos and i wiash i could buy more potions as even though i dont use them i hate throwing money on the ground! But yeah only early game do u notice it.

Although on a side note if u goto they have a movie called 8-bit theater where the blackmage states "So that he may buy wepons and armor vastly inferior to what we will find on the road"