Instead of doing more life talk which I honestly don't feel like getting into... I decided to redouble my efforts of making guides as well as sharing a really cool fangame. That game is called Dragon Warrior Alchemy!
It is created by the individual Vigistry who unfortunately has disappeared from many online sources. His website that hosted the game has also gone down, so I am currently hosting a download here (Mediafire link) I was speaking with Vigistry some years back but very difficult to get emails back from him. Should he contact me again for anything I will follow his wishes. He never said he was against the hosting however when I mentioned it.
About The Game:
Dragon Warrior Alchemy takes the original four NES Dragon Warrior games and combines them in one game. It follows Dragon Warrior 4's chapter system, starring the cast of DW4 for the most part, but also includes original characters with Dragon Warrior 3 sprites, recasts some companion characters like Cristo and Brey being generic extras.
Instead, you have a choice on how those not leaders of a chapter will be introduced by choosing either Auto-Roster mode or opting out of it
Auto-Roster mode is like a story mode and has characters introduced more naturally and automatically to parties (how I played my Let's Play of it). For example, chapter 1 has Ragnar run into someone in the beginning of the cave to Izmit that sort of forces their way into the party.
Opting out of Auto-Roster can have the leader of the chapter choose a class to hire to go with them at a hiring bar (Like DW3 NES has Lucida's Eatery). This lets you try a few different class combinations for different chapters on replays. There will be a limit of who you can hire later on though. If Ragnar hires the jester and completes his chapter, Alena will not also be able to hire the jester when starting her chapter.
Both modes still have characters that are set to join due to the story too, however. Those of Erdrick's bloodline like the prince(ss) of Cannock or Moonbrooke join, but they are randomized from one of the available classes. Depending the characters chosen for these roles can make you have a princess of Cannock or prince of Moonbrooke. For example, the jester Panon (DW4 guest character originally) ended up being the Prince of Cannock, and Yin (a fighter of dragon quest 3) ended up as Prince of Moonbrooke for me.
The game does function different than the NES somewhat. Battle mechanics have changed, and how you gain experience and gold. Individuals hold their own gold and if they leave the party at some point, they take their items and gold with them (Though there is a fix to make sure key items dont go with them to screw you over). In the Guide section I will be including excerpts of the original read me Vigistry provided which explains a lot of differences.
A big thing to know is EVENTUALLY, you will be able to control up to 12 characters in sets of 3 parties to beat the great evil, and there are some darker and edgier themes. The story tells you how the three worlds of DQ2, 3, and 4 can interact just fine with each other thanks to teleportals. There IS a bit of a political jab in a section of the game, and there are multiple endings depending some choices you make.
The Let's Play (CLICK HERE):
I made this let's play some years ago to show off this amazing game, posted on youtube. (I'm also backing it up on other video sites because Youtube being really shitty lately). Please note I played the game early on where I suffered from some glitches that got fixed or at least mitigated. The game IS still a bit glitchy on some points, be sure to save often and in different spots just in case.
Class/Character Guides
Classes have different quirks or abilities on how you play them than usual. Some may take getting used to. Some of these will be on an excel sheet I share further down.RAGNAR (KNIGHT):
Ragnar is still a decent tank, but now comes with an ability to increase his stats or traits when defending (Or equipped with a certain item). The benefit only lasts around 2-5 turns. Please note he can only have two of these perks active at a time. Parrying further will not bestow any other increases.
Parry can make him feel:
Stronger - Increase his attack.
Lucky - Increase his crit chance.
Good - Increase max HP & recover some health at end of each round
Enchanted - It seems to increase magic defense or let him use items with spells better?
Quick-Witted - Increase agility and can hit multiple times.
ALENA (PRINCESS CLASS):
Alena starts off as the Princess class, which can summon enemies. Her chapter is about her trying to change her class to a fighter, starting her with rather poor attack, but decent mp to do these summons. You acquire most via level up but some are done via special quests. Also, the summons level up along with Alena (by using the summon more) to increase their stats. These summons can run out of mp becoming mainly a damage sponge, so there may be times where you will want to attack them instead to get to your next summon.
There are two merchants in this game, with Taloon as one of them. They are pretty identical in ability, but Taloon just gets more focus as a main character story wise. Taloon also does not mess around like he did in DQ4's chapter 5.
-Merchants can hold more items than anyone else (There is no bag function).
-When they attack enemies, they have a decent chance to pick up extra money with each attack as well as at end of the battles.
-If the merchant or a party member is about to die, they can bribe the enemy not to kill them at least once per battle (sometimes gets reset if both merchants are in battle together) as long as they have the gold to do so.
-Increased chance to gain items, including possible to steal from a target when attacking.
MARA AND BREY (WIZARD):
Mara and Brey for the most part learn the same wizard spells. Wizard spells are for the most part single target. They will get fire, ice, and zap elements along with debuffs. As with all spells from Pilgrims and Wizards, they start off single target until you upgrade the character's range from an npc (available through payment and at different level intervals).
Both learn:
Blaze - Basic fire element spell
Surround - Blinds foe to lower accuracy.
Sleep - Puts enemy to sleep
Frost - Basic ice element spell
Stopspell - Used to silence foe from casting spells.
Sap - Used to lower defense of target(s)
Toxin - Weak damage but attempts to poison target(s)
Robmagic - Attempts to steal mp from a single target and recover caster's, gets weaker as battle goes on.
Zap - Weak electric element spell.
Chaos - Spell to cause confusion
Firebane - Stronger fire elemental spell, can hit an extra time on a target.
Beat - Attempts to kill target(s).
Blizzard - Stronger ice spell, sometimes can freeze target.
Bolt - Stronger electric elemental spell
NARA AND CENTURA (PILGRIM):
Nara and Centura have some shared spells they both learn. Pilgrims unfortunately are closer to white mages in this as they don't get to equip much better physical weapons typically, except for Nara's Tarot Cards. Majority of spells are supportive and buffs with no wind spells. As with all spells from Pilgrims and Wizards, they start off single target until you upgrade the character's range from an npc (available through payment and at different level intervals).
Both learn:
Heal - Heals target(s), amount varying on magic atk and power level.
Projectile - A buff to make melee weapons into ranged ones (Helps with flying enemies)
Upper - Raises Defense on target(s)
SpeedUp - Raises Speed on target(s)
Antidote - Cures poison
NumbOff - Cures Paralyze
Bikill - Raises Strength on target(s)
Vivify - Chance to revive a target at around 1/3 health.
Radiate - First has the user attempt to use it. If it works, user glows a color, and by end of round, emits an element (Blue = Ice, Yellow = Lightning, Red = Fire) as damage to all enemies.
Barrier - Raises Magic Defense on target(s)
Fendspell - Cleanses and Protects target(s) from ALL magic for a short time.
Holy - Gives Holy Protection on target(s); Holy Protection seems to protect from instant death magic.
Revive - Revives party member(s) to full health.
Bounce - Places a magical wall on target(s) that bounces back ALL spells. Can fade when physically hit.
MARA AND NARA UNIQUE SPELLS:
The sisters get something called "Twin spells." Despite not being twins, they both take their turn to cast these unique spells.
Drain - Drain Health from ALL enemies (Always) and heals the party with amount drained.
Bubble - Shields party from enemy effects for one turn
Slowww - Lowers agility of all enemies, can increase chance for party to pre-emptive strike.
Sister Toss - Toss sister at one enemy for high damage, but the tossed one leaves the battle.
BREY AND CENTURA OPTIONS:
Eventually, Brey and Centura will have options to change their classes. Both will change their sprite at least somewhat.
Brey can become a Sage in game, which lets him learn pilgrim spells ONLY. If Brey is missing any Wizard spells when he changes to Sage, he will NEVER learn them. It still is highly worth it to change Brey to Sage eventually, the timing can be tricky.
Centura gets the option to change into a Paladin like Cristo. Centura will retain all spells from pilgrim class, but also gets any Paladin spells she hasn't gotten. Similar to Brey, Centura will miss any spells from Pilgrim class that were not yet learned. Her stats will change to that of a paladins as well which will SEVERELY nerf her mp. Her pilgrim spells will retain their power/range/speed but will not be able to upgrade any further while a Paladin.
CRISTO (PALADIN):
Cristo gets a different class this time. This class is a lot like a warrior that gains a few spells. However, Paladin cannot power up their spells like wizards and pilgrims. So all their spells will always be single target, and the heal is a bit underwhelming. Can be useful to have another great physical attacker however, and tanks decently too.
Centura can change her class into a paladin and learn any of these skills that she didn't have already.
Paladins learn:
Heal - Heals target(s), amount varying on magic atk
Upper - Raises Defense on target(s)
Surround - Blinds foe to lower accuracy.
Antidote - Cures poison
Stopspell - Used to silence foe from casting spells.
Beat - Attempts to kill target(s).
