Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord

"Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord, known as Haja no Fūin (覇邪の封印, literally "Seal of the Dark Lord") in Japan, is a console role-playing game for the Sega Master System released in 1988, ported from an earlier version in 1986. It's somewhat similar to Phantasy Star in gameplay but with inferior graphics. The game came with an elaborate grid-format map noting areas of interest in the game.

Story
The seal of the Dark Lord Terarin has been broken and Terarin has been unleashed into the world again. She has stolen the Golden Seal and opened pandora's box, unleashing evil creatures into the world. A young hero is tasked by a king to stop Terarin. He must step into footsteps of Iason, a shepherd that once accidentally unleashed Terarin and fought to seal the Dark Lord again. The hero must enlist the aid of three companions, Guy the warrior, Medi the amazon and Treo the pirate (called Turo in the manual) and find the three keys to Terarin's lair. To face the Dark Lord, they must find the mystical weapons and armor of old and then defeat Terarin and seal the Dark Lord from the world.

Overworld travelling in Miracle Warriors. The terrain shows a town on a plains and parts of forest, mountain and ocean landscape. The information box below the map shows the player's guilders, herbs, fangs and character points. In the lower left all party members, their experience and life are shown.
The battle menu in Miracle Warriors. The menu shows the options given to the player.
Town travelling in Miracle Warriors. The map of the town is shown in the upper right corner, conversations are shown on the left.Each screen consists of four parts. In the lower left are all character statistics. It lists all characters in the party. Each character has a life bar and experience bar. A single character can gain experience by hitting enemies. Once the experiences is full, a new level is reached. The experience bar is emptied and both bars are extended, resulting in more maximum life for the character and more experience needed to gain a new level. On the lower right are statistics for the entire party (for example the amount of money). The upper right section varies from screen to screen. While traveling the world, a town or a maze, a map is shown where the player can navigate. If the player invokes the main menu, it will be shown there. In battle it shows the battle menu. The upper left section also varies. While traveling the world or a cave it shows the party members and their surroundings. In battle it shows the foe and in town it shows persons to which the player can talk and their dialogue.

The world is built in grid-format. The player can move around. On the world map and towns the players location on the map is marked by a white square. Once the player encounters an enemy, the screen switches to battle mode. The player can choose one character to attack per turn. This character will also be subjected to the attack of the enemy, unless the enemy uses a spell that attacks multiple players. Some enemies can use flame spells to attack all party members or sleep spells that can put multiple party members to sleep. Every time a party member is put to sleep they take damage. They can wake up and be put to sleep many times during a battle, taking damage each time they fall asleep again. Once every party member is sleeping, the enemy will use a flame spell to attack every party member at once. As an alternative to attack, a player has several options, including talking, retreating, using a magical item, or casting a spell. Some enemies respond to talking and give hints.

The currency in the game is the guilder which can be used to buy items or heal the players. Defeated enemies also yields fangs, which are proof of valor in battle. Fangs can be used to buy some exclusive items or trade in villages for guilders.

Defeating enemies can also increase or decrease the player's character points (fame). Killing monsters usually increases the player's fame while killing good characters (for example merchants) decreases the player's fame. Enough character points are needed to enter certain villages.

The world
The game takes place in a world of five lands spread out over three continents. There are four types of land: plain, forest, mountains and desert. Enemies become more dangerous in different types of land, with plains being the safest terrain to cross. The continents are separated by oceans and storming sea around the last continent. A ship is required to sail the oceans. A special ship is needed to cross the storming sea but it can only be helmed by someone with pirate blood in his veins.

Throughout the world are several towns. Towns have smiths, who can repair armor, and healers that can heal and sell herbs. Shops sell weapons and some towns provide information while one person per village buys fangs for fifty guilders each.

There are also villages, which serve special purposes, such as selling ships or special magical items.

Several caves exist in the world. They house guardians that protect the mystical armors of legend. Throughout the world are also monuments, statues of Iason, which show the path to Terarin's lair or house a lair underneath them.

Finally there are also various castles. These can be visited to get the weapons of legends if the kings are impressed enough by your valor.
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Source: Wikipedia, "Miracle_Warriors," available under the CC-BY-SA License.