Finished the main quest.
Diablo1_reborn: Massive, massive thank you for your insanely detailed guide! I enjoyed the game a lot, although I can't help but feel that TOTFL had slightly better pacing.
Some random thoughts and/or advice:
- This is probably quite obvious, but if you play this on an emulator (which I imagine most do), I strongly recommend using a fast-forward function to speed up the combat animations a bit. There is also an in-game option to disable them completely, but I personally found that a bit jarring.
- With the guide, the game is perfectly playable from beginning to end (well, the main quest anyway) even with no ability to read Japanese. Menu navigation is mostly a matter of memorization, and events and such are clearly marked in the guide. Having to constantly look up loot can get a bit tiresome though.
- You will unlock shortcuts in the labyrinth every now and then, but still, be prepared to do a fair amount of walking through already explored floors.
- The main quest is absolutely manageble without any grinding. Of course, I spammed the Soul Crash AA quite a bit once my monk finally decided to trigger it, which probably helped a lot (it really is very, very strong).
- I never used a bishop at all, but never really lacked money either (bishop can identify items for free). Then again, I never bought any class-changing jewels or such.
- Yoppen best NPC.
My party (never used any premades):
Dwarf Knight, Dwarf Monk, Dwarf Knight
Human Gizoku, Gnome Priest, Elf Mage
(I occasionally used the Gizoku in the front row too, for stealing).