Planning Part 1 - Title, character select, item select

As any programmer who has made a game can contest, careful planning and strategy must be put into the game before any programming. Planning will help keep the game coding clean and on the straight path, and strategy will keep the code efficient and minimize bugs.

So let's start planning by dissecting the original:

Everything in the original involves squares, from the platforms, to the players and enemies, the backgrounds, everything. So to begin planning for everything, we need to keep in mind that everything is square.

Note: We are going to dissect both Legacy of the Wizard and MSX2's version of Dragon Slayer IV.

The original starts with a title sequence, followed by a gameplay demo.

From the demo (when the player presses start), we go into the character select screen. There are four characters situated around a table, a dog, and two characters off to the side.

The four characters around the table and the dog are playable characters, while the two on the side are for getting and giving passwords. We won't be using a password system, instead these characters will be for saving and loading.

After we have selected our character, we go to the item select screen.

There are 16 "permanent" items here. These are rare items hidden around the dungeon that allow advancement or special abilities for the player. Let's take a look at what we have going on here, starting at the top:

• HUD. We have a life bar, a magic bar, a key bar, a gold bar, and an area for three items.
• Inventory. 16 rare permanent items found in the dungeon. From left to right, top to bottom:

1. Magic Wings - Menya. Consumes magic constantly, but allows Menya to "fly", i.e. control her like a  top-down all over the screen.
2. Magic Armor - Xemn and Roas. Consumes magic constantly, but kills all minor enemies instantly.
3. Mattock - Lyll. Destroys the interacting blocks. One magic point per block.
4. Glove - Xemn. Moves the interacting blocks one space in the character's facing direction.
5. Magic Rod - Menya. Slings the interacting blocks horizontally at high rate, killing enemies and damaging the player. Bounces off walls, other interacting blocks, and the player. Stops randomly.
6. Power Boots - Xemn, Roas, and Lyll - Jumping on a minor enemy will kill the instantly.
7. Jump Shoes - Menya, Roas, and Lyll - Allows the character to jump extra high. Can still inflict fall damage. One magic point per jump.
8. Magic Key - Menya. Allows the player to use magic instead of keys to unlock doors.
9. Power Knuckle - Xemn, Menya, Roas, Lyll - Increases the strength of the player's attack. Two magic points per shot. 
10. Fire Rod - All - Increases the distance of the player's attack. Two magic points per shot.
11. Shield - All - Protects against the attacks of the Guardians.
12. Magic Bottle - All - If this item is selected, it will fully restore the magic of the player in the event that the player's magic is all used up.
13. Life Bottle - All - If this item is selected, it will fully restore the life of the player in the event that the player dies.
14. Magic Crystal - All - Once selected, it will teleport the player to the beginning of the dungeon.
15. Crown - Roas - Guarded by Guardians. These allow the player to teleport to various areas on the map using the pictures found throughout.
16. Dragon Slayer - Roas - Allows the player to fight the dragon Keela, the final boss. 

• Equipment - Displays the items you've selected, if you have them.
• Status - These are the character's stats. Strength is how powerful the character's magic is. Jump is how high the character can jump. and distance is how far the character's attack will travel.
• Exit - Touching this will leave the item select screen.

You are able to move around the item select screen like a top-down.