The default choice is Change-V, the muscle of the group. Pick him if you want to have a weapon in the beginning of the game. But if this is your first time playing, I'd mosy to one of the other characters first. The guy to the furthest left is Rom, who starts with an elixir (automatically heals you to 10 HP if you run out of HP, very useful!) To Rom's right is Cindy, who is good because she has some extra magic power in the beginning, which she can use to zap an enemy if they get too close to her. Then finally there's Cookie, who starts with an extra five gold pieces. It's not much, but if you want to reduce the risk of not having enough money to go to the shop, then she's your best bet!

Anyway, to choose the character you want, push left and right on the keyboard and press the space bar when you've found the character you want to play. Now you're ready to start the game!

Oh yeah, even if you do have the right item to cross one of these six squares, I still won't be easy pickings... you have to defeat the mini-boss that lives in these squares before you get to face me. So make sure you've got plenty of hit points when you decide to cross over to my side.

If you don't want to move your character for one reason or another, you can choose to rest instead. Depending on a lucky roulette spin, you can gain anywhere from 1 to 3 hit points. This is where strategy is important. You don't want to go around with less than six hit points because it gets a little tricky to battle and win, but at the same time you don't want to rest too much and give your friends a chance to get to me before you do. Timing is the key, especially when you're on the way to the shop. Speaking of which...

A word of advice though. Don't bother buying the elixir. Not only is it the only item you can earn in battle, but elixirs are designed to revive you, not allow you to cross any of the spaces that surround me. It's great insurance, but you'll more likely find a free elixir on the way to battling me. So it's not really worth it.

When it's your turn, you'll have a choice of attacking or using a magic stone. Attacking is probably what you'll be doing most of the time, so let me give you some battle advice: learn how to use the roulette. Depending on how much power you use, the roulette will spin frequently to the same place. Now, if you land on a non-black space, you get to attack, hurt the opponent, and spin again. That's right! If you land a hit, you get to spin again until you miss. So practice how much power you need and you'll win every battle, every time.

Of course, if you want a 100% fool-proof way to hurt an opponent, this is where Cindy becomes a good choice for a character because she's the only character who has a magic stone in the beginning of the game. The others have to earn one in battle. Magic stones can only be used once and they'll disappear though, and they won't hurt me. So save one for the mini-boss instead! The magic stone when used properly can be a devastating attack.

By the way, in the event that you lose in battle, you get sent back to the castle and lose your turn! That's why it's pretty bad to lose a battle early in the game because you'll end up far away from the shop!