Paladin's Quest, originally released as in Japan, is a utopian/dystopian science fantasy role-playing video game developed by Copya System and published in Japan by Asmik Corporation on November 13, 1992, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was published in North America by Enix in October 1993. It was different from other role-playing games at the time, because when the player casts magic, it takes away HP (health points) instead of MP (magic points/power). Its sequel, Lennus II, was only released in Japan. Plot The game centers on a boy named Chezni who, on a dare, activates an ancient machine called Dal Gren and in doing so releases a being of immense power and evil. As a result, the magic school is destroyed and the headmaster of the school orders Chezni to destroy Dal Gren at whatever cost before it destroys the world. During his travels he meets a girl named Midia, very much like himself, who wishes to help him on his quest, and numerous other mercenaries that come to aid Chezni. The main antagonist is a young dictator named Zaygos, who wants to use the Dal Gren for his own nefarious purposes. Gameplay The player character travels through dungeons, towns, and an overworld map, battling in random encounters. In case of a battle, the game switches to first person, similar to the Dragon Warrior games. The battles are turn-based. Increasing a character's speed increases the chances of acting earlier within a turn, but does not change how frequently that character's turns come about. From each battle, characters accrue experience points, which eventually lead to higher levels, and better attributes. During battle, use of healing items usually, but not always, takes priority and occurs before the enemy can strike. The magic system has no form of MP for the characters. Instead, characters cast spells by spending their own HP. Only one spell directly heals HP, and using it kills the caster in order to heal the rest of the party. Instead of learning spells individually, characters unlock spells by learning to wield the powers of eight "spirits": Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Sphere, Sky, Heart and Light. Each individual spirit provides a single spell, each unique pair of spirits provides an additional spell, and learning all eight unlocks an additional spell, for a total of 37. So, for example, a character who knows the "Fire", "Sphere", and "Light" spirits would