This game is bullshit. I'm at the dragon mail shop as Piranhaman,

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>>3730862
You're not that retarded are you?

Each transformation or piece of armor you wear has different charm values, the shopkeepers won't sell certain items unless you have a high enough charm. You can look that value up in the inventory screen.

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>>3731281
CP = Charm Points

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You're supposed to be a bona fide monster at first when you get turned into Lizard-Man; then you find some nice armor and some trendy Charm Stones, get yourself proper and presentable, and you start being treated like slightly better dirt.

Different armor gets very different Charisma boosts (Prince Armor gives you +99, while Goblin Mail doesn't boost CP at all) and the different animal curses have base "cuteness" as well (you're a fucking 0 as a Lizard-Man, but an adorable Mouse-Man or an impressive Lion-Man are a different matter).

Needing to spruce up in order to get fancier stuff at shops (I don't know if you get better rates at healers, but it would be hilarious) is an interesting mechanic, but it can be frustrating for replays -or retro gamers on a tight, demanding schedule-; the devs obviously racked their brains to come up with some gameplay representation of the "curses" beyond the character abilities -which aren't usually drawbacks anyway-

>>3730862
You might get slightly less offended by the Game Gear version; any such attempts at originality have been neatly removed

>>3731281
>>3731282
Joke's on me for not knowing this, then. That's actually a really interesting mechanic, I wish they had room to give a description in-game.

How do you farm charm stones then, or transform back into mousman? Still can't progress with 33 CP in the mithril armor as Piranhaman.

>>3732278

Secret room in town allows you to switch transformations. You need the thunder sword so you can break blocks though.

>>3732481
You need the dragon mail to get the thunder sword.

Why would you not play the superior PCE version?

>>3732915
The sprites look ugly and I like FM sound.

>>3731368
The animation looks great, I just wish they stuck with the original art style. I don't like how the characters look now.
Also the store pigs were yellow-orange, only the save pig was purple-pink.

>>3731368
I had no idea what was blocking me from those shop items. Total gold? Total enemies killed? Progress? Distance traveled? More arbitrary, esoteric barriers have been put into games before. I started over with the charm points system in mind, was able to buy spiffier armor in the woods as Mouse-Man by taking off my goblin mail, and set off to the dragon mail shop in order to buy it, before defeating the zombie dragon and becoming Piranha-Man. One screen away from said shop, I killed a blue antlion using a twister spell, and it dropped the dragon mail. Hrm.

Regardless, you know what? I do like the charm points system. It's immersing me into this world, it gives each form more of their own presence than they would have without it, and makes the world seem more personality-filled and interactive. As Lizard-Man, I feel like a repulsive creature skulking around, as Mouse-man, I feel like a cute little thing being patronized, as Lion-Man I feel like a majestic, respectable warrior. I can see why people like these shop pigs now, their biases make them more interesting to interact with. It also makes armor more useful than just defense values, a lot of thought went into this game. I just found the secret Tasmanian sword and am on my way to kill the next dragon.

>>3732278
You can't really get stuck for not having enough Charm; you'll simply miss out on some superior equipment.

Using the Lucky Sword to kill monsters will improve chances of getting Stones, iirc (or you could find some treasure chest with a bunch and "reload" with a password to get them again)

Or you can just weasel out of the issue altogether by entering your current password on the Generator available online and giving yourself lots of stones

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>>3731368
>>3733051
>>3733403

The fact that some anthropomorphic horned pig could feel entitled to set appearance standards in that world is a cute joke in itself.

(they did have horns in the original game, but they got removed for the PC Engine version and, apparently, the remake)

The generic Torneko-like merchants of the Game Gear port were kind of a disappointment

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>>3733421
GG nurse is cuter tho

>>3734042
I like the MWIII style fairies. I want to impregnate Queen Eleanora