Since no one seems to be answering, I'll add this as well: In the first game, leveling up was pretty important because even 1 level difference made enemies much harder. Equipment damage color went in 3 stages: Clear, slighly red, red (broken). I don't remember if there were areas and loading screens for them, but when you leave the starting area, you traverse through a forest, there is at least 1 wolf there. The mage? class started with a quarterstaff as a weapon, was weak in general. Brute, well, he had high strength, high vitality, but without armor, it's really easy to die. At the time the game was too hard for me so at most, I reached like level 4. I can't remember if you got skill points or not, but like I mentioned previously leveling is pretty important in that.
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Tried recreating the village in paint, this is as close as I can make out the village from memory.