https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Slayer_(series)
I didn't even find that out until I played through it.
One funny thing about that game is that at the beginning it gives you an opportunity to do a bunch of tedious grinding if you want to buy one of the most powerful shields and spells at the very beginning. I did buy the shield, which was cheaper than the spell, and it probably made the game alot easier. You can backtrack through most of the game but you can't backtrack to that part after you pass it, although the game has passwords so you can go back if you realize you want to do it if you want to restart from that point.
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