You begin the game in the Forest City (or the City of the Woods). As a new player, you will have two objectives: talk to everyone in the town to obtain information ad clues to help get your quest underway, and to stock up enough equipment to venture out into the world. In the city, you'll find a number of buildings that you can explore. Some of them are quite important.
While not every citizen has something useful to say, it's worth talking to everyone to get every bit of knowledge you can. Some citizens have useful survival tips and advice about choosing the right gear. Others are very concerned about Havel Tower, and the elevator you will find inside. Two guards are posted in the upper left corner of town, but they will not reveal the purpose of their station. There's talk of a crack in the ground, and flames that come out of it. In the center of town by the pond, you'll hear some mention of a city in the clouds. Other people talk a bit about the disappearance of fairies.
Remember to try talking to citizens again throughout the game, particularly after key events such as defeating bosses. Some of them will mention new pieces of information that will be useful in helping you find your way through the game.
It will cost 1000 coins to stay at the inn, but doing so is vital. This serves several functions. First and foremost, it saves you game. It restores all of your lost health and magic points. It resets your hunger and tired statuses. And you automatically wake up at 7 o' clock the next day.
B) Holy Temple
This is the second most important building in the city. The temple is where you go to increase your character's level. In order to rise in level, you must have obtained the necessary experience points or you will be told that you need more. Assuming you have enough, that number of points will be deducted from your experience point total, and you will be shown your character's new stats.
C) Equipment store
This is where you can buy weapons and armor that range from basic and lightweight to powerful and heavy. Because of the game's weight system, you must not only be conscious of the price of each item, but how much that item will count against your weight limit. When you first begin the game consider buying nothing more than a knife or a sling. Do not buy the club, as you will soon discover that one of the monsters outside will provide you with free clubs.
D) General store
This is a place where you can buy other forms of equipment, such as food or healing items. In addition to such items, this particular store also happens to sell one form of defensive equipment: helmets. If you happen to be strong enough to carry the extra weight, consider buying a helmet for a small boost in armor. Be sure to buy a ration of food, or two, before you set out into the world so that you don't have to worry about the health-sapping effects of hunger.
E) Magic school
The building on the far left side of town is a magic school. In exchange for some of your hard-earned experience points, you can learn the six beginner spells here. These include two of the most important spells: Cure and Move. You'll want Cure when you begin to take on more powerful monsters who can quickly deplete your health with their attacks. And you'll want Move so that you can quickly transport yourself back to an Inn whenever it gets late, or you are in trouble, and don't want to have to worry about how you will get back to safety.
In addition to all of these buildings, there is a sixth building in Super Hydlide, found in the lower right corner. Upon entering this building, you will discover that it is a bank. However, without a bank book, you can't do any business here, so you'll need to find one somewhere in order to make use of the bank. This feature was intended to be in every version of Hydlide 3, but was removed for data storage reasons.
When you've purchased a basic weapon, at least one or two rations of food, and a helmet if you can handle the extra weight, make your way out through the southern gate of the city and into the world of Fairy Land beyond to start your adventure, and to begin gathering experience points.
