Is this any good?

[,,,]

There were changes made, yes. I can't say how extream they were, since I haven't played the NES version.

Do you still lose strength for using magic, and lose magic power for attacking? That was what made the system completely moronic. You'll want at least one magic user, and in every dungeon your mage has the same options for each of the 34803465 battles you fight, none of the options good:

1. waste mp casting a spell that you don't need to cast, so that you don't have any left when you get get to the boss and do need it.
2. attack and risk having your magic power lowered.
3. waste an item you don't need to use.
4. run and hope this isn't a rare time it works, wasting the effort you've exerted fighting the monster so far.

Don't know about the other versions, but there was no "defend" option in the nes.