Doraemon: Giga Zombie no Gyakushuu (1990)

The game rewarded me for beating the first major boss (i.e. nickel-and-diming the first major boss until it let me use the Arrow for 500 damage) by taking away one of my starting party members, replacing them with a Level 1 weakling, and throwing me into an area with monsters that could kill said Level 1 weakling in one hit while guarding. Hooray.

The encounter rate's a pain, but at least I have a healing spell, a decently-powerful attack spell, and a spell that reduces encounter rate. It's just that I really don't know how much money I'm really making from fighting, so I'm kind of reluctant to use anything but Cure often. (That, and that Nobita is still a wimp. He's apparently the main character of the Doraemon series, but he's a loser there too.)

I have absolutely no knowledge of the JAPAN! thing this game is based off of, but so far this game is kind of interesting.

Like MOTHER, instead of getting money dropped by monsters, you have to contact this "Dorami" character in towns, who restores your party's HP and gives you money for being awesome. I'm not sure if the money you get is based on your level, but it seems like Dorami gave me a ton of money early on and is getting kinda cheap at this point. Then again, none of the stores seem to have weapons for sale and healing items are very cheap. (And akin to later Dragon Quest games, you have a pouch that items can be stored in, which is either unlimited or very generous in capacity, kind of notable for an NES game when you think about it.) Apparently you use also use money to cast magic, but I haven't found any magic yet and my party splats everything in one or two hits anyway.

Also, there are rats that look just like the rats from Krusty's Fun House. (They're the most annoying enemies thus far, because whenever one is present, Doraemon starts the battle paralyzed.)