Alright here's how elves work in MMZ1
- you find elves in stages, sometimes they are dropped from enemies (these are generally the low grade ones), sometimes they are these white box things
- you can return to most stages you have already beaten by manually walking to that area from the base (for example, heading upward and left from the base will take you to the desert area). if you find a trans server (teleporter) in that area you can warp back to base from there, and when you do it will allow you to warp straight to that point from base as well
- when an elf is onscreen (released from inside enemy or container) it will float upward or downward to whatever level zero is at. example: if zero is under the elf the elf will float downward
- elves with big pictures (the box with their portrait is bigger) are often permanent when they take effect. for example, using a "shelter" elf will boost your defense for the rest of the game
- some elves cannot be used until they are fed crystals
- using elves at ALL will hurt your ranks when you beat stages. if you use a once time use elf it will only hurt your rank for that stage, if you use a permanent one it will give you a penalty for every stage for the rest of the game. the more elves used the bigger the point penalty.
- if you use an elf they are gone forever (Ciel used the elf "passy" to free zero but passy is gone forever now, townspeople tell you this as well)
the basic idea of the elf system is that if you are having trouble you can use them to help you, but it will decrease your ranks (which don't really matter in MMZ1 generally). if you want to be macho and beat everything without using elves you will avoid penalties and can get higher ranks than you would otherwise
also I don't think the games in this collection are censored any differently than the US ver GBA games, because those were rated E as well (and I really haven't noticed a difference)
