Secret of Mana

Your main character has become victim to a nefariously glitch which has recently become known as a "Snowman Abduction". For some reason the frostied status can mess up your game, both by stealing members of your party and I've been told people have had the game freeze up on them at times when they've moved from one area to the next with a frostied character. All three characters can suffer from the Snowman Abduction glitch and if you've lost the main character or the sprite you can't get them back. The girl can be brought back if you lose her before Thanatos abducts her, she'll rejoin your party in the Empire's ruins after Thanatos "kills" her and you find her in the back room.

The good news is that if you've lost the hero you can still beat the game with just the girl and sprite, I've done so myself! And you will get a different ending (the hero will not be in any of the missing scenes). A few words of advice to anyone trying to finish the game like this:

~You can still trade weapons with your missing character. Do NOT trade your sword to the missing hero or you will not be able to get it back.

~Be careful fighting Lime Slime. He can cause the glitch to repeat and make you lose the character you are not in direct control of. Defeat him as quickly as possible with back-to-back magic.

~Spend time raising your magic levels to compensate for the loss of your missing character.

~Make sure to have both the girl and the sprite each level up a weapon to level 8 for the final battle. (the sword and spear are excellent choices). Either character can do THE SAME AMOUNT OF DAMAGE AS THE HERO with a level 8 weapon and the girl's "Lunar Boost" and "Moon Energy" spells.