This is an image that I worked on for the Legend of Mazzeroth project. I ultimately abandoned the project (although I'm working on another game with the same title) but kept the resource files. This was done a long time ago (circa 1996).
This was a working sheet of character images intended to be used in the game. About half of them were just NPC's but the other half with multiple version were main characters in the game. You can also see the color pallette I had developed for the game -- at the time it provided me with a tremendous number of color options -- I was even able to develop a redimentary alpha-blending type function with it! :)
So anyway, here they are. The important characters on this sheet are going to be NPC's in the new 'LoM'. Enjoy! | 
I can say that one of them is mostly based on Merle's image, yes. I was young at the time. And yes, I did look at the chrono trigger spirtes in an effort to see how I could put mine together. Template? Perhaps.
All of the sprites there were based on the one without hair at the top. If you want to remove the image, fine. It's not a crime against me I suppose. I just thought that someone might be interested in seeing how you could work with a particular style to create a variety of sprites.