8-Bit Girls Magic School RPG similar to Gurk
 

I've searched the internet for this game and it's driving me crazy. I played the demo of this game as a kid in the late 90s and always wanted it. I think it was named Spell School or something. It was a top-down 8-bit rpg where you were in charge of a girls magic school-ish thing, and you decided their training, classes, etc and depending on your choices they could become super heroes, mages, villains, thieves, etc. Then you could then use them as an adventure party in dungeons/castles/fun stuff like that. I recently started playing Gurk on my phone and the graphics reminded me of it, although I think these graphics were a little more detailed, somewhere between Gurk and the old gameboy Zelda games.

Hopefully someone has a clue! I'm starting to think I'm crazy.

I believe you're thinking of Charm School from Hanako Games. Unfortunately, many of their early games are no longer supported, and I'm trying to figure out if they can still be bought. If not, well, I'm sure there's some other way of playing the full version.

I know Charm School is later than you said (2003), but most Western-made games in the vein of Princess Maker and such didn't start appearing until after the turn of the century. I suppose it's possible you're thinking of some very early RPG Maker title or something even more obscure, but I'm fairly confident with this guess.

Yup. If you take abstraction of the magic school and the party of adventurer, Princess Maker 2 that we have on site sound a lot like the game you are looking for.

Got out in the '90s too.