Type A pad control is the way to go. Navigating with a mouse by clicking on the arrows is hellish. Try fighting Xanathar with mouse input, I dare you. This version also lacks a modify button, so I had to plan on rolling for specific stats for each character - specifically, 18/51 strength for the rangers for the second-best combat bonus (best is a perfect 18/00 which is about fifty times rarer), 16 intelligence for the mage so he will get a 10% experience bonus, and about 20 HP for everyone to survive a couple of falls without going unconscious.

On this attempt I got an 18/00 strength for the first ranger, for a whole +1 more to combat rolls, but the game is like Paper Mario - one point can and does make all the difference. In this case, the difference was about two minutes.

About the party:

Elf rangers have a +1 to hit with swords (racial bonus), and can use two weapons without penalty as long as they don't wear anything heavier than leather. The best weapons available in easy reach are swords, and I never upgraded armor because I shouldn't be standing in front of anything long enough to get attacked anyway.

A cleric is mandatory, of course. She also has bless ("empower" in the port here), which gives the party +1 to hit and lasts for an unbelievably long time as compared to the PC version - one bless cast at the beginning of the game will last me until I rest outside the hive room on level 10.

The mage, wielding a wand of fireball, aids the two rangers in levels 10 and 11 against mantis warriors and xorn. He also needs to reach level 5 before the golems so he can cast haste - a pair of hasted rangers does more damage than any spell can aspire to, unless you count spells that aren't available to players like disintegrate and death spell.

I passed by Taghor on the route, but he would only be dead weight because he's not an elven ranger or something. Let's say the dwarves found him later.

The route should be self-evident, except possibly for when I'm not looking the direction I'm moving, which is frequently.
Nightstalker is a +3 weapon, the blue ring is a ring of feather falling, and guess what the wand does?