Super Mario RPG Enhanced

I recently tried playing vanilla Super Mario RPG again after not playing it for more than a decade.  I was shocked by how easy it was.  Just about every enemy and every fight was disappointing.  The enemy attacks that I remembered from my childhood were nowhere to be seen because every enemy died before they could do anything.  The tension and fear of getting a game over was non-existent because even bosses were doing less than a tenth of my HP in damage.

I was also put off by the complete lack of in-game information about items and equipment.  The Safety Ring, for example, has this description - Guards against mortal blows - and it's clear from the equipment menu that it increases defense and magic defense by 5.  Did you know (I sure didn't) that the Safety Ring also prevents every status effect, nullifies every elemental attack, and even increases your speed by 5?  There's literally no way to know that except trial and error or looking it up online.

This mod aims to correct all that as well as changing or adding certain things to make the game more balanced and fun.

Monsters have been buffed - stats, battle scripts, and enemy formations have been adjusted.  Every monster that has and elemental weakness/strength or status immunity has a new psychopath message that describes those things.  Psychopath (Mind Reader) in my mod is now extremely helpful to use on any enemy.  For the enemy stats, I used Sephalos's Super Mario RPG Master Quest's monster stats as a base and then edited them from there.

Equipment and items have been changed - Effects and some names have been changed, and I've even added a extra tier of mushrooms and syrups.  Every item and piece of equipment now has a clear description of what it does.

Some bits of game dialogue has been rewritten to make more sense or be a bit clearer.

Names of people, monsters and places are no longer written in all capital letters.  That drove me CRAZY!  Emphasized words in dialogue are still capitalized.

All button prompts including the battle menu have been switched around to Xbox One controller button prompts (even the button colors match in the battle menu).  Since I and probably most people playing this on an emulator use and Xbox One controller, this makes sharing the game with new players much easier.  Constantly having to tell my friend, "When the game says A, it means B on your controller.  Press A!  That means B, actually!  etc, etc" gets old very fast.  This solves that problem. (As an old Nintendo fan, it does take some getting used to, but after the transition period it really is nice to have the game and controller matching)

Attacks for both characters and monsters have been changed a little.  Some characters will start with different specials and learn new ones at different levels.  Read spells' descriptions to see what they do in this mod.

Lastly, I'd like to say that I started making this as a complete novice SMRPG modder.  I downloaded Lazy Shell editor just to see what it could do and I ended up staying up almost all night messing with items and equipment.  That messing around eventually evolved into this mod.  So I want to encourage anyone who likes Super Mario RPG to try modding it with Lazy Shell.  It's incredibly easy and you can make your own perfect version.  That's what this mod is for me.  I've tried to make it perfect in my own eyes, so it might not perfect in yours.  No problem!  Just open it in Lazy Shell and change whatever you want!

TLDR: This mod is fun but be prepared for battles.  Read the descriptions of items, equipment, and special attacks.  Don't just rely on physical attacks!  Keep a stock of at least 6 mushrooms and pick me ups, a few syrups, and buy juices from the Tadpole Pond Juice Bar!  Make your own mod in Lazy Shell if you want - it's easy!