YOU CAN SOFTLOCK YOURSELF IF YOU DON'T HAVE A KEY ITEM ON YOU

keep the pencil eraser and bad key machine on you, just trust me

inventory management is a fuck (your gear is counted towards this) so be aware of what you have (should i eat that cookie i've been carrying around for 10 levels? do i have any items i could use in battle here?)

there are a lot of goofy items, some are useless and there are some that aren't useless at all but seem useless. a ruler is usable to size up your enemy, but it doesn't do anything, meanwhile a broken laser could be fixed by a certain intelligent party member. so keep that in mind and don't be afraid to look up shit.

there are condiments that can be put on food, iirc they're used automatically when you eat something, they're pretty powerful.

your get money from EXP i believe, your dad adds it to your bank account which you can access thru an ATM. you do not need to call your dad to get the money, he just tells you how much he gave you.

bottle rockets are really fucking good, esp the Big variety! save them for tough bosses!

The starmen.net guide is great, probably more in depth, but the classic Nintendo Power players guide from the 90s is pretty comprehensive and goofy and funny. it should be trivial to find a PDF of it

i will edit this or reply to this comment if i think of anything