Keep an eye out for the Magic Rope in the Gaia Lowlands; it allows you to instantly escape any dungeon, which is a life-saver if you run out of healing items.
Your saves are typically located in Documents\My Games\Secret of Mana . It is highly recommended to back up your save file manually if you plan on experimenting with mods or hex editing. File: Secret.of.Mana.Incl.Update.2.zip ...
If you are installing from a zip file, ensure you extract the contents into your main game directory (usually \SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Secret of Mana\ ). The Update 2 patch is crucial because it fixed the frequent "crashing" issues and added a toggle for the original SNES soundtrack. Keep an eye out for the Magic Rope