CURRENT VERSION: 1.0.8, released Sept 25, 2015.

I know there was an old hard mode hack on the starmen.net forums that never quite got finished, and I remember the unfinished version having weird issues, lockups, NPCs with missing text, etc. So, I decided to slap this together.

Made using PK Hack in under a day, this hack changes enemy stats, movesets, AI, and item drops. BBRs and MBRs are removed from stores (but not entirely removed from the game). PSI Freeze is made to be less effective versus a majority of the game's enemies. Status effects will make many fights more manageable, and stat buffs/debuffs will be useful against some enemies and bosses. Item effects are almost entirely unchanged.

That being said, I haven't finished testing it yet, having finished it about an hour ago. I don't expect to have many issues, but I still recommend using save states at regular intervals. If you get a lock that wouldn't normally happen in EarthBound, I'd ask that you either save the video (if you were streaming) and/or describe what you did leading up to the lock.

There's still more that I would like to do to this hack, such as fine-tuning difficulty in certain sections of the game, custom enemies/bosses/items, etc. For now, though, enjoy!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q4n7e1v98mnrnhl/EBHardMode.zip?dl=0

I am definitely going to try this out this evening. Thanks for putting this together, Auri

Version 1.0.6 is released!

¤1.0.6
-Added extra shenanigans.
-Verified game is beatable. (it was in older versions too, don't worry.)

¤1.0.5
-Fixed Spiteful Crow XP. (36 vice 6, oops)
-Troubleshooting the Guardian Digger AI.
-(Feedback) Increased the Super Bomb cost.
-(Feedback) Greatly increased cost of the Sudden Guts Pill (Didn't even realize you could buy these, whoops)
-One MBR vendor snuck past me. Sneaky, sneaky!
-Thunder & Storm have max flash resistance instead of min flash resistance.

Version 1.0.8 is released! I strongly recommend updating since I broke a few door triggers >.>

¤1.0.8
-Broke a few more stupid things, they're fixed.
-Changed the cost of some PSI.

¤1.0.7
-Made more changes in regards to feedback
-Diamond Dog, Carbon Dog made more difficult.
-Giygas P2 now has more HP (for some reason
he still only had 2k like normal... whoops)
-Success rate of Slime Generator decreased.
-Broke a few doors, they're now fixed

This version is 'specially made for Andy.

There's nothing very special about it, literally one item drop was changed.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v20d0vtru0bpwsi/EarthBound-Hard-OSkomodo-1_0_8_theandyspecial.smc?dl=0