The game is no longer basically over when you reach the WoR. While no story events have changed, you will need to use the varying areas of difficulty in the World of Ruin to level up and get good enough items until you can finally kill the last boss.
* New XP curve, HP curve, MP curve.
* Everything has been changed to fit new damage curves, but the essence of many things are the same.
* Heroes have new character stats, items stats, and spell stats such that damage, armor, and HP/MP increase in new ways. It will be very hard to reach max damage or HP or MP or armor, etc.
* Every monster tweaked or changed. A vast majority of the monster AI has changed. Monsters are tough now, and should demand attention for victory. No more just holding down a button or casting your best spell. If a monster is human, it might have a little gold or items, but if not, the best you’ll get is dried meat.
* The only items that have not changed are those that cure attributes. Even then, the prices have changed.
* Everything is expensive, and money is hard to get.
* Every character has been changed in terms of stats. Relm has X-magic instead of Sketch, and is very feeble. Setzer has Jump instead of Slot, has good defense, can use all armor types, and can use all weapons better than everyone (and DragoonBoots are no longer obtained early in the game, so jump is much rarer). All characters are competitive in terms of usability.
* Nothing a player does will instantly kill a monster (except 1 Lore), unless it is petrify.
* Spells Removed: Demi, Quartr, Float, Slow, Haste, Flare
* Spells Added: Exalt, Image, Flood, Plague, Exsicc
* All Tools have been tweaked, 2 were removed because they did nothing for the game and couldn’t be edited (Chainsaw and AirAnchor). Tools are almost completely magic based.
* 3 Blitzes were changed and 2 are tweaked. BumRush is no longer super powerful because you learn it so early in the WoR. Sabin’s later moves are magic based, and he has 2 healing skills.
* 2 SwdTechs have changed, 3 were tweaked. Half of Swdtech is magic, half is physical damage, and it is all offensive.
* Much of the lores have been tweaked or changed. Almost every lore is unreflectable/unrunicable. Many have new graphics. There is still one lore spot being unused for now.
* All of the dance spells have been altered, many of them changed completely, and a good portion of them have new graphics. All dance moves are unreflectable/unrunicable. Mog is very useful midgame, and has good enough stats to make him competitive endgame, but his Dances will not be useful then. There was no avoiding this because Mog’s dances are learned so early.
* All of the rages have changed. You will be able to find a superior attack/spell in rages at each level of the game. However, at present there is a chunk of the rages mimic their monsters to the point of being a bit boring (no Quasar/Goner rages). For the most part, rages don’t have skills that come from Dance or Lore.
* The Colosseum has also changed. Every item wins another item (No Chupon-Elixirs anymore). By betting an item, you will usually be able to win a better item. The top tier items will only be able to be won by betting another top tier item, but almost every item should be winnable.
* These relics have been removed: Exp. Egg, sprint shoes, true knight, goggles, runningshoes, fake mustache, gale hairpin, mithril glove, moogle charm, charm bangle, so don’t go looking for them! Most relics have changed, of course.
* Slow/Haste effects have been doubled for heroes (not monsters). Jump has been nerfed.
* Also, the background music does not change when entering a fight, unless it is a boss.
* If you need more info than you could possibly want for this version, I have the excel sheet used to create this game, as well as a supplementary documents for easier reading attached.
There is a specific way the WoR is meant to be played, see the Readme for more info.
Note: Is the game too freakin’ hard? Try the back row