In the Pipe Vault, there is a Frog Coin hidden under a small opening that Mario cannot pass through. However, if you run at the opening and press Down immediately before entering it, when Mario crouches he will slide through the opening to the other side. This is the only time a slide like this can be performed in the game.

When using Mallow's Psychopath move on enemies, a brief blurb representing the target's thoughts will pop up. In the Japanese release, a large number of them are references to Japanese popular culture, nodding to works such as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Fist of the North Star, Neon Genesis Evangelion, etc. In the English localization, most of these are either translated literally without accounting for the context, replaced with references to American popular culture (such as Madonna, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, and president Theodore Roosevelt), or otherwise completely rewritten.

According to game's director Chihiro Fujioka in a 1995 Family Computer Magazine and Haou interview, he was asked if Nintendo shot down any of Square's ideas for the game, to which he responded:

According to game's director Chihiro Fujioka in a 1995 Family Computer Magazine and Haou interview, he was asked about how the development of the game started. He responded:



The interviewer followed up on this, asking if Square handled the basic ideas and development, with Nintendo checking on Fujioka's work progress. He responded:

In a 1995 Game-on! magazine interview, the game's composer Yoko Shimomura stated that she loved the music of Mario series, and that Super Mario Bros. was her first encounter of the series and video games in general. After she got the job to write the music for Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, she "let her imagination run wild" as she composed the game's music, trying to get the sounds that fit with "Mario walking around a town chatting people up, Mario sleeping, Mario just living his life…" and described the writing process as "SOOO fun!".

In the Japanese release, an enemy that looks strikingly similar to Donkey Kong named Guerilla in the English release is named ドソキーユング, or "Dosokī Yungu" when Romanized. This character's Japanese name is a joke based on the Katakana writing system, as Dosokī Yungu's Katakana is visually similar to Donkey Kong's Katakana ドンキーコング, but actually has two different, yet similar-looking characters that are swapped out to make Dosokī Yungu (the first ン is changed to ソ, and コ is changed to ユ). Just like how the enemy resembles Donkey Kong, but is not actually him, the name resembles "Donkey Kong", but is not actually read that way.

"Dosokī Yungu" itself could possibly be a reference to the 1949 film Mighty Joe Young, which was produced by the same creative team that made the 1933 film King Kong, one of the main influences for the creation of Donkey Kong.

There is an unused status ailment in game. When forced to appear, it behaves similarly to the "Berserk" status effect featured in many RPGs of the time; the victim of the status effect will be uncontrollable and attack random targets until it either wears off or they fall in battle.

There are 2 alternate scenes with Peach on the tower that can only be accessed through the debug menu.

Some of the music in the game is remixed from the older Mario games. The ones that are easy to tell are;
• Mario's Pad music is a mix of the classic level music from the first Super Mario Bros. and the overworld music to Grass Land in Super Mario Bros. 3.
• The music that plays when Gaz of Rose Town plays with his Geno doll is the classic Super Mario World Athletic theme
• The Starman theme is a remix from the classic Starman theme, albeit a bit harder to hear than the original.
• The underground music is remixed from the classic Super Mario Bros. underground music.

The ones that are harder to tell are:
• The music to the opening cutscene of Princess Toadstool in the garden is actually a slowed down and shortened remix of the overworld music in World 1 - Grass Land, from the game Super Mario Bros. 3.
• Parts of Bowser's Battle theme from the beginning of the game are remixed from the music of Bowser's Fight music in Super Mario Bros. 3.
• The music in Grate Guy's Casino is remixed from the Bonus Stage music in Super Mario Bros. 3.

In the English version of the game, "Bahamutt" is a reference to the summonable dragon Bahamut from Square Enix's Final Fantasy series.
In the Japanese version, he is called "ドッシー" ("Dosshī"), possibly as a pun of Yoshi.

For the English translation of the game, Punchinello was originally going to be called "James Bomb", parodying the fictional British spy James Bond. The idea was disapproved by management, but the character's self introduction parodying James Bond made it into the final product, just with a different name ("Bomb... James Bomb" to "Nello... PUNCHINELLO!").

In star hill there is a wish stating "I wanna be a great plumber like my brother Mario." This wish is presumably from Luigi.

Boshi's japanese name is Washi, which combined with his "bad boy" look and antagonistic nature, means that he is Yoshi's "warui" counterpart like Wario and Waluigi.

While going through Booster's Tower, a switch can be found to open a new area of Booster Pass. After beating Booster Tower and returning to explore Booster Pass' hidden area, there will be a number of enemies called Apprentice. If Mario loses to an Apprentice, a cutscene will play after the Game Over screen of the Apprentice happily cheering that it will become Snifit #4, the 4th bodyguard to Booster. Revisiting Booster Tower after this will reveal a 4th bodyguard (the Apprentice that beat Mario). This can be repeated 8 times, where the 8th victorious Apprentice will be relocated to Grate Guy's Casino as there is no room for an 8th Snifit and Apprentices will no longer spawn in Booster Pass.

Director Chihiro Fujioka and producer Shigeru Miyamoto originally considered having Mario battle using weapons and magic rather than his standard jump and hammers. They couldn't decide which style to use. They settled the matter by appearing at a special event and hearing fan responses when the two styles were announced. More fans applauded the jump and hammer option, so Fujioka chose it for the game.

If you perform a Timed-Hit with Geno's special move "Geno Whirl", 9999 damage is dealt to the enemy. This trick does not work on bosses exept for "Exor and Yaridovich clones".

There is a secret code in the Japanese version of the game. Going into the menu screen and entering DOWN, UP, RIGHT, LEFT, SELECT, START, SELECT, START, B will trigger Toad to appear and say:

The sprites of Geno's star form when possessing the Geno doll and those seen at the end of the game are vastly different, the former being a small, white, almost realistic star while the latter was a yellow, more traditional Mario star surrounded by yellow dots. Similarly, the sprites of the Geno doll when playing with Gaz and the one sitting pose of it seen at the end of the game are proportionally inaccurate to each other.

In the Japanese version, Bowser's Haiku was instead a free-verse poem, which translated to "Why does everyone say 'Mario, Mario'? My heart is very sad", with his name at the end (as a sort of signature) instead of "Haiku".

Looking into the coding of the game reveals several unused enemies (most of which seem to be unused sub-species).

In the Japanese version, Geno's real name comprises of, in half-brackets, several symbols exclusive to the scene where he introduces himself. The symbols in the localized versions are used freely throughout the game in all versions.

Most of the bosses that Mario and his team must fight for a Star Piece are weapon based:
• Mack rides a pogo stick in the shape of a large throwing knife.
• Bowyer is a large, anthropomorphic bow who fires anthropomorphic arrows.
• Punchinello is a large, anthropomorphic bomb who utilizes Bob-Ombs in combat.
• Johnathon Jones wields a trident, and Yaridovich is a large, anthropomorphic spear who also wields a spear.
• The Axem Rangers wield axes and comandeer the Blade, a ship in the shape of a battle axe's blade.
• Smithy wields a giant hammer.

Note that with the exception of Punchinello and Johnathan Jones, all of these bosses are members of the Smithy Gang, the group of antagonists of the game; these allusions to weapons reference Smithy's goal to fill the world with them.

The Axem Rangers (known as kajiā sentai OnoRenjā in Japan) are a parody of the Super Sentai series.

An early screenshot suggests that Luigi may have originally been planned to have more of a role in the game than just cameos.

In Princess Toadstool's room in Mushroom Castle, looking behind the fireplace results in finding a mysterious item labeled "Toadstool's ???". It is never revealed what the item is, as finding it will result in either Toadstool's grandmother driving you away and giving you something else in exchange (the latter one being only on the first instance), or Toadstool angrily scolding you if you have her in your party. In the Japanese version, the item is labeled "Peach's XXX" (as Toadstool is called "Peach" in the Japanese version), giving less subtle ideas on what the item was originally intended to be.

Bowser's victory pose was changed when it was brought to the U.S. as it previously resembled the "Up yours!" gesture.

In Booster's Tower, there is a room with two curtains. If you go behind one of them and come out the other, Mario will turn into his original 8-bit sprite. You will turn back once you try to exit.

There is a optional hidden boss in Monstro Town named Culex, who is an homage to the Final Fantasy series. His appearance purposely breaks the style in Super Mario RPG to reinforce this homage.

To fight Culex you must go to Moleville and purchase fireworks, then trade them at the little mole's Pur-Tend Store for the Shiny Stone. Use this stone on the sealed door in Monstro Town. You'll end up in a battle with Culex, and if you beat Culex you'll get the Quartz Charm.

Culex's battle, victory, and post-battle conversation themes are (respectively) the boss theme from Final Fantasy IV, the victory theme from the Final Fantasy series, and the Final Fantasy main theme. Also, the Elemental Crystals that Culex uses are the same as in Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy IV.

Models of a Star Fox Arwing and two F-Zero racecars sit atop crates in the back corner of Hinopio's Shop.

The characters Link from The Legend of Zelda and Samus from Metroid can be found inside inns.

When you try talking to Link, the "Puzzle Solved" jingle from the Legend of Zelda series plays, and when you try talking to Samus, she claims to be "resting up for Mother Brain". Link is found in the Rosa Inn, and Samus is found in the Mushroom Kingdom Castle.