To avoid forced battles (battles by stepping on a certain tile on the field) simply wait in front of it until monsters appear and when one steps on the tile, move onto the tile and you’ll go into a battle scene from the monster, not the tile. Most monster battle scenes are much easier than the tile’s. Extremely useful when going to the Great Palace.

Make sure you have two controllers in. Now on controller 1 pause the game, on controller 2 press up and A at the same time. You will be taken to a menu where you can save or continue.