Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars/Controls

General
If you touch an enemy you will initiate combat.
 * : Walk
 * : Jump
 * : Run
 * : Talk

Combat
Combat may seem tricky at first, but quickly becomes intuitive. Your character is surrounded by buttons as follows: So if you want to attack, hit. If there is more than one enemy, you then select which enemy using and hit  again. Then at the moment of impact, you should hit any button to attempt a "timed hit" to deal more damage (you can also use any button to defend against an attack at the moment of impact).
 * : Item
 * : Attack
 * : Defense/Run away
 * : Magic

If you want to use an item, you press to bring up the menu, then you select the item using  again. If you are given the option of who to use the item on, you confirm that with one last time. (There are no timed hits with items). You always use the same button to continue an action until it is completed. If you start to use an item but decide to attack instead, before you confirm one last time, you would hit to cancel using the item and start an attack.

You can use timed hits with many magic spells, including healing, but some instead work using repeated tapping of, by holding it down to charge and then release, or by rotating.