Well, I'm glad to hear that you appreciate the work that I've put into my game I hope that your last year of school goes well for you!
Mania Difficulty applies these changes to the gameplay:
Enemy Trainers gain 1 - 3 additional Pokemon on their teams, assuming that they don't already have a team of 6.
Enemy Trainers Pokemon can gain heightened levels ranging from 5 - 15, and this number is dependent on the average Pokemon in their team, as well as their average levels rounded down.
Battle Style is permanently on "Set" Mode, and cannot be changed.
You can gain items as well as gain access to certain areas depending if you are currently playing on Mania. This does not affect story in any way.
Verdant Artes do not have perfect accuracy, and instead given an Accuracy of 80, which means that there is a potential to whiff a move like Renegade Strike, Stardust Breaker, Verdant Drive, Nightingale, Aura Storm, and Temporal Bind. All of which are 1 PP, only, one-hit KO techniques.
Hard Mode, which is nowhere near as brutal as Mania, applies these changes to the gameplay.
Enemy Trainers gain 1 - 2 additional Pokemon on their teams, assuming that they don't already have a team of 6.
Enemy Trainers Pokemon can gain heightened levels ranging from 5 - 10, and this number is dependent on the average Pokemon in their team, as well as their average levels rounded down.
You can gain items as well as gain access to certain areas depending if you are currently playing on Hard. This does not affect story in any way.
Since I'm explaining the game mechanics here, I might as well delve into Verdant Transformation. This is the benefits to the transformation, as well as downsides. Most of these do not translate in-game, but it is just assumed that they do through dialogue with all these changes in the transformation.
Trainer and Pokemon utilize shared vision, and whatever the Trainer sees, the Pokemon also sees, and vice versa.
The Trainer and Pokemon's heart and mind become linked, and as such becomes one. Which allows for telepathic communication between the Trainer and Pokemon.
Emotions in battle are shared between the two as well.
Strength, endurance and speed are pushed far beyond the limits of Mega Evolution, so much so that Verdant Eevee was strong enough to take on Allan's Mega Lucario with little to no effort, and even managed to defeat it without taking any damage.
The Trainer gains a dual-voice of whichever Verdant Soul was used from one of the 4 previous heroes of Lumia. So, if Vice had Vaan's Verdant Soul, whenever Vice would talk, you would hear both Vaan and Vice say the exact same lines.
If the Pokemon receives damage from an opponent, that damage also translates to the Trainer, and if taken too far, can cause the Trainer to collapse from the shared pain.
The form has an unofficial time limit, and because of that, can only be maintained within the amount of time given. This however can be negated through rigorous training in the transformation itself. Such as when Vice began training with Eevee to master the transformation even further, which extended the time limit from 30 minutes to almost double, if not completely ignoring the time limit in-general.
In-game however, the time limit is not present, but again, it is stated through dialogue all the advantages and disadvantages that the form carry with it.