I started playing the game. Even though you don't grow levels from the battles, something that encourages you to keep on battling is the fact that coins play an integral role in the games development, as well as collecting stickers. Some stickers I've collected so far have only come from defeating certain enemies, and sometimes you need to make sure not to overstock your stickers (conserve and use appropriately). The writing is pretty good and the graphics are what you'd expect from a Paper Mario game. One neat feature I noticed is that your HP bar outside battle hangs by two strings, and if you tilt your system, the bar will start swaying.
(edit: Also, backtracking can sometimes let you undercover secrets or recollect some powerful stickers)
