I just realized that I have yet to comment on this, despite having created the thread xD
The only Paper Mario I have ever played is Color Splash. And I abandoned it halfway through. I loved the visuals, I loved the music, I loved the humour, I had a reasonable amount of fun outside of battles... But the battles. Fuck the battles. The whole thing was so terribly executed. Like... there was no reason to fight. You had a paint meter that "restricted" how many cards you could use in battle. But you got paint literally every step you took, so it was a non factor. And it was the same with cards. You just got cards everywhere! To the point where I never even came close to run out of them. I had dozens of cards at all times. And it was a pain in the ass to scroll through all of those to get the one you actually wanted. And since there was no experience, leveling system or any increasing in the enemies power... yeah, there was absolutely no point in fighting. So in the end I just got bored.
Paper Mario: The Origami King looks promising in the sense that everything I liked about Color Splash is there but multiplied by 100 and with additions that I'm very looking forward. The visuals are even more beautiful than before, the story seems more elaborated and interesting without giving up on the fantastic humour of the previous entry and the gameplay outside of battles seems like a grand open adventure where you will experience tons of exciting stuff, see/explore lots of charming enviroments and meet interesting characters. I'm all in for that.
But... the fact that we still don't know exactly how the battle system will work is really bugging me. I hope they find a way of making it satisfactory, meaningful and at least challenging enough to not feel like I'm overpowered all the time. If it's just another Color Splash... I don't know if I will buy this.
At the very least, I'm excited to a point and I wish I can like this.
