Yeah, but it only depends on you getting the Star, which means the best way is skipping battles, collecting cards in the overworld and just beating the boss, and the hammer will upgrade JUST with the boss battle. Just like SS. At least that's what I've got from the gameplay.

You know, I was thinking about something that could give a pass to the combat system and progression. If you can spend your coins in upgrading your attack, in a way that it's the only way of progressing through the game because you could be very under-powered... That could work. Coins would work as "experience". If not, why battling against normal enemies? It's just pointless. Not an optimal solution, I know. But I think it'll make the game better. Battles would not be pointless, they would be mandatory to get some coins to beat the game. 

And, really, I'm with Rol in this, I'd love to like this game. Maybe for different reasons. Because except from that, which for me is tremendously important... I'm convinced. It still has some issues (it seems like the plot is still barebones, and you don't have active partners), but it could do with that. I liked the humour and the coulourful and gorgeous levels tbh. I think it's an improvement over SS in that sense. Maybe in almost every way. But still not enough when the fundamental core of the game, its gameplay, is broken.

Ignoring that battling is pointless, the battle system itself is still not fine. It's basically a massively strippped down version of the classics with no partners, no special moves, no stylish moves, no badges, no superguarding, and far, far less action commands, to the point where 90% of the time it's just pressing A right before landing on the enemy. Battles get tiresome fast.

Non-Paper Mario veteran here, I can't miss what I never had as I said before :P

I was refering to the resource management aspect and the apparently good variety of attacks you can get.  What will interest me is how much the game tests you on that resource management aspect. 

Yeah, I think that it's different, and I prefer the combat system of the first PM games, but paint management could be fun. It's a shame that progression is totally screwed up.

Gonna make some gif. Thank goodness for Twitch clip feature.

Ok, wow, this is a lot more complex and interesting than it looked like Shrines were going to be! Makes me wonder: will there be shrines where you need multiple runes? Or shrines with different paths that facilitate different runes?

Posted the gif for today in the gif thread! http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=7947298

They claim you can solve puzzle in multiple ways but it seems like you only need the shrine power in that given shrine to complete it. At least from the shrines we've seen so far. Maybe other shrines will be different though!

Rhythm Heaven is up next.  I know at least one guy at GameXplain is losing his mind :P

Rhythm Heaven will be awesome

I'm making it easier to see how barebones the battle system is than just saying there's very little variety and depth. Cards and paint are infinite and easily obtainable so there isn't any resource management required when you can just enter every battle fully stocked. From what I've seen the cards look and function exactly the same as their Sticker Star counterparts, thus there's very little variety. Almost all Hammer attacks use the same action command and do the same thing, and every Jump attack is the same give or take the amount of damage. There are thing and now enemy cards, but they take no effort to use.