I have a full post for this typed up on my computer, but I haven't been able to post from my computer 99% of the time for a while now, so I'm writing a somewhat shorter post on my Wii U.
Here's the Iwata Asks. Interesting that there's no mention of Miyamoto, in contrast to the Sticker Star one. Miyamoto and Tezuka are credited as supervisors, though.
There was one part in the Iwata Asks where they were like "We wanted to make sure we included women in the development of the game" and I was like "Oh, hey, yay!" and then they were like "...because we needed people who suck at playing video games" and I was like "...Oh."
Did you know "womenfolk" comes up in the Wii U browser's autocorrect?
Anyway, I just beat the game earlier today, after about 43 hours. Right now, I'd put it in second place after TTYD in Mario RPGs. That may get adjusted with more playthroughs (which the game encourages with an end of game stats screen showing what percentage of Excellent attacks you got, how many times you got hit, and more... while simultaneously discouraging it by having only two save files. Seriously, why are limited numbers of save files still a thing in 2013, when every console currently in production has expandable system memory?). Also I haven't played enough of BIS yet to rank it.
I never used Easy Mode. I got Game Over 16 times, and up until the endgame bosses, that was mostly from regular enemies, some of whom have attacks that give you a status effect that keeps you from moving, so when your attack turn comes up, you can't do anything, so they attack you again, and you can't dodge because you can't move, so you might end up getting hit with that status again. Even with that, though, I think I maybe used three Refreshing Herbs over the course of the entire game. Half the time, you get no opportunity to use one, since it's just Mario in the dream world, and then in the real world, you're usually better off using a mushroom and just waiting for the status effect to wear off next turn. And now that I think of it, I don't think there were ever any poison attacks, which is the one time it would make sense to use an herb.
In the dream world battles with just Mario and the giant battles with just Luigi, there were times when I wouldn't heal because it felt like a waste to do that with my one turn and then give the boss three more attacks. It got me to thinking that I'd like to see a Mario RPG with three or four party members out at a time, in the tradition of SMRPG, to open up more battle strategies. I think the badge system in this game was an attempt to address that, as that's how I did most of my healing, and a little bit of attacking. The badges basically act as a third party member who can't act every turn. But still, having three or four actual party members would be fun. Maybe that can be the next experiment they try with Paper Mario, or maybe make it a new series, maybe with Luigi as the main character.
I should mention there's a lot of room for alternate strategies in the game, with all the different equipment, badges, and Rank Up bonuses, and you do have to play through multiple times to try them all out.
Some bosses have attack animations that get really long. The battles themselves, however, don't take nearly as long as the endgame battles in PiT.
I really love how battles with Viruses work.
I could complain about how there's no Tanoombas and Luigi doesn't have his red and white socks, but I can overlook that because I love this game just for being the complete opposite of Sticker Star. There's characters and story and backstory and lore and species and continuity and returning characters from all three M&Ls and the music is great.
I give this game a 3 out of 10.
