I'm mad at myself for letting myself get my hopes up when I heard the rumors. I mean really, I should have realized they weren't going to take the time to make an actual Paper Mario with the NX so close. But now with this, Paper Jam, and Sticker Star, I think it's safe to say that the Paper Mario we knew from the first three games -- games with a living, breathing world filled with interesting characters, with exciting stories and adventures and immersive world-building all while being clever and funny and endearing and sometimes sad -- is completely dead and replaced by this thing, much like how Donkey Kong '94 and Mario vs. Donkey Kong morphed into a weird make-your-own-Lemmings series.
"With Paper Mario, we always challenge ourselves to bring something fresh to the action-adventure genre."
Paper Mario is not an RPG anymore. It's a level-based game where Paper Mario (who is not Mario) does awkward platforming and obtuse puzzle-solving and finds Paper Toads who don't even have different spot colors. No more Goombas in college. No more penguin murder mysteries. No more corrupt wrestling federations. No more ancient alien queens. No more flower monarchs poisoning their neighboring nation. If you want a vision of the future, imagine a sticker with a picture of a boot on it stamping on a stack of Paper Toads, forever.
Federation Force looks interesting, tho