So in the end, having actually played the game… I think the guys talking about it in the podcast would be disappointed. It does not use the tiny, simple integers and basic turn-based system that made the original games so intuitive and appealing: instead it uses a baroque, overdesigned puzzle-based system for battles that’s centered on shifting panels and enemy placements within a time limit. If you succeed at it, the actual process of selecting and performing attack commands is arbitrary because you’ve already won. Only once you’ve failed the puzzles do you need to actually participate in RPG battling.
You spend coins to extend the time limit for tricky battle-puzzles, but coins are a sloppily managed, extremely generous resource that you get from virtually everything in the game yet will never need to use if you’re good enough, so getting into battles is still a losing proposition unless you’re saving up to buy a piece of equipment (to make battles easier) or something. In an awkward attempt to split the difference between these fairly obtuse mechanics and the brand-mandated need to make the game accessible to 5-year-olds, the game saddles you with a companion “character” (whom certain critics have accurately pointed out is less a character than an embodiment of Clippy from Microsoft Word) who chatters incessantly via unskippable dialogue boxes, explaining absolutely everything to the player like they are 5 years old, even if the player is not 5 years old and can decipher the game’s exceedingly obvious visual cues just fine without having them redundantly spelled out every single time. There is literally an “ask for a hint” button available at any time, yet the game still swamps you with unskippable explanatory dialogue about absolutely everything!!!
Like… these games get points for uniqueness, but who is the audience at this point? They’re too obtuse for actual kids, who would much rather play an RPG. They’re too linear and narrative-light for fans of the original Paper Mario games, who would also rather be playing an RPG. They only retain the RPG-like battling AT ALL because the earlier games had them, thus stymying these rebooted games’ urge to simply be adventure games!! Everything just seems like a second choice for everyone involved. It’s frustrating.