Sorry about the lateness of replies. I wasn't trying to throw gas onto the conversation and then run, I just happened to catch a few last comments just before going to bed, and didn't really have time to sift through replies.
No, I would argue that the first two Paper Marios were heavily equipment based--the badges were your equipment. The entire battle system revolved around meticulous planning of your badge loadout. It's pretty much the exact opposite of Sticker Star which feels more like a card game--you play with the hand that you are dealt; you can purchase stickers, but their consumability means that most of your fighting is done with the stickers you find in the levels.
That's a fair way to put it, and I do agree that Sticker Star is far more reliant on the "find the best way to work with what you currently have." I'm still not sure I'd necessarily give the edge in battle system to Thousand-Year Door though. I liked some of the aspects of TYD that harken closer to more prototypical JRPGs, like having partner characters (though only one), and being able to select your target for each attack. Sticker Star's battle system feels more unique and more interesting to me, though, and while at first blush I too didn't like what felt like oversimplifying things, I came to see after thinking about it that the decisions make sense, so long as you approach the game from a slightly different mindset than before.
I'll get to more of that in a broader sense in a second.
I agree there are more combat options, in the sense of "number of different attacks". But I don't feel those combat options result in different outcomes. Also, could you please elaborate on what you see as combat-preparation? Are you talking about purchasing stickers at store between levels?
Part of it is thinking about what battle stickers to bring into a level, or even prioritizing which ones you want to collect or pass on when you just traverse the world (I, for instance, am awful at the Eekhammer timing, so I tend not to keep them around even though there are times when you can potentially rack up better damage with them than other hammer stickers). The bigger deal here is the preparation and use of Things. There are enough Things in the game, and enough that have functionally the same effect with differing levels of strength, that I think of them in a manner similar to Star powers in previous games: powerful attacks or items that you tend to save up for tough spots, but shouldn't really fret over using up if you want to. What makes it trickier is that some Things are used not just for combat, but puzzle solving, and that combined with the finite amount of album space means you want to consider how many Things and of which types you'll want to keep space reserved for, and how desperate you get to use them and finish a fight quickly.
Do you feel you are thinking about what you have at your disposal in every fight? A lot of times I don't really care, because it seems I will be at roughly the same point after the fight as I was before regardless of whether I use a jump attack or a hammer attack. I guess this makes battles only mildly fun (in the ways outlined above) for me.
In stat-driven RPGs, I am at the same point after the fight as I was before, but I am closer to getting more powerful. If I avoid a fight, I will be too weak later on. In PM:SS it's almost the opposite -- you want to avoid common fights so you are strong against boss. Do you feel the same?
I guess I don't feel quite the same way, at least in the sense that you're left "stronger" for the bosses by not fighting other enemies. You are right that finishing a battle and collecting ten coins may not feel as immediately important as finishing a fight and being 25 exp closer to leveling up, but for the way the combat in this game works, the function is mostly the same in that you gain a resource you can use to help you (both through the battle spinner and clearing the enemy out so you can continue). But, you know what...you are right, fighting normal mobs is not as important in this game as other RPGs. But I don't mind that, because I think common fights aren't supposed to be all that important. Fights are designed to go quickly, and levels capable of being breezed through if necessary. It is a portable game, after all.
More important than that, and this is something that I believe I mentioned earlier in the topic, is the thought that at its core, Sticker Star really
isn't so much an RPG as it is an Adventure game with RPG trimmings. How you gain strength in this game isn't through fighting, but by thoroughly exploring the levels (to find HP bonuses), and clearing through levels (to get to later levels that house more powerful stickers, and unlock album pages by beating bosses). Character progression is measured here far more by exploration and progressing the game itself, rather than fighting everyone. Battling, especially the boss fights, play out like puzzles.
The biggest theme behind the game, be it for puzzles or combat, boils down to the basic questions:
What stickers do I have at my disposal? What is the best sticker to use in this situation, and (for bosses) when is the best time to use it? That mantra, along with a careful examination of the settings you traverse, are what drive the game forward.
My disappointed probably stemmed from expecting it to be more RPG oriented. I'm not a huge fan of adventure games (e.g. I am a little bored with Walking Dead despite it apparently being top notch for the genre).
...Which explains why you've felt so underwhelmed by the game when other people have enjoyed it. It's secretly a game in a genre that you don't personally like much. It's not the game that I expected (or necessarily wanted) either, and it's hardly flawless, but I have been enjoying it.
