So this one has really grown on me. The battle system has become a real joy, and the game is absolutely full of charm. Exploration is a delight. So many wonderful surprises hidden everywhere and really such a fabulous little game.
I've been thinking about how the battle system is almost a "design your own difficulty" thing.
You can just hold y and all the toads will shuffle the board for you.
OR you can do it yourself.
You can use the best items bought with the excess of coins you will pick up.
OR you can use the block mechanic and only the basic boots and hammer.
OR you can just flee and not fight at all.
I'd been thinking similar with BotW and Mario Odyssey where you have ways to challenge yourself and sort of make it up as you go along with your approach to how you play the game. First playthrough of BotW I was all about getting every shrine but when I play now I just get enough to get the master sword, swap those out for stamina and then I just leave it. Mario Odyssey allows you to blaze through the main story and then you have access to the real challenges on offer.
It's something I wish Nintendo would promote a little as a kind of "philosophy" on how players might want to view their games.
Paper Mario also feels like something of a "Diet Zelda" in how the worlds and dungeons etc are split up.
Strong art direction. Great soundtrack.
It's actually a pretty underrated game, I think.