Nintendo put out a longer trailer for the upcoming Paper Mario game and it continues to convince me that the premise of the game is still fantastic. The concept for the bosses is a pretty entertaining idea that if they lean into just the right amount could work really well.

That being said, I'm pretty disappointed by what they've shown of the companions you'll be working with, just purely based on their designs. I've no doubt they'll be able to give them interesting personalities and writing, but walking around with a standard looking Bob-omb and Magikoopa is a far cry from the days of Admiral Bobbery and Lady Bow.

The trailer also tells us a bit more about the combat system, which seems to revolve around this new spinning battlefield concept. They don't really show enough of it to make any judgements, but from it appears like Mario's partners aren't involved in combat which is massively disappointing for what I'd like out of the combat. This definitely looks like it has the potential to be a fun system though so here's hoping I guess!

How's everyone else feeling about what's been shown?

I'm a little more optimistic now that they showed more. I really wish the companions were more unique as you said, and I'm really confused by their role in battle. At 2:09, they actually show the Bob-omb fighting with you in a battle but for the most part it looks like Mario is alone. The narrator says "some of them" will help you fight, so I wonder if it's maybe during certain parts or something? Like hey in this world you'll be hanging with Bob-omb and he fights there, and Kamek helps in this world, but otherwise Mario is alone. That part has me confused but, the ring idea is interesting at least, and the bosses being more like a puzzle could be something cool? Also the whole concept of the bosses made me laugh out loud for real, it's just so stupid that I love it. Literally just "Tape"!!

I really really hope it's a good game. It looks lovely from a visual standpoint and it would suck so bad if the gameplay wasn't also the same. I'm cautiously optimistic!

With AlphaDream going bankrupt, I wonder if the entry after this will be a more traditional RPG like the first two. The reason for them getting away from that was always that AlphaDream had that niche covered, so they went and did things much differently with Paper Mario starting with Super on the Wii.

I'm slightly disappointed after the initial announcement seeming like it was going back to its roots, and now that I know there is durability and consumable items requiring constant crafting, I'm worried that this game is going to have all the same problems Sticker Star and Color Splash had. Am I going to want to avoid battles as much as possible to save consumables and durability for the bigger encounters? That issue turned me off the last two games.

At least the gameplay seems more engaging than the previous two entries, even if it might still have the same similar issues.