I've played this game some more, and I think I've properly localised my main issue of this game. It's just good. It's that. Just good. It only meets up to my expectations that I can expect from a Mario series RPG. That's all it does. Superstar Saga managed to exceed my expectations. So did Bowser's Inside Story by virtue of making Bowser a protagonist. This game? This game just meets my expectations. The environments change predictably. The forest doesn't have poisonous water, which is actually the first thing that surprises me. The minigames are there. They're definitely there and they're enjoyable to play. There's nothing groundbreaking about it they're just there. The only deviation from the norm in this series is how Paper Mario fights in battles, but even that feels like battling in the Dream world as Mario in Dream Team Bros. at times. Luckily this game isn't Bowser's Inside Story 2 like Dream Team Bros., however.
Another thing that doesn't jive well with me is how equipment in this game feels like it's completely useless. In this game, Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario have ranks. When they level up sufficiently, their ranks increase. When this happens, the player may choose an upgrade bonus. One of those upgrade bonuses is being able to equip more gear. At first, this seemed like a worthwhile endeavour, although later on I was so disappointed by the complete lack of diversity in gear and actual functionality. Indeed, gear is so inconsequential in this game that you could just purchase what maximises your stats at any point in the game and you'll be okay. In fact, most of my coins in this game have gone to purchasing Battle Cards. There are 130+ Battle Cards in this game that do various things during battle. To activate them, they first need to be in your deck that only has the capacity of storing exactly 10 Battle Cards. They are activated by consuming Star Power, a resource gained by performing well-timed attacks and such. I don't think the Battle Cards have been particularly helpful to me in any battle. It feels like another thing tacked onto the game that only makes getting everything in the game more complex. Maybe it'll prove to be useful during the extra content of the game, but during the regular game, I bet that it's going to be any useful.
I don't really know what this rant is. It's just me trying to vent some confusing and half-baked thoughts about a game I haven't finished. Maybe I'll end up doing a complete 180° later on, and nobody would be the wiser, especially not me.