That's a shame, I really was hopeful for a modern 64/TTYD until I saw that battle system. It's weird because RPGs should be the most approachable genre for kids considering we all played long and difficult ones as kids and now they have tons of difficulty options. I don't really want to go through hours of a simple puzzles and lackluster bosses because it has some good, kid-friendly humour.
Alanah's shocked pikachu face at Brian's "What are you a f*ckin' loser?" was priceless.
Also you should all play Paper Mario The Thousand Year door when it comes out on Switch.
I've thoughly enjoyed the story and characters from every Paper Mario game I've played, even Color Splash. I have no doubt that I'll enjoy those aspects of this one too. But hearing that they outright got rid of exp is extremely dissapointing. I want battles to have a satisfying outcome, rather than just being the removal of a hindrance. It sounds like it'll be a decent game overall, but it's just such a shame to see something so fundamental to the gameplay become so unsatisfying after they've CLEARLY proved that they can do it a lot better in the past with VERY simple design choices. It's baffling, but that's Nintendo for you.