The new Paper Mario footage seems to have eased some of my concerns. The extreme focus on paper even in the story still bugs me a bit I guess, though I think it’s growing on me since I don’t really mind. There also appears to be some sort of badge system, like that equip-able heart thing, and partners are back, so that’s all cool. I don’t mind generic partners, and at least Bobby/Bob-omb has something that makes him stand out from the others of his kind. Bowser, Bowser Jr., and Kamek are also cool. Everything else in the trailer seems cool as well.
The confetti system also appears to be different from paint, since you can’t cross empty spaces without it...though, excuse me if that’s how it was in CS, I just assumed Mario could still walk over the white spaces.
Sucks that the partners might not do anything in the overworld, though. However, it seems at least Professor Toad does, as he dug up a pot or something from the sand in GameXplain’s video...