After watching the Nintendo treehouse I'm not as hyped for PM TOK after seeing the direction they're going in. From what was shown I don't believe the game will have good story because of the open world nature, I'm not sure how a good story would work when what happens to Mario and where he goes is up too the player. IMHO the biggest problem is the battle system, it in itself is fine, but Nintendo clearly doesn't listen to their fans because EXP is still missing in action. You get coins from battle... the same ones you get in the overworld, the same problem Sticker Star had theirs literally no point in battling. Nintendo refuses to acknowledge their fans, paper aesthetic wasn't the appeal of the series, good narrative and original characters was the appeal. Maybe the game will end up blowing my socks off but the speculation got everybody hyped and I just don't think it's going to be good as the originals... but it clearly looks more promising than PM SS and CS. I'll probably enjoy it anyways but it pisses me off when Nintendo won't just listen to their fans.

EDIT: Coins seem to work like a replacement EXP, it's still not as good as real EXP though. I might have been a bit harsh, my point is that I wish the series would have a reboot that mixes the best elements between PM TTYD and PM CS.