Crap! Okay that might seem like a weird comment for what is for the most part good news but hear me out. I was hoping for one of two possibilities. Either Nintendo would go with the formula of having a different developer for each Mario RPG like they had done so far (Square, Intelligent Systems, Alpha Dream) OR they would have Square return to the series that they started. If any developer should be making more than one Mario RPG it should be Square. Odds are that if the N64 wasn't cartridge based Square would have made the next Mario RPG and would have made ALL of them up to this point. As good of a developer Intelligent Systems is they were a replacement and thus if the original developer is available (and in theory they are) I want to see the originals continue the series.
Now Paper Mario was a great game and Paper Mario 2 surely will be as well but in my opinion it's not as good as Super Mario RPG and it's irritating that Nintendo is going forward with what I consider the "inferior" design. Nintendo seems to ALWAYS go with the most recent design for their games regardless of which one is more popular. Since DKC Donkey Kong has always had his Rare look, Yoshi has maintained the Yoshi's Story look (for reasons I don't understand since Yoshi's Island and Super Mario World are obviously more popular games), and I'm worried of Zelda retaining the Wind Waker look (though they seem to change Zelda up a little bit every gen). It's like if Nintendo changes something on you and you don't like it, TOUGH, because they're keeping it.
For comparisons sake imagine that Rare was bought by Electronic Arts but the next James Bond game went to another developer.