I also think it's a great game and certainly not over rated at all.
I loved every minute of it, great story, good humor and really nice graphics.
Mario RPGs are the only RPGs I actually play and finish, in fact even though I loved Golden sun presentation and story, I had to give up several hours into the game because I really hate all those random battles.
That's a problem I have, that prevents me from enjoying good RPG.
I remember once I went very, very far with Skies of Arcadia(40+hours) and all of a sudden I stopped playing it because the random battles were getting too frequents.
The concept of Mario & Luigi is excellent, I can avoid a battle by staying clear from enemies, but I rarely do because they are actually fun, the timed button presses to defense or attack are genius and make me feel I'm actually doing something during a battle.
I loved it so much that now I'm half way trough Partners in time, and when I'm done Paper mario thausand door for the GC awaits me to be played on my Wii in progressive scan mode....
Partners in time is not so bad, it's quite funny and I like its humor, really, although I recognize the whole package does lack something magic and charismatic from the previous GBA iteration.
It's still good fun, and I'm sure I'm gonna sit trough it till the end.
By the way you guys certainly have more experience then me when it comes to RPG, so I'm asking you if you know any good RPG with a battle system similar to Mario and Luigi, I mean without random battles.
I just realized the other day that Lunar Knight has that kind of orientation, like an action RPG, although has most pure RPG elements, but what about the rest ?
Can you recommend me any good RPGs without random battles, or less boring random battles if you know what I mean ?