The return to earthbound is extremely exciting at first. And as you go, if you can keep track of where it is you are supposed to go, it continues to please. Fighting is fun, and figuring out a good combat team can be a nice challenge. A couple of bad things tend to happen:
1) You level up your party too much as you try to find what you need to do next, then the ensuing section is too easy. This happened to me over and over again.
2) You get caught up in getting side characters, most of which you really have no need for. There are A LOT of these.
3) You find yourself just smashing X a lot too deal with unexciting fights and some repetitive dialogue.
The story is fairly predictable but doesn't take itself too seriously, which is a good thing. Boss fights were not very hard unless you were under the appropriate level.