Yeah, it did. That said, I would like to mention that:
Mario RPGs are usually not popular in Japan. I suspect this is because the localised script is 100 times better than the original Japanese one.
None of this is in the Japanese versions for instance:
View attachment 121
Well okay, the characters and scenarios are obviously included, but they're less funny and interesting, with a lot of the more amusing personalities added by the localisation team. It's why Fawful is mostly unpopular in Japan, but hugely popular in Western countries.
Heck, it's like Final Fantasy VI. In Japan, people hated Kefka, because he was kind of uninteresting. The translation on the other hand, made him a funny as heck Joker expy who became a fan favourite. I suspect Square prefers the translated version of the character themselves now.
There's also the fact that Mario & Luigi Paper Jam... is not as strong as past games. It's better in a some ways (like a lack of forced tutorials and what not), but the difficulty curve isn't particularly good and there's a lot of padding. See here for more on that:
https://gamingreinvented.com/reviews/mario-a-good-game-let-down-by-a-terrible-difficulty-curve/
The lack of original characters might have hurt it, but the poorly done difficulty curve and large amount of padding may have hurt it even more so.
Heck, the game might just be a bad fit for the Japanese RPG market in general to be honest. Japanese RPGs are usually extremely linear, fairly heavy on the stats and strategy (instead of reflex based action sequences and commands) and with a difficulty mostly on the low side outside of the bonus bosses. Games like Dragon Quest are for people who want to relax, not think too much about how to beat the game they're playing...
Paper Jam isn't that. It's got a pretty mediocre narrative, and the difficulty will eat you alive if you underestimate it. Seriously. One boss even has a real time timer ticking down to a self destruct sequence in it:
