It's moving back into the right direction, but I can't say it's as awesome as the first 12 episodes were. I think that this will continue in that manner until Alibaba finally learns to equip so he can be cool. Otherwise he's always stuck at "how do I do this cool thing that others keep doing?"
I also think that he's got some burden that he's not really ready for. The earlier episodes were more light-hearted in that they didn't have to worry about saving countries and all. Imagine if the three just went around trashing dungeons like young Sinbad? It could get old if they fall into a pattern, but it could also be fun.