There's a degree to which I'm torn on Pikmin 4. It's pretty good! I had a good time and got 100% and spent 35 hours on it or whatever so like, I don't hate this. It's gonna ruin the series though because they filed off all the rough edges and made it into a Ubisoft open world game where you just systematically fill out a map and check off tasks. Combat is dead easy and there's no stakes to most of the game so despite how often the characters won't shut up about Dandori there's not much to actually motivate you to DO any of it. I'm sure speedrunners and other maniacs will make it into a cool game though. And also, I think there is something to it. Every Pikmin ganme has been different, which is one of the things I like about the series, and being kind of a minigame collection of little challenges IS different. It IS new. It's just a shame that if this one took off I know Pikmin 5 is going to be an exact copy of it.
But in their defense, the biggest sign that I'm being cynical about that is this feels like a Pikmin sampler platter, right? It takes place in an alternate timeline and combines elements of the plots of the other three games. All the various 'mins are in it, plus one new kind that I actually quite like. There's dungeons like 2. You even unlock a little baby version of Pikmin 1 later on, which was the first sign that there was some good content in here. So if you're looking to call me a big dumbass the evidence is there to support it.
So here's some stuff that I like: Only allowing you to take out three kinds of Pikmin at once is smart and lets them design areas to sort of rely on the three recommended types. It matches with the "challenge room" nature of most of the rest of the game, but does allow you to try some other combinations if you were enough of a sicko to play this through a bunch of times and try to do better. That much all makes sense. Also, while I don't love Dandori Battle because it's multiplayer against the CPU, I do love doing Pikmin challenge rooms and the nighttime segments are very fun even if they're dead easy. You can do a spirit bomb and everything it's great. The endgame challenges were great and I enjoyed them very much because you could make them sicko difficulty in a way that the whole main game can't. This is good! This is all good!
For what I don't like, it's the fact that like 25 of the 35 hours of this are just watching number go up with no stakes. Oatchi is a very good boy, but I have mixed feelings about him from the gameplay perspective. He's clearly designed to take the edge off of whatever part you don't like, right? He carries stuff, he fights enemies, he does it all depending on how you build him (the game has skill trees and an upgrade shop yeah sure). In order to make most of the game interesting, you have to just kinda not use him or not upgrade him? The biggest one is actually just the fact that while riding Oatchi, all the pikmin you have with you ride too. This means that the entire conceit of the series, the friction of dealing with a big squad, just goes away and Pikmin are reduced to mere ammo reserves. In the hardcore challenges, it's assumed your Oatchi is fully powered and he becomes a single Super Pikmin that you have to use strategically and that's when I enjoyed his being around, but that's a very small portion of what the game's about.
So it's like... I dunno man! This is probably the worst Pikmin game in a lot of ways, but how I really feel about it is going to depend on the next one. On it's own it's got advantages and disadvantages I guess. Much like each fun variety of Pikmin(tm)(copyright Nintendo)
But in their defense, the biggest sign that I'm being cynical about that is this feels like a Pikmin sampler platter, right? It takes place in an alternate timeline and combines elements of the plots of the other three games. All the various 'mins are in it, plus one new kind that I actually quite like. There's dungeons like 2. You even unlock a little baby version of Pikmin 1 later on, which was the first sign that there was some good content in here. So if you're looking to call me a big dumbass the evidence is there to support it.
So here's some stuff that I like: Only allowing you to take out three kinds of Pikmin at once is smart and lets them design areas to sort of rely on the three recommended types. It matches with the "challenge room" nature of most of the rest of the game, but does allow you to try some other combinations if you were enough of a sicko to play this through a bunch of times and try to do better. That much all makes sense. Also, while I don't love Dandori Battle because it's multiplayer against the CPU, I do love doing Pikmin challenge rooms and the nighttime segments are very fun even if they're dead easy. You can do a spirit bomb and everything it's great. The endgame challenges were great and I enjoyed them very much because you could make them sicko difficulty in a way that the whole main game can't. This is good! This is all good!
For what I don't like, it's the fact that like 25 of the 35 hours of this are just watching number go up with no stakes. Oatchi is a very good boy, but I have mixed feelings about him from the gameplay perspective. He's clearly designed to take the edge off of whatever part you don't like, right? He carries stuff, he fights enemies, he does it all depending on how you build him (the game has skill trees and an upgrade shop yeah sure). In order to make most of the game interesting, you have to just kinda not use him or not upgrade him? The biggest one is actually just the fact that while riding Oatchi, all the pikmin you have with you ride too. This means that the entire conceit of the series, the friction of dealing with a big squad, just goes away and Pikmin are reduced to mere ammo reserves. In the hardcore challenges, it's assumed your Oatchi is fully powered and he becomes a single Super Pikmin that you have to use strategically and that's when I enjoyed his being around, but that's a very small portion of what the game's about.
So it's like... I dunno man! This is probably the worst Pikmin game in a lot of ways, but how I really feel about it is going to depend on the next one. On it's own it's got advantages and disadvantages I guess. Much like each fun variety of Pikmin(tm)(copyright Nintendo)