Pikmin 4 is basically Pikmin 2x2. Thankfully, Pikmin 4 is pretty much a better version of Pikmin 2.
Before I get into any details, I want to say this is without question the best looking game on the Switch. You can talk about whatever other game you want, I'm not hearing it. Pikmin has always been known to be a visual treat for whatever platform it's on and Pikmin 4 is no different. There are some moments where you just kinda go "wow" and take the environments in, I'm glad that feeling hasn't left. Once you get past the somehow 30 minutes to an hour of game with next to no Pikmin, you're in for a real treat.
So, what do I mean by Pikmin 2x2? Well, it's structured exactly like Pikmin 2: You have to explore areas to find treasures, but there's no sense of urgency as you can take as long as you want with no consequences. Just instead of money (Pokos) you're looking for magical ship fuel called Sparklium which can be found on objects from our world/PNF-404. While you'll find some on land, you'll really want to go into the caves that have most of them!
The good news is everything is much better here, especially the caves. Where as in Pikmin 2 you'd be in randomly generated maps and constantly have death traps and bazooka chickens drop from the sky to artificially increase the difficulty, in Pikmin 4 each dungeon is individually crafted with a specific idea and goal in mind. These can serve as solid teaching tools early on to clever gimmicks like lighting fires to melt ice later on. While there are a few dungeons that felt like cheap "'remember THAT from Pikmin 2?" moments like the Cave of Beasts or Submerged Cavern, most of them are thankfully the more original dungeons. Some of the new bosses got a smile out of me, which I won't go into because I'd rather you discover them for yourself. It's Pikmin discovery is the name of the game.
Pikmin 2 also introduced the concept of multiple Captains, and while Louie...this time you have Oatachi, your lil' pupper who's your new best friend. You can even build him up to make him absurdly strong, which while not perfectly as he becomes insanely better than you, I can't deny his abilities really come in handy! His size also forces certain scenarios where you have to think about which character to use where, which is far better than Pikmin 2 where the captains were so identical Louie getting replaced by President is seen as an upgrade because 1. It's not Louie 2. He's not Louie and 3. SUCHOU and 4. Car whistle.
Speaking of characters, you're a self insert this time. While normally this would be a huge cut to the story, you thankfully have a group of characters, like...your scientist guy. And the other eccentric scientist guy. And the night scientist guy who's a doctor. The PILOT who talks like THIS! and the captain who descends from a long line of them. They don't feel as individualized as characters from previous games and I will admit this is the one area where Pikmin 4 is a step down.
The Pikmin aren't though! This time they're ALL in the story (even though you can only use 3 at a time, and Whites are barely there considering I only found them in one of the endgame dungeons and ONLY used whites there since they're still bad), but you also get a new friend: Ice Pikmin, who I feel aren't as OP as Pikmin 2 Purples but for sure took notes on them since you can usually just Swarm Ice -> Swarm everyone else to take out every non-immune foe without really thinking about it.
The night missions are a great new twist on the game, turning it from exploration to Tower Defense. Glow Pikmin are your friends and their abilities are also really strong, but it keeps your focus on defending rather than worrying about your Pikmin which is fine. It's a small diversion but I'm glad it's here to shake things up a bit. Wouldn't mind this returning and being expanded on in the future since as-is (and of what I played) I never really felt challenged by it which is funny given the "aggressive enemies" they talk about.
Dandori challenges are also fun diversions to challenge your optimizations. Not a lot to say except how the Dandori Meditation is better since Dandori Battles can amount to luck at times, but it makes me excited for Pikmin 4 speedruns.
Oh yeah also the achievement stuff was Mario Odyssey tier pointless since it's just "getting paltry rewards for things you were already doing anyways" but I appreciated them trying to give everyone something of meaning to do.
All in all, I've had a lot of fun with Pikmin 4, the much improved version of Pikmin 2, and am absolutely interested in coming back to it some day! I hope I talked about everything on my mind!
So is Pikmin 5 gonna be Pikmin 3 2, a sequel to Pikmin 3 which was Pikmin 1 2 or-
Before I get into any details, I want to say this is without question the best looking game on the Switch. You can talk about whatever other game you want, I'm not hearing it. Pikmin has always been known to be a visual treat for whatever platform it's on and Pikmin 4 is no different. There are some moments where you just kinda go "wow" and take the environments in, I'm glad that feeling hasn't left. Once you get past the somehow 30 minutes to an hour of game with next to no Pikmin, you're in for a real treat.
So, what do I mean by Pikmin 2x2? Well, it's structured exactly like Pikmin 2: You have to explore areas to find treasures, but there's no sense of urgency as you can take as long as you want with no consequences. Just instead of money (Pokos) you're looking for magical ship fuel called Sparklium which can be found on objects from our world/PNF-404. While you'll find some on land, you'll really want to go into the caves that have most of them!
The good news is everything is much better here, especially the caves. Where as in Pikmin 2 you'd be in randomly generated maps and constantly have death traps and bazooka chickens drop from the sky to artificially increase the difficulty, in Pikmin 4 each dungeon is individually crafted with a specific idea and goal in mind. These can serve as solid teaching tools early on to clever gimmicks like lighting fires to melt ice later on. While there are a few dungeons that felt like cheap "'remember THAT from Pikmin 2?" moments like the Cave of Beasts or Submerged Cavern, most of them are thankfully the more original dungeons. Some of the new bosses got a smile out of me, which I won't go into because I'd rather you discover them for yourself. It's Pikmin discovery is the name of the game.
Pikmin 2 also introduced the concept of multiple Captains, and while Louie...this time you have Oatachi, your lil' pupper who's your new best friend. You can even build him up to make him absurdly strong, which while not perfectly as he becomes insanely better than you, I can't deny his abilities really come in handy! His size also forces certain scenarios where you have to think about which character to use where, which is far better than Pikmin 2 where the captains were so identical Louie getting replaced by President is seen as an upgrade because 1. It's not Louie 2. He's not Louie and 3. SUCHOU and 4. Car whistle.
Speaking of characters, you're a self insert this time. While normally this would be a huge cut to the story, you thankfully have a group of characters, like...your scientist guy. And the other eccentric scientist guy. And the night scientist guy who's a doctor. The PILOT who talks like THIS! and the captain who descends from a long line of them. They don't feel as individualized as characters from previous games and I will admit this is the one area where Pikmin 4 is a step down.
The Pikmin aren't though! This time they're ALL in the story (even though you can only use 3 at a time, and Whites are barely there considering I only found them in one of the endgame dungeons and ONLY used whites there since they're still bad), but you also get a new friend: Ice Pikmin, who I feel aren't as OP as Pikmin 2 Purples but for sure took notes on them since you can usually just Swarm Ice -> Swarm everyone else to take out every non-immune foe without really thinking about it.
The night missions are a great new twist on the game, turning it from exploration to Tower Defense. Glow Pikmin are your friends and their abilities are also really strong, but it keeps your focus on defending rather than worrying about your Pikmin which is fine. It's a small diversion but I'm glad it's here to shake things up a bit. Wouldn't mind this returning and being expanded on in the future since as-is (and of what I played) I never really felt challenged by it which is funny given the "aggressive enemies" they talk about.
Dandori challenges are also fun diversions to challenge your optimizations. Not a lot to say except how the Dandori Meditation is better since Dandori Battles can amount to luck at times, but it makes me excited for Pikmin 4 speedruns.
Oh yeah also the achievement stuff was Mario Odyssey tier pointless since it's just "getting paltry rewards for things you were already doing anyways" but I appreciated them trying to give everyone something of meaning to do.
All in all, I've had a lot of fun with Pikmin 4, the much improved version of Pikmin 2, and am absolutely interested in coming back to it some day! I hope I talked about everything on my mind!
So is Pikmin 5 gonna be Pikmin 3 2, a sequel to Pikmin 3 which was Pikmin 1 2 or-
NOWITSREYNTIME17
9 months ago