This is a real two steps forward, one step back kind of game. It improves on Pikmin 1's mechanics in almost every way, especially with the Pikmin's AI and pathfinding (though its still not perfect), it looks and sounds excellent, and the level design of the surface areas is great. The issues come in when you enter the dungeons.
On paper the idea of a pikmin dungeon crawler with a big emphasis on endurance through smart strategy and resources management is a pretty interesting idea, but the execution is really uneven. The lack of a timer means that the pressure of there being consequences from inefficient play, or for getting careless and losing pikmin, exists almost entirely just in the dungeons. The easier ones are a little too easy, and the difficult ones can feel a bit cheap and unfair. Their semi-procedurally generated nature means the level design can be very iffy in terms of encounter design placement of treasure, and the later ones tend to pull a lot of "Surprise! Something randomly fell from the sky and will instantly kill dozens of your pikmin if you're unlucky or weren't expecting it" type of tricks. There are a lot of pointless gates with nothing but blank walls behind them. The fact that you can only get white and purple pikmin in dungeons is also pretty annoying, because if you lose a bunch it can be really tedious to get more of them. Purples especially can only be reliably gained through egregious amounts of grinding in very specific dungeons. It all feels a bit underbaked. The dungeons arent all bad, and most of them have a couple more hand-designed floors that stand out, plus there's the Submerged Castle with its highly terrifying gimmick. But the dungeon issues are enough to drag the game down a bit.
Having 2 captains is a good idea, but it ultimately doesn't actually do much with this mechanic since there's no way to tell them to go somewhere on their own other than having them lie down so pikmin bring them back to the ship. Occasionally you have to position them to relay-throw pikmin up a series of ledges, or weight-activated platforms, but it again, feels a bit underbaked.
One of my favorite parts of Pikmin 2 though is the creature design, and the piklopedia. The descriptions of all the creatures and items from Olimar and the ship's AI add a ton of flavor to the world. The creatures themselves are much more varied than the first game, with plenty of new ones and some variants of old ones. Some are only seen once or twice, and the illusion of a larger ecosystem is very well crafted. Their animation and sound design is fantastic and strikes a perfect balance of cute, weird, and upsetting. Shoutout to what a horrifying concept bulbmin are.
When i was a kid, I liked this sequel more than Pikmin 1, because it felt like a vast world full of hidden secrets and dangers. And it does still evoke some of that feeling even now! But I think in trying to go bigger they created a lush, alive world to explore but spread themselves too thin and lost a lot of the first game's tension and the magic it created.
On paper the idea of a pikmin dungeon crawler with a big emphasis on endurance through smart strategy and resources management is a pretty interesting idea, but the execution is really uneven. The lack of a timer means that the pressure of there being consequences from inefficient play, or for getting careless and losing pikmin, exists almost entirely just in the dungeons. The easier ones are a little too easy, and the difficult ones can feel a bit cheap and unfair. Their semi-procedurally generated nature means the level design can be very iffy in terms of encounter design placement of treasure, and the later ones tend to pull a lot of "Surprise! Something randomly fell from the sky and will instantly kill dozens of your pikmin if you're unlucky or weren't expecting it" type of tricks. There are a lot of pointless gates with nothing but blank walls behind them. The fact that you can only get white and purple pikmin in dungeons is also pretty annoying, because if you lose a bunch it can be really tedious to get more of them. Purples especially can only be reliably gained through egregious amounts of grinding in very specific dungeons. It all feels a bit underbaked. The dungeons arent all bad, and most of them have a couple more hand-designed floors that stand out, plus there's the Submerged Castle with its highly terrifying gimmick. But the dungeon issues are enough to drag the game down a bit.
Having 2 captains is a good idea, but it ultimately doesn't actually do much with this mechanic since there's no way to tell them to go somewhere on their own other than having them lie down so pikmin bring them back to the ship. Occasionally you have to position them to relay-throw pikmin up a series of ledges, or weight-activated platforms, but it again, feels a bit underbaked.
One of my favorite parts of Pikmin 2 though is the creature design, and the piklopedia. The descriptions of all the creatures and items from Olimar and the ship's AI add a ton of flavor to the world. The creatures themselves are much more varied than the first game, with plenty of new ones and some variants of old ones. Some are only seen once or twice, and the illusion of a larger ecosystem is very well crafted. Their animation and sound design is fantastic and strikes a perfect balance of cute, weird, and upsetting. Shoutout to what a horrifying concept bulbmin are.
When i was a kid, I liked this sequel more than Pikmin 1, because it felt like a vast world full of hidden secrets and dangers. And it does still evoke some of that feeling even now! But I think in trying to go bigger they created a lush, alive world to explore but spread themselves too thin and lost a lot of the first game's tension and the magic it created.