Pikmin 4's first hour of gameplay is terrible. After not receiving a Pikmin game for a decade, the first hour of the experience is when all of the horrors of modern AAA game design settle in: grueling tutorials, a less-than-half-baked character creator, an incredibly boring supporting cast, and a sanitized UI that feels slow to navigate and lacks any of the charm previous installments contained.

That's the best word I can use to describe Pikmin 4's aesthetics: "sanitized". The cover art no longer looks like a clay model, fonts remove the series-unique bubbly typefaces from older games, similar to the minimalist aesthetics of the open world Zelda games that I've grown to hate, and the flavor text seldom contains the humorous charm akin to the spam mail, letters from Olimar's wife, or banter between captains. While the previous games took place on a ravaged Earth with relics resembling some human life, Pikmin 4 goes the much less creative route and opts to have the game set in a house and yard - as if it took place in the present day. It's another sanitized aspect of the design that prioritizes marketability over creative freedom, and the design of the different areas and dungeons blend together as a result. Oatchi's reveal as "the new dog character" feels like an additional thinly veiled marketing tactic - although he's actually cute unlike that crusty rat from the Puss in Boots sequel so I don't mind as much. The base area has the most annoying music ever to come out of the Pikmin franchise, and the growth of the area throughout the game is nothing short of disappointing. Story and characters are consistently disappointing if not downright contradictory. I don't heavily value story in a Pikmin game like I may in the Zelda series but there was a string of bad choices that led to me feeling this way.

I don't mind customizable silent protagonists when:
1: there are extensive customization options and
2: the supporting cast is able to fill the void of a silent protagonist
but neither of these things are true. Customization is pathetically simple and I tried to make myself look unique but I just ended up looking like Alph.
I'm not gonna fully get into the whole timeline/canon nonsense but just know that it's stupid and the game realistically had no reason to serve as a reboot. Instead of the Pikmin 3 cast returning, Pikmin 4 introduced weird lookalikes for no reason, and refuses to elaborate on Koppai's dwindling food supply. After the credits, Louie usurps the villain role yet it's never explained why he is turning people into leaflings, unlike when Olimar was the villain. There are simply too many issues like this to overlook.

Nintendo shit the bed with the multiplayer functionality in Pikmin 4. Which is weird, since this is a Miyamoto title. Co-op mode doesn't let the player take control of Oatchi/another captain, instead, they throw little pebbles. In general, Oatchi fails to be as versatile as a second captain, even in singleplayer - with charging pikmin being more difficult, the "go here" command being less intuitive, and other limitations. Bingo battles are gone completely, and there was a HUGE missed opportunity in not making the nighttime expeditions multiplayer.

As a whole, I found nighttime expeditions to be interesting, albeit severely underdeveloped. You simply collect crystals with glow pikmin, and use them to fight waves of enemies that walk towards your base. This is a good idea at its core, but I would have loved to see more tower defense and puzzle solving elements. Imagine if nighttime expeditions became an entire separate tower defense mode, with (online?) multiplayer, more puzzle solving and cooperation, etc? In its current state they are far too easy and shallow to enjoy.

Dandori battles are...fine, I guess? Aside from the lucky capsules that feel like they go against the entire point of dandori, they are pretty interesting ways to pit two players' efficiency skills against each other. My problem with it is that it cuts off half of your screen. Seriously, this sucks so bad. The limited visibility has me constantly feeling lost in what should be relatively small arenas. They also just feel like horrible pacebreakers when compared to the main game.

I found winged pikmin to be much more stupid than they were in Pikmin 3, and I never often found good uses for red or rock pikmin either.

Those are all my negative thoughts regarding Pikmin 4. Notice how I never brought up the main game?

That's because it's excellent. While the time limit is no longer here (unless you're talking about Olimar's side adventure which is also excellent and a completely unique set of puzzles!!), the challenge to optimize your strategy is still very much present in Pikmin 4. Each world is designed with multiple bases and dungeons with their own sets of puzzles and treasure. The overworld's clock runs faster than in the dungeon sections, so the speedier gameplay up above makes room for the gauntlet-like puzzle solving and compounding threats of the underground. While I said I didn't like dandori battles, I absolutely love dandori challenges. The bite-sized time trials in efficiency are super satisfying to crack. They're plentiful in number and you even get a 10-level gauntlet which is insanely difficult and addicting (except for level 7 which sucks because of the lock-on feature). The upgrade and item systems (aside from the things you unlock after finishing the entire game ughhh) are rewarding and I did legitimately feel like there were multiple strategies to each boss. The loop of 100%ing each dungeon, each area, is just so satisfying and fun that I'm able to overlook many but not all of the game's other shortcomings.

To be frank, Pikmin 4 felt like it was 🤏thiiis close to being a disaster. Everything about it aside from the core gameplay looked like it sucked - say if the core gameplay were to take some more pages out of Pikmin 2's book, I bet it absolutely would have sucked badly. Fortunately, that didn't happen. With a great game under its belt, it feels clear what steps the Pikmin series should take for the future.

- I don't mind if we get the dog again but multiple captains is a must-have in order to preserve the game's complexity. Oatchi was a diet captain at best.
- Expand heavily upon nighttime expeditions. Take notes from the tower defense genre and implement multiplayer.
- Bring back proper multiplayer as a whole. Bingo battles, main game...everything. It shouldn't have taken a hit in the first place.
- Cool it on the sanitized presentation. This one feels less likely to happen but visiting a normal human house can only get so interesting. Give us silly fonts, make the characters interesting again.

I'm excited to see how this series will grow in the future. Hopefully it won't take another ten years.