The first impression this game leaves isn't great. The first thing it teaches you how to do is to ride the new gimmick around, and after that you're flooded with commentary from the pit crew about what you should be doing next. There's only a certain threshold of charming little space men you can have before the idea begins to wear out it's welcome and take focus away on what the actual experience is supposed to be. Pikmin 4 far exceeds it. So many cutscenes filled with the boring, forgettable crew having redundant conversations filled with bad jokes. None of these characters contribute anything to the gameplay loop either unlike the captains from previous games, so it's a lot of time devoted to characters you don't actually see putting any effort into solving the problems at hand. All that responsibility is replaced onto YOU, yes, YOU. The game opts to let the player create their own captain this time around and falls into every narrative pit that decision usually creates. Characters lavish you with praise at every opportunity for the most simple tasks, which is an about face from the cynicism that coated the writing of the first two games. Olimar was either completely on his own with no one to confide but himself, which added to the survivalist atmosphere, or saddled with the worst co-workers possible which was funny. This game is very straightlaced by comparison which is a step down from the unique tone the games had before.
This aggressive hand-holding permeates every aspect of this game. There are more PIkmin types present in the main campaign than ever, and progression is more open ended and nonlinear. You'd think this might open up a variety of different team compositions depending on the situation but the game only ever allows 3 types out at once and each area and cave has a recommended team. At that point, why break away from what the game has already set out from you?
Oachi starts the game as a good supplementary addition. He can jump and ferry the squad across water which opens up some traversal puzzles and decisions that just wouldn't have been possible in previous games. It also means there are less obvious roadblocks at the start, making each map feel more open ended and fun to traverse. Water was such a strong progress blocker in previous games that it dictated the order which you could do things pretty heavily, so removing that is a nice change of pace.
My suggestion to people who enjoyed the previous games is that you try to avoid upgrading him too much though. Beef up his defense for sure, but stacking on too many resistances and treasure-carrying abilities and he genuinely renders most of your Pikmin redundant. Technically something you'd have to opt into but it's an easy pitfall to miss.
One thing that also deserves praise is the cave system. Each one feels like it's more clearly centered around a unique challenge or gimmick this time around, so it's always something fresh. I was afraid the "dandori" challenges would feel like padding, and the battles against Olimar definitely do but the time trials are the opposite. They're carefully designed treasure hunting gauntlets where time limits are harsh and resources are limited. You'll have to form an excellent plan and execute it perfectly to get platinum medals on each one. They feel like the game at it's most Pikmin. They highlight the way these systems can shine under pressure in a way that doesn't reflect well on the rest of the game.
Outside of certain, clearly marked challenges though Pikmin 4 is so lax that it risks making a lot of series staples redundant. The day/night time limit still exists, but there's no hard limit on days and enemies never respawn so the only punishment for not completing a task in a timely matter is a quick trip back to camp. They might as well have let you explore for as long as you like. More gimmicks like Serene Shore's falling tides would have made timely execution of tasks more important without the punishing mechanics from 1 and 3, but for the most part they've removed those and replaced them with nothing which takes a little too much friction away from the experience.
The friction removal doesn't just end there. A generous 'time rewind feature' hovers over your head any time you make a mistake. Pikmin has been embracing save-scumming as a feature more and more over time, but having this prompt pop up the second you make a serious mistake feels like a step over the line. Save scumming was definetly possible in the first two games but easy enough to ignore and forget about. 3 signposted it as a feature and now 4 has prompts popping up everywhere, letting you rewind down to the second. If the game is going to assure me over and over again there's no real danger to losing resource..what's the point of the focus on resources?
The overt handholding focus leads us to our last error, probably the game's most damning. The controls. In contrast to the extreme amounts of control the pointer gave you in previous games, Pikmin 4 opts to automate as many functions as possible. Automatically aiming, automatically counting how many Pikmin you need before it cuts off your throw with no regard for how many Pikmin you might actually want on a task, and Pikmin trying to take more agency to automatically start tasks regardless of your input. These start as nuisances that don't hurt much when the game is more laid back, but as dandori challenges and late game bosses ramp things up they become a genuine pain point. I can't count how many times I've had Pikmin die because they latched onto the wrong object, or had my time for a challenge thrown off because the game decided the task had enough Pikmin on it.
All of this feels like Nintendo went a little too far trying to make Pikmin widely appealing. Iwata Asks interviews reveal the developers laid the lack of sales on the mechanics when to me there was a more obvious answer staring everyone in the face: The gamecube and the Wii U were both notorious flops. Pikmin was obviously going to do way better on a console that has an actual install base. Every Nintendo IP received an explosion of sales on Switch for a reason. Nintendo should have at least tried a more traditional title on the switch first before coming to this conclusion.
I liked Pikmin 4 overall, but only because of what it carried over from previous games, not because of anything it added. It has moments of very strong level design but it's held back too much with all the helicopter-parenting. At the very least, whenever Nintendo released a more handhold-y title in the past they worked their way back to something more challenging. My hope is that Pikmin 5 trusts the player more and opts to give them more agency in the game. Even if harsh time penalties never return, I hope they find different ways to put pressure on the player and put their resources to the test.
This aggressive hand-holding permeates every aspect of this game. There are more PIkmin types present in the main campaign than ever, and progression is more open ended and nonlinear. You'd think this might open up a variety of different team compositions depending on the situation but the game only ever allows 3 types out at once and each area and cave has a recommended team. At that point, why break away from what the game has already set out from you?
Oachi starts the game as a good supplementary addition. He can jump and ferry the squad across water which opens up some traversal puzzles and decisions that just wouldn't have been possible in previous games. It also means there are less obvious roadblocks at the start, making each map feel more open ended and fun to traverse. Water was such a strong progress blocker in previous games that it dictated the order which you could do things pretty heavily, so removing that is a nice change of pace.
My suggestion to people who enjoyed the previous games is that you try to avoid upgrading him too much though. Beef up his defense for sure, but stacking on too many resistances and treasure-carrying abilities and he genuinely renders most of your Pikmin redundant. Technically something you'd have to opt into but it's an easy pitfall to miss.
One thing that also deserves praise is the cave system. Each one feels like it's more clearly centered around a unique challenge or gimmick this time around, so it's always something fresh. I was afraid the "dandori" challenges would feel like padding, and the battles against Olimar definitely do but the time trials are the opposite. They're carefully designed treasure hunting gauntlets where time limits are harsh and resources are limited. You'll have to form an excellent plan and execute it perfectly to get platinum medals on each one. They feel like the game at it's most Pikmin. They highlight the way these systems can shine under pressure in a way that doesn't reflect well on the rest of the game.
Outside of certain, clearly marked challenges though Pikmin 4 is so lax that it risks making a lot of series staples redundant. The day/night time limit still exists, but there's no hard limit on days and enemies never respawn so the only punishment for not completing a task in a timely matter is a quick trip back to camp. They might as well have let you explore for as long as you like. More gimmicks like Serene Shore's falling tides would have made timely execution of tasks more important without the punishing mechanics from 1 and 3, but for the most part they've removed those and replaced them with nothing which takes a little too much friction away from the experience.
The friction removal doesn't just end there. A generous 'time rewind feature' hovers over your head any time you make a mistake. Pikmin has been embracing save-scumming as a feature more and more over time, but having this prompt pop up the second you make a serious mistake feels like a step over the line. Save scumming was definetly possible in the first two games but easy enough to ignore and forget about. 3 signposted it as a feature and now 4 has prompts popping up everywhere, letting you rewind down to the second. If the game is going to assure me over and over again there's no real danger to losing resource..what's the point of the focus on resources?
The overt handholding focus leads us to our last error, probably the game's most damning. The controls. In contrast to the extreme amounts of control the pointer gave you in previous games, Pikmin 4 opts to automate as many functions as possible. Automatically aiming, automatically counting how many Pikmin you need before it cuts off your throw with no regard for how many Pikmin you might actually want on a task, and Pikmin trying to take more agency to automatically start tasks regardless of your input. These start as nuisances that don't hurt much when the game is more laid back, but as dandori challenges and late game bosses ramp things up they become a genuine pain point. I can't count how many times I've had Pikmin die because they latched onto the wrong object, or had my time for a challenge thrown off because the game decided the task had enough Pikmin on it.
All of this feels like Nintendo went a little too far trying to make Pikmin widely appealing. Iwata Asks interviews reveal the developers laid the lack of sales on the mechanics when to me there was a more obvious answer staring everyone in the face: The gamecube and the Wii U were both notorious flops. Pikmin was obviously going to do way better on a console that has an actual install base. Every Nintendo IP received an explosion of sales on Switch for a reason. Nintendo should have at least tried a more traditional title on the switch first before coming to this conclusion.
I liked Pikmin 4 overall, but only because of what it carried over from previous games, not because of anything it added. It has moments of very strong level design but it's held back too much with all the helicopter-parenting. At the very least, whenever Nintendo released a more handhold-y title in the past they worked their way back to something more challenging. My hope is that Pikmin 5 trusts the player more and opts to give them more agency in the game. Even if harsh time penalties never return, I hope they find different ways to put pressure on the player and put their resources to the test.