Might be contentious but this is probably my favorite in the series and comes the closest to what I feel Pikmin should be. I never fully felt like previous entries fully utilized the whole "you're a tiny and normal sized things feel giant" thing until this one. This game is beautiful and I found myself constantly just looking around due to the awesome micro/macro environments. The quality of life and mechanic changes REALLY improve gameplay and remove frustration. Controlling Pikmin feels smooth and you're not constantly worried about losing half your population in one mistake. Oatchi is a MASSIVE addition that completely changes the dynamic and makes the game way more interesting. That does mean the game can be too easy and too forgiving at times but I do feel like the trade off is worth it.

This game is still filled with the usual Nintendo junk that is almost always frustrating though. Constant hand holding and interrupting to teach you stuff. The game kinda feels like it goes on for just a little too long and I wish the game wasn't super cave/dandori heavy and leaned more on overworld exploration. Also the split screen during dandori battles can fuck off lol.

Glad I finally got around to playing this and I hope we get a sequel some day but if not this feels like a pretty good sendoff.