Pikmin 4 | NSW | 21st July 2023 | Reviews out now, currently 88 on Metacritic

Hit the credits last night, but there post game stuff looks huge. Think it's fair to say this is the biggest Pikmin game to date. I wonder if they announce DLC for it next Direct? I hope so.

The game is just too easy. On the 4th area atm, 100% the first 3. Really hope it ramps up at some point. But pretty much everything in the game gets one-shotted by oatchi charge + subsequent Pikmin barrage especially with ice. What rock was to 3, ice is to 4. And this is before applying Ultra-Spicy-Spray. And if the enemy can't be one-shot that way, it's just Mash A, wait for the enemy's ONE attack, whistle them back, rinse and repeat. Any semblance of exploration is trivialised by Oatchi sniffing out treasure: Sniff out treasure, retrieve treasure, sniff out, retrieve, sniff out, retrieve. The caves are nice little puzzles sometimes, mostly just finding where the switch is. That one cave with the invisible steamroller guy, introducing purple pikmin at the end was a welcome change, but again, compared to previous games, it was just way, way too over simplified. Throw purple, enemy cowers in fear letting you pummel him to death. Like for real? Why is this once terrifying enemy so pathetic? Even 3's combat was a lot more involved and interesting. Oatchi in general trivialises much of the game and the uniqueness of pikmin. He had the potential to be great, but they made him way too strong; strength of 100 pikmin!? The dandori stuff is great though. Essentially more challenge mode greatness from 3.

Jezo wrote:The game is just too easy. On the 4th area atm, 100% the first 3. Really hope it ramps up at some point. But pretty much everything in the game gets one-shotted by oatchi charge + subsequent Pikmin barrage especially with ice. What rock was to 3, ice is to 4. And this is before applying Ultra-Spicy-Spray. And if the enemy can't be one-shot that way, it's just Mash A, wait for the enemy's ONE attack, whistle them back, rinse and repeat. Any semblance of exploration is trivialised by Oatchi sniffing out treasure: Sniff out treasure, retrieve treasure, sniff out, retrieve, sniff out, retrieve. The caves are nice little puzzles sometimes, mostly just finding where the switch is. That one cave with the invisible steamroller guy, introducing purple pikmin at the end was a welcome change, but again, compared to previous games, it was just way, way too over simplified. Throw purple, enemy cowers in fear letting you pummel him to death. Like for real? Why is this once terrifying enemy so pathetic? Even 3's combat was a lot more involved and interesting. Oatchi in general trivialises much of the game and the uniqueness of pikmin. He had the potential to be great, but they made him way too strong; strength of 100 pikmin!? The dandori stuff is great though. Essentially more challenge mode greatness from 3.

I take it you didn’t play 2?

shy guy 64 wrote:

Jezo wrote:The game is just too easy. On the 4th area atm, 100% the first 3. Really hope it ramps up at some point. But pretty much everything in the game gets one-shotted by oatchi charge + subsequent Pikmin barrage especially with ice. What rock was to 3, ice is to 4. And this is before applying Ultra-Spicy-Spray. And if the enemy can't be one-shot that way, it's just Mash A, wait for the enemy's ONE attack, whistle them back, rinse and repeat. Any semblance of exploration is trivialised by Oatchi sniffing out treasure: Sniff out treasure, retrieve treasure, sniff out, retrieve, sniff out, retrieve. The caves are nice little puzzles sometimes, mostly just finding where the switch is. That one cave with the invisible steamroller guy, introducing purple pikmin at the end was a welcome change, but again, compared to previous games, it was just way, way too over simplified. Throw purple, enemy cowers in fear letting you pummel him to death. Like for real? Why is this once terrifying enemy so pathetic? Even 3's combat was a lot more involved and interesting. Oatchi in general trivialises much of the game and the uniqueness of pikmin. He had the potential to be great, but they made him way too strong; strength of 100 pikmin!? The dandori stuff is great though. Essentially more challenge mode greatness from 3.

I take it you didn’t play 2?

I did but only on release so I don't remember it at all

Jezo wrote:

shy guy 64 wrote:

Jezo wrote:The game is just too easy. On the 4th area atm, 100% the first 3. Really hope it ramps up at some point. But pretty much everything in the game gets one-shotted by oatchi charge + subsequent Pikmin barrage especially with ice. What rock was to 3, ice is to 4. And this is before applying Ultra-Spicy-Spray. And if the enemy can't be one-shot that way, it's just Mash A, wait for the enemy's ONE attack, whistle them back, rinse and repeat. Any semblance of exploration is trivialised by Oatchi sniffing out treasure: Sniff out treasure, retrieve treasure, sniff out, retrieve, sniff out, retrieve. The caves are nice little puzzles sometimes, mostly just finding where the switch is. That one cave with the invisible steamroller guy, introducing purple pikmin at the end was a welcome change, but again, compared to previous games, it was just way, way too over simplified. Throw purple, enemy cowers in fear letting you pummel him to death. Like for real? Why is this once terrifying enemy so pathetic? Even 3's combat was a lot more involved and interesting. Oatchi in general trivialises much of the game and the uniqueness of pikmin. He had the potential to be great, but they made him way too strong; strength of 100 pikmin!? The dandori stuff is great though. Essentially more challenge mode greatness from 3.

I take it you didn’t play 2?

I did but only on release so I don't remember it at all

That would explain why the monster is unfamiliar

shy guy 64 wrote:

Jezo wrote:

shy guy 64 wrote:

Jezo wrote:The game is just too easy. On the 4th area atm, 100% the first 3. Really hope it ramps up at some point. But pretty much everything in the game gets one-shotted by oatchi charge + subsequent Pikmin barrage especially with ice. What rock was to 3, ice is to 4. And this is before applying Ultra-Spicy-Spray. And if the enemy can't be one-shot that way, it's just Mash A, wait for the enemy's ONE attack, whistle them back, rinse and repeat. Any semblance of exploration is trivialised by Oatchi sniffing out treasure: Sniff out treasure, retrieve treasure, sniff out, retrieve, sniff out, retrieve. The caves are nice little puzzles sometimes, mostly just finding where the switch is. That one cave with the invisible steamroller guy, introducing purple pikmin at the end was a welcome change, but again, compared to previous games, it was just way, way too over simplified. Throw purple, enemy cowers in fear letting you pummel him to death. Like for real? Why is this once terrifying enemy so pathetic? Even 3's combat was a lot more involved and interesting. Oatchi in general trivialises much of the game and the uniqueness of pikmin. He had the potential to be great, but they made him way too strong; strength of 100 pikmin!? The dandori stuff is great though. Essentially more challenge mode greatness from 3.

I take it you didn’t play 2?

I did but only on release so I don't remember it at all

That would explain why the monster is unfamiliar

Well I knew he was from 2, is he the same in that game?

Jezo wrote:

shy guy 64 wrote:

Jezo wrote:

shy guy 64 wrote:

Jezo wrote:The game is just too easy. On the 4th area atm, 100% the first 3. Really hope it ramps up at some point. But pretty much everything in the game gets one-shotted by oatchi charge + subsequent Pikmin barrage especially with ice. What rock was to 3, ice is to 4. And this is before applying Ultra-Spicy-Spray. And if the enemy can't be one-shot that way, it's just Mash A, wait for the enemy's ONE attack, whistle them back, rinse and repeat. Any semblance of exploration is trivialised by Oatchi sniffing out treasure: Sniff out treasure, retrieve treasure, sniff out, retrieve, sniff out, retrieve. The caves are nice little puzzles sometimes, mostly just finding where the switch is. That one cave with the invisible steamroller guy, introducing purple pikmin at the end was a welcome change, but again, compared to previous games, it was just way, way too over simplified. Throw purple, enemy cowers in fear letting you pummel him to death. Like for real? Why is this once terrifying enemy so pathetic? Even 3's combat was a lot more involved and interesting. Oatchi in general trivialises much of the game and the uniqueness of pikmin. He had the potential to be great, but they made him way too strong; strength of 100 pikmin!? The dandori stuff is great though. Essentially more challenge mode greatness from 3.

I take it you didn’t play 2?

I did but only on release so I don't remember it at all

That would explain why the monster is unfamiliar

Well I knew he was from 2, is he the same in that game?

pretty much, though i think the cavern in 2 is longer

I decided not to buy this in the end, to keep focusing on Zelda, but a friend brought his Switch round yesterday, so I finally got to pay Dandori Battle.





How and why have they so willingly removed the fun of Bingo Battle?

Competing for points instead of parts
Sneak bomb instead of macaroon
Small, bland levels instead of a wide variety of level size and design
No bosses instead of a boss in every level
Weapons ten-a-penny instead of fairly uncommon
Single Pikmin type instead of a range of types

That's just off the top of my head. Every change is a big shift backwards in terms of fun, making the whole thing feel very limp.

Wankers!

Edit - in fairness, the addition of the dog, and the strategic element it brings, is an improvement

Well it seems I’m down to the final push

shy guy 64 wrote:

Jezo wrote:

shy guy 64 wrote:

Jezo wrote:

shy guy 64 wrote:

Jezo wrote:The game is just too easy. On the 4th area atm, 100% the first 3. Really hope it ramps up at some point. But pretty much everything in the game gets one-shotted by oatchi charge + subsequent Pikmin barrage especially with ice. What rock was to 3, ice is to 4. And this is before applying Ultra-Spicy-Spray. And if the enemy can't be one-shot that way, it's just Mash A, wait for the enemy's ONE attack, whistle them back, rinse and repeat. Any semblance of exploration is trivialised by Oatchi sniffing out treasure: Sniff out treasure, retrieve treasure, sniff out, retrieve, sniff out, retrieve. The caves are nice little puzzles sometimes, mostly just finding where the switch is. That one cave with the invisible steamroller guy, introducing purple pikmin at the end was a welcome change, but again, compared to previous games, it was just way, way too over simplified. Throw purple, enemy cowers in fear letting you pummel him to death. Like for real? Why is this once terrifying enemy so pathetic? Even 3's combat was a lot more involved and interesting. Oatchi in general trivialises much of the game and the uniqueness of pikmin. He had the potential to be great, but they made him way too strong; strength of 100 pikmin!? The dandori stuff is great though. Essentially more challenge mode greatness from 3.

I take it you didn’t play 2?

I did but only on release so I don't remember it at all

That would explain why the monster is unfamiliar

Well I knew he was from 2, is he the same in that game?

pretty much, though i think the cavern in 2 is longer

Looking to pick up the first 2 when the physical switch port drops. Think I'm gonna be in for a rude awakening as to how the series has always been easy.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:I decided not to buy this in the end, to keep focusing on Zelda, but a friend brought his Switch round yesterday, so I finally got to pay Dandori Battle.





How and why have they so willingly removed the fun of Bingo Battle?

Competing for points instead of parts
Sneak bomb instead of macaroon
Small, bland levels instead of a wide variety of level size and design
No bosses instead of a boss in every level
Weapons ten-a-penny instead of fairly uncommon
Single Pikmin type instead of a range of types

That's just off the top of my head. Every change is a big shift backwards in terms of fun, making the whole thing feel very limp.

Wankers!

Edit - in fairness, the addition of the dog, and the strategic element it brings, is an improvement

Over-simplification seems to be the theme

and done. 100% i think

It's annoying that pikmin who are "stuck" trying to lift a heavy object, waiting for other pikmin to help are not counted as "idle".

Feeling significantly less favourable towards this as it goes on.

It's just Pikmin by numbers really and there's nothing especially interesting about it. It's like the second third of the last 3 games combined and it's not doing enough new or interesting. The set up is really good but it just goes nowhere. It gives you this base and all these characters but they are entirely pointless.

On the fourth entry these games should be picking up where the last left off, expanding on things and developing the gameplay. Nintendo just gonna Nintendo though and not want to alienate new comes by keeping it all the same time after time

Finished.

Gone from thinking it's maybe the best Pikmin to thinking it's probably the worst. Lack of imagination very dreary attempts at just piling more items into the game to make it more interesting when theres an endemic pack of puzzling or interesting navigation. The environments are boring, the attempts at tricking you into thinking there's a story by just pumping identikit boring characters into a hub. It's just not very good.

Even the attempts to mix things up with indoor environments don't come off and just look rather pathetic compared to what Tinykin achieved last year. Real waste of a franchise effort.

6.5

I was finally having some fun with the final cave, it being a challenging 20 floors. I had lost 40 pikmin by the time I'd gotten to floor 17 and realised I needed rock pikmin. I thought it odd though, cause the game would always provide some help via candypop flowers just in case, literally the only instance in the game where it doesn't. Then again, rock pikmin aren't required for that big rolling bulborb, just preferable. There was a method to escape the rolls via wind gusts; a clever arena for no rock pikmin. But strawberry float me is the timing tight. Boom. All 60 of my remaining pikmin just gone in an instant. Oh well, let's head back and bring rocks this time. What's this? Continue from floor 17? I don't have to start again? Literally what is the strawberry floating point? The caves are meant to be an endurance test. But no, you can just leave whenever and return whenever with whatever pikmin, however many. It's strawberry floating baffling, it's designed like a full on gauntlet; floor 19 even has candypop buds for 5 types of pikmin. Who cares, just leave and come back lmao. How disappointing. Last boss was cool tho, even if I'm not too keen on the uninspired elemental theming, and Mario-esque design. Classic Miyamoto.

The game is still decent fun, exploring is neat until you just Oatchi search. Any time I find an enemy/boss that provides a little bit of challenge (that is to say, doesn't at least get one-shot), it's a pleasant surprise until I remember I could have just used ultra spicy spray or a plethora of other overpowered items. Will say though, Sovereign Bulborb is probably the best enemy in the game, actually feels threatening... you know, barring items. Dandori is the main challenge of the game and does a good job of it. Still got some extras to clear up. Closing thoughts to follow.

Yeah, getting platinums in the dandori time trials and battles is the real challenge in the game.

The only challenge really bar a few caves in the story mode (at least up to the first set of credits as thats as far as I've got).

35 hours, 100%, all side missions, all plats.

It was certainly a game that just kept on going lol. Finished main game 100%, then found out Olimar's side story was actual gameplay. Played through that, unlock the dandori sage 10 story cave thing which was dick hard to plat; some were very satisfying challenges, others were fighting the gooseberry fool lock-on system. Still don't understand why they did that it's so gooseberry fool. And then Louie had some side missions too. So I think that's everything done, nothing really indicated I had completed all side missions so not really sure if I've actually done it all lol.

Overall, a fun little romp, too easy, lock-on's gooseberry fool, dandori is cool, but very disconnected from the main game, as was the case in 3. Probably better that way tho. Most of the side missions equate to just playing the game which is a bit gooseberry fool. "Find all the TV crew members", well I'm just rescuing everyone anyway so it's a moot point. What about kill [boss] with 20 pikmin? No ultra-spicy-spray? Only bomb rocks? Only winged pikmin? There are so many things they could have done to force a bit of challenge and variety in a side mission system but they just didn't.

very much into the final few bits, have really enjoyed this game, for me it's the best Pikmin game out there. And has very easily toppled tears of the kingdom as my game of the year. Can see multiple play throughs of this happening.

Started The Trial of the Sage Leaf. Did the first 3. Platinum on the first but struggled to get near it on the 2nd and 3rd. Gonna take a lot of thinking and planning. This is the real Pikmin

Also, the Olimar prequel missions are a nice homage to the first game with the day limit and the red/yellow/blue pikmin only. Probably would have been better doing it after I've done levels 5 and 6 as it reuses the first 4 levels and they were very fresh in the mind having only just completed the first part of the game. I wanted to unlock the Trial of the Sage Leaf though so i can chip away at it while finishing off the main levels.

Jezo wrote:35 hours, 100%, all side missions, all plats.

It was certainly a game that just kept on going lol. Finished main game 100%, then found out Olimar's side story was actual gameplay. Played through that, unlock the dandori sage 10 story cave thing which was dick hard to plat; some were very satisfying challenges, others were fighting the gooseberry fool lock-on system. Still don't understand why they did that it's so gooseberry fool. And then Louie had some side missions too. So I think that's everything done, nothing really indicated I had completed all side missions so not really sure if I've actually done it all lol.

Overall, a fun little romp, too easy, lock-on's gooseberry fool, dandori is cool, but very disconnected from the main game, as was the case in 3. Probably better that way tho. Most of the side missions equate to just playing the game which is a bit gooseberry fool. "Find all the TV crew members", well I'm just rescuing everyone anyway so it's a moot point. What about kill [boss] with 20 pikmin? No ultra-spicy-spray? Only bomb rocks? Only winged pikmin? There are so many things they could have done to force a bit of challenge and variety in a side mission system but they just didn't.

How difficult is the 10 story cave to get all plats on?

That's all I've got left now, just finished off plats on the story mode dandoori's-none of which ended up being that difficult, just needed a little bit of thought. Which is kinda how I like it