General Pikmin Thread

Fun Pikmin cartoon with minor spoilers for the ending of 4:

Edited by RacattackForce on Jul 31st 2023 at 3:31:17 PM

Did Olimar's Shipwreck log. Finished on Day 13.

Surprisingly harrowing having that time limit back. But the levels were simplifed as well so once my Pikmin population was up I kinda just blew through them.

I guess the next thing to do is the Sage Trials. Wish me luck...

I don't know if it's just me, but every time I see the clay made from Raw Materials, I can't help but think how much they look like cookie dough, and then I get hungry...

I've 100%'ed Pikmin 4 now.

It was enjoyable and I like the post-game content, but I do hold to my prior opinion; I simply prefer 1/3's gameplay style over 2/4's. 3 Deluxe is, in my opinion, the perfect Pikmin game and the truest essence of "dandori".

I've heard a theory that the raw materials are actually sugar.

Since Pikmin 4's surface enemies don't respawn, how would you go about breeding more troopers?

Pellet Posies.

How long does it take for new pellets to grow and what's the biggest pellet number?

i think the 1-values grow back after a couple minutes, can't really remember too well if the other values do too

and the highest value pellet is 10.

but honestly as long as you're careful, you'll have several hundered of each color (except maybe pinks, purples, and whites) by the end of the game without even thinking about it

Also a handy tip, if you have a pikmin of a color that you do not have an onion for carry back something to the onion, they'll automatically make seeds for your lowest color amount that you have an onion for

Edited by MetaflarePrime on Aug 2nd 2023 at 7:28:01 AM

Cleared the Trials!

And I feel that whoever designed Sage Trial 7 should be fired... out of a cannon... into the Sun.

That is all.

The problem is 4's shitty auto-lock-on. Even outside of that specific trial there's been times where I'm getting impeded because an enemy happens to be standing near a nectar puddle or an enemy corpse and the game's like "What's that? You want to throw Pikmin in this direction? Well, you meant to throw them at the nectar they can't even use because they're all flowers, right? Right?"

Seriously, fuck 4's aiming system and fuck whoever decided it shouldn't even be toggleable off. I don't get what was wrong with 3's lock-on system that they felt the need to replace it with one that is both an intrusively bad downgrade and mandatory. I would take 1 and 2's lack of a lock-on before I take 4's forced lock-on.

Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Aug 3rd 2023 at 1:39:51 PM

Behold the true apex predator of the Pikmin world.

Finished up Pikmin 4.

It's definitely a step in the right direction after the massive disappointment that was Pikmin 3.

Caves are back, and they remain some of the most fun things to do. They are, however, shorter and less challenging than the ones in Pikmin 2, which is disappointing.

The added variety with the nighttime expeditions and dandoori challenges/battles are also welcome additions. Each are very fun in their own way. Olimar's little side-story was a neat bit of challenge and a welcome addition.

I also love that they brought back all the old Pikmin while introducing the new varieties. They also brought back a ton of old fan favorite enemies, which is nice. I really disliked the way Pikmin 3 just ignored a bunch of old material, usually in favor of not-as-fun replacements.

Also, special shout out to the Groovy Long Legs as possibly the funniest boss this series has ever produced.

My main complaints are... TOO EASY! I get that Nintendo wanted to make a nice gateway for new players, but are they incapable of also catering to older fans at the same time? I didn't actually have any actual challenge in this game until the Leaf Trials (Trial 7 is Fake Difficulty) and the Cavern for a King! (Well, Olimar's side story also scratched the itch a bit in terms of challenge.)

On a related note, the "Rewind" feature. This is a dumb idea. A very dumb idea. It removes any and all consequences from the game. If you lose 50 Pikmin, that should MEAN something and you should have to re-cultivate them. Sure, you can just not use it, but the fact that it exists at all and the game REALLY wants you to use it upon losing a single Pikmin is annoying.

The auto-lockon, as many have mentioned, needs to be toggle-able. It causes more problems than it solves. Also, while I'm happy they acknowledged the C-stick swarming mechanic, only unlocking it at literally the end of the game when there's nothing left to do doesn't really count as including it, Nintendo.

I also wish there was a way to make the other members of the Rescue Corp shut the hell up. I do not need nor appreciate their advice or their commentary.

On the whole... I'd put this game about on par with the original Pikmin for fun value. Pikmin 2 remains the pinnacle of the series.

Edited by DarkHunter on Aug 5th 2023 at 3:32:22 AM

In Pikmin 2 if you lost too many Pikmin midway through a cave you would just reset. It was just a bit inconvenient. Inconvenient enough that you don't bother with it for small losses but for big enough losses the alternative becomes leaving the cave, regrowing 50 Pikmin, and coming back which is far more tedious, so you reset because it's the least unfun option.

Pikmin 2's got a lot of stuff like that, where there's an easy method but you don't do it because it simply isn't fun, but then you've got situations where the punishments for even minor mistakes are so severe that the hard way is even less fun. Pikmin 2 is a weird game. I'm very glad Pikmin 4 is not Pikmin 2.

In a game with infinite days, losing 50 pikmin doesn't mean anything anways. You have infinite in-game time and resourses to build your army back up, so cutting out the middleman and just letting you go back a minute is far preferable. Also helps those of us who have little free time.

Also like said, most people would just restart the floor/day if the losses were bad enough, so again it's just cutting out the middleman.

The Rewind feature is also optional, so if someone doesn't like the feature, they can just not use it. It's a good feature to have for people who don't want to reset a whole day because of a screw-up.

Reminds me of when I played Pikmin 1 as a kid and took my reds and yellows into the water...

I’d much rather have a game be too easy than an absolutely tedious and frustrating experience that were Pikmin 2’s caves where you can lose loads of Pikmin to a cheap trap or getting screwed over by the RNG. And resetting took resetting the entire game which is extremely tedious with how much trial and error the game has. Pikmin 4’s caves are both much more fairly designed but include features that make fighting enemies casualty free much easier. I do agree there should be a mode where it is disabled though, maybe if Ultra Spicy is added.

What could change for a Spicy and Ultra-Spicy difficulty setting in Pikmin 4?

Looks like a few of you beat me to it, but the reset button was a thing even on the GameCube Pikmin 2 autosaved between floors for a reason. I don’t use rewind very often, but it’s not different enough to throw a fuss over IMO. No resets of any kind, ever, is a challenge run, not the usual way people play these games.

Edited by SapphireBlue on Aug 5th 2023 at 8:17:21 AM

It's a fine QOL feature but I do agree that if the game had multiple difficulty settings, it should probably be exclusive to the easiest. Let the hard modes be hard.

Ultra Spicy could half the amount of Pikmin on the field Flaric upgrades, capping at 60 like 3 Deluxe’s Ultra Spicy, make building require more Raw Material, give less time to save endangered Pikmin, make enemies easier to agro, make caves so they have to be done in one shot with no saves between floors, make selecting the sublevel upon re-entering require beating the cave, make Ice Pikmin only able to freeze enemies upon being eaten, add in a time limit that has to be extended with Sparklium, nerf Oatchi’s charge to only throw some Pikmin onto enemies instead of the entire army, and make Dandori Battle AI more unforgiving. Just to name a few ideas.

Question about the trope page.

Since Pikmin 4 is a retelling of the first game, is it still clear that the dating evidence from the other games still applies?

Nothing is confirmed to my knowledge but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if 4 retconned humanity's disappearance to being more recent. There's much more intact man-made stuff in general than the previous three games, probably even combined.

Anyway, I just finished the final cave (didn't get 100% yet, I still have several Dandori Challenges, night expeditions, surface treasures, one cave from Sun-Speckled Terrance I skipped on this file, and side quests). Some random thoughts:

• So many treasure series are completed here. I get the idea behind the final cave also having the most treasures, but holding the final pieces of several series is a bit odd. Especially the musical series to finish that sidequest, locking the Lineup Trumpet to be postgame content. Because of this, the final result screen of the day was really long thanks to all the complete series sequences.
• I had the final boss's appearance and a few bits about the fight spoiled to me but I still enjoyed the fight itself (which I didn't have spoiled). Needing to throw Pikmin at its tail while it's in the middle of attacking after the first phase is a good way to keep the challenge up. The surroundings of the arena, and the sandbox area of the second to last floor, are both really cool. I had wished for something eldritch like the Plasm Wraith (and for the Plasm Wraith to be explored in some sense, I don't think Pikmin 4 even mentions it) or colossal like the Mireclops, but the fight was really fun and neat regardless. It using a version of Oatchi and Moss's charge attack is a nice touch too.
• Yeah the influence of 2 over 3 really shows here. Rock and Winged Pikmin are the only types flat-out not given at all at any point in the cave (unless you ignore the recommendtation and bring them in yourself), while Purple and White Pikmin are two of the recommended types. Frankly I'm surprised that this cave doesn't use all eight types (nine if you use Glow Seeds), being the finale and all, having more than enough sublevels to devote at least one per type, and how Pikmin final areas have traditionally involved even uses of all colors.
• When I left, I decided to explore Primordial Thicket and try to get the last Dandori Challenge in the area, but I was at the 10 second countdown. Ah well, I did enter Cavern For a King about halfway through the day and it is a Marathon Level, I should have expected that the time spent there would translate to the whole day being over.
• Ever since I saw the Thinker treasure in Subzero Sauna I had wondered if there would be any other treasures with artistic nudity. I find it amusing that it took until the last cave of the game before I had my answer in the form of the Venus De Milo treasure. I wasn't surprised that the ESRB is okay with artistic nudity since I learned a while back that Animal Crossing: New Horizons also has such statues.
• Missed opportunity to have the "group view" of the billiard treasures arrange them like the start of a game of 9-ball.

The reason that the treasures are more recent and civilization is more intact now is because Pikmin was retconned to be the Earth of Splatoon