General Pikmin Thread

There's almost certainly at least some Ragnarök Proofing going on.

If it's been well over a million years, let alone over 100 million, then there shouldn't be any obvious signs of human civilization whatsoever. No tin cans laying on the ground, for example. Basically the only artifacts that would still exist would preserved under very extreme conditions.

I'd argue Pikmin 2 implies that it isn't too far into the future, at least on a geological timescale. For example, devices created around the modern day seem to be useful for providing cartographical information to Olimar and Louie.

In fairness, Pikmin 3 would seem to either Joss or Retcon that, though maybe it's been retconned back.

I also have a headcanon that Pikmin are artificial lifeforms created by humans for some reason or another:

• The Onions appear to be machines of some sort.

• They're very dependent on a leader figure, but lack any natural means of finding one.

• They seem to be naturals at doing random odd jobs.

This means that it's possible that humanity was experimenting with genetic engineering which might explain accelerated evolution. Personal sub-headcanon would be that, while most of Pikmin's critters weren't intentionally designed, they were affected by some kind of artificial mutagen.

I'll note another odd thing about PNF-404 is that there's some sort of temporal/spatial anomaly going on, in particular with the caves.

This, in and of itself, could potentially have significant implications in many ways, because it'd mean we might not be able to trust that time is flowing in a consistent way.

In 4, there’s a lot of still-functioning technology that hasn’t shown so much as getting low on charge that almost gives an effect that humans just disappeared mere days ago, though I have no idea what we’re supposed to take away there.

Personally, I don't think we're supposed to take anything from it. It's definitely more of a "Don't think too hard about it, it's just here for fun" thing. It's ultimately not that important to the overall narrative.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Aug 17th 2023 at 2:41:48 AM

Even 3, the game that most obviously takes place hundreds of millions of years in the future (Pangaea Ultima) and has the most "natural" environments, still has obvious remains of human civilization that shouldn't exist, like still-functioning electric fences, flower pots that haven't eroded down into sand, tin cans, lightbulbs, and a car battery.

Pikmin series is definitely in camp "best not think about it too hard".

I'd actually go a half-step further and say that there's a lot of deliberate ambiguity. Questions like "What happened to mankind?" probably fall into the category as "What is Yoda's species?"

So are the Bulbax like meant to be sapient creatures?

Going off kingdom of the beasts.

Pretty sure no, they're just animals.

What makes you think that?

Well it's weird. Didn't they say in the intro to the kingdom of beasts dungeon they have their own society and will attack outsiders.

I'm pretty sure "Perhaps they're building their empire..." is just Olimar describing the natural phenomenon of Bulborbs congregating into a eusocial colony, though using somewhat metaphorical terms.

Yeah, I really don't get the impression that the Bulblaxes are sapient. It just sounds like Olimar is using more "flowery" language to describe a colony of territorial animals.

On the subject of what happened to humanity in the Pikmin games I've come to believe that Humanity didn't got extinct but that humanity was taken away. Of course another thoery that has popped up is that humanitys disappearence is a question of where did they go but when did they go, especially since 4 makes it clear that there is some sort of timey wimey stuff going on.

Why are we so convinced that humanity is extinct in Pikmin? What if there just isn't anybody present within the very small area and very small timeframe of the games?

There's some hints that the space dogs like Oatchi are descended from earth dogs. If so, it's also possible that Hocotatians, Koppaites, etc. are all distantly descended from spacefaring humans.

It's likely humans have, at the very least, abandoned Earth at some point. If humans were present it would be pretty obvious to aliens visiting Earth. We're not subtle.

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I do like the idea of the aliens in Pikmin being descended from humans. Actually a silly idea is that humans are still around and known about, everyone just forget where our home planet is. Once they put two and two together, Olimar would just say "Oh, those guys! Yeah, I know about Humans, one of my coworkers, Paul's, a human!"

Though if I were to make a more series explanation it'd be that the aliens in Pikmin are descended from humans that got zapped with a shrink ray or something to that effect.

Given oxygen is toxic to them, I kinda doubt they have any real relation to humans.

I think Miyamoto or someone else confirmed as such in an interview somewhere. It was either shortly before 3 or shortly after 3.

Yeah though if it wasn't for that Word of God I also would have thought humans were still around and they just never noticed the space explorers, and visa-versa.

What's the proper way to handle Night Expeditions? I don't think I can go about collecting glow pellets when the enemies are attacking the Lumiknoll.

Gather as many pellets before the first wave starts, have Oachi guard the lumiknoll as an early detection system and deterrent against smaller enemies as you go gathering more bits, and if the map has the decoy knolls, activate them as soon as possible.

Also don't forget about the glow pikmin's charge orb attack, with enough of them you can kill almost any enemy in the game with one shot

The charge orb in particular is a lifesaver. Use it on big enemies as often as you can.

Honestly it's a better offense than actually throwing glow pikmin in the first place.

Also if you have some glow seeds don't be afraid to use them and also don't be afraid to use the ultra spicy spray. Being able to take down your enemies quickly is an important tool especially for the later expeditions.

A concern about the glow orb attack is needing to cool down before I can use it again.

If you use it on the biggest threat in any given wave, you should have it cooled down by the next big threat's arrival. Don't let the cooldown stop you from using it.

Regarding the "true ending" of 4: Has anyone found out what determines the color of Onions that appear and follow the Master Onion? From what I've gathered, it looks like it will be Purple and White if you don't get those in the Trial of the Sage Leaf, but it seems to be random if you have obtained them. I did the Trial before the ending and got Red and Purple. I think I once saw someone mentioning two "gold" Onions? I don't know if that just means two Yellow Onions, or if the ending has some sort of special Gold Onions if you 100% it or fulfill something else. I'm guessing the former, since otherwise I probably would have seen that get mentioned by now because Nintendo having some new Pikmin/Onion type would be a huge deal.

My guess is that the ending will pick from the unobtained Onion colors first, prioritizing Purple and White since they're the most out-of-the-way/"secret," then just pick random colors if the player has them all/all but one.

Welp 100% Pikmin 4. Got all the Onions, all the castaways, all the treasures to. I really enjoyed it. Oatchi was a really fun addition although I have to say it often felt like Oatchi wasn't part of the players squad, the player was part of Oatchis pikmin squad.