Pikmin 4 Review Sample

As I promised in the blog, here is a preview of a review I've been working on for Pikmin 4. I would post the full thing, but I'm still working on writing it (especially the part the focuses on what I like about the game). So instead

Pikmin 4 Thoughts and Reflection

I recently played through to the credits of Pikmin 4 so I figured I'd take a little time to chat about how I've felt with the game up to this point. Quick disclaimer for people dodging spoilers. I'll be as vague as possible with story beats, but I will be bringing up details on gameplay mechanics, Pikmin, levels, and maybe even the characters themselves to better clarify my points. I'll be talking about everything up to the credits, so viewer advisory for anyone not that far and looking to experience the game for themselves.

Overall, Pikmin 4 has been an experience I was very conflicted about going in, but have warmed up to the more I've played, even if plenty of my initial critiques still stand. Ironically the demo almost turned me off from playing the game proper. While the core game play is still the Pikmin people know and love, especially the Pikmin 2 fans, that game play feels very different from the past. Different for the better in some ways, but also in ways that lessen the experience for me personally. Featuring some new elements I liked and some new elements that I disliked. Though some of these less desirable elements I warmed-up to over time. It is worth noting that many these changes were made in an attempt to make the game more accessible to a wider audience. Many of the issues I had will only bother you if you're a long time fan of the series and even then I may be the exception rather than the rule. If this is your first Pikmin game, the qualms I have may actually be enjoyable improvements to you.

Conflicting 1st Impressions

Going into the demo, I immediately started to see what the creators meant by how they were planning on simplifying the game to make it more approachable. Even with that realization, I think those changes still lead to the biggest growing pain I've had with the entire series. I would probably rather get ambushed by half a dozen bomb rocks and/or spiders, followed by an Ehrlich horror from another dimension then try to get used to the dumb down controls... but that's only because I'm crazy enough to already have done that in the previous even number Pikmin game TBH.

But seriously, they went a little too far in the simplistic direction...at least in my opinion. I could see what they were going for, but I feel the new lock-on system took away too much agency. In rare cases, it would actually make it harder to aim. This was most noticeable in large hordes of enemies, where I try to aim for one enemy but it would remain locked on another. While there is options to change targets, there's no guarantee it would get to the target I wanted fast enough and I would of prefer to just manually aim at what I wanted. It feels like too much freedom was sacrificed to simplify controls.

I also wasn't a biggest fan of the characters, who I sadly find to be the weakest cast in the series. You can tell almost immediately the majority of them were made to fit a similar style as the character creator, if not flat out be made from it. It's ironic, because usually the problem I have with character creators is that it results in your own character not fitting in with the rest of the cast. But instead, it feels like the rest of the game's quality was brought down to the quality of your avatar. Not to mention that this cast feels like it's lacking depth in character of the rest of the series.

I grew to appreciate them more the deeper I got in the game, but they rarely reached the same levels of depth as the characters from Pikmin 1-3. While I liked Captain Olimar, along with the rest of Pikmin 1 & 2 cast, I'm one of those people who really liked the captains of Pikmin 3 as well. Alph, Brittany, and Charlie felt more expressive with their personality and you really got to know them well throughout the various interactions they would have with each other within and in between those levels. Their character was more in the foreground compared to Olimar's moments being defined in the background. Meanwhile in Pikmin 4 it felt like there were a lot more cases of the cast talking just for the case of talking. While not bad characters, they felt like they lacked the depth of the Pikmin1/2 but also the charm of the Pikmin 3 cast. I wouldn't even say the Pikmin 4 cast was terrible, more like ' only okay in comparison'. Which makes me even more salty about a certain thing this game did for Pikmin 3 rep... but that's after the credits so I must constrain myself for now.

The craziest part is that the old characters that come back in this game where done better justice than the new cast. You get plenty of secondary material written by captain Olimar. Both between all of his logs you find throughout the game and, slight spoilers, through the returing Pikopedia/treasure logs and, slightly bigger spoilers, after the credits you get captain Olimar's perspective as well. These moments are just as good at being entertaining while fleshing out his character as they were in Pikmin 2.

You can see an attempt to do something similar with the new cast as you get lore dumps of Shepard and their family line through similar logs. But for some reason they just don't click with me the same way. I think it would of helped if the primary treasure logs and Pikapedia entries were written from the perspective of someone actually a part of the rescue crew instead of regulated to NPCs who's impact on the story stops the moment after you rescue them.

Speaking of, I don't think the game's attempt at a hub world really clicked with me and I think I would of preferred the majority of NPC interactions to be regulated to menus both in-game and on the title screen instead. It hurts for me to say as I'm actually a fan at well made hub worlds and how they can flesh out the world of the game. However I didn't really get that vibe from this one, especially when in the past the series has done so well at putting everything you need behind clean organized menus.

For one, the main menu feels so empty and plain. The music may be pretty but the title screen itself feels like it lacks the personality of the first two game, but also not as beautiful as the third game. (There is a cute post-credit version of the title screen that gets unlock that fixes the issue to me, but still.) I think regulating some of the features of the hub to the title screen as you unlock them in-game would help fix that. I guess I just miss all the extra side features Pikmin 3 had.

I wouldn't say navigating the hub world is bad. Everything you need, including treasure log and Pikopedia is all close together and basically right in front of you. Plus you have a neat feature where you can fast-travel to any NPC by just checking their ID from the menu. But I still think it would of worked to the game's benefit to just have some of these features regulated to NPCs you rescue in a menu instead.

...to be continued...

So there's about the first two pages. For reference of scale, I just started the 4th page of the script and only just started writing about the things that I like about the game. So hopefully no one will mind if I take back my promise of releasing a video talking about Pikmin 4 next week to instead work on a fully scripted review of the pre-credit portion of the game. I think it'll make for a much better video, well worth the wait, if I take my time to make a proper editorial for this.