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I think it's weird when people are scared about TikTok being an evil invention of China or whatever.

As if Facebook doesn't essentially doxx every single one of its users.

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support a local trans girl buy her a burger

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Alright it's time to bitch about how horribly difficulty is handled in Pikmin 3 Deluxe

So Pikmin 3 on the Wii U is considered to be easier than Pikmin 1 & 2, so at the time of release for 3DX on Switch, it was considered the easiest game in the series.

I never found that too much of a problem though, I still find the game enjoyable even if I wish it were harder.

So when we heard that 3DX was gonna have 3 difficulty options, Normal, Hard & Ultra Spicy. I was super excited, harder Pikmin is what I want, and having diffrent difficulties means you can have that without making it too hard for beginners.

Pre release we saw the Difficulties described as

Normal: For those new or rusty

Hard: For those with experience

Ultra Spicy: Only for those who consider themselves Pikmin Masters

And now let me explain why that's complete BS.

I'm gonna be comparing each of them to the Wii U original over each other because it really gets the point home. And let me remind you that Wii U 3 was already considered easy.

Let's start with Enemy Health! In Normal Mode enemies were given less health compared to the Original, the most drastic cases being enemies that could get one shot anyway with skill so, weird, but okay, very unnecessary. Then Hard has most enemies with twice as much health compared to Normal. And Ultra Spicy has higher health for some enemies than even that.

So you might think "Okay so they made enemies harder to kill." And, no. Hard is still overall lower than on Wii U and Ultra Spicy is ultimately comparable to the Wii U version, I don't know each enemies exact HP value, but as someone who's played both versions alot, there's functionally no difference and enemies still go down easier than 1 & 2 (a reminder Ultra Spicy is for "Pikmin Masters")

And that's the only change done to enemies, which in Base 3, we're already far less deadly and aggressive compared to the first two games. Maybe it would've been a good idea to make it so normal was like 3, and then the harder difficulties made it so more Pikmin would get eaten per bite? Or enemies swallowed faster, or attacked more often, or anything to make them functionally different? Because while Normal is easier here, it's ultimately the difference of money enemies dying in 2 seconds instead of 4.

So, enemies aren't really effected meaningfully, what else did they do to make it harder? Well they gave the Captains more health in Normal Mode, that's an alright change, make it so beginners have to worry less about that aspect, and I bet in harder difficulties you'd need to be extra careful- oh, they just. Kept it the same as Wii U even on Ultra Spicy.

Well, now fruit only gives half as much juice on the hardest difficulty, and the same on the other two.

Which I will admit, does make it so there's like 2 days you need to maybe worry about getting fruit instead of none. But as someone who frequently ends the game with 30-40+ extra juice rations, this just means your buffer will be smaller and still exist.

They also made the Day Duration 18 minutes instead of the usual 13 on normal. This also, doesn't make the game easier and moreso less fun since time management is kinda the whole point and 13 is plenty. And of course, on Hard and Ultra Spicy it stays at 13 like the original.

Now, they added Nectar Eggs in the Garden of Hope for Normal and Hard, making it easier to flower Pikmin. And then you get none in Ultra Spicy... and the original. Another case of Hard being easier than the Wii U version.

Okay so, what else?

Well, in Normal they change the drowning time for Pikmin from 6 seconds to 11, then keep it 6 in hard and make it 3 seconds in Ultra Spicy.

This is, the most meaningful change to increasing the difficulty made from the Wii U version to the "Only for Pikmin Masters" Mode.

So, Normal is less fun 3, Hard is easier 3 and Ultra Spicy is just 3 with a more strict (still very forgiving) time limit?

You'd probably think "At least you can just pick hard and get the original difficulty then"

But no, because there's one last change. In Ultra Spicy, your Pikmin Cap is 60 instead of 100.

This just makes the game less fun, there's no enemies strong enough that the difference of Pikmin will matter, most go down easy with 20 or less even on Ultra Spicy. And it just means you can multi task less which makes the game less fun.

So, Normal is less fun, Hard is Easier and Ultra-Spicy is effectively the same but made less fun. Reminder again, Base Pikmin 3 was already considered easy.

So there's no way to experience the games original difficulty. Your only real option is playing an Easier version that's pretending to be a hard mode.

Okay, now because it's easy to say "Well clearly you know and care too much about Pikmin" (true) "is this actually better for newcomers though?"

Well when Pikmin 3DX came out, I had two of my closest friends play it as their first Pikmin game.

I told both "Hey play on Hard, it's basically the Wii U versions difficulty, Normal will just be less fun"

One of them listened and one of them didn't.

The one who played on Hard said "That was still so easy I'm glad I listened to you" and then it tried Normal was was shocked by how much less fun it was

The other, played on Normal then immediately did a Hard playthrough and said to me "This is way more fun than Normal, I should've just started on Hard. The days being shorter makes the game flow better"

Inconclusion: I think Pikmin 3 Deluxe is perhaps one of the worst excuses for difficulty settings in a game. Not is the original difficulty not still available, but what's left is 3 that all in some way make the game less enjoyable to varying degrees. This is while also adding Lock on, which already makes the game easier.

This is made worse by the advertising of said difficulties. I'm reminded of Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn. They changed the difficulties in English from

Normal -> Easy

Hard -> Normal

Making alot of people pick the games hard mode when they just want to play at the base difficulty, resulting in them having less fun with it.

Pimmin 3 Deluxe does the same in the opposite direction, except it's not a Translation error.

Making two modes for experienced players be easier than the existing version of your game and pretending they're difficult doesn't help anyone.

As I demonstrated, both people who I know that played 3DX as their first Pikmin found Hard to be a much better base line experience and neither found it challenging.

Personally, I replay Pikmin 3 on Wii U still when I wanna go through again. I love alot of the QoL Changes in 3DX, and I think the game is a fine way to play Pikmin 3. I think it's a great example about why it's important to give options in a re-release that are comparable to the original

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Worker -- Yuu Nishida

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burmese dancer miku!! 🇲🇲

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we need more transfem cult leaders. i’d never give away all my worldly possessions to some cis guy but you know i’d be the first in line to sacrifice my organs to the tgirl messiah.

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transfem who dramatically flinches whenever you accidentally touch her skin: oh don’t worry about me i don’t need any love or attention, i’m fine. i’m fine.

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For better or for worse, there really will always be someone who loves you in some way. No matter how annoying, stupid, or otherwise unpleasant you are, there will always be someone who agrees with you and/or loves you platonically or romantically. So just be the best person you can be, and people will like you regardless.

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Never trust an anti-kink person to be normal about trans women.

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girl who can be trusted around the evil potion that turns you into a beast: hey can you turn around real quick i wanna get a better look at this cauldron

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Phenomenon I feel happens a lot

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love going on callout posts for "thinks cnc is okay" and seeing people talk about how us freaks need the electric chair. fantasizing about violence is okay as long as its not sexual, funny that

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ok im sorry its crazy to just say with zero source or evidence that. i dont know. whatever the fuck this is saying 😭😭 like do you have documented proof that noncon kinks didnt exist prior to the 1400s huh???

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There is just an inherent connection between me and other trans women. Of course, not every trans woman will get along with each other, but even with the worst trans women out there, there's still this level of deeper understanding we have that is just not present with cis people. Befriending trans women just comes so naturally to me.

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Happy november 10th

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