#Who else has Pikmin 4?

[papyrus-in-places-he-shouldnt-be]

Papyrus shouldn't be in Pikmin.

That dog reminds him of a certain annoying dog...

[caruliaa]

starship au thts the same except the planet its set on is pnf404 and bug is a pikmin. the characters r the same characters theyre just like pikmin creatures and the starship rangers r like hocotations or koppaites and also maybe the rescue corp instead of the starship rangers but maybe not bc the rescue corp randomly going to a planet makes no sense actually makes a lot more sense for it to be hocotaite frieght or like. the koppaites going to pnf404 for fruit maybe but honestly they can still just be the starship rangers but pikmin version. the point is it wld be so slay . whos with me .

[lunagalemaster]

You know in retrospect Olimar is one of the funniest Nintendo characters. He's in this fantastical space setting with alien little creatures and his little space suit....

But he's literally just a dude???

Like. He loves his wife and kids. Won't stop talking about them. He's sad he has to spend all his time at work to provide for them to the point of taking overtime.

Compare him to the rest of the smash roster. All the other space people are in this battle ships, saving the universe on purpose, or just in general, explorers or just weird little guys who travel across the galaxy for funsies.

Meanwhile as of Pikmin 4, Olimar when asked to give his expertise IMMEDIATELY assumes they want his knowledge about shipping cargo.

From his perspective the Pikmin games are hell trips that keep him away from his family and everyone else is like "Okay but the pikmin-". My man just wants to talk about his wife and how his boss keeps exploiting him stop talking to him about the weird little guys on that one oxygen planet-

I think Olimar knows what taxes are.

Most character of all time.

[phantomrose96]

Despite the fact that they kill him, Pikmin 4 is remarkably kinder to Olimar than Pikmin 1 ever was.

4 is a sort of AU of Pikmin 1, and Olimar is the focus of your rescue mission rather than your playable character. And YES you fuck up as a rescue team and leave Olimar to die, but undead!Olimar isn't even having a bad time at all. Even kinder than that, they do let you un!undead him, because your doctor Mal Practice is cool with playing God.

When you save Olimar, you can talk with him and he'll "tell your his tale", which lets you play a retelling of sorts of his Pikmin 1 time alone, but now set in this Pikmin 4 AU. And there's something so odd about it because the atmosphere is so so different.

And the biggest thing about it is the fact that Pikmin 1 feels so alone. You are small and you are shipwrecked and there is no one coming to save you. And yeah, you're still just as small in Pikmin 4, but it's in a Borrowers kind of whimsical way... a Ghibli-esque world and you are the mouse with a thimble hat and a sewing needle sword.

Pikmin 1 is not that. It is vast and it is both awe-striking and terrifying. It is sprawling and unnerving, and the camera follows you at the distance of a circling vulture. The world is beautiful, but it is not comforting. The music, the landscapes, the scale of everything, is so very alone. There is Olimar and there is no one else. He lives or dies by his own hand because the only hints at anyone else existing in this universe are Olimar's own solemn wonderings about his wife and children far back home.

I can't help but view Pikmin 4 as a sort of apology to Olimar for putting him through all that. "Sorry about that 'only man alive' thing. And for all the 10-year-olds who played and killed you over and over because the 30-day limit until life support runs out was kinda brutal." Pikmin 4 makes Olimar be the mouse with the thimble hat. They put him in a cute little backyard and give him a dog. They kill him but they make sure Undead-imar has a fun hobby and they let him sorta, weirdly, save other people's lives. They send the universe's most well-meaning but incompetent Rescue Corp after him, and they succeed only after Olimar dies a little. And then they let Olimar hang out at the rescue camp with 20 other people, resting up and well-looked after, letting him compile his ecological notes while someone else takes it from here. They get him his dog back.

Pikmin 4 Olimar is given a cup of tea, a good book, and a blanket. Pikmin 1 Olimar dies alone of trench-foot with a crack in his helmet that suffocates him slowly to death.

[pollyanna-nana]

Louie isn’t evil.

Or: what Pikmin 4 tells us about his character.

BIG WARNING FOR PIKMIN 4 SPOILERS! (and the rest of the series)

———

I want to preface this by saying that I am in no way trying to be the end-all, be-all of character interpretations, but Pikmin 4 to me, at least, confirms the suspicions I’ve had since playing Pikmin 2 and 3 all those years ago that Louie ISN’T secretly evil, or possessed, or whatever else. He’s just… Louie. And I think that’s interesting in and of itself.

1. Olimar himself vouches for him, and clearly doesn’t think he’s a bad person.

Say what you will, but I’m inclined to think Olimar is a decent judge of character. Clearly he’s worked with Louie for enough time to see that while he’s not very good at his job, he’s not intentionally so— at least not in a malevolent way (will get more into this later). He also wants you to forgive him for Olimar’s sake, which can be read as self-sacrificing (as Olimar is known to be) but I also think hints at the soft spot he has for Louie.

It's also worth noting that he states during a end-of-day conversation that he told Louie that, since he's a new employee, he should do everything Olimar does... including throw castaways into the onion. Interesting that Louie took this so literally, but it does provide an explanation for why he kidnapped the Koppaites beyond "he's evil and crazy".

2. He really, REALLY loves his grandma.

Like, wow. He talks about her SO MUCH both in his Piklopedia entries and also elsewhere in the game. It's interesting. Worth noting is that he never mentions any other family members- unlike Olimar, who talks about his wife and each of his children independently. I've said this before, but the content of a lot of these entries implies to me that Louie was mainly raised by his grandma, likely since birth. And given some of her emails in Pikmin 2, assuming they're also canon to Pikmin 4's timeline... Well, Louie certainly had an interesting upbringing. But he clearly loves her all the same.

3. He has a mischievous streak and tends to do things on impulse.

This was already fairly obvious from the previous games, but I think it's worth noting that this game confirms that he's... would immature be the right word? In any regard, he doesn't seem to see himself as a "grown-up"- when in all likelihood he is. Personally, as a 22-year-old, I find that pretty relatable as I often think of myself as younger when in reality I am by all definitions an adult. This, along with his grandma still being around, makes it pretty much certain that Louie is a lot younger than Olimar and the president, likely in his early to mid twenties. Being a bit of a goofball isn't really out of the ordinary, all things considered.

THAT BEING SAID, he's clearly capable of practicing self-restraint when he wants to. What he says here about the red Pikmin is pretty significant, since we know he's willing to eat just about anything- but clearly he has some reservations about creatures that are friendly and helpful. Which leads to...

4. He loves dogs and fluffy things.

Same. But he doesn't even consider eating Moss, Oatchi or the Ancient Sirehound, showing that his creature-eating habits stop at things he recognizes as useful. He clearly also holds affection for things that are soft and fuzzy, and says as much.

5. He is so autism.

He plays with fidget toys. He loves certain textures and sounds. This guy is stimming all over PNF-404!!! I think this also lends some explanation for why his behavior is what it is- things like taking Olimar's suggestion to do as he does super literally even after crashing on an alien planet, his hyperfixation on cooking and tendency not to communicate and incorrectly interpret situations (thinking the Koppaites are kidnappers in 3, running away from you in 4). He could even be low or no empathy as well, explaining why it takes a hot minute to get him to understand why people are upset with him about something.

Interestingly this game also makes it clear that Louie wants to live on the planet, or at least thought he did while you were chasing him down, which makes a lot of sense when you consider that he doesn't really seem to fit in back on Hocotate. I, too, wish to run away to an alien world with all of the things that I like and no other people, so I get you, Louie.

6. He hates his boss and his job, and the golden pikpik carrot incident was likely premeditated.

This probably looks bad, but honestly? As a fellow work-hating anti-capitalist schmuck I get it. The president is for all intents and purposes a huge asshole, from sending Olimar straight back to the planet after selling his ship to not caring that Louie got left behind, just wanting to find the rest of the treasures. I doubt he is very kind to his employees, and doesn't seem very good at running the business. Definitely a funny character, but if he were my boss I would absolutely want to punt him into the sun.

From some other entries he clearly wants to sell certain things to accrue money, but it's for things like getting better kitchen tools and following his dream to have his own cooking show. Clearly being a freight driver isn't what Louie actually wants to do with his life, and he could not give less of a shit about what happens to the company. Very short-sighted on his part, but also again, yeah I get you Louie.

7. He... doesn't like the color red for some reason.

Honestly, I'm not even really sure what to make of this. Is it because it reminds him of the Hocotate ship? Or does he just not like the color? Would be very interesting considering that it's Olimar's signature color. Perhaps that's at least part of why he attacks you in Pikmin 2- though that's speculation for another day.

Also funny to me is his comments on the black-colored treasures. We know blue is his favorite color, but I guess he's also a bit of a goth at heart. Lol.

In conclusion.

I think Louie isn't written or intended to be evil, and Pikmin 4's portrayal of him was intentionally written to confirm this. He's just, as some have said, an agent of chaos, but that doesn't make him a bad person. Just an autistic 20-something working a shitty job he doesn't care about, who loves his grandma and has a mischievous streak and a hyperfixation on food. At least from what I can interpret, ymmv!

[0lliecl0wn]

PUNCH OUT HEADCANONS: Clueless Friends Edition

so i showed my friends the punch out cast and asked them to make up headcanons for them (they have never seen nor heard of punch out outside of me rambling to them about it)

so uh

here it is

GLASS JOE

-Wet the bed as a kid

-Probably still does it

-Denys it

-Goes honk shoo honk shoo when he sleeps

-Had a mullet in middle school

-Has to draw on his eyebrows

-Mouth Breather™

-Wears a cap and nightgown and holds a candle at night

-Can’t swim

VON KAISER

-Bartender

-Screams into his pillow at night

-Screams like a little girl

-Wore light-up Sketchers in middle school

-Got bullied for it

-Goes to the gym to cope

-Fucking YEETS the dumbells

-Flexes on people (also to cope)

-If he is told to sleep on the couch, he will sadly sulk there like a emo person (cue sad hamster music)

DISCO KID

-Babygirl

-Zesty

-Took ballet/gymnastics

-Optimist

-Accidentally broke a trampoline

-Was the popular kid in school

-THE sweetest guy

-Cat person

-Owns 4 cats

-Wears fluffy robes

KING HIPPO

-Plays League of Legends

-Tweaks out HARD at Angry Birds and Super Mario Wii (friend is totally not projecting)

-Really good at board games

-Gamer

-Patrick Star kinnie

-Does NOT cackle. He giggles

-Has Live Laugh Love framed over his toilet

-His snores have caused earthquakes

-Heavy sleeper

PISTON HONDO

-”He did WHAT in his Honda?!”

-Behaves like that one English teacher you had in middle school

-aka the ”Never in my 15 years of teaching have I seen a substitute report this bad” teacher

-ponders

-Dances to animation memes

-Worked at Burger King once

-Constantly pissed

-Goes honk mimimimi when he sleeps

-If he ate a cheeseburger he would explode

-Was the guy who made the post that just says “everytime a new chicken sandwich releases”

BEAR HUGGER

-Smells PUTRID

-Real name is Cleetus

-Lumberjack

-Has a lisp

-Gets food in his beard

-Eats it (EWWWW 🤢)

-His theme song is “Entry of the Gladiators” (aka clown music)

-Wouldn’t survive a day in the military

-Plays Microsoft Flight Simulator

-Goes “weeeeee!” as the plane flies

-Has a poster that says “Eat Slur Game Repeat”

-Redneck

-Has a shirt that says ”These Fists Are Rated E for Everyone”

GREAT TIGER

-HOT

-Has the most beautiful hair but hides it

-Binged My Little Pony

-Binged Twilight

-Plays with Barbie dolls

-Listens to Kpop

-AMAZING at Just Dance

-Also good at DDR

-Plays Pikmin

-Loves the Stone Pikmin

DON FLAMENCO

-Once got addicted to cough drops

-Uses really bad pick up lines

-Does really bad trickshots to impress girls

-Slips like a cartoon character. His shoes go flying every time

-Watched MLP with Great Tiger

-Watches Mean Girls

-Kins Regina George

-Cried when she got hit by a bus

-Zesty

-Scoliosis

-Can pick my friend up with one hand

-Would lean on a wall, say “hey cutie, you free tonight?” and immediately have a coughing fit

-Took an Am I Gay? Quiz. It said yes and refuses to believe it (internalized biphobia)

-Likes big butts and he cannot lie

ARAN RYAN

-Menace

-Actually very lightweight, refuses to admit it

-Bullies kids on ROBLOX

-Keeps getting censored in chat

-Plays Dress to Impress

-Would hit you if so desired

-Uses Joker quotes

-Bakes pink cupcake in spare time

-Would make a balloon animal for a kid and then pop it like Gru

-The guy he tickled in his character intro was Don Flamenco

-Killed someone, steals, graffitis, takes candy from babies

-Should be in jail

-ADHD

-”Ya prob’ly got cheeseburgers in those gloves, have ya Mac?!” “well you have horseshoes”

SODA POPINSKI

-Dropped on the head as a kid

-Nicknamed ”Pinhead Larry”

-Oiled up

-Naturally loud

-Skipped leg day

-Mr. Krabs walking sound when he tiptoes

-Speedruns Hello Neighbor

-Hands are too big for the keyboard

-Makes dad jokes and laughs at himself because no one else laughs

-Gets bullied by Aran Ryan for his dad jokes

BALD BULL

-Someone threw a bowling ball at his head

-Peak Male Performance

-40% chip (context for this is in comments)

-Watched game shows, was in one once

-Blurts out the answers at the TV, gets pissed every time they get it wrong and screams

-Screams like the ash baby

-Shakes randomly

-Ate lead paint

-Ate a glow stick

-”ladies, ladies, calm down, theres enough of me to go around” (stolen from don flamenco, difference is this actually works)

-ash baby coded???

-Teeters on the line of being ugly and hot

-Gets beauty sleep

-20 step skincare routine

SUPER MACHO MAN

-”he looks like a founding father”

-Shrimp posture

-UGLY??

-Listens to phonk unironically

-Has jiggle physics

-Uses his chest to type on keyboards

-says “eureka!” when he as an idea

-FAKE chain

-wears speedos (canon)

-its his only outfit

-played five nights at freddys and shit himself

-Pimp

-GILF

-Looks 72, is 27

MR. SANDMAN

-Drag Queen

-Chappell Roan listener

-Once tried to wax his nose but got q tips stuck in it

-REALLY into horoscopes and gemstones

-NAPALMED a homeless shelter

-Dances like the dame tu cosita guy

-fucken BUSTS IT DOWN to every song

-Throws gang signs in his boxing gloves??

-Does the Omni-Man squat sometimes

-Ate a lightbulb and that's why his skin glows

-Skips to the song “Mr. Sandman” because he’s babygirl like that

LITTLE MAC

-Floats in the air when he smells pie

-Anime protagonist

-Loves Ben 10

-Had a greasy mohawk

-Ate a bug

-Sticks his head out of the car window

-Gulps and goes “EEEYIKES!!!” when he has to fight a strong opponent

-Listens to Mitski

-Loves the movie Ratatouille

-His favorite character is Remy’s brother

-Makes kandi bracelets

-Asserts dominance by T-posing

DOC LOUIS

-Wears yoga pants

-Has asthma

-Runs up the stairs on all fours

-Maximum silly

-Watches romcoms and cries

-Draws watches on his wrist and looks at it when someone asks him for the time

-Watched Skibidi Toilet AND knows all of the lore

-Doesn’t know what a tampon is

-Listens to the song that goes “once I was seven years old”

-Mama’s boy

-HORRIBLE driver

[your-local-grubdog]

Wait actually can we talk about Leaflings real fast. Because. What the actual fuck.

Also sorry if I curse a lot more here than usual but like 90% of my genuine reactions to this topic is "what the FUCK" so uhh get used to it I guess.

Huge thanks to @saihahas for helping me with some image transcripts as well.

Major story spoilers below you have been warned. Ok let's go.

So you're able to just rise from the dead in pikmin 4. No, seriously. You can do that.

At the end of Olimar's side story we get this scene and associated line:

[Image transcript: White text on a black screen that says "But at that very moment, my life support system failed" END TRANSCRIPT]

Like. He died. His life support system failed. He DIED. And moments later, he was revived as a leafling. He died and came back from the dead. Like, what the fuck????

It even fixed up his injuries he got prior to becoming a leafling. Just a full on revival.

Image transcript (one leads into the other naturally)

Collin: By the by, Olimar, is there anything you remember from right before or after you became a leafling? Any additional details?

Olimar: Not particularly. It didn't feel bad or anything like that. In fact, it was quite revitalizing.

Olimar: My chronically stiff shoulders and all the injuries I'd sustained during my explorations healed immediately.

Yonny: Hmm... Perhaps leafification has highly restorative effects...

Yonny: This is definitely something worth looking into, eheheh. END OF TRANSCRIPT.

Now we don't know if everyone who was a leafling had to die before hand, though there is a common thread that they were at least unconscious... And had just escaped deadly situations... I think Olimar found them moments before they died and, not knowing any other way to save them, leafed them as well. Something they bear no ill will towards him for - in fact, they're thankful for him.

Image transcript:

Jin: When I was leafified, I could not stop thinking about the art of Dandori. It was like an endless meditation.

Jin: A leafling appeared in front of me after the ship crashed and I had used up all of my flagging energy.

Jin: My intuition told me they were not a bad person. I also felt as though they were determined to achieve something

Jin: I am afraid I do not recall much of what happened after that, as I lost consciousness. END TRANSCRIPT.

Image transcript:

Corgwin: I was attacked by a creature, and right before I lost consciousness, I saw something overhead. It was a leafling

Corgwin: They had such sad eyes, but there was more going on in there. Their eyes were full of determination.

Corgwin: I have to believe there is a reason why they do what they do. Turning castaways into leaflings, I mean.

Corgwin: Your time is limited, so think it through! END TRANSCRIPT.

Image transcript:

Bernard: You need anything else?

Bernard: Even when Olimar was leafed out, he was still trying to RESCUE folks!

Bernard: And there I was with my head focused on nothing but Dandori stuff. HOO, he's one tough cookie!

Bernard: You need anything else? END TRANSCRIPT.

Ok Bernard's conversation doesn't add to the "he found them in deadly situations" point but it DOES show that all of his "victims" think highly of him for the fact that he had saved them and others. (Also, side note, Olimar had sad eyes... Poor bastard thought he was never going home to his wife and kids, was visibly depressed over this, and STILL was trying to save people. Olimar is like, genuinely such a good fucking person God damn.)

Now being a leafling is undead and comes with its own slew of problems. Namely, the fact Dandori takes over your brain (probably the pikmin survival instinct) and the fact you can no longer leave PNF-404. It's not even an air thing, it's not being on the planet that causes sickness, so not even spacesuits can fix it.

But then you're able to cure yourself of being a leafling. And just. Go back? To your normal life?????? Like nothing ever happened. You died and came back. What the fuck.

And to make that point worse. One of the key ingredients is Glow Sap. Which is produced by the Luminknolls. The only other thing the Luminknolls make is uh. Glow pikmin. Which.

“Although they've been named Glow Pikmin, it's not entirely clear whether or not this species is actually a type of Pikmin. These creatures possess the same fundamental behaviors of Pikmin, like carrying things, propagating, and fighting. They also share special characteristics, such as the leaf atop their head. Yet they do not spawn from an Onion but a Lumiknoll, and they are only active at night or underground. During the day, they revert into seeds and enter a resting state. What's even more surprising is that they exhibit no signs of life. When a Glow Pikmin "dies," if that word can even be used, it does not expire in the typical sense. Instead, it just becomes a form of light-or perhaps a photon-and returns to the Lumiknoll. Putting aside my "scientist" hat for a moment...it seems to me that this creature or entity may not be a living organism at all but some manner of spiritual substance.”

[Image Transcript: a screenshot of the Piklopedia showing the very end of the above quote. END TRANSCRIPT]

And just as some icing on the cake:

[Image transcript: Louie's piklopedia notes on the glow pikmin. All it says is "Doesn't smell alive." END TRANSCRIPT]

Cool they're fucking ghosts. Sorry I can't be convinced otherwise, they're clearly some sort of supernatural entity at MINIMUM. I just think spirit is most likely. They don't have to be the spirits of dead pikmin... Although... You can convert a Glow Pikmin into normal pikmin via a candy pop bud. I've done it before, I have no video of it but you can go and try it yourself if you'd like. And if they are spirits of pikmin then that means that we can also bring pikmin back from the dead. What the FUCK.

Anyways. I got side tracked sorry. My point was the Luminkolls make two things: Glow Sap and Glow Pikmin, which have similar names and similar appearances and. Are we using ghost juice to cure leaflings???? Which is used to reverse all negatives of being leafed. Which can be used to bring the dead back to life.

I don't know how to end this. I really really don't know how to end this. I just need someone else to scream about this with because it's so. It's so fucking WEIRD like what the hell. It's not enough that they may be humans, noooo, there's also undead creatures (excluding the mushroom guys those freaks have an explanation at the very least). This game is weird as hell but tbh I love it.

[higgyisobsessed]

rescue corps but they're CATS!!!! PLOT TWIST I'm also just putting funny little notes about them because I love them all

Pom - the face of Dandori, the self-insert. canonically from a planet known for its Dandori Prowess

Collin - people said he looked weird in the trailer but he turned out to be the most regular and put-together of the whole corps. odd jobs, communications, the voice of reason. builds little robot gadgets in his spare time

Shepherd - feels the weight of legacy and leadership, full of fear but perseveres nonetheless, the dog trainer, has a good eye for those with potential for the team

Russ - the inventor who makes materials for structures and gadgets with the help of raw materials. super rich guy whose mom throws the rescue corps a party after every successful mission. always wears his lab coat under his space suit. oh yeah he also invented bombs and wants you to blow stuff up whenever there is any sign of a slight inconvenience (after drawing this I later learned his eyebrows are GREEN)

Dingo - the "lone wolf" who feels terrible guilt over leaving behind his crewmate. kinda lazy and obnoxious, but very skilled when he does get involved. also will single handedly win night missions with the power of blowing stuff up and punching. He drinks random glowing green goo bc it was just sitting on the table and it didn't look like anyone else was going to have it.

Yonny - doctor that loves experimenting without putting the proposal through an ethics check first. uses Dingo (apparently knew each other as friends in childhood) as an unknowing guinea pig. collin has to tell him to stop the breeding experiment program he started on the rescue mission. nicknames for everybody. nobody ever quite knows what he is thinking. the most likely to commit war crimes

Bernard - the speed limit is a SUGGESTION, he is rescuing people as the pilot with endless ENTHUSIASM and OPTIMISM! Inspiring speech for everything. Was turned into a leaf zombie and cured, so he's a bit purple now. Short king. Makes friends so easily you won't know what hit you. Thinks of the 20+ rescued castaways on the ship as one big happy family.

anyways I love Pikmin 4 and this game is everything to me

[bogleech]

Dunno if anyone's said this yet but the person who handles and ultimately notates the pikolopedia in pikmin 4 has your same loving cadence when describing any creature. It's uncanny

I noticed they overwhelmingly love everything! I didn't notice the cadence but probably only because my own writing feels to me like "default" or "normal" writing and I only notice how everyone else's differs, lol. But I do kind of miss the more detailed scientific explanations Olimar gave in past games! The new guy has good taste but he doesn't have a lot to say about how the creatures generate their poison gases or their life cycles or anything so far.

[refinedpet]

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

[yoshizora]

i recently discovered one of the libraries in my area has video games so for the past couple months i played Metroid Dread, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, and Astral Chain. heres some random thoughts bc i wanna talk about them @ a wall (also i just wanna complain about Astral Chain specifically)

Metroid Dread: 9/10

really tight controls, the parry felt seamless in combat, and the navigation/puzzles felt challenging without wanting to smash my head against a wall. the EMMI have excellent atmospheric tension but after a couple of them they feel... scripted and predictable. i do wonder if they would've been better off being random encounters throughout the whole area maps, but passages would have to be specifically designed around their movements so maybe not.

final boss was a banger; one of the most fun boss fights in any game i've played in years.

also samus hot

Pikmin 3: pikmin/10

i've never played a pikmin game before because for some reason i just never thought i would get into it but IT'S GOOD!!!!!!!!

i could not decide if this was relaxing or stressful. maybe both at the same time. yeah. rock pikmin are my faves. no but it's such a unique rts system that i can't really compare to anything else i've played, i'm kicking myself for not playing any pikmin games earlier.

i'm gonna go buy pikmin 4 when i'm able to. this game slaps. i'm gonna go eat some fruit.

Astral Chain: 6/10

i'll start this off by saying i really like the combat; it's stylish, fast, fun, AND not just a rapid button masher (like bayonetta, which hurt my hands to play). the lock-on system is kinda janky and so is the camera, but the important thing is that fighting is FUN.

buuuuuut, uhh, the story? the characters? huh??? did someone just, forget to polish this rough draft?? this was the epitome of all flash with no substance; the protagonist player being silent is REALLY detrimental when the sibling plays such a large role in the story in tandem with the player. there is no real emotional bond nor depth to their relationship, because the entire dynamic is just Akira yelling about whatever and the player staring blankly at them. it was basically the Byleth issue all over again and i hated it. Akira barely had much of a personality anyway.

i'm not sure what to say about the story because there was barely a story? look, it's fine if the mysterious otherworldly phenomenon has no explanation because that keeps the intrigue and alien-ness about it, but you can't have the story constantly questioning WHAT the chimeras are and WHERE all this came from then answer nothing. maybe there are proper answers in the data files/reports...? but imo, a player shouldn't have to scour the optional side content in a game in order to get the most crucial answers for the MAIN STORY.

i do see why people who don't care much about story/characters would praise this game so much, because the combat IS fun and the visuals/music are great, but the platforming segments were NOT fun and i was wholly sick of the astral plane parts by the end.

also, jena was one of the most disappointing wastes of an antagonist i've ever seen in any game. lmao.

[infinitebrians]

Favorite Games of 2023! Part 1: Pikmin 4

Something I really enjoyed doing for 2022 was making drawing to go with my top favorite games I played that year. So I wanted to do that again with 2023 and do a bit of writing to go along with it. I've always been meaning to try writing/documenting my thoughts so hopefully this isn't all just gibberish. Please enjoy!

PIKMIN 4

I got real into Pikmin for the first time ever over this past year. The series finally clicked with me both partially because of this game but also because of just seeing other people be excited about the series as well. I saw it in a lot of fan art or meme videos about bulborbs or Oatchi and so on and I just found it all charming and fun.

One thing in particular that got me to become a fan of the whole series was @hollowtones and @anonymouspuzzler 's streams of Pikmin 1 (https://youtu.be/Yu3Ev5aDZcI?feature=shared). A really fun streams that were also quite informative (surprisingly so) about how the series had a bit more depth to its world design than I ever really gave it credit for. That stream also got me to finally do something I couldn’t do when I was a kid and finally finish a playthrough of this Gamecube copy of Pikmin 1 I’ve had my whole life. That game rules except for a truly miserable final boss fight!

So all that lead me to want to finally check out Pikmin 4, a game that gave me the joy of dandori (something else I found people constantly joking about). To be reductive, the game is all about using your army of silly little guys to pick up all the trash you can get them to carry while avoiding death at the hands at colorful alien horrors beyond your comprehension. What made that collection focused gameplay really click with me in this series has been the time limit each game has and finding and honing the art to getting as much done with that time that I can. It’s what kept me coming back to completely 100%ing the game, getting all the stuff, getting platinums for all the challenges, and so on. While 4 never felt especially hard ever, I always found the aspect of trying to be as optimal with my time as possible to be a more than good enough replacement for a more typical difficulty.

The only real big disappointment I had with the game was with the characters I interacted with in the game, their long drawn out tutorial/introduction was unwanted and their game long constant need to pestering and nagging about any sort of mistakes they could observe grew extremely tiresome. I wish I liked them because the character designs of these funny little space guys are so charming, I even really liked my own player character despite how inconsequential they are.

The game also introduced Oatchi, the wonderful perfect doggy who could have absolutely ruined the the mechanical charm of the game by just always being the solution to just about any problem the game throws your way. I thought it stayed acceptable to me due to how he still felt fun use and was just a very charming guy. Just look at that dude! He goes ‘ufufufufufuf’ if you mash on the whistle button, how can you ever be mad at Oatchi? Love that guy, shouts out to Oatchi, dogthing of all time.

Pikmin 4 was just a delight to me to play a few hours of every night and just pick away at each area at a time, picking up all the cool junk i could find. A very happy surprise of a game after entering into 2023 not even considering the game in the first place.

[obsidian-warthog]

Investigating Doppelgangers and Space Suit Colors in Pikmin 4

So a comment in another post made me aware that Pikmin 4 has dialogue for if you make your character look exactly like a castaway. I've been playing around with that hunting for the dialogue, and have made some observations.

-Plot relevant characters cannot be mimicked, even the ones who can basically be replicated in the character creator have an accessory to distinguish them and no doppelganger dialogue. I tested this with Yonny, who can be made in the character creator sans head mirror.

-Skin and hair color are not factors, it's the build, face and hairstyle that matter.

-Puddle will tell you if you look like someone else.

-Dalmo's doppelganger dialogue only triggers when leaving the Piklopedia. Haven't tested with Schnauz yet.

-And now for the real interesting part that's going under a read more due to the length, how the color of a character's space suit factors in.

If your character is registered by the game as a doppelganger and your space suit is the same color as the character, that character's space suit will change to a different color. To fully explore this I used Alpin, but first observed it with Dalmo. First here is an Alpin doppelganger with him in both red and blue spacesuits to establish that Alpin's default spacesuit color is pink.

And if we switch our own spacesuit to be pink...

Alpin's spacesuit becomes red. I tested this twice with both red and blue as my prior spacesuit colors, Alpin's became red both times. And along the way I spotted something else, if you haven't already, look at Fawks. His spacesuit is always the same color as Alpin's. This means some characters have linked spacesuit colors.

Not only that, but while subtle, the difference in color is reflected in the text boxes as well.

Again very hard to notice it's own, but pull up the pictures and compare the color on Alpin's shoulders. They're obviously a different color when you look from one to the other.

Now, when does the color revert? Once you no longer resemble Alpin there's no need to keep his spacesuit color changed, right? Well for whatever reason, the game won't revert a character's spacesuit color until your own spacesuit color changes, even if your character is no longer a doppelganger of them.

The character build and all associated features have changed, only the color remains, but Alpin and Fawks are still in their red suits.

Swapping off of pink now has the game return Alpin and Fawks to their original colors, even though the look a like issue had been resolved several trips to Puddle ago.

What about characters with other color spacesuits. Dalmo's default color is green, but if you make a Dalmo doppelganger with a green spacesuit then he also switches to a red one.

What if the character's default color was red to begin with? There are no characters with red as their default spacesuit color, possibly for this exact reason. Characters only have red spacesuits when determined by the player. I didn't realize that until now because my own character's spacesuit and the Rescue Corps by extension were red.

This isn't a ground breaking find by any means, but it's a fun look into how the developers accounted for different possibilities, and how that subtly influenced the design of the game in a way none of us noticed.

[vee-vee-the-starchild]

Just a thought; Some spoilers

I got this lil idea for an au of pikmin 4. It's a little silly but we're all here for that kind of stuff right?

Basically a human shrank down to around the same size as the other characters, maybe a head taller but still pretty tiny. Was it the sparklium? Magic? The will of the universe? Who knows! The human certainly doesn't

The human can be one of the residents from the house we explored in.

The timeline is set before the game and the human runs around their backyard trying to survive. The human does use pikmin to aid in their survival, mostly pikmin that has been left behind. The human is very fond of their ten pikmin.

I want to say they know Moss too, maybe when she is a lot younger. Mostly because when it's time for rescue corp to leave, Moss is in good hands with the human. Bonus thought; the anceint sirehound was once the human's pet before getting shrank down. He still remembers their hooman's scent.

They do know how to speak with everyone because they have spent time with the leaf sage. The human kind of see the leaf sage as a weird grandpa figure and spent a lot of time with him. In fact, the leaf sage is a key figure to the human's survival, teaching them the art of dandori that translated well to surviving on the surface.

Just a fun au to noodle on and interactions between the human and everyone else. Especially with Schnauz and Olimar interpterion of the treasures.

Everyone will be curious and vice versa! Yonny would be... rather interested with the human too.

[robotwhoscreams]

My various theories on what this dude’s whole deal is

I have 3 main theories about this dude, who I’ll just call ‘Olimin’ as the fandom has taken to calling him currently

‘Pikmin 1 Bad End’

So this is like not an original theory at all, it’s like one of the main theories currently, but essentially what if pikmin 4 is set in an alternate timeline from the other games and is set after the bad end of pikmin 1

Basically Olimar gets turned into a pikmin after failing to get off the planet

My idea is maybe the reason he’s acting like a dick is because he has amnesia? Like either due to the blunt force trauma of crashing his ship and/or getting turned into a pikmin hybrid thing just kinda..scrubbed his memory

So like he maybe remembers enough to know how to speak the same language as the other humans and all the other basic stuff, but doesn’t remember much else about who he was or anyone he knew

This theory is a bit shaky, as the original bad end olimin had a black stem, normal skin and visible ears, while this ‘olimin’ is red and has no visible ears

But maybe nintendo retconned his old Olimin appearance as to make his real identity not as obvious? Idk

Changing the design feels like something Nintendo might do to make the concept fit better in the modern game

‘Clone/Copy’

I’m gonna be real with you all, this one is my shakiest theory. This theory can take place after either of the pikmin 1 endings or maybe even the end of pikmin 3

Essentially just the idea that this humanoid pik..creature is not olimar, but is either a clone of him or is based off him

I have 0 idea how this could happen/work but maybe there’s some in universe way it could happen

It’s just feels kinda possible since the Olimin is literally just a red, fluffy version of olimar but doesn’t look like his pikmin 1 bad ending design

‘Completely Unrelated’

This creature has no relation at all to olimar and just looks like him due to the design conventions of pikmin human characters

This one also feels unlikely considering how olimin is the splitting image of olimar but it’s not impossible

For all we know, he may have been designed to look exactly like olimar as a red herring or to drum up mystery and it turns out he has nothing to do with olimar

All of these don’t really have a ton of evidence behind them, but they are fun to think about I guess

[gamebunny-advance]

Misc. Pikmin 4 Thoughts

Heavy spoilers for the entire game ahead.

There's kind of a lot, so I split them into categories.

Character Thoughts

While I still don't consider any individual member of the rescue corps to be particularly deep or interesting, I still hold the opinion that I like them more than the Pikmin 3 Koppaites because at least most of these guys are multi-faceted. I've said before that it's easy to imagine them all around a campfire sharing stories, and that is basically what happens at the end of every day once you've collected the majority of the corps. Most of these snippets are at the very least amusing, and it's cute seeing (er... reading) them interact with each other beyond their current mission.

That said, I did wind up liking Shepherd less than I would have hoped, since she never really escapes her role of basically being Charlie 2.0. I still like her more than Charlie, but I can't in good conscience put her into an "S-tier" on my favorite characters list. She makes the B-tier at best~

Yonny really grew on me once I found him, but he doesn't have many interactions with the other corps that don't amount to him experimenting on them without their consent. I do find him enjoying the horrors of the night to be endearing, but like the other characters, I do wish there was just a *little* more to him, so he still ranks below Shepherd.

Bernard is a funny little guy, but I don't know how seriously we're supposed to take what he says. I know that's the joke, but it makes him just a tad enigmatic, which is a hit or miss character trait for me. What's funniest about him is that there's a castaway that is just absolutely traumatized by him, and it's hilarious.

I hate Dingo. Me and my homies hate Dingo (joking). I dunno, I usually don't find these kinds of asshole types to be that endearing. You have to have a TON of charisma to counterbalance being an asshole, and Dingo just doesn't have it. I did try failing a dandori battle once on an alt save file just to see what he actually does, and it's a little amusing, but not enough to make me really like him.

While I'm on the topic, a lot of these characters are really apologetic about their asshole peers. Almost every rescue corp member asks you to forgive Dingo for being "rough around the edges." I suspect because when push comes to shove, he actually gets sh*t done, so they just put up with it otherwise. Then there's Olimar who despite everything he's witnessed still apologizes for Louie and believes that he's got a "good heart" deep down. I'll just say that most of these characters have a lot more patience than I would have for those guys.

The rest of the corps I'm kinda neutral about. I would have liked Collin more if he didn't stop to wonder about the crashed Dolphin every time I walked even remotely close to it. But besides that, he's kinda just a straight man to everyone else's antics, which is another hit or miss character trait for me. I like him more than not, and I appreciate him being a more mature character than Alph, but he's just kinda the normal guy in a cast of weirdos.

Russ also doesn't bring much to the table by himself since almost all of his dialogue is essentially tutorial text about his gadgets, but hearing about how lavish and doting his family can be is still pretty funny. There's also a castaway that apparently has a crush on him, which is kinda outta nowhere, but it's cute.

The other castaways are just kinda there. There are some funny ones, and it's surprising how many of them have relationships with one another and even to some of the rescue officers, but the most interesting ones to me are the ones that help fill out the world. The Pikmin universe is really expansive, and I wonder if this is set up for Nintento to possibly start taking the Pikmin adventures off of PNF-404 and to some of these new worlds.

Theory Crafting

I find the implications of the Shepherd family diaries to be very interesting. While I think it's pretty clear that in this new continuity, Earth isn't post-apocalyptic (or has already fully recovered from an apocalypse), I think that the diaries imply that at least that family likely originated from Earth, from how they apparently settled on a new planet and stories about Earth (referred to as "the blue planet") has been passed down through the generations. Further, supporting that theory is the fact that her home planet is named "Giya," which is likely a corruption of "Gaia," the personification of the Earth. They may not be direct descendants from humans, but they could be.

It's explicitly stated that Oatchi and Moss are descendants of the Ancient Sirehound, and that the space dog as we know it just got smaller over time. Although the Sirehound is not a "normal" dog by any means, it's still implied that PNF-404 is Earth in the far-flung future, so the evolution of its many species still could have changed significantly.

We know that Shepherd's family took their dogs with them when they migrated, so if dogs had already evolved/been bred to be like the Sirehound by that point, and the aliens started the same size as humans, then it's not a stretch to imagine that they evolved alongside each other and got smaller to adapt to their new environments. After all, large quantities of oxygen are poisonous to all the little aliens, but it's theorized that an abundance of oxygen is what lead to all the giant bugs and animals that existed on early Earth. So if the old Earthlings eventually adapted to not need so much oxygen, then they may have begun shrinking to compensate. Granted, I don't think just 7,000 years (assuming each generation of Shepherd is roughly 70 years) is enough to see changes as big as that, but this is still a science fantasy story, so we can forgive that kind of inaccuracy.

Still, I suppose that wouldn't explain why Moss is small if she was born and raised on PNF-404, unless both sizes of dog existed simultaneously before any kind of migration. The presence of the Sage Leafling implies that either the castaways are NOT the first little aliens to crash on the planet, OR that the little aliens and their dogs already lived on Earth and developed the leaves either naturally or by becoming hosts to the pikmin parasite. It's hard to say either way since the well-spokeness of the Sage Leafling can only imply that they had a strong will like Olimar, not necessarily that they were born that way like Moss.

I'm still trying to figure out what the other planets are named after. While the player's home planet is obviously supposed to be a corruption of the word "carrot" to allude to the pikmin and their resemblance to carrots, the others seem totally random. I did eventually parse that "Ohri" is likely based on "Orion," the constellation, as its people are referred to as "Ohrians," but I'm not sure about the rest. A lot of them might be named after words/places in Japan just like Hocotate and Koppai before them, but with my limited cultural knowledge, it's hard to say.

Random Thoughts

It's interesting to me that now that "wife bad" jokes are considered distasteful, a lot of Olimar's comments on certain treasures have been rewritten to be more positive towards his wife. I don't think it's a bad change, but he went from having some serious marital discourse to having the biggest hard-on I've ever seen. I guess Nintendo decided that they didn't want the main character of what is becoming a flagship franchise for them being borderline misogynistic.

Speaking of retcons, of all the things to change about his character, him going from finding a rubber duck absolutely horrifying to completely enamored with them is certainly a choice.