#maybe I'll stream my no upgrades run and discuss my spoiler-related thoughts there

[flecksey]

PIKMIN 4 THOUGHTS (spoiler free)

I've now officially completed Pikmin 4 (still working on platinums tho) and it's everything I ever wanted and more. There's always going to be a few nitpicks but it's hard to focus on them in light of the absolute love for the franchise on display. It genuinely feels like a fangame at times with the way it uses ideas from 1 and 2. 2 especially gets a lot of love, with this game clearly being a sequel to it in many aspects. In some ways it makes the differences all the more obvious, with certain formerly imposing creatures being easily taken down in this entry, but there's a joy to it as well. Basically everything I could have hoped for has been included, from the Piklopedia to a couple notable unlocks. There's even a few surprises I ended up loving, such as one endgame power up that has me roaming the levels just for the fun of it. 

I'll say that the timeline weirdness is... fine? They're clearly poking at the seams throughout the game, it even contradicts itself at one point. Much like the repeated crashes it adds an air of uncertainty and superstition that I don't think needs to be concretely explained. I'm a Zelda Timeline hater so if this is their way of saying they don't feel Pikmin needs a consistent timeline I'm all for it. All of the enemy lore is still intact so I don't see any issues.

Very curious to see what's next for this series and even just this game. It's pretty meaty so I don't feel DLC is necessary but I'm sure we'll at least see an update or two. More frequent Pikmin games is always the hope, though I'm fine with this being the newest game for a while. I also expect at least a secret or two to be found, given the series' track record. 2 especially had quite a few, so if this game loves 2 as much as it proclaims to then I'm sure there's something hiding in it. I did see an alternate title screen once, not sure how to trigger it. 

My issues come down to the difficulty and redundancy of some mechanics. Items can make a lot of encounters trivial. The later upgrades make you and Oatchi virtually immortal. The pikmin caller upgrades basically invalidate Oatchi's level 3 command. You can leave caves whenever.  Speaking of Oatchi, basically having a "throw all your pikmin at once" button is incredibly strong and there is almost no trade off especially at max upgrade. Having all of your Pikmin stuck to you also makes things far easier for most combat. All of these issues mostly arise from already having a high skill level at Pikmin, to the point where I didn't need these abilities to do well. I'll be curious to see how newcomers take to the game given this, but a lot of it just feels unnecessary. In some ways it ruins the tone of the series, with 1 and 2 seeming a whole lot more threatening like you’re actually on a dangerous expedition. There’s still some challenge in the endgame but most of the game does feel a bit too easy.

I might come around on the difficulty if there’s a lot of depth to replays and challenges. I'll probably try doing a few challenge runs to see how the difficulty fares. Most prominent to me is a "no upgrade" run, which seems possible. I don't think there are any required upgrades in the lab or for Oatchi other than those given automatically. I think that being able to leave and enter at any sublevel clearly removes any sort of challenge the caves once had as gauntlets, so it makes sense to forego that as well. In fact, I can't think of a single time I actually left in the middle of a cave before beating it. In some ways it makes sense to apply personal restrictions to increase the challenge. Even Pikmin 1 is trivial within 30 days at this point. I'll also be interested to see how speedrunning affects difficulty, since collecting materials to buy upgrades would be unnecessary time. The fact that I'm already thinking about replaying a game that took me 40 hours to finish says a lot. It seems like there's a lot of freedom in how you can approach this game and I can't wait to see it pushed to its limits.

Overall it's a wonderful game. I'm still trying to pinpoint what this game has that Pikmin 3 didn't (other than a ton of content), but it feels a whole lot more satisfying to me than 3 ever did for a similar wait. It’s just so... full. As much as I can nitpick the difficulty and the ways it affects tone, it’s undeniably Pikmin. I haven’t even gushed about the incredible soundtrack or how great the game looks. I’m sure I’ll be playing this for many years to come.