It feels like most of the decisions made with Pikmin 4 were made because it's what the fans would want and not because they were actually good ideas. Were you disappointed purples and whites weren't in Pikmin 3's main game? I know I was when I was a kid, so let's have EVERY pikmin type in the sequel! Sounds like a great idea until you consider that doing so requires the game to be designed around 9 different pikmin who are all supposed to have their own unique traits to make them helpful. The problem is that several pikmin feel shoehorned in just to please fans. Winged Pikmin have barely any puzzles designed around them and therefore are less useful, and both whites and purples can't do anything that Oatchi can't already accomplish with a few upgrades, not only making them redundant, but even if you could somehow justify using them, you're still greatly hindering yourself by having any on the field due to the 3 type limit. Why use any of these pikmin types that have functions that are done better by others or Oatchi when you could use far less situational ones (Blues, Ice, Rocks debatably , etc.). On the topic of Oatchi, the way he was implemented was very hit and miss. When it comes to exploration and multitasking he's a good addition, there are things he can do that the player cannot and vice versa, he's a far better fighter and can accomplish tasks that are normally reserved for specific pikmin, while also not having access to certain areas the player can go to. This expands upon the strategic planning the series is known for. On the other hand however, with the help of the new ice pikmin, he completely trivializes combat. After a few upgrades his rush attack shreds through any enemy encounter that would prove to be even remotely challenging, and the ice pikmin acting as an infinite stone spray from Pikmin 2 makes combat and boss fights a comedy act. Enemies do shatter if they're defeated while frozen, preventing you from carrying back their corpses to make more pikmin, but not only can you get more than enough from pellets and caves, but while you're in caves you can't repopulate pikmin to begin with, which completely nulls the one punishment you get for spamming ice pikmin.

While on the topic of the caves, I don't have much to say about most of them, but I would like to take a moment to talk about the Engulfed Castle. It's a blatant copy paste of the famous Submerged Castle from Pikmin 2. What made that dungeon work in Pikmin 2 was it applied time management and efficiency to a game that lacked any sense of urgency. There was no reason to play efficientely in Pikmin 2 because there wasn't any time limit, it pretty much missed the point of the first game. Then comes in this cave where if you play too slowly you now have to deal with an unstoppable terrifying monster while carefully moving treasures around and escaping when he gets too close to you. No doubt the best part of the entire game. Anyway, Pikmin 4 copy pastes this dungeon verbatim without understanding what made it good to begin with. Time passes in Pikmin 4's dungeons, so there's already a reason to play quickly while in them, so bringing back the Water Wraith is not only redundant, but even if it wasn't he's totally neutered. His AI is terrible, he would constantly ignore me when I was standing right next to him, and even then he's never a threat because Oatchi not only rounds up all of your Pikmin which makes them harder for the Water Wraith to kill, but you also outspeed him by a wide margin. And it's not even like the cave puts a twist on this gimmick, I was hoping for the wraith to get replaced with a bigger threat, or have two of them chase me, anything really, but no, it's nostalgia bait plain and simple. Same goes for the Smoky Progg reappearing in the final dungeon. He's just kinda there, the game makes a bunch of fanfare out of him returning, but I killed him in 10 seconds with Ice Pikmin because this game was made for journalists. Look at how Pikmin 3 handled the wraith concept, the Plasm Wraith may not be as threatening as the Water Wraith, however the level he was put in was designed with the Go Here function in mind and was a test of your multitasking abilities in a slow paced, tense section. Pikmin 4 has no part or no monster really that makes it stand out. I know it might sound ridiculous to dedicate a whole segment of a review to one dungeon in a game, but it's emblematic of all of this game's issues. When it's doing new things to expand on the multitasking and strategy the series is known for it's good, I greatly enjoyed the leafling caves and dandori battles. At the same time though, it's too stuck in the past trying to appeal to fans with things they want without thinking about whether or not those are good inclusions to begin with, and having callbacks to old games without understanding why they worked.

I can't believe I had to spend a portion of this review comparing 4 and 2 in 2's favor lmao