There is lots to love here like the artsytle and the crypitc storytelling. The whole game feels like a modern continuation of Zelda 1 in a bleak yet beautiful world.

But I want to talk about that soundtrack which in my opinion should be in discussion for the best videogame soundtrack ever. It is not great because you can hum along to a melody or because it feels grand and adventurous. No, this soundtrack is dry and dreary yet beautiful. It beats you down with droning and sharp synths but just like the world of Hyper Light Drifter it still finds little moments to break the sadness. Maybe a little melody floats along and leaves just as suddenly. Or out of the droning ambiance a real guitar sound emerges for just a moment. But then you enter a fight and the droning becomes sharp and rumbling again. It is not a soundtrack where a specific song will stay with you but the mood certainly will.

As someone who loved the first game it is quite frustrating to like this grand new reimagening quite a lot less. While the first one had the foundation of something fantastic it was still a flawed experience. DD2 still has this same foundation but builds an arguably worse structure on top of it.

The story is a weird mix of a retread and a continuation of the first that I doubt would make much sense to a newcomer to the series. Every plotline that isn't directly tied to the dragon is superfluous and while the parts that deal with the cycle are interesting they are told very unintuitively. This game's script very much seems like it made more sense in japanese but the translation didn't quite work.

Combat feels a lot slower than the first game which isn't inherently bad. The actions you take in combat all feel chunky and deliberate. But sadly it also simplifies most vocations by a lot so you have less decisions to make in combat (DD1 magic archer my beloved :( ). Enemy variety is also really lacking.

The world feels big and is quite the sight to behold. Wandering around and exploring at night feel just as engaging as the first game. The amount of enemies around was quite annoying though, you could barely walk two steps without stumbling into an encounter. For me that meant that exploring was a lot of running past enemies to get anywhere. The bigger problem with the world is, that there is very little to find when wandering. Sure the first game also did this, but there you were guided to most important locations by interesting quests. Here there is a whole village hidden at the corner of the map that has no connection to the rest of the world and also barely any content.

I don't hate this game, it has many great aspects like the greatly improved pawns, the depiction of different fantasy cultures and the really cool post-game. But at the end of the day this seems like an ambitious project that was left half baked. With some luck it may get a DLC at the level of Dark Arisen that fixes some of my problems.

This game doesn't have the vibe and the somber writing of the old pikmin games which is disappointing. The characters and story are also quite bland. But damn if it doesn't nail everything else.

The moment-to-moment gameplay is snappier and more streamlined compared to the other games. This makes it lack some challenge but it also enables it to focus on more interesting aspects like organizing and time-management. You dart around the map and juggle 5 different goals at the same time yet it doesn't become exhausting because the caves and mini-challenges give you a little break where you can focus on just one aspect of the gameplay. The dandori-challenges are immensely satisfying to replay and find little optimizations.

Then when you think the game is winding down it hits you with that amazing post-game.

Peakmin 4