This is one of the all-time greats, but god, I have. So many questions. About their design choices.
First of all, I just want to say, god, I miss all the product placement in the Switch version. I think that's a big reason why this isn't getting a 5 from me. It just added so much flavor and flair to the world and the game to see what ancient artifact you plucked out to sell on Planet Hocotate that is something we use in our daily lives.
As for the rest. It's a great game! Great music, and it expands on the original game in a lot of great ways. The caves are such a great idea, adding so much more depth (HEH) to the world and giving you so many more places to explore. It allows more bosses without overly cluttering the world, and allows tight level design in each area while giving a pretty neat roguelite, procedurally generated dungeon crawler.
However, there are some elements of the caves that... don't feel great. In later caves there will be hazards that fall from the sky. Some when you're alone, some when you have Pikmin, and some when you move treasures. Sometimes this will manifest in 3 bomb rocks or 3 Volatile Dweevils trapping you in a corner of a small room and blowing you to hell. Or boulders will just drop all over you and absolutely ruin your day. It's offset by the fact that caves save at the beginning of each floor, but it still doesn't feel fun. Were it not for progress saving, a lot of these later caves would be absolutely miserable. It's a really neat idea and great core gameplay loop that is just sort of marred by this messiness.
Not to mention that there are some cave floors where the best option is to go up to enemies and punch them to death with your captains isn't fun. It doesn't feel like satisfying. I understand I can use Pikmin and it'll take far less time, but the risk-reward isn't there. Why risk a bunch of my little guys and need to spend a day or two building up my numbers again when I can spend 10 minutes slowly punching stuff to death after I get the combat upgrade?
Combining that with the massive nerf to swarming and the sheer strength of Purples, to the fact that they're the best to use in all but a few situations, and it's a very messy game. A messy game I LOVE, but a messy game in terms of balance of gameplay.
At least the Pikmin AI is SO much better and I don't have to worry about them just all flying off a bridge, thank god. That was one of the roughest parts of 1.
It's also a very lovely game, the areas are all remixes of the areas from 1, save for the first one, and the way they recontextualize these old locations in a new way, with new landing sites, new terrain, and new enemies, through the passage of time since returning to Hocotate and coming back is fantastic, and I think was the best choice they could've made! The way they're all themed to seasons rules.
Also, the way the music changes instruments depending on the captain you're currently controlling? What a brilliant and fun idea that gives some variety as you swap between captains to get stuff done during the day.
Although purples are overpowered, I do like what they and white Pikmin add to the game overall! With the basics of fire, water, and electricity (finally added in this game, lol), extra carrying strength and really fast speed + digging are cool extras!
It's just a wonderful game with wonderful creatures, a wonderful gameplay loop, and some fantastic additions. Even for its problems, it's still an incredible Pikmin game, and even though I was too bad to beat it as a kid, I'm happy I finally was able to go the distance.
First of all, I just want to say, god, I miss all the product placement in the Switch version. I think that's a big reason why this isn't getting a 5 from me. It just added so much flavor and flair to the world and the game to see what ancient artifact you plucked out to sell on Planet Hocotate that is something we use in our daily lives.
As for the rest. It's a great game! Great music, and it expands on the original game in a lot of great ways. The caves are such a great idea, adding so much more depth (HEH) to the world and giving you so many more places to explore. It allows more bosses without overly cluttering the world, and allows tight level design in each area while giving a pretty neat roguelite, procedurally generated dungeon crawler.
However, there are some elements of the caves that... don't feel great. In later caves there will be hazards that fall from the sky. Some when you're alone, some when you have Pikmin, and some when you move treasures. Sometimes this will manifest in 3 bomb rocks or 3 Volatile Dweevils trapping you in a corner of a small room and blowing you to hell. Or boulders will just drop all over you and absolutely ruin your day. It's offset by the fact that caves save at the beginning of each floor, but it still doesn't feel fun. Were it not for progress saving, a lot of these later caves would be absolutely miserable. It's a really neat idea and great core gameplay loop that is just sort of marred by this messiness.
Not to mention that there are some cave floors where the best option is to go up to enemies and punch them to death with your captains isn't fun. It doesn't feel like satisfying. I understand I can use Pikmin and it'll take far less time, but the risk-reward isn't there. Why risk a bunch of my little guys and need to spend a day or two building up my numbers again when I can spend 10 minutes slowly punching stuff to death after I get the combat upgrade?
Combining that with the massive nerf to swarming and the sheer strength of Purples, to the fact that they're the best to use in all but a few situations, and it's a very messy game. A messy game I LOVE, but a messy game in terms of balance of gameplay.
At least the Pikmin AI is SO much better and I don't have to worry about them just all flying off a bridge, thank god. That was one of the roughest parts of 1.
It's also a very lovely game, the areas are all remixes of the areas from 1, save for the first one, and the way they recontextualize these old locations in a new way, with new landing sites, new terrain, and new enemies, through the passage of time since returning to Hocotate and coming back is fantastic, and I think was the best choice they could've made! The way they're all themed to seasons rules.
Also, the way the music changes instruments depending on the captain you're currently controlling? What a brilliant and fun idea that gives some variety as you swap between captains to get stuff done during the day.
Although purples are overpowered, I do like what they and white Pikmin add to the game overall! With the basics of fire, water, and electricity (finally added in this game, lol), extra carrying strength and really fast speed + digging are cool extras!
It's just a wonderful game with wonderful creatures, a wonderful gameplay loop, and some fantastic additions. Even for its problems, it's still an incredible Pikmin game, and even though I was too bad to beat it as a kid, I'm happy I finally was able to go the distance.