Pikmin 4 was an overall disappointment for me, a person who has played every single entry in the series (including the poorly received "Hey! Pikmin")

Pikmin 4 severely compromises its usual design here. Previous entries have been short, satisfying experiences that are deceptively difficult despite their cute asthetics. Pikmin 4 is a relatively gentle experience throughout which was far from what I desired from a Pikmin game. Pikmin 4 goals feel like it wants to "Fix" Pikmin 2, and in the process removed the core appeal of that title.

First off this game is excruciatingly chatty. Olimar here is replaced with an avatar of you, which gives you less personality for the overall writing since your avatar is largely speechless. Replacing Olimar is crew members and castaways, giving you a mind boggling 47 characters to rescue and interact with. Most, if not all, are painfully one dimensional in terms of their dialog, which adds tedium to every side quest achievement in the game. Previous entries were able to achieve good plots with minimal characters (the most being 5 characters in pikmin 3). Here it goes for a maximalist approach, adding character to ensure that every sub-menu navigation has a character adding dialog, adding length and tedium at every turn.

A constant glut of characters removes the isolation and naturalistic beauty in these games I always enjoyed. Imagine giving Samus a giant spaceship of Vets, Twitch Streamers, Teachers, Florists and TV personalities to berate her with advice on how to complete her mission and you can start to feel how exhausting these dialog trees are. One character even jokes how his dialog box never means anything. It's like the game knows it's boring and taxing on players.

Game play itself has also been de-fanged from the previous games. The new Pikmin here, Ice and Glow, are both attempts at making the game easier rather than extending into new game play ideas. Ice freezes enemies and prevents them from a continued attack. Glow is essentially the "Everything" Pikmin that is impervious to all environmental hazards (water, fire, electricity, poison, etc.) and are an item to lighten the claustrophobic dread that came from Pikmin 2's caves. without enemies posing any real danger, or caves posing any risk/reward of pikmin the game feels like all that is required to beat it is time and not skill.

Pikmin 4 also avoids death to help mitigate challenge. Pikmin 4 only allows 20 pikmin playable at a time at the start. This makes the game easier for new players, but as a veteran of the series I felt this made the game needlessly longer and signaled that it wouldn't be letting something as tragic as losing 100 pikmin at once be an issue anymore. Most enemies do less damage, and some are changed from previous entries from killing pikmin to merely stunning them.

The enemies are also mostly just pulled from Pikmin 2 and don't demonstrate any new ideas, going for nostalgia rather than originality. going through the enemy list shows few new enemy designs, a highlight of each game (especially Pikmin 3). all but a handful enemies return from before, removing a large part of discovering a new world.

Oatchi, the dog, is the one improvement that I can actually understand and enjoy. Oatchi functions to improve traversal but having pikmin in one place (riding on top of the dog) and giving a quick burst to stun enemies. But even this smart traversal addition is hampered by the fact that Oatchi can be upgraded to fight solo, have the strength of 100 pikmin, and walk faster than the player. Late game challenges as a result disincentivizes using pikmin at all, as most bosses are easily bested by Oatchi solo, who is stronger and faster with a giant health bar that regenerates.

The post game content increases difficulty, but not by much. The most appealing segment is playing as Olimar in a 15 day time trial as a reference to Pikmin 1. This mode was an amazing and joyous 3 hour experience, but I can't help but feel I enjoyed it simply because I was playing a different game.

Overall Pikmin 4 is attempting to broaden its appeal to a "Cozy game" market that I feel doesn't fit well with the series. This game is longer and chattier with more items, more story, more modes and more Pikmin. There is a good game buried under this bloated entry, and sadly that core experience is better realized in the cheaper, faster, funnier and more satisfying Pikmin 2. Pikmin 2 is also on switch, leaving this to feel like a needless entry. It's a slow reboot of the series that abandons the series' difficulty to appeal to newcomers. Still technically amazing, but not the game I was hoping for.