I started playing Pikmin 2 right after beating Pikmin 1, and there are immediate quality of life improvements that I greatly appreciated. Being able to switch between Pikmin types while holding a Pikmin is great for quickly picking the one you need without having to dismiss as often, and Pikmin feel more clever overall, for example they now automatically pick up a pellet after taking out a Pellet Posy. Being able to switch to a second leader is also useful, but admittedly I was not able to do as much multi-tasking as I expected to do, which may be due to my own inability, but being able to send a leader somewhere automatically while doing another task would be helpful (and is something the Pikmin games would later implement in future titles).
The game's new structure with a focus on procedurally-generated caves where you bring a set number of Pikmin in and are unable (for the most part) to get more shows a big change in the game's focus compared to its predecessor. Since Pikmin 1 focused more on the overall challenge of finding all 30 ship parts in 30 days, each individual challenge was less demanding, as major disasters could throw players off pace and the tension came from hoping you had enough days left to recover all the parts. In Pikmin 2, there is no time limit, instead each cave demands more from the player with challenging layouts full of enemies and hazards. The designers were free to create more difficult encounters, as if the player lost all their Pikmin, they could simply take time to get more and come back later with no time limit looming overhead. I find this change to be a great one. The tension of getting through a cave is palpable, knowing that every Pikmin lost is a permanent weakening of your abilities to not just to defeat the boss at the end, but also to take back all of the treasure.
While Pikmin 2 is definitely challenging, I never felt that it was poorly balanced until taking on the final boss, which was a nonstop 30 minute gauntlet of dodging attacks and running in to throw Pikmin before recalling when they started their next attack. The boss does not give you enough of a window to deal much damage, so the fight turns into a bit of a slog that had my hands cramping up from throwing so many Pikmin. Having to refight the boss if you don't have enough Pikmin to take back its treasures is another brutally punishing element that, while interesting, I found to be a bit much.
For the most part, I also believe that most Pikmin types fill an important niche. Yellow Pikmin are much more useful now, as they resist electricity which is the most fatal hazard type in the game, as it instantly kills the other Pikmin types with no chance of whistling them back to safety. Red Pikmin are still useful for fiery enemies and traps, but their role in combat has been somewhat overshadowed by the powerful but somewhat rare Purple Pikmin. The quick White Pikmin are able to keep up with the leaders' speed easily unlike all other types (which have been slowed down since Pikmin 1), allowing you to make some risky but exhilarating moves to quickly grab treasure and get out before enemies have time to attack, but I would say that they are the new least-utilized Pikmin type. As most poisonous hazards can be neutralized with a single White Pikmin, there is little need to amass many of them.
The game's writing is clever and thought-provoking, reading the Piklopedia and Treasure notes was a fun way to wind down after a tense day exploring caves. Learning more about Olimar's family dynamics, his thoughts on Louie and the President, as well as his theories about the ecology of the planet was something I looked forward to at the end of each day. Unlocking Louie's notes towards the end of the game was great, seeing his recipes for each creature gave him some much-appreciated characterization after being absent for much of the playthrough, though I still wish you could pick either Louie or the President as the second leader after Louie is rescued.
Pikmin 2 is a game that surprised me in how much room Pikmin had to grow, and gracefully takes on a new direction for the series considering how much has changed structurally. Even after beating the game, I could not stop thinking about how rich the world of Pikmin 2 is, and it makes me wish that Nintendo would do more to emphasize their writing in their games, as Pikmin 2 clearly shows how much it can add without getting in the way of players who are not interested.
The game's new structure with a focus on procedurally-generated caves where you bring a set number of Pikmin in and are unable (for the most part) to get more shows a big change in the game's focus compared to its predecessor. Since Pikmin 1 focused more on the overall challenge of finding all 30 ship parts in 30 days, each individual challenge was less demanding, as major disasters could throw players off pace and the tension came from hoping you had enough days left to recover all the parts. In Pikmin 2, there is no time limit, instead each cave demands more from the player with challenging layouts full of enemies and hazards. The designers were free to create more difficult encounters, as if the player lost all their Pikmin, they could simply take time to get more and come back later with no time limit looming overhead. I find this change to be a great one. The tension of getting through a cave is palpable, knowing that every Pikmin lost is a permanent weakening of your abilities to not just to defeat the boss at the end, but also to take back all of the treasure.
While Pikmin 2 is definitely challenging, I never felt that it was poorly balanced until taking on the final boss, which was a nonstop 30 minute gauntlet of dodging attacks and running in to throw Pikmin before recalling when they started their next attack. The boss does not give you enough of a window to deal much damage, so the fight turns into a bit of a slog that had my hands cramping up from throwing so many Pikmin. Having to refight the boss if you don't have enough Pikmin to take back its treasures is another brutally punishing element that, while interesting, I found to be a bit much.
For the most part, I also believe that most Pikmin types fill an important niche. Yellow Pikmin are much more useful now, as they resist electricity which is the most fatal hazard type in the game, as it instantly kills the other Pikmin types with no chance of whistling them back to safety. Red Pikmin are still useful for fiery enemies and traps, but their role in combat has been somewhat overshadowed by the powerful but somewhat rare Purple Pikmin. The quick White Pikmin are able to keep up with the leaders' speed easily unlike all other types (which have been slowed down since Pikmin 1), allowing you to make some risky but exhilarating moves to quickly grab treasure and get out before enemies have time to attack, but I would say that they are the new least-utilized Pikmin type. As most poisonous hazards can be neutralized with a single White Pikmin, there is little need to amass many of them.
The game's writing is clever and thought-provoking, reading the Piklopedia and Treasure notes was a fun way to wind down after a tense day exploring caves. Learning more about Olimar's family dynamics, his thoughts on Louie and the President, as well as his theories about the ecology of the planet was something I looked forward to at the end of each day. Unlocking Louie's notes towards the end of the game was great, seeing his recipes for each creature gave him some much-appreciated characterization after being absent for much of the playthrough, though I still wish you could pick either Louie or the President as the second leader after Louie is rescued.
Pikmin 2 is a game that surprised me in how much room Pikmin had to grow, and gracefully takes on a new direction for the series considering how much has changed structurally. Even after beating the game, I could not stop thinking about how rich the world of Pikmin 2 is, and it makes me wish that Nintendo would do more to emphasize their writing in their games, as Pikmin 2 clearly shows how much it can add without getting in the way of players who are not interested.
NOWITSREYNTIME17
7 months ago