timrtabor123
2019
WARNING WALL OF TEXT INCOMING -
This is likely to be my longest review yet since it is going to go over quite a bit including:
1) My original review of the initial 2017 PS4 release from GGAPP.io for context/archival purposes.
2) A basic overview of how I feel Persona 5 Royal handles its themes.
3) An overview of general series mechanics and how I feel about them both as artistic/literary tools and as a form of entertainment.
4) Miscellaneous observations about JRPGs as a genre I feel Persona 5 best gives me the contextual opportunity to talk about in a public forum.
ORIGINAL PERSONA 5 REVIEW FROM GGAPP.IO
“Played on:
Playstation 4 (Regular Version)
Some cognitive dissonance with themes of the games (especially in regards to social links since that was handed off to a b-team) and Okamura's dungeon being a slog means I probably never finish this but out of the 100s of games released in the era of Trump and global rightwing populism resurgence, this is the only one that feels like it tackled the issues without kiddy gloves on. Worth a playthrough at least. Don't bother with the non-confidant sidequests though.”
SUMMARY
Persona is an anthology series of turn based Japanese role playing games centered around a crew of high schoolers coming of age in contemporary Japanese society with a tarot card/psychology motif. The plot of this entry largely revolves around a wrongly convicted high schooler on parole coming across a magical world of the collective unconscious and using it to fix injustices in Japanese society with a band of like minded individuals.
The main hook of Persona over its competitors in the genre is a calendar system used to interact with your party members and a host of non-playable characters outside of dungeons for additional narrative context, world building, and dungeon resources. Persona 5 specifically adds several interesting ripples to the basic formula first setup in the third entry. Most notably a revamp of the dungeon design to include flashier setpieces, a basic stealth mechanic to fit into the game’s heist motif, gun attacks, an upgradeable attack chaining system, status ailment chaining, and a revamp of creature acquisition to make it slightly more inline with the first two games.
GAMEPLAY & DIFFICULTY BALANCE
If this sounds like a lot to keep track of for as a casual player you would be correct and I suspect this is why I struggled upon playing to a certain point in my original run as I mention in that initial review. I am happy to say that the rebalance of the Okumura dungeon (Haru’s elemental attacks can kill the strongest enemies that you encounter in the dungeon and technical damage is more clearly explained during the Kamoshida tutorial) did wonders to the mid to late game portion of the story. Pretty much the only part of the game I found to be particularly unfair to the player this time around is the first phase of the true final boss (which given the narrative and design context is fine I just don’t have an issue admitting I lowered the difficulty to safe from normal for that fight).
That being said, the game is no walk in the park either. I’d say the game’s combat is very deliberately designed to make you pull every lever at your disposal ranging from elemental weaknesses to party member attributes. Kanesiro’s dungeon for example forces you to learn the importance of debuffs and status healing items in order to fight his pig robot without bleeding the additional SP and HP you’ll need to survive the direct fight with the head honcho and his enforcers. This might be one of the most satisfying turn-based systems I've seen in that specific regard. I can firmly say the battle system,while perhaps a tad repetitive during field battles for a 100ish hour affair (honestly though this is a statement I can attach to much of the genre and the stealth mechanic at least alleviates this slightly), gets the job done. I wish I could say the same for the calendar system though which I found to cause the game to suffer from story pacing problems.
TAKE YOUR TIME
As mentioned previously the Persona games are known for their time management mechanics. The protagonist can perform several activities in the real world that aid him in his vigilante work as a Phantom Thief. Persona 5 operates off a system in which you can largely do two social activities per day with dungeon exploration needing to take up at least the first slot if you chose to enter that day. When in the overworld you can either earn money for shopping via a part time job, build friendships with locals for combat buffs, craft items, or increase stats. Every story arc has a deadline of X amount of days to complete a dungeon before getting a game over screen. If you finish ahead of time you have a ton of spare days to do as you wish. If you are a skilled player that has prepared accordingly you will likely complete a dungeon in two time slots (dungeon bosses are almost always a second day).This causes two issues:a trivialized confidant time slot economy and repetitive dialogue. First of those is rather simple; it removes a lot of potential for interesting choices in the confidant system as the litany of time slots opened up by one day dungeon clears means you can easily get the social stats and rank up events for every confidant rather easily in a single playthrough (an issue exacerbated by Royale’s extra stat boosting events and extra semester of calendar days).
Often times during these dungeon arcs you will get messages and party meet ups pestering you to go to the dungeon on days where you haven’t finished the mission yet, in the event the player has finished these events effectively become victory laps where the other Phantom Thieves talk about how you dodged a bullet with that last target. Due to how the game flags story progress this means you could end up with large stretches of time where you are just button mashing through phone conversations that repeat the same plot points you just saw while you wait to gain control of your character for social activities. These events really do not add much characterization to any of your party members and do not respect the players time. These sequences could be cut and nothing is lost.
Perhaps the most annoying aspect of this is the fact it really doesn’t even feel necessary design wise outside the first arc. If a player has beaten Kamoshida chances are they comprehend the objective deadlines and don’t need to be treated like a kid playing his or her first JRPG for the rest of the game. This also extends to the various cutscenes that point out obvious puzzles inside dungeons. Yes, I realize the irony in an entire long ass paragraph for what effectively amounts to “Bro, get a better editor for your script!” but I felt it needed to be said. Especially when Persona 5 otherwise takes great strides with respecting the player in other aspects it just becomes a flaw made more glaring.
“LOOKING COOL JOKER!”
The game’s presentation has an incredibly snazzy graphical & audio design with a vivid pop art flair that does a great job of capturing the game's “rage against the machine” attitude. Unlike other flashy user interfaces this also mostly aids the game’s conveyance of information. I never really questioned why something was or wasn’t visible or under a certain category cough smash bros “games & more” cough. Plenty of quality of life shortcuts also are provided that are meant to reduce downtime during gameplay. You will automatically be prompted to upgrade gear when you find a better piece of equipment in a dungeon chest or shop for example and fast travel drastically cuts down on the tedium that might otherwise exist during the overworld time slots.
I AM THOU THOU ART I
Overall I’d say my biggest gripes with the game’s otherwise well thought out presentation come down to two aspects: the fusion system’s stylistic execution and the lack of soundtrack variety.
The velvet room gives you the ability to combine and edit various monsters under the protagonist’s control for extra strategic options and firepower. (There is more to it than that for analytical purposes this is all you really need to know.). This seems like a slam dunk of a mechanic right? Give the player a ton of levers to pull to create a party of creatures synergized for the needs of the moment. The problem lies in the way the player interacts through this menu system and lack of player intuitiveness in fusion results.
Simply put there isn’t really a great way to just work out what creates a given Persona without remembering a bunch of mythological creature names from the fuse by result screen. A problem further exacerbated by the eclectic origin of the monster designs. Since most of the creatures are pulling from real life cultures directly you end up in a scenario where most of the creatures don’t have an easy to infer crafting recipe to follow. How does a water yokai (Genbu) mixed with a jewish demon in a jar (Agathion) logically create an Irish ghost horse thing (Kelpie)? This is a type of clunkiness present in a lot of this system that can be directly tied to the choice to use super faithful mythological designs. Looking at other monster battling JRPGs it is usually easy to infer gameplay consequences of your party choices via the character design. What niche does Squirtle usually occupy in Pokemon Blue Version? Well given the blue coloring, turtle shape, and hard shell we can probably infer it’ll be a defensive water type by the end of its evolutionary line even if I haven’t seen a picture of Blastoise in my life. This character design choice basically heavily incentivizes you to brute force the entire system by just fusing stuff without much thought in a guideless run (or in a worse case scenario making you just skip the fusion process all together and opt to just use weaker negotiation encounters). This is honestly a shame given how I can see this system synergizing well with confidants to create a highly replayable game if the kinks with both systems were given more attention. Imagine a version of this game where you had to face bosses in radically different ways based on how you allocated your time before the end of each arc. It would’ve added an additional layer of replayability and playthrough individuality to the whole affair. This is without even going into how it makes the optional crafting focused strength arcana confidant that serves as a chekov’s gun for late game plot points into a slog that isn’t worth your time.
TAKE OVER
On a more surface level note the game suffers from a dismal track variety that is only exacerbated by changes in Royale that reduce the prominence of several tracks in favor of more instances of the song “Take Over”. When you are in battle you are going to hear that particular song a lot and it can get very grating after a while. This can be rectified somewhat with the game’s costumes for the previous protagonists that play past series battle themes but this comes at the cost of player expression as those custom’s must be equipped for the themes to play. These themes also inherently clash with the presentational cohesion Persona 5 strives for by virtue of being composed for games with different narrative themes, stylistic choices, and tones so they aren’t a perfect solution to the issue of battle track variety. This is rather unfortunate as what is here is generally pretty well made and catchy. I just wish there was more of it and what is there is stretched for 70 hours of play.
WINGS OF REBELLION
Persona 5 is kinda a fascinating mess on a thematic storytelling level. I don’t wanna dwell on this point too much as many have already beaten this concept like the dead horse it is but it bears mentioning. For 75% of its runtime Persona 5 focuses heavily on how nihilism combines with ends justify the means moral justifications to create self propagating cycles of internalized persecution. Every palace leader is basically someone that sacrificed everything for their desires in a broken system. Kamoshida gave into his vices to keep his reputation as a volleyball coach and thus his ego from his days as an olympian intact, Madarame needed to have every artistic success in his own name (regardless of how) to avoid being a starving artist, Kaneshiro constantly projected strength and hoarded wealth to avoid being branded a weakling by society. I could go on and on but you see my point. During the final two dungeons this sorta awkwardly shifts into an anti-populism message where the likes of Yaldabaoth and Doctor Maruki are presented as naive at best micromanaging narcistits for wanting to make society better. I guess according to Persona 5 if you legitimately want fundamental changes to make the world better fuck you. I play games to avoid shallow conservative and neoliberal dominated political discourse for a few hours Atlus.If you are gonna have overt political messaging in your games don’t be so milquetoast about it. It’s worth mentioning This is just one aspect. I could go whole hog on the games anti-populism message contradicting its treatment of female characters and LGBTQ+ issues in a right leaning populist way but there are several video essayists and journalists that have covered that topic from a far more informed angle then I can offer as a straight dude (links in bottom of review). The long and short of my point though? Persona 5 narrative addresses a systemic issue and offers no solution which gives off the vibe of Katsura Hashino and company being rather passive storytellers for 70+ hours.
If the game hadn’t done such a good job making the core party of phantom thieves into such a memorable cast with this motif of political corruption I might not care about this point much and would just chalk it up as another JRPG targeted at teenagers with vaguely anti-nihilism message but the fact the game comes this close to doing something different and chooses not to is frankly a little annoying. Especially when Persona 3 + 4 largely nail the deeper writing side of this memorable JRPG equation but fuck up in the gameplay areas Persona 5 largley excels in. It feels like we were a few writing tweaks and playtests away from the definitive game in the series and honestly that makes said flaws stick out more. I hope P-Studio learns the right lessons from this game and makes the next game the series’s magnum opus.
PLUGS FOR FURTHER READING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzdylKgPjNI
https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/31/21199516/persona-5-royal-edits-changed-scene-ryuji-homophobia-controversy
This is likely to be my longest review yet since it is going to go over quite a bit including:
1) My original review of the initial 2017 PS4 release from GGAPP.io for context/archival purposes.
2) A basic overview of how I feel Persona 5 Royal handles its themes.
3) An overview of general series mechanics and how I feel about them both as artistic/literary tools and as a form of entertainment.
4) Miscellaneous observations about JRPGs as a genre I feel Persona 5 best gives me the contextual opportunity to talk about in a public forum.
ORIGINAL PERSONA 5 REVIEW FROM GGAPP.IO
“Played on:
Playstation 4 (Regular Version)
Some cognitive dissonance with themes of the games (especially in regards to social links since that was handed off to a b-team) and Okamura's dungeon being a slog means I probably never finish this but out of the 100s of games released in the era of Trump and global rightwing populism resurgence, this is the only one that feels like it tackled the issues without kiddy gloves on. Worth a playthrough at least. Don't bother with the non-confidant sidequests though.”
SUMMARY
Persona is an anthology series of turn based Japanese role playing games centered around a crew of high schoolers coming of age in contemporary Japanese society with a tarot card/psychology motif. The plot of this entry largely revolves around a wrongly convicted high schooler on parole coming across a magical world of the collective unconscious and using it to fix injustices in Japanese society with a band of like minded individuals.
The main hook of Persona over its competitors in the genre is a calendar system used to interact with your party members and a host of non-playable characters outside of dungeons for additional narrative context, world building, and dungeon resources. Persona 5 specifically adds several interesting ripples to the basic formula first setup in the third entry. Most notably a revamp of the dungeon design to include flashier setpieces, a basic stealth mechanic to fit into the game’s heist motif, gun attacks, an upgradeable attack chaining system, status ailment chaining, and a revamp of creature acquisition to make it slightly more inline with the first two games.
GAMEPLAY & DIFFICULTY BALANCE
If this sounds like a lot to keep track of for as a casual player you would be correct and I suspect this is why I struggled upon playing to a certain point in my original run as I mention in that initial review. I am happy to say that the rebalance of the Okumura dungeon (Haru’s elemental attacks can kill the strongest enemies that you encounter in the dungeon and technical damage is more clearly explained during the Kamoshida tutorial) did wonders to the mid to late game portion of the story. Pretty much the only part of the game I found to be particularly unfair to the player this time around is the first phase of the true final boss (which given the narrative and design context is fine I just don’t have an issue admitting I lowered the difficulty to safe from normal for that fight).
That being said, the game is no walk in the park either. I’d say the game’s combat is very deliberately designed to make you pull every lever at your disposal ranging from elemental weaknesses to party member attributes. Kanesiro’s dungeon for example forces you to learn the importance of debuffs and status healing items in order to fight his pig robot without bleeding the additional SP and HP you’ll need to survive the direct fight with the head honcho and his enforcers. This might be one of the most satisfying turn-based systems I've seen in that specific regard. I can firmly say the battle system,while perhaps a tad repetitive during field battles for a 100ish hour affair (honestly though this is a statement I can attach to much of the genre and the stealth mechanic at least alleviates this slightly), gets the job done. I wish I could say the same for the calendar system though which I found to cause the game to suffer from story pacing problems.
TAKE YOUR TIME
As mentioned previously the Persona games are known for their time management mechanics. The protagonist can perform several activities in the real world that aid him in his vigilante work as a Phantom Thief. Persona 5 operates off a system in which you can largely do two social activities per day with dungeon exploration needing to take up at least the first slot if you chose to enter that day. When in the overworld you can either earn money for shopping via a part time job, build friendships with locals for combat buffs, craft items, or increase stats. Every story arc has a deadline of X amount of days to complete a dungeon before getting a game over screen. If you finish ahead of time you have a ton of spare days to do as you wish. If you are a skilled player that has prepared accordingly you will likely complete a dungeon in two time slots (dungeon bosses are almost always a second day).This causes two issues:a trivialized confidant time slot economy and repetitive dialogue. First of those is rather simple; it removes a lot of potential for interesting choices in the confidant system as the litany of time slots opened up by one day dungeon clears means you can easily get the social stats and rank up events for every confidant rather easily in a single playthrough (an issue exacerbated by Royale’s extra stat boosting events and extra semester of calendar days).
Often times during these dungeon arcs you will get messages and party meet ups pestering you to go to the dungeon on days where you haven’t finished the mission yet, in the event the player has finished these events effectively become victory laps where the other Phantom Thieves talk about how you dodged a bullet with that last target. Due to how the game flags story progress this means you could end up with large stretches of time where you are just button mashing through phone conversations that repeat the same plot points you just saw while you wait to gain control of your character for social activities. These events really do not add much characterization to any of your party members and do not respect the players time. These sequences could be cut and nothing is lost.
Perhaps the most annoying aspect of this is the fact it really doesn’t even feel necessary design wise outside the first arc. If a player has beaten Kamoshida chances are they comprehend the objective deadlines and don’t need to be treated like a kid playing his or her first JRPG for the rest of the game. This also extends to the various cutscenes that point out obvious puzzles inside dungeons. Yes, I realize the irony in an entire long ass paragraph for what effectively amounts to “Bro, get a better editor for your script!” but I felt it needed to be said. Especially when Persona 5 otherwise takes great strides with respecting the player in other aspects it just becomes a flaw made more glaring.
“LOOKING COOL JOKER!”
The game’s presentation has an incredibly snazzy graphical & audio design with a vivid pop art flair that does a great job of capturing the game's “rage against the machine” attitude. Unlike other flashy user interfaces this also mostly aids the game’s conveyance of information. I never really questioned why something was or wasn’t visible or under a certain category cough smash bros “games & more” cough. Plenty of quality of life shortcuts also are provided that are meant to reduce downtime during gameplay. You will automatically be prompted to upgrade gear when you find a better piece of equipment in a dungeon chest or shop for example and fast travel drastically cuts down on the tedium that might otherwise exist during the overworld time slots.
I AM THOU THOU ART I
Overall I’d say my biggest gripes with the game’s otherwise well thought out presentation come down to two aspects: the fusion system’s stylistic execution and the lack of soundtrack variety.
The velvet room gives you the ability to combine and edit various monsters under the protagonist’s control for extra strategic options and firepower. (There is more to it than that for analytical purposes this is all you really need to know.). This seems like a slam dunk of a mechanic right? Give the player a ton of levers to pull to create a party of creatures synergized for the needs of the moment. The problem lies in the way the player interacts through this menu system and lack of player intuitiveness in fusion results.
Simply put there isn’t really a great way to just work out what creates a given Persona without remembering a bunch of mythological creature names from the fuse by result screen. A problem further exacerbated by the eclectic origin of the monster designs. Since most of the creatures are pulling from real life cultures directly you end up in a scenario where most of the creatures don’t have an easy to infer crafting recipe to follow. How does a water yokai (Genbu) mixed with a jewish demon in a jar (Agathion) logically create an Irish ghost horse thing (Kelpie)? This is a type of clunkiness present in a lot of this system that can be directly tied to the choice to use super faithful mythological designs. Looking at other monster battling JRPGs it is usually easy to infer gameplay consequences of your party choices via the character design. What niche does Squirtle usually occupy in Pokemon Blue Version? Well given the blue coloring, turtle shape, and hard shell we can probably infer it’ll be a defensive water type by the end of its evolutionary line even if I haven’t seen a picture of Blastoise in my life. This character design choice basically heavily incentivizes you to brute force the entire system by just fusing stuff without much thought in a guideless run (or in a worse case scenario making you just skip the fusion process all together and opt to just use weaker negotiation encounters). This is honestly a shame given how I can see this system synergizing well with confidants to create a highly replayable game if the kinks with both systems were given more attention. Imagine a version of this game where you had to face bosses in radically different ways based on how you allocated your time before the end of each arc. It would’ve added an additional layer of replayability and playthrough individuality to the whole affair. This is without even going into how it makes the optional crafting focused strength arcana confidant that serves as a chekov’s gun for late game plot points into a slog that isn’t worth your time.
TAKE OVER
On a more surface level note the game suffers from a dismal track variety that is only exacerbated by changes in Royale that reduce the prominence of several tracks in favor of more instances of the song “Take Over”. When you are in battle you are going to hear that particular song a lot and it can get very grating after a while. This can be rectified somewhat with the game’s costumes for the previous protagonists that play past series battle themes but this comes at the cost of player expression as those custom’s must be equipped for the themes to play. These themes also inherently clash with the presentational cohesion Persona 5 strives for by virtue of being composed for games with different narrative themes, stylistic choices, and tones so they aren’t a perfect solution to the issue of battle track variety. This is rather unfortunate as what is here is generally pretty well made and catchy. I just wish there was more of it and what is there is stretched for 70 hours of play.
WINGS OF REBELLION
Persona 5 is kinda a fascinating mess on a thematic storytelling level. I don’t wanna dwell on this point too much as many have already beaten this concept like the dead horse it is but it bears mentioning. For 75% of its runtime Persona 5 focuses heavily on how nihilism combines with ends justify the means moral justifications to create self propagating cycles of internalized persecution. Every palace leader is basically someone that sacrificed everything for their desires in a broken system. Kamoshida gave into his vices to keep his reputation as a volleyball coach and thus his ego from his days as an olympian intact, Madarame needed to have every artistic success in his own name (regardless of how) to avoid being a starving artist, Kaneshiro constantly projected strength and hoarded wealth to avoid being branded a weakling by society. I could go on and on but you see my point. During the final two dungeons this sorta awkwardly shifts into an anti-populism message where the likes of Yaldabaoth and Doctor Maruki are presented as naive at best micromanaging narcistits for wanting to make society better. I guess according to Persona 5 if you legitimately want fundamental changes to make the world better fuck you. I play games to avoid shallow conservative and neoliberal dominated political discourse for a few hours Atlus.If you are gonna have overt political messaging in your games don’t be so milquetoast about it. It’s worth mentioning This is just one aspect. I could go whole hog on the games anti-populism message contradicting its treatment of female characters and LGBTQ+ issues in a right leaning populist way but there are several video essayists and journalists that have covered that topic from a far more informed angle then I can offer as a straight dude (links in bottom of review). The long and short of my point though? Persona 5 narrative addresses a systemic issue and offers no solution which gives off the vibe of Katsura Hashino and company being rather passive storytellers for 70+ hours.
If the game hadn’t done such a good job making the core party of phantom thieves into such a memorable cast with this motif of political corruption I might not care about this point much and would just chalk it up as another JRPG targeted at teenagers with vaguely anti-nihilism message but the fact the game comes this close to doing something different and chooses not to is frankly a little annoying. Especially when Persona 3 + 4 largely nail the deeper writing side of this memorable JRPG equation but fuck up in the gameplay areas Persona 5 largley excels in. It feels like we were a few writing tweaks and playtests away from the definitive game in the series and honestly that makes said flaws stick out more. I hope P-Studio learns the right lessons from this game and makes the next game the series’s magnum opus.
PLUGS FOR FURTHER READING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzdylKgPjNI
https://www.polygon.com/2020/3/31/21199516/persona-5-royal-edits-changed-scene-ryuji-homophobia-controversy
2021
(Review originally posted on ggapp.io)
Played On: Nintendo Switch
New Pokemon Snap has been a title I've wanted ever since I played the Wii Virtual Console re-release of the Nintendo 64 game in elementary school. Sadly, I feel that the attempts to modernize the game to meet current commercial standards have robbed the game of a lot of the original's charm. The core mechanics of going through what effectively amounts to an on-rails shooter centered on environmental puzzles and experimentation is satisfying but the choice to gate progress around repetitive replays of the level to grind up course experience is such a baffling decision. It takes what should be fun, snappy arcade gameplay centered on environmental interactions and reduces it to JRPG style grinding where you take 100s of pictures of Pidgeot. I quit playing because of that and regret my purchase.
Played On: Nintendo Switch
New Pokemon Snap has been a title I've wanted ever since I played the Wii Virtual Console re-release of the Nintendo 64 game in elementary school. Sadly, I feel that the attempts to modernize the game to meet current commercial standards have robbed the game of a lot of the original's charm. The core mechanics of going through what effectively amounts to an on-rails shooter centered on environmental puzzles and experimentation is satisfying but the choice to gate progress around repetitive replays of the level to grind up course experience is such a baffling decision. It takes what should be fun, snappy arcade gameplay centered on environmental interactions and reduces it to JRPG style grinding where you take 100s of pictures of Pidgeot. I quit playing because of that and regret my purchase.
(originally posted on ggapp.io)
Played on:
Playstation 2 (USA original release)
PS3 (2.5 HD Remix/ Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix)
I have immense amounts of nostalgia for this game and could probably never give a 100% objective review. The Disney worlds are indeed shit narrative filler but holy shit that combat has aged like a fine wine and the Roxas subplot is genuinely tragic and centering the tutorial around it was a bold artistic choice I respect. It's worth mentioning if you are looking to play this in 2021 I highly recommend opting for the newer release on PS3/PS4/Epic Game Store as that contains significantly more post-game/second runthrough content and better balanced game overall.
Played on:
Playstation 2 (USA original release)
PS3 (2.5 HD Remix/ Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix)
I have immense amounts of nostalgia for this game and could probably never give a 100% objective review. The Disney worlds are indeed shit narrative filler but holy shit that combat has aged like a fine wine and the Roxas subplot is genuinely tragic and centering the tutorial around it was a bold artistic choice I respect. It's worth mentioning if you are looking to play this in 2021 I highly recommend opting for the newer release on PS3/PS4/Epic Game Store as that contains significantly more post-game/second runthrough content and better balanced game overall.
2007
(Review originally posted on ggapp.io)
A master class in platforming level design. A must-play for anyone wanting to go down the list of "video game enthusiast canon". The gravity system is fun and even elevates the game's replayability by inadvertently encouraging speedrunning and even the often-maligned motion controls give the game-feel a sorta natural rhythm that just feels smooth. Even the recycled content (Seaside galaxy and such) is generally changed enough to be fun and not noticeable.
A master class in platforming level design. A must-play for anyone wanting to go down the list of "video game enthusiast canon". The gravity system is fun and even elevates the game's replayability by inadvertently encouraging speedrunning and even the often-maligned motion controls give the game-feel a sorta natural rhythm that just feels smooth. Even the recycled content (Seaside galaxy and such) is generally changed enough to be fun and not noticeable.
2022
This review contains spoilers
--
Contextual information for review:
All unique stories were played including the stories that lead to the dark ending and perfect ending. Edo Japan's run was normal rather than all stealth or all kills. The optional retro game gauntlet fights in the distant future were not finished. All last story character dungeons were finished sans Pogo's One might say this was a "99% run".
--
Live A Live is probably the best RPG i've played since Pokemon's Generation 2 remakes in the late 2000s. For those that don't follow the news and advertisement cycle of games, ane have merely found this review while skimming Backlog Live A Live is an SRPG with an anthology narrative structure created by Chrono Trigger creator Takashi Tokita . Simply put you are effectively playing several short stories in game form. Each with a different setting and "hook". One moment you will be running from a monster as a chibi robot and in another you will be fighting martial arts masters in a homage to Street Fighter 2. This gimmick is probably the lynchpin that makes the whole thing come together as Live A Live is very much a game that is better than the sum of its parts. I say this because while I love the presentational hooks of the genre-shifting every few hours it was definitely a case of quantity over quality. The difficulty balance is frankly pretty bad as its possible to clear a majority of the game without engaging with much of the game''s systems. The crowbar/ door key to avoid Behemoth mechanic in the future chapter?I had plenty of spare charges by the end of the chapter and was never in danger of running out. I also made short work of the wild west due to it basically being a short looting session and then a puzzle where most of the solutions are obvious (which is a shame since it had the most style of all the solo chapters). Basically, the only chapter I felt had a satisfying use of the battle system was prehistory as the solo lizard boy boss fights basically forces you to think about the amount of movement you spent and how to use Pogo's status moves. The rest was either a resource and level check (Odio's second phase) or a cakewalk (everything else). If you value strategy in your role-playing game's its sufficient to say Live A Live might not be to your taste. For me personally, though the excellent writing, graphical work, and atmospheric soundtrack really made up for the mindless gameplay.
Contextual information for review:
All unique stories were played including the stories that lead to the dark ending and perfect ending. Edo Japan's run was normal rather than all stealth or all kills. The optional retro game gauntlet fights in the distant future were not finished. All last story character dungeons were finished sans Pogo's One might say this was a "99% run".
--
Live A Live is probably the best RPG i've played since Pokemon's Generation 2 remakes in the late 2000s. For those that don't follow the news and advertisement cycle of games, ane have merely found this review while skimming Backlog Live A Live is an SRPG with an anthology narrative structure created by Chrono Trigger creator Takashi Tokita . Simply put you are effectively playing several short stories in game form. Each with a different setting and "hook". One moment you will be running from a monster as a chibi robot and in another you will be fighting martial arts masters in a homage to Street Fighter 2. This gimmick is probably the lynchpin that makes the whole thing come together as Live A Live is very much a game that is better than the sum of its parts. I say this because while I love the presentational hooks of the genre-shifting every few hours it was definitely a case of quantity over quality. The difficulty balance is frankly pretty bad as its possible to clear a majority of the game without engaging with much of the game''s systems. The crowbar/ door key to avoid Behemoth mechanic in the future chapter?I had plenty of spare charges by the end of the chapter and was never in danger of running out. I also made short work of the wild west due to it basically being a short looting session and then a puzzle where most of the solutions are obvious (which is a shame since it had the most style of all the solo chapters). Basically, the only chapter I felt had a satisfying use of the battle system was prehistory as the solo lizard boy boss fights basically forces you to think about the amount of movement you spent and how to use Pogo's status moves. The rest was either a resource and level check (Odio's second phase) or a cakewalk (everything else). If you value strategy in your role-playing game's its sufficient to say Live A Live might not be to your taste. For me personally, though the excellent writing, graphical work, and atmospheric soundtrack really made up for the mindless gameplay.
(review originally posted on GGapp.io)
WarioWare: Get It Together!
Played on:
Nintendo Switch
“WarioWare: Get It Together!” is centered on a group of wacky friends attempting to get out of a buggy video game that has gone full “Tron” and trapped them inside its world. In order to achieve this, they must partake in a series of fast-paced minute-long mini-game referred to as “microgames”. The big difference between this entry and past installments is the use of a group of on-screen avatars with distinct movesets to complete the challenges presented. This shift in how you operate each minigame based on your character adds a layer of depth to what has effectively been a formula only really changed by input method since the series debut in 2003....at least in theory. The use of cheap in-game currency to buy continues effectively breaks the game's story mode difficulty in half. No punishment for doing poorly means you never feel the need to learn how each character operates. A questionable design decision for a game with an arcadey structure where learning the intricacies of the gameplay loop largely is the appeal. This isn't necessarily a problem in itself theoretically, the game likely intended story mode to train players for the weekly microgame challenge gauntlets that are part of the online component of the game but I think it makes the game's appeal largely an "in the moment" affair. Outside of story mode and online multiplayer there is technically a set of bonus objectives in the form of an achievement and treasure system tied into the game's money system. These seem grindy and too repetitive to evoke the strong points of past games 100% runs. the only other substantial mode If you are picking this game up down the line (perhaps even in a post Switch world where online servers have gone down) all you would be left with is a easy single player and a ok multiplayer component on a system with a glut of ok to amazing games that are arguably better targeted to any party game niche you may need.
Casual group? Jackbox Game packs are far less likely to be dissorienting to them due to the controls being largely regulated to smart devices.
Hardcore group? The likes of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Kirby Star Allies, Splatoon 2 , and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (plus a metric ton of multiplayer indie games I am no doubt forgetting) is likely to offer a much more comprehensive and customizable multiplayer experience to the needs of your group.
Despite this lack of content what is there on a gameplay and presentation level is fun and competently put together. The Warioware crew is full of charming characters that have vibrant personalities on display in the game's cutscenes and the absurdist visual gags that are the basis of the microgames present are charming on a first time playthrough.
Overall, "WarioWare Get It Together" is a fun game filled with charm but lacking in substance. If you are going into the series as a newcomer with the expectation of it being a fun afternoon with a loved one you will find that here but be mindful that the impermant online component is likely to be where the majority of the content is.
Score:
3/5 (6/10)
WarioWare: Get It Together!
Played on:
Nintendo Switch
“WarioWare: Get It Together!” is centered on a group of wacky friends attempting to get out of a buggy video game that has gone full “Tron” and trapped them inside its world. In order to achieve this, they must partake in a series of fast-paced minute-long mini-game referred to as “microgames”. The big difference between this entry and past installments is the use of a group of on-screen avatars with distinct movesets to complete the challenges presented. This shift in how you operate each minigame based on your character adds a layer of depth to what has effectively been a formula only really changed by input method since the series debut in 2003....at least in theory. The use of cheap in-game currency to buy continues effectively breaks the game's story mode difficulty in half. No punishment for doing poorly means you never feel the need to learn how each character operates. A questionable design decision for a game with an arcadey structure where learning the intricacies of the gameplay loop largely is the appeal. This isn't necessarily a problem in itself theoretically, the game likely intended story mode to train players for the weekly microgame challenge gauntlets that are part of the online component of the game but I think it makes the game's appeal largely an "in the moment" affair. Outside of story mode and online multiplayer there is technically a set of bonus objectives in the form of an achievement and treasure system tied into the game's money system. These seem grindy and too repetitive to evoke the strong points of past games 100% runs. the only other substantial mode If you are picking this game up down the line (perhaps even in a post Switch world where online servers have gone down) all you would be left with is a easy single player and a ok multiplayer component on a system with a glut of ok to amazing games that are arguably better targeted to any party game niche you may need.
Casual group? Jackbox Game packs are far less likely to be dissorienting to them due to the controls being largely regulated to smart devices.
Hardcore group? The likes of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Kirby Star Allies, Splatoon 2 , and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (plus a metric ton of multiplayer indie games I am no doubt forgetting) is likely to offer a much more comprehensive and customizable multiplayer experience to the needs of your group.
Despite this lack of content what is there on a gameplay and presentation level is fun and competently put together. The Warioware crew is full of charming characters that have vibrant personalities on display in the game's cutscenes and the absurdist visual gags that are the basis of the microgames present are charming on a first time playthrough.
Overall, "WarioWare Get It Together" is a fun game filled with charm but lacking in substance. If you are going into the series as a newcomer with the expectation of it being a fun afternoon with a loved one you will find that here but be mindful that the impermant online component is likely to be where the majority of the content is.
Score:
3/5 (6/10)
2020
Not gonna lie this was a slog to get as far as I did (every main story mission sans final boss). Combat tries to be a spectacle driven muso action game like Hyrule Warriors or Dynasty Warriors and an action RPG like Kingdom Hearts 2 at the same time. It lacks any standout setpieces like the latter or the sense of combat fluidity of the former. The one time the games tries to have a distinct setpiece with a mirror match it just actively shows how shallow the mechanics are as your best solution is to just spam physical Persona attacks. Certainly a riveting solution for a challenge near the back half of the game! Only times I felt engaged in the combat were bosses (use baton passes to increase your DPS),the penultimate fights with the angelic creatures (only time debuffs came in handy). The lack of calendar systems means there is very little reason to not constantly leave dungeons for free HP and SP refills which trivializes the cooking mechanic outside of free bond point events. The environmental moves make for decent crowd control options and give the game some of Persona 5's sense of spectacle I otherwise find lacking in the title. Objectives in dungeons settle into a pattern way too quickly. Investigate a target by just talking to random NPCs. Fight trash mobs/mini bosses or hack into places to take down 3-4 jail keeps and reach the boss. Having a formula isn't a problem in itself but it needs to be executed well on a strong foundation. Something Persona 5 Strikers frankly lacks.
Writing is sorta OK for the lighthearted zero stakes affair its trying to be but like most Persona spin offs the characters end up slightly flanderized. The new additions to the cast are very one note but serviceable for the story they wanted to tell. Character designs and graphics took a notable hit due to the fact this is a lower budget spin off. The original music and sound design fits the world of Persona 5 well which makes the emphasis on remixes so disappointing. You are gonna be tired of hearing "Last Surprise" by the end of the game.
Overall a very disappointing experience I'd have probably been more annoyed if I hadn't used some random Amazon credit I had lying around to knock down the overall price. If you want a good action RPG or muso experience on Switch you have far better options available including several mainline and spin off Zelda games, and countless indie games you can likely get for a fraction of the price.
Writing is sorta OK for the lighthearted zero stakes affair its trying to be but like most Persona spin offs the characters end up slightly flanderized. The new additions to the cast are very one note but serviceable for the story they wanted to tell. Character designs and graphics took a notable hit due to the fact this is a lower budget spin off. The original music and sound design fits the world of Persona 5 well which makes the emphasis on remixes so disappointing. You are gonna be tired of hearing "Last Surprise" by the end of the game.
Overall a very disappointing experience I'd have probably been more annoyed if I hadn't used some random Amazon credit I had lying around to knock down the overall price. If you want a good action RPG or muso experience on Switch you have far better options available including several mainline and spin off Zelda games, and countless indie games you can likely get for a fraction of the price.
2001
--
ORIGINAL GGAPP.IO review:
Played on:
Gamecube
A classic that is emblematic of the experimentalism of the PS2/GameCube/X-Box era of the medium. The time limit system and Olimar's journal entries were an excellent use of dramatic tension to keep the player engaged in the story and themes of the game.
--
New Review:
(Author's note: This play-through was of the normal ending with 29/30 ships obtained. Any commentary on the challenge mode predates this play-through and stems more from owning the game for years. This run was done on Dolphin emulator version 5.0 - 18498 on native hardware graphical settings. Additionally I will note that nothing strange really happened that would notably change the experience from original hardware.)
Introduction
Pikmin 4 is coming out later this year and in anticipation I would like to look back on the three previous games with a clearer head and more depth compared to that frankly poorly written one sentence review from GGapp.io. For those unaware Pikmin is a series of real time strategy games by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto inspired by his love of gardening. The series started with duology on the Nintendo Gamecube and has since become something of a rarity among modern Nintendo first party IP by having been one of four post 2000 IP launches to really succeed for the company (the other three being Xenoblade, "Wii __", and Splatoon if anyone is curious on my math) spawning an additional two sequels on Wii U + Switch, a short film, several ports, and a litany of merchandise. This begs the question is Captain Olimar worthy of being this statistical outlier standing over the bodies of Issac and Captain Falcon like its that Grant Gustin meme? Let's find out!
Gameplay
Pikmin's primary hook is a time limit of 30 days. Each day has roughly 15-20 minute window in which you can explore to find ship parts (the game's main collectable) with your army of up to 100 disposable (but replenishable with enemy kills) units. These units come in three varieties throughout the game. Fire resistant Red Pikmin that deal extra damage, aquatic Blue Pikmin, and acrobatic Yellow Pikmin that also serve as demolition experts. Ship parts are hidden behind environmental puzzles and significant enemy encounters in each of the game five locales. Most of these environmental puzzles are pretty often basic to the point of feeling "tech demoy" in nature. Part on a tall ledge? Throw Yellow Pikmin to reach it. Part in the water? Use Blue Pikmin. While there are a few parts that require some creative thinking (the analog computer for example requires you to carry it with blues initially and switch to reds after pulling it out of the water to avoid burning your Pikmin to a pile of ash) nothing really that complex is really asked of the player and much of the gameplay loop is really about balancing growing/upgrading your units and going after ship parts in the time limit rather than the struggle of getting the parts themselves. Given the strategy genre's tendency to skew towards very lengthy, micromanagement heavy experiences I actually think the choice to focus on a arcadey time trial centric experience was for the best to help the game standout from the crowd. Some folks might not care for the trial and error nature that comes with the time limit system but there is nothing like getting into a flow state of a perfectly executed day where you bring multiple part back,have time to farm more backup units and also plan out a route for the next day.
With that in mind I can certainly see why the dev team were going for with the choice to include the bonus challenge mode centered around maximizing the # of Pkmin you can grow in a day but I found it a tad too minimalist for my liking. I think even changing the layout of the selectable levels slightly and having some built in scores to beat could have gone a long way towards giving some value to that mode. As it stand it sorta just feels like something slapped together with some debug tools. Not impossible given the crunch that was common with Nintendo's early first party GameCube titles (Mashiro Sakurai infamously was hospitalized during the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee for example). That criticism aside the core content during the main campaign is more than enough to be satisfying in my opinion.
Graphics
Being a launch title meant that, in order to showcase what the purple lunchbox could do, Pikmin went with a unique art style by being a mash up of (at the time) realistic environments and cartoony characters models (this is a choice made more clear by promotional art). This leads to a game that rests in an interesting middle ground with its graphical age. The environments look a tad dated nearly 20 years later obviously but the character models fair a tad better (thought Olimar and the Pikmin can look a tad glossy at points). Stylistically speaking I like the art style mashup since it helps sell the idea of Captain Olimar as this outside to the planet but it clearly has a downside with dating the game long term but hey time rots everything eventually.
Story
Pikmin's story premise, like most Nintendo games, is simple. The tiny space alien Captain Olimar crash lands on planet earth and must work with a local tribe like mobile plant species to repair his spaceship in order to return home before he succumbs to the toxic atmosphere. This Castaway riff plot by itself would be serviceable enough to give the game dramatic tension but Pikmin has a brilliant narrative device that gives things a lot more flavor. During major tutorials and at the end of each day Olimar will write diary entries that flesh out his backstory and thoughts on what is going on. This does an excellent job of both justifying tutorial speak and getting you more invested in Olimar as a character. Pikmin probably has some of the best writing from the Big N's non-RPG output.
Music & Sound Design
While I find the music in this game mostly forgettable (but atmospheric enough for what the development team was going for) outside the main menu theme I think the actual sound design is incredibly well thought out. Since micromanging is such a big part of the game having audio ques for say an enemy ambushing a ship part being taken to base (Pikmin screaming) or a Pikmin drowing/burning are vital to allowing the player to keep in mind what their squad is doing while they attend to others things without needing to pull up the radar screen 24/7.
Conclusion
For strategy game fans Pikmin is a must play especially if you own a GameCube, Wii, or Wii U. Just be weary of how much you pay if your are are on limited gaming budget.
ORIGINAL GGAPP.IO review:
Played on:
Gamecube
A classic that is emblematic of the experimentalism of the PS2/GameCube/X-Box era of the medium. The time limit system and Olimar's journal entries were an excellent use of dramatic tension to keep the player engaged in the story and themes of the game.
--
New Review:
(Author's note: This play-through was of the normal ending with 29/30 ships obtained. Any commentary on the challenge mode predates this play-through and stems more from owning the game for years. This run was done on Dolphin emulator version 5.0 - 18498 on native hardware graphical settings. Additionally I will note that nothing strange really happened that would notably change the experience from original hardware.)
Introduction
Pikmin 4 is coming out later this year and in anticipation I would like to look back on the three previous games with a clearer head and more depth compared to that frankly poorly written one sentence review from GGapp.io. For those unaware Pikmin is a series of real time strategy games by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto inspired by his love of gardening. The series started with duology on the Nintendo Gamecube and has since become something of a rarity among modern Nintendo first party IP by having been one of four post 2000 IP launches to really succeed for the company (the other three being Xenoblade, "Wii __", and Splatoon if anyone is curious on my math) spawning an additional two sequels on Wii U + Switch, a short film, several ports, and a litany of merchandise. This begs the question is Captain Olimar worthy of being this statistical outlier standing over the bodies of Issac and Captain Falcon like its that Grant Gustin meme? Let's find out!
Gameplay
Pikmin's primary hook is a time limit of 30 days. Each day has roughly 15-20 minute window in which you can explore to find ship parts (the game's main collectable) with your army of up to 100 disposable (but replenishable with enemy kills) units. These units come in three varieties throughout the game. Fire resistant Red Pikmin that deal extra damage, aquatic Blue Pikmin, and acrobatic Yellow Pikmin that also serve as demolition experts. Ship parts are hidden behind environmental puzzles and significant enemy encounters in each of the game five locales. Most of these environmental puzzles are pretty often basic to the point of feeling "tech demoy" in nature. Part on a tall ledge? Throw Yellow Pikmin to reach it. Part in the water? Use Blue Pikmin. While there are a few parts that require some creative thinking (the analog computer for example requires you to carry it with blues initially and switch to reds after pulling it out of the water to avoid burning your Pikmin to a pile of ash) nothing really that complex is really asked of the player and much of the gameplay loop is really about balancing growing/upgrading your units and going after ship parts in the time limit rather than the struggle of getting the parts themselves. Given the strategy genre's tendency to skew towards very lengthy, micromanagement heavy experiences I actually think the choice to focus on a arcadey time trial centric experience was for the best to help the game standout from the crowd. Some folks might not care for the trial and error nature that comes with the time limit system but there is nothing like getting into a flow state of a perfectly executed day where you bring multiple part back,have time to farm more backup units and also plan out a route for the next day.
With that in mind I can certainly see why the dev team were going for with the choice to include the bonus challenge mode centered around maximizing the # of Pkmin you can grow in a day but I found it a tad too minimalist for my liking. I think even changing the layout of the selectable levels slightly and having some built in scores to beat could have gone a long way towards giving some value to that mode. As it stand it sorta just feels like something slapped together with some debug tools. Not impossible given the crunch that was common with Nintendo's early first party GameCube titles (Mashiro Sakurai infamously was hospitalized during the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee for example). That criticism aside the core content during the main campaign is more than enough to be satisfying in my opinion.
Graphics
Being a launch title meant that, in order to showcase what the purple lunchbox could do, Pikmin went with a unique art style by being a mash up of (at the time) realistic environments and cartoony characters models (this is a choice made more clear by promotional art). This leads to a game that rests in an interesting middle ground with its graphical age. The environments look a tad dated nearly 20 years later obviously but the character models fair a tad better (thought Olimar and the Pikmin can look a tad glossy at points). Stylistically speaking I like the art style mashup since it helps sell the idea of Captain Olimar as this outside to the planet but it clearly has a downside with dating the game long term but hey time rots everything eventually.
Story
Pikmin's story premise, like most Nintendo games, is simple. The tiny space alien Captain Olimar crash lands on planet earth and must work with a local tribe like mobile plant species to repair his spaceship in order to return home before he succumbs to the toxic atmosphere. This Castaway riff plot by itself would be serviceable enough to give the game dramatic tension but Pikmin has a brilliant narrative device that gives things a lot more flavor. During major tutorials and at the end of each day Olimar will write diary entries that flesh out his backstory and thoughts on what is going on. This does an excellent job of both justifying tutorial speak and getting you more invested in Olimar as a character. Pikmin probably has some of the best writing from the Big N's non-RPG output.
Music & Sound Design
While I find the music in this game mostly forgettable (but atmospheric enough for what the development team was going for) outside the main menu theme I think the actual sound design is incredibly well thought out. Since micromanging is such a big part of the game having audio ques for say an enemy ambushing a ship part being taken to base (Pikmin screaming) or a Pikmin drowing/burning are vital to allowing the player to keep in mind what their squad is doing while they attend to others things without needing to pull up the radar screen 24/7.
Conclusion
For strategy game fans Pikmin is a must play especially if you own a GameCube, Wii, or Wii U. Just be weary of how much you pay if your are are on limited gaming budget.
2020
Author’s Note: I wrote a decent chunk of this prior to 4’s release.
Introduction:
The year was 2013 and Pikmin was at a bit of a standstill. Only motion control centric re-releases were present on Nintendo’s biggest home system since the NES and it was nowhere to be seen on Nintendo’s lucrative handheld line. Whenever asked about Pikmin in interviews, series creator Shigeru Miyamoto would always give a vague promise of a third game coming “soon”. Pikmin 3 would ultimately release in North America on August 13 of that year (almost a full decade removed from its predecessor) on the failed experimental console known as the Wii U. Flash forward to 2017 the Nintendo Switch is a huge hit and Nintendo has a giant back catalog of Wii U titles that will effectively feel like new releases to the less informed public that just thought the Wii U was some failed controller add-on like the UDraw Tablet. Porting to recoup expensive HD era dev costs and build brand recognition for the more nicher IPs of the Nintendo stable on the cheap is just good business sense. Enter our primary subject for today: Pikmin 3 Deluxe. An expansion on the “hit” Wii U game that adds two additional stories, revamps certain mechanics, and includes all the extra DLC of the Wii U release. Is this a release that trends in the quality direction of Pikmin 1 or 2? Let’s find out!
Before We Begin:
I will assume you have read my Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2 reviews before reading this review as I go into much of the series core structure in those writings. Also please keep in mind I played both versions of this game for the purpose of getting a feel for how certain mechanics and stylistic choices might have been impacted by the Wii U’s uhh.. “unique” tablet controller setup (Cemu in a two screen side by side setup for base game + Yuzu for Deluxe). I also went into the challenge mode a tiny bit more this time around as it felt high enough in production value to merit the extra effort. I also played through the additional Captain Olimar stories in Deluxe for the purposes of being thorough and to see how the main storyline plays in a more intense “arcadey” setting like the dandori battles coming to Pikmin 4.
Story:
Pikmin 3’s main campaign breaks series tradition by introducing 3 new protagonists instead of series alumni Captain Olimar. These player avatars are ship captain Alph, botanist Brittany, and military general Charlie. They aim to save their planet from malthusian collapse by examining the dangerous PNF - 404 for fruit that can serve as a source of food for their planet Koppai’s growing population. There's a decent goofy adventure here with decent banter between the three protagonists and some okay cutscenes before and after each boss fight but you probably aren’t gonna play this for the story.
Presentation:
This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion but the graphics here are leaving a lot to be desired. Pikmin 3 was the first HD Pikmin game and I feel like in spite of that its Wii prototype roots show. Lots of uncanny valleys in the environment design with low res textures in the first half of the game. I also feel like Formidable Oak reusing the cave sub areas assets for a majority of its runtime after giving you this great looking american southwest desert for outside area is incredibly disappointing. I get they likely used the dark cave aesthetic to gel with the slight genre shift to soft horror game with the Wraith chase sequence but I don’t think it was impressive enough to sterilize the personality and identity of the final area graphically.
Sonically the music and sound design fares much better with the boss theme being different based on the game state changing and the sound effects returning as a form of party management with regard to hazards and enemy attacks (see my Pikmin review for more details). The former has a pretty good explanation by the Youtuber “Scruffy” that’ll link in the end of this review as it goes into this from a musical composition angle much better than I can go into as someone not that versed on composition or music theory. Ultimately like the first game I think the music serves its purpose as a mood setter but isn’t super memorable on its own outside the aforementioned boss music.
Gameplay:
Pikmin 3 is a return to form gameplay wise as the time limit returns albeit in a less harsh form. Everytime you grab a collectable fruit your crew will juice it at the end of day and add to a total supply. Each day uses one unit of juice and running out of supply results in the game’s bad ending. This is a good idea in theory, it gives folks a sense of tension present in the late game of Pikmin 1 while also giving players a catch up mechanic but in practice I feel it comes into conflict with the game’s choice to be more linear and cinematic in its design. Since vast swaths of your time are assumed to be taken up by opening the singular path to each area boss the game pretty much has to leave a decent chunk of each area’s total juice supply out in the open. This leads to the mechanic feeling very tacked on sans one set piece in the game’s midpoint where you lose your juice supply. This is made even worse in a 100% run I have to imagine as the fruits on the linear track to the boss that are rather low effort acquisitions such as the plums underneath the pink flowers in Twilight River likely come off as filler content. Combine this with the further simplification of the combat via automatic lock-on and you have probably the easiest game in the series. In a strategy game where the brunt of the appeal is coming up with novel solutions to problems (in my opinion) I think an overly low difficulty is a problem. I think really two things save this game from being completely mindless: the three captain “go here” system and the robust suite of challenge maps that double down on the time scarcity aspect of the game’s design.
The concept of captains multitasking has received a great glow up from 2. The presence of three remotely controlled captains and the concept of captain throwing means both actual incentives for multitasking as well as vertical level design are added to the game allowing for you to think about your squad compositions on several additional levels. Should I keep a captain at base to ensure quick squad plucking or send them as insurance in case I run into a captain throwing section? How should I divide my Pikmin colors among the two to three squads? Should I keep a squad free for backup if something unexpected comes up or press on for quicker progress? Etcetera etcetera. Add in the intuitiveness of having go here mapped to the tablet touch screen on Wii U (in fact I’d say that change from tablet screen to a pause menu is the biggest downside of Switch over the failed console) and you have a very satisfying set of mechanics. While the aforementioned simplistic campaign design prevents this feature set from reaching its apex, the Olimar side stories and challenge mode map more than make up for this.
In Pikmin 3 Deluxe after learning about Olimar being kidnapped by a creature known as the Plasma Wraith you unlock a prequel story detailing how that scenario came to be. This is further complimented by a post game epilogue about Olimar repairing his ship. Both these stories are effectively “storyfied” challenge mode missions centered on beating a set of goals like growing Pikmin, collecting treasure, killing enemies, escorting a ship part, or reaching a point on the map in a time limit. Every mission is ranked on a bronze to platinum scale just like the typical mission mode segments elsewhere in the game. You also gain access to the two underground Pikmin species from 2 otherwise not accessible during the main game. Going for the platinum in these missions is some of the best time I had in the series up to this point with each segment of the level path needing to be optimized to a high degree for the coveted platinum rank. These three modes were the only part of the game that really kept the flow state you can get into in the original game. It's a shame that I can see less patient folks bouncing off this game before they get to this part given the earliest ones available are at the midpoint of the experience but as someone that unironically defends the slow burn beginning trope a lot of games use (JRPGs mostly) I’m not gonna be phased by the pacing much.
Conclusion:
If Pikmin 1 is the perfect bite sized game and Pikmin 2 a lesser sum of its parts perhaps Pikmin 3 DX can best be described as meeting someone with a prickly personality out in a public space and getting a very superficial vibe on their life only to be surprised when you start to learn more about them after a chat. Lots of depth under the surface if you put in the work.
LINKS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaBJ2C7Am6E
Introduction:
The year was 2013 and Pikmin was at a bit of a standstill. Only motion control centric re-releases were present on Nintendo’s biggest home system since the NES and it was nowhere to be seen on Nintendo’s lucrative handheld line. Whenever asked about Pikmin in interviews, series creator Shigeru Miyamoto would always give a vague promise of a third game coming “soon”. Pikmin 3 would ultimately release in North America on August 13 of that year (almost a full decade removed from its predecessor) on the failed experimental console known as the Wii U. Flash forward to 2017 the Nintendo Switch is a huge hit and Nintendo has a giant back catalog of Wii U titles that will effectively feel like new releases to the less informed public that just thought the Wii U was some failed controller add-on like the UDraw Tablet. Porting to recoup expensive HD era dev costs and build brand recognition for the more nicher IPs of the Nintendo stable on the cheap is just good business sense. Enter our primary subject for today: Pikmin 3 Deluxe. An expansion on the “hit” Wii U game that adds two additional stories, revamps certain mechanics, and includes all the extra DLC of the Wii U release. Is this a release that trends in the quality direction of Pikmin 1 or 2? Let’s find out!
Before We Begin:
I will assume you have read my Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2 reviews before reading this review as I go into much of the series core structure in those writings. Also please keep in mind I played both versions of this game for the purpose of getting a feel for how certain mechanics and stylistic choices might have been impacted by the Wii U’s uhh.. “unique” tablet controller setup (Cemu in a two screen side by side setup for base game + Yuzu for Deluxe). I also went into the challenge mode a tiny bit more this time around as it felt high enough in production value to merit the extra effort. I also played through the additional Captain Olimar stories in Deluxe for the purposes of being thorough and to see how the main storyline plays in a more intense “arcadey” setting like the dandori battles coming to Pikmin 4.
Story:
Pikmin 3’s main campaign breaks series tradition by introducing 3 new protagonists instead of series alumni Captain Olimar. These player avatars are ship captain Alph, botanist Brittany, and military general Charlie. They aim to save their planet from malthusian collapse by examining the dangerous PNF - 404 for fruit that can serve as a source of food for their planet Koppai’s growing population. There's a decent goofy adventure here with decent banter between the three protagonists and some okay cutscenes before and after each boss fight but you probably aren’t gonna play this for the story.
Presentation:
This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion but the graphics here are leaving a lot to be desired. Pikmin 3 was the first HD Pikmin game and I feel like in spite of that its Wii prototype roots show. Lots of uncanny valleys in the environment design with low res textures in the first half of the game. I also feel like Formidable Oak reusing the cave sub areas assets for a majority of its runtime after giving you this great looking american southwest desert for outside area is incredibly disappointing. I get they likely used the dark cave aesthetic to gel with the slight genre shift to soft horror game with the Wraith chase sequence but I don’t think it was impressive enough to sterilize the personality and identity of the final area graphically.
Sonically the music and sound design fares much better with the boss theme being different based on the game state changing and the sound effects returning as a form of party management with regard to hazards and enemy attacks (see my Pikmin review for more details). The former has a pretty good explanation by the Youtuber “Scruffy” that’ll link in the end of this review as it goes into this from a musical composition angle much better than I can go into as someone not that versed on composition or music theory. Ultimately like the first game I think the music serves its purpose as a mood setter but isn’t super memorable on its own outside the aforementioned boss music.
Gameplay:
Pikmin 3 is a return to form gameplay wise as the time limit returns albeit in a less harsh form. Everytime you grab a collectable fruit your crew will juice it at the end of day and add to a total supply. Each day uses one unit of juice and running out of supply results in the game’s bad ending. This is a good idea in theory, it gives folks a sense of tension present in the late game of Pikmin 1 while also giving players a catch up mechanic but in practice I feel it comes into conflict with the game’s choice to be more linear and cinematic in its design. Since vast swaths of your time are assumed to be taken up by opening the singular path to each area boss the game pretty much has to leave a decent chunk of each area’s total juice supply out in the open. This leads to the mechanic feeling very tacked on sans one set piece in the game’s midpoint where you lose your juice supply. This is made even worse in a 100% run I have to imagine as the fruits on the linear track to the boss that are rather low effort acquisitions such as the plums underneath the pink flowers in Twilight River likely come off as filler content. Combine this with the further simplification of the combat via automatic lock-on and you have probably the easiest game in the series. In a strategy game where the brunt of the appeal is coming up with novel solutions to problems (in my opinion) I think an overly low difficulty is a problem. I think really two things save this game from being completely mindless: the three captain “go here” system and the robust suite of challenge maps that double down on the time scarcity aspect of the game’s design.
The concept of captains multitasking has received a great glow up from 2. The presence of three remotely controlled captains and the concept of captain throwing means both actual incentives for multitasking as well as vertical level design are added to the game allowing for you to think about your squad compositions on several additional levels. Should I keep a captain at base to ensure quick squad plucking or send them as insurance in case I run into a captain throwing section? How should I divide my Pikmin colors among the two to three squads? Should I keep a squad free for backup if something unexpected comes up or press on for quicker progress? Etcetera etcetera. Add in the intuitiveness of having go here mapped to the tablet touch screen on Wii U (in fact I’d say that change from tablet screen to a pause menu is the biggest downside of Switch over the failed console) and you have a very satisfying set of mechanics. While the aforementioned simplistic campaign design prevents this feature set from reaching its apex, the Olimar side stories and challenge mode map more than make up for this.
In Pikmin 3 Deluxe after learning about Olimar being kidnapped by a creature known as the Plasma Wraith you unlock a prequel story detailing how that scenario came to be. This is further complimented by a post game epilogue about Olimar repairing his ship. Both these stories are effectively “storyfied” challenge mode missions centered on beating a set of goals like growing Pikmin, collecting treasure, killing enemies, escorting a ship part, or reaching a point on the map in a time limit. Every mission is ranked on a bronze to platinum scale just like the typical mission mode segments elsewhere in the game. You also gain access to the two underground Pikmin species from 2 otherwise not accessible during the main game. Going for the platinum in these missions is some of the best time I had in the series up to this point with each segment of the level path needing to be optimized to a high degree for the coveted platinum rank. These three modes were the only part of the game that really kept the flow state you can get into in the original game. It's a shame that I can see less patient folks bouncing off this game before they get to this part given the earliest ones available are at the midpoint of the experience but as someone that unironically defends the slow burn beginning trope a lot of games use (JRPGs mostly) I’m not gonna be phased by the pacing much.
Conclusion:
If Pikmin 1 is the perfect bite sized game and Pikmin 2 a lesser sum of its parts perhaps Pikmin 3 DX can best be described as meeting someone with a prickly personality out in a public space and getting a very superficial vibe on their life only to be surprised when you start to learn more about them after a chat. Lots of depth under the surface if you put in the work.
LINKS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaBJ2C7Am6E
The camouflage (additional flexibility during stealth sections) and electricity (crowd control in combat) abilities serve as a decent extension on the mechanics of the first game but you can frankly see the pesudo DLC mini sequel budget creep in a lot at points (the Roxxon troops being recolors of silver sable's troops, same map largely, reused mission concepts like Howard's pigeon chases or the plumbing mission, etc.). I'd say this is otherwise fine for what its going for even though I wish the pacing was a bit better. There is a flashback right before the main fight that frankly feels like it should've been the opening of the game and the Prowler's short lived attempted betrayal kinda feels forced in since the Miles/Prowler familial ties are one of the few things differentiating the character from Pete (outside the multiverse shtick) to really stick long term. On related note I do like how they tie the side-mission system, main narrative themes, and ending cutscene together by changing who from Harlem shows up based on what missions you've done. Great subtle way of showing player agency and emphasizing the community protection aspect of the superhero power fantasy I wish more devs did.