Aether
Kremling
Dont know, probably well written, but for me "random bullshit or jank kills all my pikmin" is not dificult, its frustrating. I had that a handfull of times in 3, but that game gives you so many freaking pikmin that it never was a problem. Just a sad moment after 110 days without really loosing a significant amount.I feel like talking about difficulty in a vacuum without establishing context is not helpful. People are talking about different things when they say Pikmin 1 or 2 or even 3 is hardest. I find it helps to try and separate these out into distinct categories relevant to Pikmin:
1. Punishing fail-states (e.x. Doom counter/ Pikmin Extinction)
2. Difficult clear conditions (An environmental puzzle. Clearing campaign. Platinum medal condition. No Pikmin Death run)
3. Scaling of short-term risk (Wollyhop is about to kill 20 pikmin if I dont whistle)
4. Risk dynamics/kinetics ( "I made a small mistake, and it quickly spiraled into a disaster")
And what purpose they serve in design:
1. A punishing failstate like a campaign doom counter or difficult clear conditions like a platinum medal or no pikmin run increase satisfaction of achieving a goal. They also provide pressure which naturally pushes you to set your own optimal pace.
2. Managing risk should tote line between smooth operation and frantic chaos and provide an optimal overload that facilitates focus or flow.
In my opinion these are the important effects of difficulty. If the game tension is not modulated by skill then we call it cheap or random. If they stifle tactical or strategic depth it's overly punishing. If there is a muddy relationship between order/chaos or risk/reward the game is not as engaging. If the line is too tight it's exhausting. On the other hand if there is no tension, in other words if anything works it's braindead. Difficulty does not exist in a vacuum and if it did it would become absurdly irrelevant.
When people say a game is too easy, the takeaway is not that it offered too little resistance to completing the campaign. It's more that certain aspects of the difficulty detracted from the skill expression by making it less rewarding, or the scaling and pacing of the risk/reward made managing it less engaging.
My problem was: it was rarely hard to figure out what to do and how to get to that goal. Half of the time it was more of a question "how long does it take to do it, and can i risk some pikmin to reach that goal faster". essentially: the risk reward aspect was not well balanced in 3 for me, because taking slightly more time for an action was always more reasonable then splitting the team for efficiency and losing pikmin because i watched the others for a second, since then i again have to bring back the comander and send them out with new pikmin, making it take longer instead of shorter.
.And from the other side: it needs environmental puzzles that are less obvious.