Sounds about right
Eh, doesn't really feel like that, given there's honestly more of a story here than in previous games
Another great holdover from Pikmin 2!
What's bad about the gear system? I personally think it's integrated really well here.
90% of it is “make you and oatchi invincible” or “invalidate interesting mechanics by having pikmin just come back to you from wherever”. Also the items let you stack up on tons of powerful stuff instead of finding them out in the world.
I would say the time limit per day is one of the key cornerstones of a Pikmin game. I don't mind them removing the overall day limit (even if I prefer it overall), but you need some level of friction in a game that's meant to be all about using your resources in the most efficient way possible and multitasking. I'm not hugely down for the series to lose its identity completely and devolve into something much more generic.
The rewind isn’t about the game being too hard it’s that sometimes jank happens (e.g. a Pikmin gets trapped in a corner), or sometimes something surprising happens you had no warning for (a new enemy appears out of nowhere and literally steamrolls your group). Sure, now you know and can adjust your run next time but it’s just obnoxious making a player replay what may have been an already great day. Especially since you could’ve done multiple caves and dandori challenges on that day.
Yeah, limiting you to 3 types is absolutely a design choice. It lets them design entire areas far more tightly
A flaw is a defect. This isn't a defect, it's just something they don't like. That doesn't make it defective.
Just have Oatchi sniff out hidden treasure, he’ll take you right to it
I literally just said this three posts above yours. But not every decision is immune from criticism. I think the 3 pikmin type limit is both too restrictive, and doesn’t invite much strategy at all, specifically because of how the game handles other things. Like how game tells you what pikmin you should use. That doesn’t promote strategy. (on the surface, that is. Of course all the limitations work great in the caves with the more curated levels. Limiting your types and telling you which ones to bring is basically mandatory for how caves work). It’s especially egregious when you don’t have a way of renewing certain pikmin types without going back into caves you’ve already done. That’s a pretty pointless grind that could’ve been avoided by just giving us more onion types (which they may do later. I just finished getting 100% in the third area, so if they do later, I think they definitely should have introduced them more steadily throughout the levels).
It's weird you're saying this because like 90% of the gear in Pikmin 4 is just...the same gear in Pikmin 2-3 except instead you can build it instead of finding it. As for the structures, I don't get the "fun" aspect? Both places were just "Pikmin go to A -> B to complete something. And where they are located aren't too far off from your base if you are moving them compared to where they would be with Pimin 3's locations. Are you talking about the various special items? Sure I find those slightly overpowered but I mainly use them in Nightmode. There's one area in particular where you can set some mines to stop large groups of enemies.
Why do you need so many Ice Pikmin? I just 100% the first three areas and while I do think Ice Pikmin are currently the most useful surface Pikmin (Glow Pikmin in proper number are the most broken pikmin in the game), you don't need any more than what you have to do everything.
If you Google what a "flaw" is, it's defined as "a mark, fault, or other imperfection that mars a substance or object." Which is basically just a negative criticism. If someone sees a feature as a flaw to the game, that's totally fair.
This is, like, the majority of my issue with most video game “criticism” out there. People objectively calling things flaws that are really just design choices that they personally don’t like, but that doesn’t mean they’re objectively bad. You can criticize what you don’t like about a game without making it into a black-or-white thing where you’re essentially acting as an arbiter of what’s truly “good” or “bad” and I wish more people would take that kind of approach.
Yeah, I know. My point is that this specific limit is so superficial now that there is no limit to the number of days spent exploring. I think there are much more important aspects of Pikmin‘s identity that wouldn’t be negatively affected by making this specific change.
I’m talking about how I’m not going to buy gear that makes oatchi and myself immune to all the different damage sources. Lol. The majority of gear doesn’t just enhance you. It completely negates certain aspects of the game. I’ve always hated it when games do that kind of thing. So I’d like it if the gear was less powerful and more interesting. And of course it’s more fun to have pikmin find stuff on the map instead of having it in your inventory. It’s the whole point of the game after all.
While I agree with your general idea, I also believe that many players (most) would engage with the mechanics anyways. I don’t think most players would just sit around and do nothing just because there is no illusion of a deadline.
I don’t think having your avatar and Oatchi become immune to elements is really as big of a deal as you make it out to be, considering that it has no effect on your Pikmin, which are way more vulnerable than your avatar or Oatchi. There’s rarely any major threat to your avatar or Oatchi, even without gear, while there’s constantly threats to your Pikmin’s lives. I guess it depends on how you go about playing the game, but for me these kind of things are mostly just appreciated conveniences that barely impact difficulty because, to me, the difficulty in Pikmin games is always about minimizing Pikmin deaths. And while Rewind makes it less frustrating and time consuming to do in Pikmin 4, it’s still no easy task at all to keep your Pikmin from dying. If you want more difficulty, rather than avoid spending your material on gear, I’d recommend to try going for a no Pikmin deaths run! It actually seems decently manageable in this game thanks to Rewind and other conveniences, while still being a great challenge. That would also solve your issue with Ice Pikmin, too, because there’s no need to grind for more if you don’t lose any to begin with! lol Or even if you don’t go for a strict zero death run, just limiting the amount of Pikmin deaths in general will encourage safer, smarter play and better Dandori overall, while simultaneously offering a greater challenge than not worrying as much about Pikmin deaths.
My comment wasn’t just about people’s use of the word “flaw”—it’s about people essentially calling things (or entire games) objectively bad. Instead of what they could do, like saying “I personally don’t care for this because [reason],” or “this element/game will likely be appreciated by [specific kind of gamer] but [another type of gamer] may take issue with it,” etc., rather than deciding that something is bad and talking about it as if you’re speaking in absolutes, which is what a ton of video game criticism amounts to. Like, I wish more game reviewers and such would adopt an approach more like that, because it’s more truthful and honestly more responsible overall, especially when it’s so common for people to completely shape their opinions on things largely based on what they read/hear other people online say about it, which leads to situations where huge groups of people share very specific opinions on games that they’ve never even played themselves (and likely have no intention to do so, either), which they then continue to parrot to others which only further contributes to the spread of very negatively biased and/or misinformed views on things.
But if you really need the Ice Onion, you can just move on to the later areas? Like, you're skipping option 3: "Go to the next area until I find the Ice Onion." The mainline story allows you to quickly move to all the areas needed to get the items you need.
Or I could not do that and 100% each area before I move on.
People don’t talk that way in real life so they aren’t gonna talk that way on forums. People don’t like adding a million qualifiers to each sentence in order to ward off people who already know what they mean in the first place and simply care more about them saying it exactly to their preferences.
It's good, I'm very much enjoying it. Admittedly the story is one of the least important aspects about Pikmin. But I just don't like these type of reboots and hope it's some ruse for a late game twist. Didn't like it when Galaxy 2 and Star Fox Zero did it too.
Ok, but the game is giving you multiple ways to resolve this. Hell, just go through new caves. No, I’m not talking about grinding old caves. You don’t need to do that in 4, even if you wipe out a type. There are quite a few caves that will give you Ice Pikmin even though it wasn’t listed on the recommended page beforehand. Before I found the Ice Onion, I had 85 Ice Pikmin. They’re replaceable.
I’ve basically held off on the status ailment upgrades in favor of everything else but I think of it as just another optimization option. If you want to complete the levels in as few days as possible, you could simply ignore a lot of material piles and you will not be able to afford as much.
