Ok so... what do the screws do? You can target them and throw pikmin at them but nothing seems to happen?!

@Zero

If you're talking about what I think you are, those little screws in the ground are to help you aim. They give you something to soft/hard lock on to when throwing pikmin over a gap, for example. That way it's harder for your cursor to wander and your throws to miss their target. I think Pikmin 3 had them too?

I'm loving the post-game too!

...is it even a post-game? They've taken the Mario approach of showing you the credits halfway through! I like it. Any excuse to make the game harder.

I've heard that the story ends up going nowhere and is just a bunch of random nonsense. Should I lower my expectations accordingly? Tears of the Kingdom burned me here hard. I'm fine with playing a game that doesn't have a story! Don't pique my intrigue if you're not going to commit to doing anything interesting with it!

Kojima does this thing where he'll raise a ton of questions in the first hour of the story, then not address any of them, roll the credits, make you think the game is over... and then suddenly blow your mind be directly answering everything during the epilogue. Nintendo does this exact same thing, except for the part where they answer your questions during the epilogue. I know just as much about the Zonai after 100,000 words of dialogue as I did at the start of the game...

...sorry, sorry, I'll stop.

Seriously though, the Pikmin 4 post-game is hard and great. I'm surprised how meaty it is!

Yup, it goes NOWHERE. Do not get your hopes up. They don't even acknowledge that Louie was acting whack. The previous Pikmin games were mysterious, but they didn't build momentum towards some sort of explanation that never comes. They asked questions quietly, without any expectation that they would be answered.

But please, go off king. Genuinely. I really want to hear your thoughts about Tears of the Kingdom. I got the Master Sword, got most of the memories, and did 3/4 of the main town quests before falling off. There's a lot of dialogue, without a lot of story.

You're totally right about Metal Gear too. The post credits diaglogue for MGS2 is one of my favorite moments in any game. A chilling in-universe twist that absolutely hammers home the game's message.

I rewatched Jonathan Blow's talk Video Games and the Human Condition the other day, and it made me think about Pikmin 4. Game design elements like missions, plot, and experience points are extraneous to the "essence" of games, but they undoubtedly keep players engaged. The question is to what extent your game should lean on these tools.

Pikmin 1 was a pretty hardcore game that didn't have most of this. It was pure! And for that reason... Pikmin as a series never really took off. Now we have Pikmin 4, with its constant dialogue, linear story, and sub-objectives paced to Keep The Player Engaged™... and while it does feel a little blasphemous, for the most part it's done tastefully, only enough to help people learn how to enjoy Pikmin. Nintendo tried doing it the non-manipulative way and it didn't work, so I can't fault them for dipping into the bag of tricks just a little for the sake of onboarding.

@Secret_Tunnel I feel like Nintendo could have added all of that stuff without all of the dialog though. It's not the worst thing ever but I hate that to you have to individually talk to the individual responsible for the side stuff. I go out a few days without talking to anyone and then I have like 15 people to talk to at once. OOF.

@Secret_Tunnel
Yep yep. It's tricky because I fall into that "trap" myself at times ("Ooh, I bet I can afford that next upgrade now!") but it does seem kind of cynical and manipulative on occasion.

@Zero
Besides Oatchi's attacks being OP, this is my biggest problem so far too. It reminds me of FE: Three Houses where there's all this fluffy stuff between the game's best aspect, the nitty-gritty gameplay. It's tedious to talk to someone just to check the Piklopedia, and I'm getting a little tired of the whole "this character has one obvious trait that they keep harping on about" in games. I'm all for personality, but if I hear that inventor go on about the "power of science" one more time...

I noticed this fluff in WarioWare: Get It Together and Kirby and the Forgotten Land too. It's like a new manifestation of the Wii era's condescending tutorials.

Like I said in the TOTK thread, it's frustrating because they're such stickler purists in other ways (see: Paper Mario and the "Miyamoto hates stories" meme). If they're going to deviate from quiet gameplay, it would be nice if they did it well! Either keep plot out of Pikmin or make it good.

Holy cow, this game basically has its own Pikmin 1 inside of it as a side mode?!

@Zero

Yeah, I was surprised too. I had a good time with it. It was more stressful than the Pikmin 4 base game!

Way more stressful! I ultimately finished it in 13 days but man... it keeps the pressure on. I missed that in the core game.

I'm doing the other Olimar stuff now and dang... these are tough! Some of them took me forever to finish. And only halfway through!

Also, this kept happening...

R U SERIOUS??? #Pikmin4 #Pikmin #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/eqH9lIPbS0

— My Game Videos (@MyGameVideos) September 1, 2023

Just thought I'd share Orioto's latest art from this week. Pikmin 4!! Looks great as always. I bought one based off Pikmin a long time ago. It still looks awesome in my gaming room. Here's his links for the interested.

Orioto's RedbubbleOrioto's Patreon

@Zero

I probably spent two hours optimizing my strategy for that ice level! I've been loving them, and I've only done the first three so far.

Alright, finished everything! I didn't try to platinum all the dandoris or anything but I completed everything in the game. Even Louie's pointless side quests.

Damn, what a solid sequel. They packed so much into this.

In-game playtime was 41 hours,

100%ed the game last night! All treasures, all castaways, all missions (except for the pointless ones Zero mentioned), all platinum medals. 45 hours, 60 in-game days.

I loved it! The level design here was really spectacular. Each Dandori challenge has a very clear "point" to it that once you understand, lets you beat the level qualitatively faster, and these points are communicated really cleverly via all the new gameplay elements. The way these challenges are weaved into the main story, along with so many little touches like the new camera angle, makes the whole thing feel really cohesive and filling.

Definitely the definitive Pikmin game. Would be an easy GOTY if it wasn't for Zelda.

@Secret_Tunnel

Heh heh heh. My hipster power level is so high, I put Pikmin 4 over Tears of the Kingdom. And I put Kirby over Elden Ring last year. Give me the cute, carefully crafted stuff over a big open world any day!

@Hero_Of_Hyrule

I don't blame you! Pikmin 4 is crazy polished.

My contrarian power level is so high that I put Pokemon Violet over Elden Ring.

@Hero_Of_Hyrule @Secret_Tunnel
I think I unwittingly have a huge hipster power level without even realising it, as for me, Zelda isn't even in contention for GotY! And last year I also had Kirby and Pokémon Violet far above Elden Ring, and Pokémon Legends was higher as well.

Is my hipster level the highest? Do I win anything for this? Wait, what I get is... disdain from everyone here?! Hm, I'm uh, not so sure I want this prize...!

@Mop it up

Mop it up said:

For better or worse, they seem to be leaning heavily into the streamer crowd with this one.

This might be the most unintentionally biting criticism I've ever read!

I'm sorry!