I decided that if I ever replay the game, I’m going to try to beat it without using oatchie in combat as a sort of self-imposed hard mode. Didn’t struggle with much other than a select few boss fights, the last night expedition, and a level or two of the final Dandori challenge, so I feel like it’d be more fun to avoid trivializing every enemy encounter
I mean, I made a rule set I’ve been following, if you want here it is: -Do not ride oatchi unless necessary (jump a ledge or swim) -only upgrades you can buy with materials are the Fire guards for you and oatchi (you need them for 100%) and the rush boots. This also means no health or defense upgrades, good luck! All training oatchi upgrades are fair game though -no items unless necessary, including Bomb rocks and spicy spray -no Ice or Purple pikmin in combat unless necessary. If in your squad, just separate them and leave them behind -no rushing or charging pikmin
The main issue I found was that after a few upgrades, Oatchi is stronger than any pikmin group. It would be one thing if his specific upgrades were focused on, say, retrieving objects and some terrain navigation. However, he becomes an extremely powerful fighting force, able to solo virtually any foe, take minimal damage, and heal up no issue. Even his elemental shielding breaks aspects of the game. No red pikmin to fight this slooch? Just send Oatchi. Three main things would make the game better: -1: Enemies respawn on the overworld. As beautiful as the maps can be, they are horrifyingly dead when you clear out some foes and never see another living creature the time you're there. -2: Oatchi should mostly only be able to do things in relation to item collecting. Digging and retrieving is fine, even retrieving in water and carrying pikmin on his back is all fine, but the fact that he can solo Bulbears is absurd. -3: Either make Oatchi unable to go in dungeons or prevent him from participating in boss battles.
The charge is completely broken, it's way too good. I think there also needs to be more reasons to be on foot (ie not riding Oatchie), because the way the game is now there's nothing you can't do on him besides use the charging horn, and it's just safer for your Pikmin. Towards the end of the game I found myself compulsively jumping on Oatchie whenever I saw any potential threat. It's frustrating because part of what makes Pikmin special is leading your big army around and trying to keep the blob safe from danger, but when you get on Oatchie you're suddenly just playing a normal video game controlling a single character. It's barely even pikmin at that point
This go round is most definitely way more accessible then it’s predecessors. However I do think the fact that the player decides to use or not to use most of these changes is very smart. The cave type help screen is a drag, why can’t we toggle that hint off on?! Glad the series is getting some love though, always loved Pikmin myself.
it's a lot of work of balancing and stuff, and if they just made like "nerf ice pikmin and buff enemy health" the community would be a bit angry at the laziness. so you can't really be mad at nintendo for not putting more difficulty options, sure some people might be happy with what i mentioned before but other might not
They already did put a difficulty mode for Pikmin with the Ultra-Spicy difficulty in Pikmin 3 Deluxe which is considerably harder than the two other game modes with you only being able to bring out 60 Pikmin, days are only 11 minutes and the amount of juice that each fruit provides is halved which really makes a difference because I never exceeded 11 or so juice on a normal playthrough of that difficulty mode. Give it a try, it's a good challenge.
In defense of nectar and eggs being everywhere, I think it was designed this way because your pikmins can now lose their flowers when they get knocked around or damaged without dying. You often have to re-bloom them, so they put nectar everywhere to compensate. Overall, the game really shows that it was designed for younger audiences -- that's not a bad thing though, we already had 3 great and rather challenging installments, so this might be a way to gently introduce new fans to the series :) My only true complaint is that they don't even offer the option to turn off auto targeting, as well that the constant chit-chat from your squad whenever something happens on screen.
That’s a fair point. Honestly the game is a masterpiece regardless, would just have enjoyed a bit more of a challenge. And yes turning off the chit chat would also be nice lol
I think at this point, Pikmin has become open-ended in terms of difficulty. We as players can form house rules to get our preferred level of challenge. Some suggestions: *How fast can you complete the game? Can you do it within 30 days like in Pikmin 1? (Night missions might make this difficult. Maybe they don't count for this challenge?) *Can you get through the game without using Oatchi in combat, or the ice and purple Pikmin when possible? *Can you beat the game without using items or gear upgrades?
I totally agree. I think enemies are what gave Pikmin 1 and 2 their charm. Almost every enemy in the game being boiled down bursting it out with Oatchi's rush before they have time to react feels very boring. That being said, they beat you over the head with what this game's focus is supposed to be: dandori. In some ways, I really like how efficient the game can feel. It's so satisfying to get like six tasks done simultaneously, but considering that they were deliberately taking inspiration from Pikmin 2, I was hoping they'd introduce more challenging situations than what was presented. I can burst out an Emperor Bulbax with 40 red Pikmin and a rush from Oatchi before he can even attack once. No bombs, no spray, no ice Pikmin. I just one shot what was the final boss of Pikmin 1. I didn't even know he had multiple phases until I saw a video about it. The Man-at-Legs was terrifying in 2, but the Pikmin just cling onto Oatchi now. All the shots miss and you can just take it out in two or three rotations. Even the Dandori battles and challenges are so weak. I gave the enemy leaders the biggest handicap I could, and I still can beat them easily. The challenge mode is so much easier when you get all the equipment. I don't like that I have to purposely turn off my brain to make the game harder. I want to use every resource I have and still STRUGGLE. It still might be the best Pikmin game, but boy, do I hope they introduce additional content for added challenge.
Honesty I was pretty let down by the dandori aspect. The fact you only have one true captain really limits the possibilities, especially compared to Pikmin 3. And even when you have oatchi fully upgraded, you're pretty much discouraged from separating due to the charge ability. Also the whole dandori thing contributed to the incredibly obnoxious story and dialogue of Pikmin 4.
i felt this way too. Im a huuuuge pikmin 2 fan so seeing that brutal challenge of 2 going away was disappointing. i love the way 2 made me think with its enemy layouts during dungeons. Wether i wanted to just tank it with my purples or go slower with other types. now its just ram with oatchi rinse repeat until dead. I still enjoyed 4 a tooon but it was clear they needed to make this game more accessible due to so many new players coming in for this game. It NEEDS difficulty options...something nintendo avoids like the plague but they cant ignore it anymore :/
That’s a good point. Maybe it’s because it’s been 10 years since the last Pikmin game they felt they had to make it easier for newcomers to the series. But if that’s the case at least let us choose the difficulty level
About the cave recommendations, it's no different from pikmin 2. It'll give you in advance what type of pikmin you need directly instead of referring to their element. The auto squad is the same everywhere and it's just trying to give equal amount of the recommended pikmin in the zone you are in or going into.
@@pressaTD I've only seen a non 50-50 split when you don't have enough pikmins in the onion, which is pretty frequent for all the types of pikmin that you don't have the onion yet.
I fully agree. But, mechanically, it feels really good. I just know that in the future, it will have some incredible mods. I look forward to the mods for the difficulty. Ahem, gundum, ahem. 😉 (or pikhacker)
All these hand-holding and quality of life changes in Pikmin 4, not to mention that the enemies in general are too nerfed compared to previous titles, really adds up to the game not requiring much thought in most enemy encounters and flower pellet/treasure collecting. The only things that actually required thought were the puzzles in the caves and trying to get to some places in the overworld. I not asking for a ridiculous challenge, but some enemies and bosses that would actually keep me on my toes would be nice. Maybe then, I would actually find the items you can buy helpful. And having to time my throws for the right color flower pellets, and having to actually aim when I throw, and having to count out the number of pikmin I need to throw when I carry a treasure or enemy body would be great too. It all just feels too mindless otherwise.
:39 The Final Trial: Am I a joke to you. Jokes aside, yes all of your points are valid and some aspects of the game are too easy (I had 45 spicy spray) However there were parts of the game that I struggled with and had to reset multiple times. You also have to take into account that most Pikmin Fans by now are experts given that we’ve had over a decade to master Dandori. For example my first play through of Pikmin 2 was 82 days because I was 7 years old, and now i can beat Pikmin 1 in 9 days and I’m working on the 10 day Pikmin 3 run.
I agree with this 100%. I'm a huge Pikmin fan and a casual speedrunner (non-glitch; repeating days to clear maps in 1-2 days; etc) and I can definitely say Pikmin 4's combat is easier than the other games. The game adding in Oatchi and items makes for some fun playthroughs and gives room for improving productivity/dandori, but the combat got injured from it- which sucks. Even though during my first playthrough I was holding all my items, combat was easy. But it did give me many 'dandori' ideas. Every new mechanic unlocked made me think "I have so many speedrun ideas for my next playthrough." I hope the game introduces a harder difficulty or something though. Maybe more/tougher enemies or nerfing Ice Pikmin freezing. But I definitely loved the game either way. Pikmin 2 was definitely harder even with Spicy and Stone Sprays making bosses go faster. Most bosses would survive an initial rush; where as Ice Pikmin or Ice Bombs would make nearly every boss obsolete.
That’s something I wish more recent Nintendo games had, is a difficulty level. The same thing can be said for recent Pokémon games. But regardless I still think Pikmin 4 is a masterpiece
as my first pikmin game i felt that it was hard enough, it might just be the fact that people that have played pikmin will obviously have a easier time
I think every Pikmin has about the same difficulty level except for 2 Pikmin 1 isn't really hard and it's just painful to deal with the Pikmin AI and controls, if it had Pikmin 3 controls it would be a masterpiece tbh Pikmin 3 is by far the easiest one, but due to coop it might me the best to welcome in people, and the difficulty is more "self imposed" aka you decide how difficult it'll be by challenging yourself to do as much as possible on a single day, which I found fun Pikmin 4 has the best balance IMO, now for harder difficulties you could lower the amount of Pikmin grown, but other than that every type is balanced because you don't get their onions until basically post game, making it very risky to use them unless you find a bunch of them Finally Pikmin 2 is just BS, I still don't know why 60% of the fandom likes it, I personally found it tedious and that it went against everything I love about the series There's no multitasking, no path optimizing, no time limit, no nothing, you just carefully kill every enemy one by one and deal with bombs and insta kill rocks falling from the sky just because and, yeah i wasn't the biggest fan Liked water wraith tho
I feel that pikmin 4 is as difficult as you make it, of course if you just spam purple pikmin and spicy spray the game is gonna be easy most of the time, so if people want difficulty, maybe they shouldn't do that@@pressaTD
I completely agree. Both Pikmin 3 and 4 I found way too easy. Oatchi is way too broken and it honestly just takes from the pikmin gameplay as you'll end up essentially just playing as Oatchi, which turns the game into more of a generic action game. Now getting platinum on all the Dandori challenges, that's a great and fun challenge, but I wish the core gameplay had more challenge to instead of all the challenge being relegated to a side mode. Overall, I prefer Pikmin 1 and 2 over the later ones as I feel 3 and 4 really drifted from the series roots as honestly quite difficult games. Pikmin 2 is a masterpiece.
Enemies not respawning baffled me. It legit made it no real danger, i'd take aday just clearing the map and the next moping it up. Oatchi is by far the worst offender of the ease of play though. Thankfully, part of the replayability of pikmin is self imposed limits, and not using him is pretty easy.
6:55 the game doesn’t suggest the amount of each pikmin, it just does an even split between the suggested types, unless you don’t have enough of a given type to get an even split
having fully played through the game and been playing pikmin since the first game i will say the dungeons auto telling me which pikmin i needed and putting my squad together for me i liked a lot it helped me really think about each pikmin type and all they could do it was something that i liked yes hand holding at times but being able to make it to a cave and just go in no rearranging my pikmin myself i liked it just streamlined an unnecessary back track
This video calling Pikmin 4 easy was the reason I actually got the game. I was going to skip it because it re-added the dungeons. I paused the video at 1 min in, got the game, and really enjoyed it. Now I am back to finish off the video.
I’m very happy Theres a new pikmin game I think just having difficulty levels is all they need Like more pikmen die in attacks and Monster folow you around like they used to
Nectar eggs in Pikmin 2 can also release ultra sprays, and it seems to be quite often at that. Last time I played Pikmin 2, I collected the final treasure on day 25 give or take up to 3 days. At the time of collection, I had about 30 sprays (combined between Spicy and Bitter) despite using them in many moments of struggle. I didn't mass hussle for berries, use a dupe glitch, or do anything special. I only got one or two per type from berry collection methods, and the rest came from breaking nectar eggs I find throughout the game or from eggs randomly falling out of the sky in caves.
I agree it's way too easy, and I find it hard to want to keep playing because I am essentially only playing because it gets harder as time goes on. Why can't it just be hard all the way through? If it was, you could decrease the game size and focus everything together into a more cohesive experience. I don't have an issue with things being easy, where I do have an issue is when things are really easy the entire game, or the difficult parts are hidden behind tens of hours of playing the game. That's how it feels for pikmin 4.
I like hard games, but Pikmin 2 was too hard IMO. It's great to withhold some information about caves and force the player to adapt on the fly, but when the layouts and enemy compositions are ALSO random, that sets the player up for some real bullshit scenarios. 1 and 3 were closer to the right difficulty, depending on your preferences
The game isn’t made to be hard! You can artificially limit yourself easily. Simply choose to not use items, or don’t get flarlics, or do anything. I am disappointed that I haven’t seen more then 2 video praising pikmin 4. It’s always top nitpiks, or ugly creatures, or to easy, we need a top best parts of pikmin 4, or funniest dialogue! I know this video isn’t suposed to come off as complaining but it really just is. Instead of just talking about why it is easy, why not find solutions to make it harder.
This is right. Pikmin 4 is supposed to be accessible to children - you can tell this because there are dogs - but they know there's a fanbase that likes to challenge themselves, and it's built for that too. The age old Pikmin challenges of fewer days, fewer deaths, no resets always exists ofc, and then in 4 there's even more self-imposed restrictions available. No Oatchi upgrades, no flaric, no items, no gear upgrades - there are just SO many ways to hold yourself back that anyone who experiences it as "too easy" should understand how to change that. I bet even on your first playthrough you told yourself "no Dingo". I come from Pokémon games, which have been like this since the very beginning. There is a LONG list of things that are powerful enough to beat the game on their own, like a legendary Pokémon or being 10 levels over what you should be or using items in battle, and long time veterans understand that the only way you get to make a Pokémon game demanding once you have mechanical proficiency is to lock those things away.
@@jkid1134 that's not an excuse... the other three Pikmin games were also targetted torwards children, but they didn't rely on spoiling the player with a lot of game winning items and upgrades. The Pikmin franchise is something that can be enjoyed by both children and adults Also, video games aren't for simply just children
I was introduced to the series from Pikmin 3 and 4 so I'm so used to the easy gameplay and couldn't understand why people are complaining that it was too easy in 3 and 4 until I started playing 1 and 2. I was shocked at how hard these 2 installments were and thought it was not good but after completing Pikmin 2 and replaying 1, I was enjoying the challenge in them. Now that I think about 3 and 4 and replayed the mission modes in 3, I agree that they were too easy. I think what Nintendo could at least do is to increase the enemies' health so that you couldn't one-shot enemies with ice pikmin, there should be a mode for this so that both newbies and OG players could play the game at their own pace. But I appreciate that the random falling rocks and falling bomb rocks didn't return 'cause I would absolutely have a mental breakdown if they did.
As much as i love pikmin 2, im actually kinda happy that pikmin 4 is easier than 2. 2 is great, dont get me wrong, but it has a lot of random bullcrap. (Though, lets be real, in pikmin 2, you legit can throw purple pikmin at anything and theyll get stunned too. Theres also a glitch to fet the spray easily.... But also.... The sprays arent that hard to get. Legit ive been able to get up to 30 of both sprays.) But anyway, i like it being easier because we're fetting new fans into pikmin. Id rather we get people in easily, than having them get hit by bomb rocks or random strong enemies spawning out of nowhere.
Seeing the shop made me kind of die inside I feel like making yourself immune to hazards and oatchi really takes away from the experience to me It defeats the whole purpose and makes it less fun to me
I finally finished Pikmin 4 (100% main story) last week and wow was it good! It makes me wish all of these quality of life improvements existed for 1 and 2 cause I wanna go back to play 1 and 2 on Wii but not having the ability to choose what Pikmin to throw bothers me cause I learned Pikmin on 3 wiiu
@@hist150project5 not on the Wii version, at least I havent seen how without disbanding my party and picking them manually OR running up to which one I wanna throw which is simply tedious
i dont think that would make the game “harder” but more annoying as you’re always just gonna take white pikmin with you for underground treasure, especially since we have the same thing with oatchis digging and sniffing
Pikmin 3 true spice hack makes Pikmin 3 challenging and while Pikmin 4 thickmin hack has some hitbox issues it also makes the game harder just not to the extent of Pikmin 3 true spice. Though not official these are great hacks to make the game harder. Pikmin 3 maximum spice especially will stress you out.
It's very unlikely but I hope they add difficulty options on a free DLC, and if not, if they ever make a Pikmin 4 Deluxe, add them there (+ A proper multiplayer mode)
@@pressaTD I believe they haven't, that's why I say it's very unlikely. However, they did indeed release free DLCs for Kirby Star Allies with new content, which, just like Pikmin 4, is an adventure game with no online modes that, once you 100%, you pretty much have nothing else to do. So, while unlikely, they *might* do it
The thing I found difficult about pikmin e was the dandori battles and the trails of the white/purple onions. Everything else was easy going especially with ouchi. Kinda wish we had a no onchi mode or something.
Wait were Dandori Battles actually somewhat difficult for other people? I literally beat [SPOILER ALERT] both of the Louie Dandori Battles first try with the platinum medal
@@JoziGlitzh Dispute me tearing through most bosses rather easily the first Louie challenge did have me reset as well as the trials to get the two onions.
Yeah this game is easy as fuck. It's not challenging at all with the dogs rush and stun, Ice Pikmin's freezing ability, game holding your hand. being reminded to rewind time when you get a major lost let alone the ability to do it on the spot, etc. This game is good because it's the Pikmin formula and the game did *some* stuff better than the others, even my favourite Pikmin 2 but for me it iust wasn't worth the 10 year wait.
Miyamoto thought the reason past Pikmin games did poorly in sales compared to their other IPs is because the games were too challenging for your average player so instead of making a game that appeals to the Pikmin fanbase they made a game to appeal to a bigger audience. It’s a shame. I remember in the first two Pikmin games which were perfectly balanced for me feeling the sting when a Pikmin died especially when an entire squad of Pikmin in your group died. In Pikmin 4 I didn’t care if any Pikmin died. I’d just throw them directly at a Jumbo Bulborb’s mouth which used to be a no no in the first two and still only lose 4 Pikmin. Absolutely ridiculous! I think corporate has taken over Nintendo. Nintendo games are more about quantity and less about quality nowadays.
Quality is batter than ever, + Pikmin 2 is not balanced since falling bomb-rocks and rocks are more annoying then difficult and how does easy game = bad quallity, this dosn't make any sense, I geuss Wonder was just a cash grab
I really don’t mind the game was easy because I still had so much fun with the game. But I would say they should add free update for difficulty something like they did in pikmin 3 Deluxe, that would make me play super more because I already played this game 100 hours total 👀😆
Then push for game modes to be implemented, not demand that the entire series be made around the more hardcore playerbase which is far smaller than the mainstream casual playerbase who are generally fine with games as they are. Not all games have to be insanely difficult and you don't always have to enjoy a game based on difficulty. I don't like the argument of outright "Make the games harder" for that reason.
@@pressaTD Could you be any more vague phrasing your question? In what way do I need help? You state at the end of the video that you encourage feedback, so I left feedback. Is that the issue or something else you're alluding to?
@@pressaTD I need help because I think you have a terrible take here. Pikmin is a casual game like plenty others in Nintendo's library. You want a game that punishes you for every little fuck up then grab a Soulsbourne game. If going that direction doesn't satisfy, the best solution is to go the route of the Pokemon fandom and make up your own set of rules to force the game to be harder. Gamers like you are the minority, Nintendo's (and most company's) strategy is to appeal to the bigger audience, which sadly for you is the casual gamer. I know for me I play games for fun and my idea of fun isn't wanting to smash my controller or my console.
@@vegokerclownprinceofallsai8851 You know there's a middleground between a game being soulsborne difficult vs being braindead easy? (See Pikmin 1 and 2)
