Pikmin 1 vs Pikmin 2: The TWO Playstyles of the Pikmin Games (Fast and Slow Dandori) 

Fast for me is the best way to enjoy Pikmin games. Edit: I've tried playing Pikmin 3 in a slow and relaxed way by taking good pictures with the camera feature. It was a wonderful experience. But trying to slow down actual gameplay was boring because there's no reason to go slower. Trying to play Pikmin 2 fast was fun at first but quickly got frustrating. My most "enjoyable" way to play was slow & safe, which wasn't fun but better than frustration. Playing fast and recklessly felt like the opposite of dandori. Love making strategic decisions like spending valuable time to be safe or playing risky to save time, & if I mess up it wasn't meaningless. But in P2 that decision doesnt matter much. In P2 if I play fast I feel like I'm an idiot whose going to get my pikmin killed for nothing. But a huge factor is some of the bs the game has and how unbalanced it is. In Pikmin 4, I enjoyed replaying the demo several times to 100% the Terrance & to do it faster and faster, or other self imposed challenges. But in the full game I grew bored quickly. Things took way too long to progress & replaying was a pain because the rewind time cut off upon entering a cave/new sublevel and you can't go back to a previous day. Finishing a day or enter/exit/progress through caves you'd have had to set up a copied file to replay that part or start a new file. It's just a style of gameplay I'm not looking for in Pikmin games. That's why I was so astronomically happy Olimar's tale was in the game.

All 4 Pikmin games punish when I am performing poorly by taking away my resources (pikmin, days, food, etc.) which I then have to spend more resources and extra effort into correcting. P1 & 3 don't punish too harsh if I fail to grab a ship part or fruit on one day, by the next day I can easily recover if I know what I'm are doing. The ability to replay previous days makes mistakes less harsh. P2 & 4 I feel punish harsher as it is taking away my agency. In 2 the caves will boot you out and you'll lose your treasure & making you redo the whole cave over if you fail. Otherwise resetting sublevels randomizes them. Best ways to deal with punishment is either just don't make mistakes or grind & go slow, which to me bad. P2 especially makes playing fast as hard & unfun as possible. Some of the bs this game has isn't fun to overcome & can't reset to improve because randomization and replaying is very tedious. At least in P4 they remedied the issue of reseting by not only giving us the rewind time feature, but stuff like being able to replay dandori missions and making multiple save files you can copy (but not enough imo). However, not being able to go back to previous days or even being able to restart the day once you enter a cave really sucks. I can't easily make new strategies & play the out because I can't iterate on them easily. They gave us many tools & ways to succeed. Made me want to replay P4 many ways under different challenges but 2 playthroughs have already burnt me out & each time I try a new run I get tired by the length of the game. If I make a mistake that ruins a run (like accidentally breaking a rule), It'll suck if I don't catch it in time to fix it, otherwise run's ruined! In P2 & 4 it often feels like I'm being punished for wanting to play the game the fast way. Because by playing fast you are supposed to quickly make mistakes so you can learn fast and improve faster. The slower way goes against that and pads out the time between iterations. Having an idea for a strat, testing it, having things go wrong, course correct when you can, and when it's not possible or you think you can do better, you replay and make a better iteration. That's the kind of gameplay that made me fall in love with pikmin.

Yeah, I think I agree with you here. The writing of Pikmin 2 is the best in the series in my opinion, but the gameplay and overall world of 3 are unmatched in my eyes. A blend of both would be perfect

@@VantageEmblemwith the pikmin two controlls imo.

That's... Kind of the experience, yeah?

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This is probably the most engaging way to tackle 2, and its how 4 tries to set up its main campaign, just without any sort of time limit I’m excited for the day you can play 4!

While I’ve stopped and started a bunch of Pikmin 2 and 4 playthroughs, the number of finished playthroughs is still ultimately very low for me compared to the very many Pikmin 1 and 3 playthroughs I’ve completed thus far So yeah, this is absolutely a shared experience

Optimization is ABSOLUTELY the core tenant of Pikmin and to be honest it's not reaaaallly something the game ever directly told the player they must do until Pikmin 4, but it's an idea presented through the gameplay nonetheless.

Yes absolutely! Ultimately, this is one of the best elements of 4, though unfortunately to unlock this mode players have to complete a solid chunk of the main campaign (which, to be fair, is only really a handful of dandori battles but still)

@@VantageEmblem yeah who knows maybe pikmin 5 will let you unlock it earlier

I love that it's a real possibility that we'll know sooner rather than later because Pikmin 5 could come way earlier@@zacharyweaver276

@@VantageEmblem yeah only question is what direction five will go in story wise. Really hope we get dogs in 5

That's a genuinely huge question and something I'm working on a script about @@zacharyweaver276

Oh yeah, I feel the same way with Pikmin 3 - just being able to explore that world and see what there was to see was magical. And with 4, I remember losing my mind encountering the foolix for the first time, heh There’s so much merit to playing these games fast AND slow and I think there’s room for the games to offer both experiences Thanks for watching!

That's SO valid! Pikmin 1 has SUCH a strong alien aesthetic and excellent map design. Which version of it do you like the best?

@@VantageEmblem hmmm my favorite version of it has to be the Nintendo switch port of it seems more enjoyable

I agree! 1 has quickly become my second favorite game in the series thanks to the switch port, rising from my least favorite just because of control and polish issues! It's such a well designed game and I'm glad it's finally getting the space it needed to be successful!@@chill_guy170

@@VantageEmblem I’m glad it’s getting successful too lol

YES! Me too@@chill_guy170

Yes! I think this is why Pikmin 4 succeeds in what it does, it marries the fast and slow styles through the sheer variety of content provided

3 is my favorite game from the franchise, but it is strong because of what it learned from the prior entries. And 4 is so good too. Honestly, I just am so happy with the four games we have

@@VantageEmblem Couldn't agree more! There isn't a mainline pikmin game that I don't love.

I think this is the danger of baked in “nostalgia” like 4 has: I constantly compare areas like the engulfed castle to the submerged castle because… obviously. But I like the submerged castle better. If it were a new idea inspired by the SC (like the foolix from the goolix) id probably be less comparative

@@VantageEmblem Well in that situation, not only are you comparing the Pikmin 2 part of Pikmin 4 to Pikmin 2, but going a step further, you're comparing what is clearly a callback/homage to it's source, which is valid. They're literally built the same. That's why when people say "oh Engulfed Castle is easier and unimpactful cause Waterwraith was deadlier in Submerged" and other stuff, I just tend to agree cause it's just objectively correct. The problem comes from the "Time vs Type Management" thing. The two styles clearly have different intent and, in my opinion, do what they're individually trying to do very well, therefore the games are good. The problem comes from doing something like calling Pikmin 2 "bad" because it doesn't do this and that while Pikmin 1 does, because that wasn't Pikmin 2's intention, and is therefore not really a great way to judge the game.

Oh yeah, definitely- Pikmin 2’s strengths lie with its points of variance with Pikmin 1, and Pikmin 3’s from Pikmin 2, and Pikmin 4 from Pikmin 3. Just because the game isn’t a past entry doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be seen for its own merits!

Unlike 2

Purples go brrr hehe@@Kinguest8

For real though purples break the game. Nintendo should include a "broken purples" switch in the option menu sometime. Instant difficulty options.

“A Pikmin game’s difficulty comes down to its Purple Pikmin” - somebody somewhere probably

PIKMIN!

Oh yeah, Pikmin 2 is absolutely still an RTS. It just occupies a different part of the spectrum between action-adventure and RTS. Instead of full map planning and motion being the focus, it’s combat in dungeons, but that core combat loop is intact and, frankly, the battles of Pikmin 2 in general have a lot of strategic complexity to them Pikmin as a series has been a hybrid of these two genres from the start, and that hasn’t changed

Fair! I think I slightly prefer time management Pikmin titles, but even still there’s so much fun to be had in type management games so I’m not sure!

Hello! Thanks for watching!

Pikmin 4 is to Pikmin 2 what Pikmin 3 is to Pikmin 1 in my opinion, and I think that’s why it was able to pull off such a good balance between fast and slow dandori

Oh absolutely - I'm planning on talking about THAT can of worms later on the channel heh

I’m right here with you! I love Pikmin 2, but it’s definitely the toughest game to play against its intended playstyle as a slow paced dungeon crawler, which I think ultimately is where a lot of the divide comes from. That said, clearing caves in one go becomes easier on repeat playthroughs, which makes things a little less tough At the end of the day, I really like how 4 tried to marry moth approaches, just like you said, by providing an experience that both sides can enjoy

WELCOME! I hope you enjoy your stay here heh

It’s a good way to figure out the layout and to get an understanding of exactly what there is to do there! That is to say that taking your time and then doing the After Hours can absolutely boost your score in the long run!

That’s valid tbh. Different genre and a spinoff, not a mainline entry, but valid. Same with bloom for that matter

I think this is how I feel too - I’d love a game focused on the faster dandori playstyle, but without the game’s length having to suffer for it

cavern for a king wants to have a word with you and random generation made some sublevels not fun, + shorter lengh makes sense since now time does pass in caves just slower, now caves are suppost to be played fast

and 1 more thing: you can beat almost all areas in 1 day withound using some exploits like in 2

@@volvoman5262 Hence why I said normal caves. Cavern for a King is supposed to be an end-game boss rush and an obvious outlier. The Random generation of Pikmin 2's caves ensured that every time going against a cave was unique, adding to the explorative dungeon crawling element. And they didn't even make good use of the pre-designed caves to do anything interesting. The caves are still all generic, somehow even more than in Pikmin 2. Playing fast is the exact opposite of the entire fundamental point of caves, and making it that way is what caused Pikmin 4 to fail.

@@StarLightShadows "pikmin 4 to fail" you now it's just like your opinion?

I simultaneously disagree and agree with this take, and I think it’s for the same reason - Pikmin 4 was an experiment in making the Pikmin formula more responsive to player choice and expression through the non-linear gameplay. Structure wise it is absolutely a follow up to Pikmin 2, no questions asked, and the caves, challenges, and battles interrupt surface dandori tasks exactly as the caves do in Pikmin 2, that’s undeniable, and this has an effect on area flow. That said, Pikmin 4 ABSOLUTELY is a faster paced game than Pikmin 2 in almost every way. I think, when speedrunning, Pikmin 4 transforms more into a time management game rather than a type management one, because that time limit is reinstated, which is the design theory behind Olimar’s Shipwreck Tale. You make some excellent points

Me too though! But it's clear that there is a divide along these lines in the fanbase anyway, enough that the developers have taken note internally

@@VantageEmblem this is true, I would also say each game has elements of each I would say for example pikmin 3 still has elements of type management while pikmin 2 also still has elements of time management in fact even as a guy who likes to play these games in as few days as possible I still really enjoy doing that with games like pikmin 2 and 4.