It was over seven years of waiting, but Pikmin 4 finally bloomed onto Switch last week and we love it. Bigger than any other title in the franchise, this fourth entry adds a boat-load of helpful new features, gorgeous environments and game-changing Pikmin types, but if we had one teeny tiny issue with the base game, it's that it does fall a little on the easy side of things.
To be clear, this was not enough to put us off the game in any way (you can find our 9/10 review at the bottom of this article), though on an initial playthrough, we did wish for a little more challenge. Fortunately, there is an extra helping of difficulty once the game is all wrapped up.
Our wonderful video producer, Alex, was on hand to discuss everything that these extra challenges offer and you can catch each one of them in the above video. This video does contain post-credit spoilers for Pikmin 4, so if you want to continue to pluck those adorable plants in peace, then we'd suggest leaving this one for a while.
If you are expecting a Dark Souls-esque difficulty jump where any old Bulborb can swallow Oatchi whole, then you better prepare for disappointment; if, however, you are after a little more challenge from what you have played so far, then rest assured that it is on the horizon. Be sure to check out the video where all is revealed...
What do you make of Pikmin 4's difficulty so far? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 10
I just finished the main campaign of Pikmin 4 around... ten mins ago.
I love the game, though I really REALLY wish I could turn off the auto lock-on. I've gotten Pikmin killed so many times because the cursor kept locking on to a random nectar or material instead of the enemies I need to aim at.
Overall I had a great time, but as a longtime fan... honestly, every single change they made to the way Pikmin behave (auto lock-on, throwing at objects is limited to minimum carry weight, idle Pikmin don't automatically help others...) I think is a change for the worse. They tinkered with the base mechanics way way too much in my opinion.
But aside from that, the campaign itself is all great stuff. ...I just have to play it through this extra layer of annoyance.
@EarthboundBenjy The weight thing bothers me as well. I spam the crap out of the Y button to get them to rush it again and carry it faster with more Pikmin.
Overall tho, this is the best game in the series. I recently played through all 3 again before this came out and this is hands down the direction I want to see the series go. I’m excited to see what Pikmin 5 looks like in the next 5 years.
Thanks for the spoiler warning. I was going to watch it to see what to avoid, but I want to avoid the spoilers more. And just knowing it's post credits is really enough warning for me, I'll probably just stop then anyway. In 3 they MADE you stop after the boss, no choice of credits or keep paying except going back like 3 days, which I'm still mad about. I basically only did like half the fruit. 😩
@EarthboundBenjy They probably made the changes to cater to a newer/younger audience. We had much less hand-holding in the Gamecube days...
Though thankfully games like BOTW and TOTK have bucked this trend.
While it’s definitely easier for me and most of us, my less than gaming inclined wife is loving the difficulty curve. I’m sure my nephews and nieces would enjoy it as well.
The Dandori battles have caused plenty of stress due to micromanaging though 😅
i havent picked up the game yet but i was disappointed to see the difficulty toggle was removed from 3, but i think the upgrade system was meant to be an indirect replacement for that. i wonder how difficult runs will be if you refuse to upgrade as much as you feasibly can
It's mostly been on the easier side for me as well.
Honestly though, difficulty can vary between person. If a difficulty choice mode was in the gane like in Pikmin 3 Deluxe, I think that'd work better.
But I am really loving the game and it's really fun.
So what if it isn't hard? It isn't a resource management title like the previous games, it would be frustrating if you lost Pikmin all the time and you had to grind constantly to get new ones. There would be no benefit to that. I'm totally fine with this approach. This is more exploration focused. For example Pikmin 1 had more challenge, but it was also much shorter. Replaying sections in this one is not the point and it would just make it worse.
Auto lock-on is a pain for me, too. Hopefully they'll make it an option via update at least, as for the annoying pause after throwing the minimum amount of Pikmin, I think it's fine when it comes to gathering materials or building stuff. But when throwing them to carry stuff, I just want the max amount to carry them sometimes since they'll be faster.
Not watching it as I've practically just started playing the game, but good to have confirmation there are extra and harder challenges post credits for those who want them!
So far the changes like auto lock-on etc. didn't particularly bother me, although it would be nice if you could toggle them.
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