Topic: Pikmin 3 Deluxe Thread

@Bolt_Strike Time management is important in Pikmin. On my first playthrough I didn't start a boss fight halfway through the day (you can always end a day early), and I made sure to start a boss fight on a new day. It's just something you need to keep in mind.

Pikmin show up on the map as little dots (with the colour of the dot indicating the type of Pikmin). If you're missing a lot of them, you can't miss it on the map (and the game pauses while you're looking at the map, so you can take your time).

But yeah, the time management aspect is what scares a lot of people of. But it is what makes Pikmin a Pikmin game. Without it, it would be a rather trivial exploration game (it's the reason why Pikmin 2 is my least favourite of the three). It's not like Mario 3D World, which has a timer for no apparent reason other than to force you to keep moving. The time limit in Pikmin actually makes sense, since you need to get off the planet before nighttime. It also adds another layer of strategy to the game. You will get used to it.

I’m so happy Pikmin 3 is finally going to get the attention it deserves. Playing the demo today, I’m falling in love all over again. After all, it has been SEVEN YEARS since I last played this game... that’s the better part of a decade. To think the Wii U successor would be able to play its full console games on a handheld is still impressive; Hey Pikmin just didn’t cut it.

I seriously hope as many people play this demo as possible. Like, I remember when Fire Emblem was still under the radar, and Nintendo fans were thirsty for a new 1st party property, then stumbled upon Fire Emblem Awakening demo and had an epiphany- that there was this amazing, 1st party IP they had been ignoring the entire time. And Pikmin feels like it’s in a similar situation. It’s such a great game, and is crafted with so much care and love, has so much charm, and yet... so few have even paid it any mind whatsoever. If this release can change that, and put Pikmin on the map, that could do wonders for the franchise in the same way Awakening revitalized Fire Emblem.

@JaxonH releasing exclusively on game cube and wiiu until now certainly didn't do wonders for brand awareness.... All it's missing is a virtual boy title and a vita theme to complete the ensemble

only problem with Pikmin as a franchise now is that it's really Miyamoto's own personal pet project. Without him on the lead it's not really Pikmin. He has Pikmin 4 in the drawer, but after that, he doesn't do the hands on part anymore. Pikmin without miyamoto would be like rayman without ancel, sonic without naka, twitter without kamiya...

@NEStalgia Or Mario without Miyamoto. Wait, Odyssey turned out fine

@NEStalgia @Octane
Fair point. Pikmin has definitely had a bad spell of luck in that regard.

I do think it’s Miamoto’s personal project, but I also think it would be fine without him now that he’s set the tone and determined the blueprint for the series. I’m just not sure he’ll want to let anyone else work on Pikmin before he retires, at least, as long as Pikmin 4 is in limbo.

@JaxonH Now we just need Prime Trilogy/Prime 4 to do the same for Metroid. It's one of the greatest series no one's played.

Anyway, I went back last night and retried Day 3, and I had a lot more success this time. My issue with the game seems to be the control scheme, I played it in handheld and used the right stick, which is very unwieldy. The pointer controls work sooo much better. That, and I screwed up badly the first time after I threw Brittany over the river to build the bridge, I had to whistle my Rock Pikmin to get them to follow me and the Pikmin on the other side ended up following too and drowning.

@Bolt_Strike
Lol ya, I’ve done stuff like that too. You get better with practice.

Metroid Prime 4 should do the same for the Metroid series, at least, I hope it will. It seems Nintendo wants it to be a quality release, hence giving it to Retro Studios. But they really need to release the trilogy. Not sure what the hold up is.

I've played a little bit of Pikmin and Pikmin 2, but none of 3, so this is an entirely new experience for me. I think it's great. I don't have to unlearn anything, so the controls seem very intuitive to me. And I love the visuals. I was disappointed when the demo ended because I wanted to keep going!

I don't mind the daily timer because it gives the game a sense of pacing, and seems like there's sufficient time to accomplish one or two big tasks per day, but maybe that changes in the later part of the game. I just hope there's not a day limit. I didn't like that feature in the original Pikmin, because you could get halfway through the game and realize you had no hope of finding all the spaceship parts in the days you had remaining, leaving you little choice but to burn the save file and start over from the beginning (the Wii version, I know, at least let you replay previous days to try and complete them more efficiently). Pikmin 3 at first glance seems more open-ended, so I hope that's the case.

Day one buy for me.

@Mountain_Man Pikmin 3 does have a day limit, just like Pikmin 1, but it's even for forgiving. I've never had an issue with the day limit in Pikmin 1. You get 30, but you can easily beat the game in 15 days. So that same pressure is kinda present in Pikmin 3. Fruit gets converted into juice, which are essentially Pikmin 1's days. However, by the end you have so much juice left, there's really no hurry. But since fruit is limited, the days are in theory limited as well.

I'm fine with the day limit being under the player's control (just read on a Wiki page that you can get up to 99 days in Pikmin 3 if you find all the fruit, which sounds like plenty). I know you could beat the original Pikmin relatively quickly, but that was only after you spent several games figuring out how. Seems like the intent was for the player to learn how to beat the game through multiple failed attempts, which is a valid gameplay mechanic, it's just one I didn't particularly care for when I first played it.

But now that we have Pikmin 3, I wonder what the chances are of seeing 1 and 2 ported to the Switch?

@Mountain_Man I was hoping for a collection of all 3 Pikmin games, but with the new remaster the chances are very slim. I'm not opposed to it.

Yeah, it's very unlikely. A collection like 3D All-Stars is what this franchise needed most. Imagine Pikmin 1 looking halfway as good as Pikmin 3.

Anyway, none of that is Pikmin 4. I'm still waiting Miyamoto...

@Octane
Pikmin 4, I think we both agree, is a highly desired title.

But for now, I’m just glad we’re getting Pikmin 3. I can very easily envision a scenario where we got no Pikmin games on Switch at all. And Pikmin 3 is such a great game, especially with all the DLC included and extra content added for this release.

Maybe one day we’ll see our beloved Pikmin 4 properly announced for Switch; until then, I’ll wipe my tears with Pikmin 3 😁

@JaxonH https://www.reddit.com/r/Pikmin/comments/j74kfu/mission_mode_...

It seems someone spotted the "easy mode" that was mentioned. It's apparently an option for mission mode that lets you take on missions without a timer, not for the story mode.

I mean, if they did use 3D All Stars as the base for it, you'd still have to imagine :V

The hud icons would look amazing though!

@link3710
Ah, nice catch.

Although I’m pretty sure the story’s easy mode says “Normal”, because the Hard Mode seemed the same as the original.

Easy: Normal
Normal: Hard
Hard: Ultra Spicy

@JaxonH So is there a definite answer to what the Easy, Normal, and Hard mode do to the story?

@App Ultra Spicy(?) limits your Pikmin to 60 iirc. I haven't messed around with the difficulties, I presume enemies have more health or deal more damage.

@Octane Ok, thank you. I've played the game to death so I think I'll try the Hard mode.