Topic: Pikmin 3 Deluxe Thread

@App
Like Octane said, Ultra Spicy limits your Pikmin to 60 instead of 100. Not sure the difference between Normal and Hard, except to say that Hard feels identical to the original game, so Normal has likely been made even easier, though in what capacity I cannot say.

@JaxonH The enemies seemed smarter in Hard mode than I remembered, but it's also possible that the AI has just been improved as part of the balancing tweaks. Guess we'll have to wait for someone to hack the game and figure out what the differences are exactly.

EDIT: Also, Ultra Spicy supposedly has other differences on top of the 60 Pikmin limit.

I assumed "Normal" was the original default difficulty since the description for "Hard" says it is intended for experienced players.

If anyone has gyro issues on the Switch Lite, try rebooting the system. It’s a common system specific bug, and one I’ve experienced with just about every game that uses gyro to date. It also just happened to me in the Pikmin 3 demo. FYI.

This game is so fun I started playing again on the Lite. Obviously cloud data doesn’t apply for this demo, but that’s fine because it’s another opportunity to play through it again.

Gosh, this is such a special game. There’s just nothing else like it. Miamoto’s crowing achievement, to be sure.

My 13-year old son really liked the demo. Like me, he, too, was put off by the hard day limit in the original Pikmin and was thrilled to discover that he can now directly control the pacing of the game by hoarding fruit juice.

He played the game docked, and it generally looks great on the big screen, but I was surprised that the numbers in the lower right corner do not appear to have been touched up like the fonts in the Mario 3D collection as they appear jagged with zero anti-aliasing. It's a small quibble but is one of those things that leaves you scratching your head when you consider all the other work Nintendo did updating Pikmin 3 for the Switch.

Isn't the fruit limited though? Or does it respawn?

@Eel once you get it it’s gone. Same as pikmin 1.

So this game does have a finite amount of days you can take, it's just less obvious

@Mountain_Man pikmin gives you 30 days to find 30 parts. Even if your new to pikmin, that’s finding one part a day. You DONT need to get all 30 parts.
Pikmin 1 has a lot of replayability and the more you play it the more you learn how to manage time with pikmin. The amount of parts you get determines the ending of the game. Pikmin has 3 endings

@Eel it it’s very generous with fruits so even in your first gameplay you won’t run out of juice. Obviously the point of the game would be to find everything in the shortest number of days.

@Eel There are a limited number of fruits, that grant you 95 days in total (plus the 3 juice you start with, and the final day which you can play technically, but will run out of juice), means you have 99 days to beat the game. More days than there are fruit. They are quite generous, but it does mean that collecting fruit is always a priority.

@Mountain_Man AFAIK it's the same resolution, same frame rate. Same content. The only new content are repurposed challenge missions. They didn't put a lot of work into it. Not worthy of $60 at least!

Signed by a Wii U owner.

That’s actually one of my only complaints about the game was how easy it was to find fruit. The only time you’re in dire need of it is in the beginning and when Louie steals all of your stash

I hope the Hard mode adds more difficulty to it then just smarter enemies and less Pikmin.

@Octane If Olimar and Louie’s adventure is as big as the regular game I’d say it’s very worth 60$. If so, I like to think of it this way. I’m paying for the new Olimar and Louie game, and get Pikmin 3 as an Add-on.

I’m not saying a Pikmin trilogy collection wouldn’t be worth my value either, but still.

@App Yeah, but let's be honest, those Olimar and Louie missions are going to be half a dozen challenge missions, and you're going to be done with them in an hour or so.

@Octane In the back of my mind I know that's true. I just hope there's an actual story or "lore" attached to it to better understand their mission during the game.

@Octane @App According to dataminers who looked at the requirements for each badge, the actual number of missions is 14-16 days. Which, is approximately how long it takes to complete Pikmin 1, so that's not a bad amount of content. Also, I'd list it accurately but I uh... can't find the link anymore, it appears to have been taken down. Basically, the prologue is supposed to be really short (4-6 days I think), while the epilogue is longer (8-10 days I believe).

Also, in a non-datamine bit of spoilers, the how to play session reveals that the epilogue appears to revolve around rebuilding the Hocotate ship after Louie and Olimar crash it, Pikmin 1 style, which is likely why it's longer.

According to the Wiki article I read, you can get up to 99 days if you find all the fruit, so while there is a limit, it's much more relaxed than the original game.

@Mountain_Man Yeah, it depends. In Pikmin 1 you just got 30 days. In Pikmin 3 you have as many days left as you have fruit left. So it does allow you to play for 99 days, but only if you keep collecting new fruits. So it's much more merciful in a way, but it does kinda force you to keep exploring and finding new fruits. I've never thought about it this way, but it's kinda interesting how the games differ structurally from each other.

It brings to my mind something I read in a post mortem about the development of Civilization 4. In the previous game, if you were doing poorly then you would get hit with a Dark Age which would give you a bunch of negative effects that you had to work to overcome. It was punishing and not very fun. So when it came time to develop Civ 4, they took that mechanic and flipped it around so that instead of being punished if you were playing poorly, you would be rewarded with a Golden Age if you played well. It offered the player something to gain rather than something to avoid.

Seems like that's the same philosophy that went into Pikmin 3, so that instead of the exploration minded player being "punished" with a wasted day, he is rewarded with additional days (assuming he finds fruit).