Pikmin 4 Analysis | The Good, The Bad & The Oatchi

Pikmin 4 finally graced the Nintendo Switch this year, and I'm analyzing all of the creative decisions made this time around in painstaking detail. Part review, part rant - all Pikmin.

[@shadowthief6471]

Finally someone who doesent defend the stupid 3 type limit

[@bruxtle]

The constant NPC yapping throughout the ENTIRE game is easily one of the worst parts of it. Doesnt feel like pikmin at all.

[@Stibly]

Pikmin 4 feels like what I wanted Pikmin to be as a kid because I was bad at it, and not realising how much my ideas would screw up the game. Honestly Pikmin 4 feels like it was made for kids who get too stressed playing the older games...

[@kandyeggs]

My younger brother rented Pikmin 1 from GameStop, read almost none of the text, died to the frog, and thought the save corrupted when he lost. Pikmin is such a fascinating exploration into a fantasy ecosystem that comes off as a fun twist on the “alien invader” trope… and as much as I love the designs and the concept, I just KNOW it’s way too stressful for me! My fondest memories of this series will forever be just walking into the living room, looking at the Wii and going “what the honk is that” while cantankerous little cretins scrambled mortally across the screen in absolute peril

[@octoguygmod]

Play Pikmin 3 and 4 the stress in those games is almost non-existent

[@JJSquirtle]

My first Pikmin game was Pikmin 2. It took me over a year and the exact day count I still remember. 234 days it took me to complete that game, only for a chuggaconroy video to come out like a year later where he was playing Luigi's Mansion and straight up said "This game is really short, even shorter than Pikmin 2" My pride died that day.

[@MagerBlutooth]

I'm glad to finally watch a video that touches on how Pikmin 4 sacrifices the dangerous atmosphere of nighttime for what amounts to a minigame. The inversion of the iconic sundown countdown from one of dread to one of salvation is a genuinely good idea, but the ease of taking down hordes of powerful enemies means you often don't experience it. One of my favorite aspects of the caves is how they tap into your fear of the unknown. Anything could theoretically pop out at you at any time, and even things you can see can be unpredictable on first encounter. (Who would ever expect the Man-At-Legs to pull out a machine gun?) A genuine nighttime expedition could put you in a dangerous and poorly-lit environment where the goal is simply to get what you need and get out, while keeping you more afraid of what might be there than what is. They could make it so that even familiar enemies could adopt new behaviors that make them more unsettling. Like if you encounter a Mamuta at night, it has a chance to grow a mouth with sharp teeth and start eating your Pikmin instead of ignoring you. Or a lone Dwarf Bulborb with unusually high HP that just keeps growing the more time passes. After learning the secrets of the night, the challenge would come from time management, since there's just not enough time to kill everything you come across, especially if you can't gain new Pikmin at night. The concept of illuminating Glow Pikmin could work so well with such an idea. Imagine you need at least some Glow Pikmin to be able to see, with the world becoming more illuminated the more you have. So as you lose your Pikmin, the world around you becomes less safe, and losing them all is game over. The Glow Pikmin would be immune to no hazards, but they act as your lifeline. So you have to carefully consider how much light you're willing to lose in exchange for your exploration potential. Glow Pikmin could even provide an explanation as to why nighttime exploration is possible, since their glow could ward off the truly dangerous monsters that swarm you from the darkness if you lose them all. It could be incredibly impactful for a Pikmin game's atmosphere, especially when contrasted with the relative peacefulness of the daytime. I could only imagine the amazing tricks they could pull with the soundtrack for such an experience.

[@theghostwiththemost789]

I am a brand new pikmin fan. I played all the games for the first time in preparation for 4 and I have to say, I’m kind of disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, The game is good. Really good in fact. But I feel like it messes up on a lot of the little things and all of those little things start to pile up over time. One of the most annoying things about this game is that the characters never stop talking. In the beginning of the game the characters never stop talking, but after you get to the second area it basically stops and you can always skip the dialogue which is nice. The problem is that the characters will still talk to you during gameplay and their dialog boxes appear right in the middle of the screen. It’s a very annoying and even during the freaking Final boss it still happens! I looked in the Settings menu to see if there was any way to turn off their commentary and surprise surprise there’s not. I was literally yelling at my TV for the characters to just shut the hell up💀. I feel like pikmin 4 lacks the charm every other game in the series has. every other game in the series he feels like you’re a little person exploring a post apocalypse earth, in pikmin 4 it feels like you’re exploring somebody’s house while they’re on vacation. The day/night system should not be in this game as it only harms it. Since there is no day limit, the system does not need to be here in the slightest so all it does is drag you away from having fun and make you sit through a bunch of dialogue boxes and loading screens until you can finally get back to what you were doing. This was a problem in pikmin 2 as well and it’s just as bad here. I also hate how they took the side mode of this game and just shoved into the main story. I don’t like how it breaks up the normal gameplay. And Don’t even get me started on how unnecessarily confusing this games placement in the timeline is. I honestly could go on for even longer since I have many other problems with the game, but I think you get the point. I hear a lot of people called this the perfect Pikmin game and I completely disagree with that. I do like pikmin 4 but it just has too much holding it back for me and I can honestly never see myself replaying it in the future

[@eloquentpotato6435]

I wholeheartedly agree!

[@AnonymOus-ss9jj]

I completely disagree with the side mode thing. I just couldn't get in to Pikmin 3's, while over on Pikmin 4 I went back and got platinum on each. The greater stressing of "dandori" over Pikmin safety might have also helped get me into the right mindset, but I think interspersed play styles is what puts variety into a game and prevents it from becoming stale. Nor did I find the text too big when a character spoke.

[@ShyGuyXXL]

"Night time being dangerous is the entire justification for the daytime limit." Olimar also needs to sleep, you know. He spends literally all day running around and throwing creatures half his size, hundreds of times. By the time sunset comes, he's barely gonna be able to stand, much less keep dandori-ing. That's why in Pikmin 4, when you choose a night mission, your character sleeps during the day so they have the energy for the night mission.

[@lasercraft32]

Yes but one flaw with your argument.... In Pikmin 1, Olimar is _shipwrecked_ and has limited time. You really think getting his full 8 hours is on top of his list of concerns? Heck no. If I were in that situation I wouldn't sleep until I was too tired to even think. He would stay up late and working as hard as possible to get home to his wife and children in that situation.

[@ShyGuyXXL]

@@lasercraft32 I dunno, if I was Olimar, I still think I would be absolutely destroyed at the end of every day, if I woke up early in the morning and did nothing else aside from running and throwing and whistling, all the way to sunset. Not to mention the mental exhaustion of keeping track of 100 troops and dozens of tasks that you wanna multitask. And don't forget the horror of seeing your little Pikmin friends die horrible deaths. If you push yourself too hard, you might figuratively crash. ....in Olimar's case, crash again. Burnout is a real problem. I mean Olimar isn't an athlete, he's a chubby delivery man. And he's not the youngest either. If he threw out his back overworking himself one day, he wouldn't be able to run away from a Bulbear the next day, which might be the end of him. Slow and steady wins the race.

[@sammy-chan0314]

Underated video fr

[@shanechavarria9532]

Pikmin 2 will always be the greatest

[@junenei]

As a diehard Pikmin fan since Pikmin 1 this video is exactly how I feel about this game (except for the cave slander lol) Oatchi is the worst thing to ever happen to the series because he completely breaks the very mechanic that makes this game so unique. And it drives me nuts how everyone adores him despite this just because he's a cute dog! I like your idea of turning him into a bulbmin and restricting him in a way that leaves combat, carrying objects and hazards mainly to the pikmin. They weren't even needed for half the game because after enough upgrades you could do most things more easily with Oatchi instead. And I also hate that the canon got rewritten to shoehorn the dogs in. It's not even about inconsistencies of the lore at this point but for the game to just do a J.K. Rowling and go "alright now let's pretend Olimar actually had the help of a dog in the first game!" is just bad writing I'm sorry. Why even bother then to tie it to the first game at all if you have to rewrite it to somehow work? And the atmosphere of the first two games was just completely lost. The post apocalyptic earth aspect and the sense of loneliness and unfamiliarity already wasn't really there anymore in the third game but Pikmin 4 just throws it out the window by even designing a whole map as a perfectly intact house and stuffing so many characters and so much dialogue in the game. On it's own it's a fun and good game but it just doesn't feel like a pikmin game.

[@Vigriff]

There were a lot of decisions that went into this game that really dragged it down and I'm glad you tackled the big ones.

[@wallymayer5998]

Finally someone who isn’t afraid to admit that this isn’t the best game ever made

[@GobyGoober]

:(

[@backseatsakurai]

Turn that frown upside down, it's still one of the best games on Switch. :)

[@GobyGoober]

):

[@primalfeline]

This happens with practically every new game. No one gave TotK any genuine criticism until months after its release. Sure, there were the haters, but that doesn’t really count. The same applies to Pikmin 4. Although I didn’t notice any hate toward it before its release.

[@knatkniht]

​@primalfeline People still refuse to criticize that game, lol, or at least not without trying to drag botw down with it.

[@sleeperagent-1]

we need bulbmin redemption in pikmin 12

[@yeastov5470]

I kind of viewed Oatchi as a kind of RTS Hero unit, like he's a strong unit that can do a lot, but still needs support. But i do agree that he has a bit of an identity crisis. Whenever I tried to use him as a second captain it never really worked because my first captain would get somewhere where they needed to jump and couldn't do it without Oatchi, so separating them isn't very helpful. And yeah, the 3 Pikmin type limit was very frustrating and I can't really figure out why they did it. It seems like such a bizarre feature to add.

[@lasercraft32]

Isn't that kinda the point? Separating them has a lot of useful Dandori applications, since having two captains at once lets you be twice as efficient while multitasking, BUT it has the drawback of you not being able to do specific things as each captain. Oatchi can jump, rush, carry Pikmin across water, and use the pup tunnels, but the main captain cannot. However, the main captain can use the charge and swarm whistles and climb walls, meanwhile Oatchi has to throw Pikmin onto enemies when he can't use the rush. There's a unique sort of balance, but its not utilized very well because its tipped in Oatchi's favor due to how many abilities he has.

[@Hocotate589]

I'm glad someone agrees....it felt like Miyamoto was like dogs I like dogs.....like no dude.

[@lasercraft32]

One thing I really like about Pikmin 4 though is how much freedom you have. As you mentioned, you are limited to three Pikmin types, but because of this, you can do a surprising amount of things with any Pikmin type (and Oatchi). I've actually managed to beat the entire game with ONLY Red Pikmin, and I've _almost_ been able to beat the game with only 1 of each Pikmin type (i.e. only three Pikmin at once) the only thing that stopped me was a clipboard bridge that I needed to use Glow Pikmin to pull down. HOWEVER, imagine if they still had the 3 type limit, BUT caves would sometimes have more than three hazards? So in order to 100% complete each cave you would have to go through it again with other Pikmin types to go down the paths you couldn't access before? That would be cool (but also, they wouldn't really be able to have wild Pikmin in the caves otherwise it would ruin the point).

[@primalfeline]

I have to disagree about Oatchi’s design. He perfectly fits into the Pikmin art style. The strange, alien features mixed with the general round shapes perfectly match the rest of the game. Your complaints about Glow Pikmin also confuse me. All of their “ghostly” aspects could be easily explained by them being composed of photons. Their teleportation is really just them moving at the speed of light. Their ability to float could be explained by their speed as well, because light is too fast to be pulled down by most planets’ gravity. The glowmob could also be explained as the light losing its shape and blinding creatures by just being THAT bright. It would work well with the sci-fi setting and be a lot more interesting than just “they’re ghosts.”

[@Yuti640]

I was so hyped when i first heard the area select theme from Pikmin 1 remixed in Olimar’s Shipwreck Tale, still my favourite Pikmin theme

[@samsimmons8076]

I like that instead of complaining like a ton of other video essays on this topic and saying "I don't like the dog I don't like the easiness I don't like the auto lock I hate it all blah blah" you actually gave really good alternative ways of crafting the game the way the designers did but with tweaks that would enhance it. So many people complain, but then are begging for the next game, but you arent one, this is a good video.

[@barelyhere7200]

I have a very complicated relationship with this game. I like it but at the same time I hate it. It’s a good game but it has so many problems and in the end I find myself being very disappointed in it

[@srfrancium9728]

Im gonna be honest I agree with about everything in this but im mildy annoyed at the complaints of "marketable" character designs as if being appealing isn't the whole point of character designs. Aside from the fact every playable+ or controllable creature in pikmin is stubby with toy like porportions, but oatchi isn't just designed to be cute. He has literal bulging beady eyes with defined pupils and irises, no nose, thin seperated teeth, a fat chipmunk face, a lobsided body that looks awkward from the side. The pikmin themselves are more traditionally cute, and that's fine. Someone designed oatchi, just because a marketing team sees him as just a product doesn't mean thought wasn't put into the design

[@srfrancium9728]

Bulbie's still cuter and I don't like the additions of a bunch of new planets when we've only seen hocotate once though

[@lasercraft32]

They could have _easily_ had Bulbmin instead of Glow Pikmin. They're immune to all the elements, and they can't leave caves. Have there be some unspoken reason why they can't leave caves, maybe they don't like sunlight or something, so they only stay in caves and come out at night (then it makes sense why they stay behind in Pikmin 2). And your Bulbear Bulbmin companion (because it was specifically a Bulbear in the concept art) would be able to go out in sunlight just because its tougher than the other Bulbmin (which is also why it would be able to resist the Bulborb urge to eat Pikmin despite its size). Before Pikmin 4 came out, I came up with a concept (I even made a drawing of it) for a Black Pikmin (which I also did have Glow Pikmin as one of their possible names) with a glowing bioluminescent mushroom on its head. Basically a good-guy relative of the puffmin. Darkness was a hazard that if your Pikmin stayed too long in they would get attacked and eaten by unseen ambush predators. The captain (and any pikmin they had with them) would be safe because of the light on their antenna, but it was too dangerous to have Pikmin carry things through darkness without the Glow Pikmin to keep the predators away. If they did this they could easily have much more tense nighttime areas, or (as I was hoping when I came up with the idea) a dedicated cave area like the Forest Navel. And it would require the player to use their Pikmin carefully because Glow Pikmin wouldn't be immune to hazards, but would be the only way to safely carry treasure through dark areas. Oh, and for the record, I also predicted Ice Pikmin too, though many others did as well so its not that impressive. Its just funny that I managed to predict both Pikmin types. I have two nickels now.

[@happysmilesworldandgames8755]

25:00 i also noticed that in a day where i dont go to the caves i raise the progress like 2-4% and when i go to one cave i raise it like 10-20%

[@joemama2499]

I love it when people’s opinions reinforce my own. Pikmin good

[@justforlawlsandtrolls]

I do appreciate the obvious effort put into this video, it's clear that you have many good ideas and have produced a video of great quality, but I'm sorry man some of the points in here are like, really dumb. Like the argument about Glow Pikmin is kind of ridiculous and makes it feel like this more like a "vibe check" than an analysis. The game on multiple occasions specifically points out (including the text segment that *you* referenced) that Glow Pikmin are beings made of light, controlled by the lumiknoll (hence *why* they are called glow pikmin), to avoid that thematic issue that would exist if they had just been ghosts. Combined with the fact that this video like, never even mentions the rescue core and the beyond-PNF-404 world building established with through the plot and characters of Pikmin 4, at all, while spending so much time on (while really cool and interesting) bulbmin variants interacting with characters from past games is kind of absurd. To make the bulbmin idea work, you would literally have to change almost everything about the game's plot, which really warranted a discussion about said plot. There IS a lot to love in this video, the critiques on gameplay elements felt warranted and nuanced, but it's also clear that this video really didn't have the time it needed to be what it wanted to be. I do look foward to seeing what you produce in the future, it is clear that there is a lot of talent here, but I also video like this really needed a proper rebuttal to encourage a more nuanced discussion. I would really love to see a follow up video that went a bit more in depth on the game, or even a "Pikmin 4 ideas" video, because it's clear you have a lot of cool ones.

[@backseatsakurai]

I get what you're saying and appreciate the comment! I probably should've mentioned the Rescue Corps, but my heaviest takeaway from the plot was truly that I did wish it was different / leaned in a different direction. Never been a fan of the non-Hocotation characters. I definitely should have gone more into this specifically in the video though. On Glow Pikmin: I know they do give the light explanation, but I guess my point was that that felt very tacked on - it's pretty obvious they're directly ghost-inspired/ghost-themed, and I just would've handled it differently. This whole section is definitely a matter of taste though, so it's understandable. A "Pikmin Ideas" video is something I'd love to make. I appreciate the thoughtful comment, genuinely!

[@tarponpet]

Oatchi and Moss still looks like they'd be the inspired for Bulborbs.

[@raviolinoob4435]

One of the newer episodes of SpongeBob just has an actual cat that goes underwater

[@heinrichvonschnitzel8600]

The perfect Pikmin game in my opinion would have the graphics from 4, the story progression and multitasking from 3, the atmosphere, combat and difficulty from 1, the musical vibe from 1 and 2. And the creativity of pikmin 2.

[@awesomeocelot7475]

Honestly I will say Pikmin 4 is a really good game but the caves returning kinda failed since none except the final cave are more then 5 sublevels deep…

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

There's so much a new game plus would fix for me

[@FloridusMan]

2:40 Someone has clearly never watched any of the episodes with Kenny the Cat

[@tarponpet]

I really dont think Oatchi breaks any dog lore. We see Bulbie still exists. Theres just different breeds. And heck even Oatchi's breed still looks like it'd be the namesake of Bulborbs...

[@JJSquirtle]

Good luck on that game dev journey! Best advice I can give is don't just make a Bloons clone with Pikmin. Bloons TD is actually one of the most barebones and basic tower defense games I've ever played. Take that good foundation and build your own innovations on top of it (also get legally distinct assets for when the Nintendo Ninjas strike)

[@UrMumLuvsUHun]

I love the oatchi thumbnail

[@ARandomTrout356]

7:45 Your many career choices!

[@WobblePizza]

Some really great ideas here. Wish you worked for Nintendo.

[@WillieDangerously]

I find your criticism to be not just the most salient I've heard of Pikmin 4 but probably 95% agreeable if not more so. The only disagreement I have is trusting the Sage Leaf to not be beaten into the ground if implimented as a major character. I thought that Glow Pikmin do indeed use their light, as the ectoplasm blob attack, which I understood to be a "strobe flash" attack, but this seems to be termanology I invented and was never refered to as such, it's called the "glowmob" attack. On the subject of the sage leaf and leaflings, I found it rather odd that you respected the sage leaf's whims of keeping him as is when no other leafling bar Olimar showed the slightest ounce of consent to coming back to the ship with you and being cured. All other leaflings wanted to play or test dandori with you and passed out after the challenge, yet you and your crew chose to bring them back after they were unconscious, but they never actually gave you permission to do this. Why was the sage leaf handled differently? An easy speculative explanation is that the leaves are parasites infecting the hosts in the same manner Bulbmin are converted, and the Sage Leaf being alive as long as he had may have just given the parasite enough time to master control and mature its brain enough to appear sentient and cognizant unlike the others. One could argue the host is probably long gone and the leaf has occupied the body for long enough that it's acheived some paralell to squatter's rights, but that subjective call never seems to have factored into the desicion making when opting to leave the sage alone after his trials. I agree 100% that as neat as the night missions were they were too underwhelming to feel like anything more than an afterthought and a blight on the canon of Pikmin. While glow pikmin's application in caves as an emergency temporary force was neat they still felt too underutilized. I also agree that the 3 type limit (along with the flarlic-induced pikmin cap feeling too stifiling, I have many more issues with that than appreciation) and only was there for accessibility to ease the player into learning the pikmin gameplay style. Fact is so many QoL improvements alone gives this game an insane amount of accessibility, such as Pikmin pathfinding and object carrying physics not glitching out and eating your pikmin or keeping them held down for nothing. In fact other jank like throwing glitches or enemy hitbox registration fixes alone make the gameplay feel significantly better than 1 and 2's neutral combat moments. The fact that P3 and 4 polished the physics so much that despite the games being significanlty easier than 1/2 it felt like a more than acceptable trade off at the time. Firestarters kicked ass. It's like refining the Bomb Rock/ yellow pikmin concept of P1 in a much more fair and balanced way. Blues need a function like this more than reds do imo, but I won't complain that I have a reason to carry reds around after getting purples, rocks, and ice for all my combat needs. Your critisms is much appreciated as you chose to talk a lot on details I haven't heard much talked about regarding this game. Everyone's discussed how slow and uneeded the crew dialog is, so I understand why you only mentioned it as a contrast to Olimar's Shipwreck Tale.

[@ExploreImagineDefineCreate]

Good video, but there were some parts when it was less a critic and analysis of the game itself, and more of your vision for what you wish the game was instead. Many of the comments on the problems of the game were fair and nuanced, but others weren't addressed or failed to take into account the intent and practicality behind them.

[@zigaudrey]

Not only Oatchi can do many things unlike the Pikmin (which steal the spotlight) but he can jump. I repeat, you can jump with him! Thus you rely on him for better exploration, removing puzzle aspect of Pikmin. 6:18 I hate how they replace the bubble UI for the cliché sci-fi one. 8:55 The Puzzle + Time Management is a great combo 15:54 The sage leafling! 16:47 Lol, Sage's log will be great! 17:27 Such a ruined opportunity I would love to have this story 20:52 Four Days? Damn! 22:08 WHY?! Didn't Pikmin 3 allows you to have more Pikmin type?

[@pastaswithnosauce3621]

i kind of agree but i still love this game and as someone who is less concerned with the lore than others a lot of this stuff doesn't bother me the gameplay is good sooooooo yeah i'm good. :)

[@maxmax9797]

It's been such an honor being this video's third ever view

[@FernandoUrista]

Incredibly well made video! Pikmin 4 had so many bad issues but overall, one of the best games in the series

[@TeltStory]

oatchi does look like a pikmin character.

[@Max_Pikmin]

First off Oatchi and moss look like pikmin characters and also oh she does look like Bobby. It’s just he doesn’t have a nose or eyestalks maybe it’s just because he’s from a different planet that’s why it looks different

[@Max_Pikmin]

Also, don’t get me wrong I see where you’re coming from. I feel like Oatchi and moss can still be in the game they just should’ve been way more under power like to keep Oatchi only be able to carry as three pikmin

[@exotericidymnic3530]

In short: make Pikmin 5 have a bulbmin captain and all the pikmin are different colors of bulbmin.

[@bobboberson8297]

no mention of battle mode sadge I played like 100 hours of bingo battle in pikmin 3 which was incredibly good and a decent amount of battle mode in pikmin 2, but pikmin 4 dandori battle is actually just bad. They didn't even try and just tacked it on as an afterthought. Not very surpirsing though considering they also screwed up bingo battle in pikmin 3 deluxe and there still is no online play support for ANY pikmin game

[@Lysvsyl]

My feelings in short: Pikmin is still very fun, and getting Pikmin content that I haven't played yet is fun. But every change has been for the worse. It's still fun, just worse than every other Pikmin game.

[@agreedboarart3188]

25:57 What is this music called? There's no track list in the description.

[@backseatsakurai]

Umihara Kawase OST, I forget the track title

[@drmedicechsrick8702]

oatchi is a differend breed of dog, a space dog.........yea..............the only reason why he look differend

[@Keitoded]

Not a big Pikmin fan, but still a good video! :)

[@dontworry4945]

wow oatchi as a bulbmin would have been the BEST solution.. because I hate the shit out of oatchi. he ruins every part of the game. I actively play without him. 😡