Summer of Sequels Entry #29
I only recently got into Pikmin, I played the first game back in February of this year, and I've been meaning to get to its sequels for quite some time now. I absolutely loved the first Pikmin game, so with what I heard about Pikmin 2, it seemed pretty reasonable that I would love Pikmin 2 as well. And as you can see from how I rated it, I absolutely loved Pikmin 2. The new approach it takes is amazing, and I absolute love a lot of what it does.
The approach Pikmin 2 takes it a breath of fresh air, I feel. One of the biggest factors of the original Pikmin was the 30-day time limit, where you had to find all of the ship pieces in less than 30 in-game days. While you definitely have enough time to get through it all, that time limit always loomed over you, and it always feels like you don't have enough time. And I love it, it makes the original Pikmin such a unique experience, one that not many other games I've played does. But at the same time, I'm really glad that the sequel does not include it. The approach to Pikmin 2 is more open, you have as many days as you need to get your job done, and that by itself makes the world feel far much more open. Not because it literally is, but because the time limit isn't looming over you, you don't have the worry that you had in the first game. And the goal in Pikmin 2 is really neat as well! At the beginning of the game, you're told to "get enough money to repay a debt", and then you're sent into the game. How you get the treasure, where you find it, and where you go to get it is entirely up to you, and I absolutely adore it. It allows for a very personal experience in that regard, where the entire order of operations is up to you.
And of course, the main place you'll be finding these treasures are the Caves scattered across the areas in the games. The Caves are multi-floored dungeons, that you can bring your Pikmin into, and they change up the general gameplay in a rather interesting way to me. That particular being that you can only use the Pikmin you bring into the cave, so for example, if you bring in only 40 Red Pikmin, you can only use those 40 Red Pikmin until you exit the Cave. And that creates an interesting dynamic in planning out what Pikmin you need for a cave, and how many to bring. The Caves themselves are rather challenging at times, especially due to the fact you have a limited number of Pikmin at your disposal. Some areas from what I saw could be randomly generated, which can add a bit of a luck factor to things as well. Some caves are definitely harder than others, especially with certain bosses too. I found Empress Bulblax in one specific cave to be a real pain, while most other bosses were manageable. But what makes Caves super forgiving at the same time is that you can reload back to the start of the floor you're on, so if you did really good on the previous floor, you don't lose that progress if you need to reload.
I absolutely adore the new Pikmin introduced in Pikmin 2. The Purple Pikmin are easily the strongest of the Pikmin in the game. They can stun enemies, deal massive damage, and each Purple Pikmin counts for 10 Pikmin when carrying objects. Because of this, it's very clear that Purple Pikmin are probably the best Pikmin in the game. The White Pikmin are more of utility in comparison, being immune to poison, while being able to see things that are completely buried underground. What somewhat balances these 2 out is that they have no onion for you to obtain more, and you can only get them from flowers in Caves, and those flowers can only give you 5 at a time. But on top of all of that, these 2 new types of Pikmin create a really interesting dynamic with the other 3 as well. Now with having 5 types of Pikmin, you have to think more about how much of each Pikmin you have out, and when going into Caves, how many of each Pikmin you bring in, or if you bring any of a certain Pikmin type at all.
I'm really glad I finally got around to playing Pikmin 2, as I absolutely loved it. I honestly can't say whether or not I like Pikmin 1 or 2 more, as they seem to go in two different approaches, and I appreciate both of them about equally. However I really like a lot of the new things introduced within Pikmin 2, and I should definitely try 100%'ing it in the future.
