July 12, 2023 • 15 mins
Nathan tried out the Pikmin 4 Demo and discusses his thoughts. Check out our socials: https://switchclicks.carrd.co/ The Switch Clicks Podcast Intro Track: Dreams Are Pretty — Seoul June [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/Y6sVyLLakhM Free Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/dreams-are-pretty #Pikmin4 #Pikmin #NintendoSwitch
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The Pikmin 4 demo has been out for a while. Let's hear what Nathan has to say about it.
(00:10):
Welcome to the Switch Clicks Podcast episode 144, recorded on July 11th, 2023.
My name is Nathan and I am alone today this time. Unfortunately, the others couldn't make it,
but they also didn't play Pikmin 4 anyway, so this wouldn't impact them.
So a few weeks back, Nintendo announced a Pikmin 4 demo. They also announced Pikmin 1 and 2,
(00:35):
and the demo itself was one of those demos where it gives you the first section of the game and
then it allows you to transfer that save data over to the final copy of the game.
And so I decided, why the heck not? I played a bit of Pikmin 3, so I might as well hop into this.
I've got to say, first impressions, I'm impressed. It's a really fun demo, it's really easy to pick
(00:58):
up and play, and I think Pikmin as a whole is very, very underrated. Now with the way that this demo
was structured, I actually had to play through it twice to get the full experience. The first time
was kind of just screwing around, playing with the mechanics, and kind of just learning the whole
Pikmin gameplay. And the second time was me 100%ing the demo, which would actually help me a lot
(01:23):
once I get the full game. And I've got to say, it was pretty easy. It was a little bit grindy, but
not the worst thing in the world. It wasn't like the 20 hours I spent on the Age of Calamity demo,
which probably should have ended at five hours or so. And at least in comparison to Pikmin 3,
(01:46):
this game didn't feel that repetitive. There was something new around every single corner you went
to, and the whole first area kind of worked really well as a tutorial. It's kind of like Breath of
the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, where they kind of streamline you into the gameplay. And it was
(02:07):
designed in such a way that as you progress further, you start to discover more stuff,
which is probably the best way to do a tutorial. Although there is a lot of dialogue, unfortunately.
So either you have to keep pressing the plus button to skip all the dialogue, or just spam A,
or sit through all that to actually learn how to play the game. Not the worst thing in the world.
(02:31):
Definitely not like the Xenoblade level of tutorials, but it was certainly a big complaint
among a lot of players. In terms of the new aesthetics, I really do dig that whole...
How do I describe it? It kind of feels like you're at someone's house, and the very start of the game
(02:53):
kind of takes you inside someone's living room, as you play as Captain Olimar. The actual tutorial
area of the game takes you towards basically what looks like a park or someone's backyard,
with a garden, some fruit all around, and lots of monsters of course. One of the new additions to
(03:14):
this game was an underground segment. They're kind of like the Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the
Wild shrines, where you essentially go in and complete a couple of tasks or puzzles, and then
come out with a percentage or some important treasure. It's in its own microenvironments,
and I think this system was pretty well done. It also kind of reminds me of how you're basically
(03:38):
playing a level-based game. The overworld would be the place that you'd explore and do stuff, but
the main content would be within those levels. It's kind of like a blend of Mario when you think
about it, but I think this was done in such a way that everything felt really seamless, and it also
felt pretty easy to grasp. It wasn't like you had a whole different system down there to learn. It
(04:03):
was basically the game's mechanics, but they kind of compressed it so that certain things would just
add towards your goal, rather than just simply boost your gameplay. And of course, you can't
forget about Ochi. Good old Ochi, the dog-like companion that you have throughout the entire
game. Ochi kind of behaves like a Pikmin, in the sense that you can command him to do certain tasks,
(04:28):
like bring resources or attack enemies. But what was interesting is, I think halfway through the
demo, you unlock the ability to ride Ochi, and as you progress later on throughout the game,
Ochi starts learning more and more skills. And there's actually a skill tree for Ochi as well
that you can apply, and this would allow you to upgrade his health, his damage stat, or maybe his
(04:55):
lifting stats. It's basically like an RPG in that sense. I actually didn't really expect much from
him at a base level. I thought you could just hop on, ride him optionally, or command him. I didn't
really expect the game to actually go into this much depth, and it's a welcome addition.
(05:20):
Some of the things that Ochi introduces would be like jumping. For whatever reason, Pikmin never
really had jumping in it. So you could finally jump in Pikmin, I guess. It's kind of like how Zelda
Breath of the Wild added a jump button that wasn't ever featured since Zelda 2. You can also get
Ochi to destroy certain objects or dig up and uncover certain secrets. It's such a really fun
(05:46):
sandbox-like adventure, and I think having a companion now is better late than ever.
Right, now I should probably talk about my playthroughs of the game. So my first playthrough was
kind of like a lot of video capturing screenshots, kind of immersing myself in the environment.
(06:08):
I didn't really know Pikmin too well. I only played a bit of the Pikmin 3 Deluxe demo.
I never actually got the game, and I never played Pikmin 1 and 2. I just kind of knew them by a few
trailers and YouTube videos. I've got to say, it wasn't really the best thing. The game doesn't
really communicate to you as well when the demo would end. If you don't complete everything,
(06:36):
you don't actually need to complete everything to complete the demo, per se. But the demo does
force you to quit the game once you've reached a certain amount of collectibles. They're called
Sparkleum, but they're meant as rocket fuel to progress to the later areas. And if you get enough
of that, the demo pretty much just kicks you out of your save file. So I had to start a second one.
(07:00):
I bomb rushed through the second one, and I made sure not to collect items to increase this rocket
fuel amount so that I accidentally end the demo prematurely. And as a result, I 100% at the demo,
which gave me a couple of bonuses, and now I'm pretty much all set for the full game.
(07:24):
Not exactly the best demo design. I wish they kind of just let you keep playing the first area
even after you've unlocked the next area. It was a weird design considering something like
the Age of Calamity demo didn't kick you out after beating the story chapters. But, you know,
(07:44):
oh, well. I suppose that's not the end of the world when the demo itself can still be accessible
as many times as you want. You can create new save files, you can do whatever you want, you can
grind up to 9999 in each type. And, yeah, it's pretty, pretty easy, not too repetitive.
(08:06):
Yeah, speaking of which, I think the gameplay loop for this is much better than the previous
Pikmin games. Now, I said I haven't really played them extensively, but knowing from my experience
with the Pikmin 3, I didn't really catch on to the game, primarily because the gameplay loop
(08:28):
wasn't, was a little too repetitive, too grindy with the way that the Pikmin 4 world was playing.
The way that the Pikmin 4 world was designed, everything was kind of more set on discovery.
You had something to do everywhere you went, and it was in such a massive world, but you didn't
really need to worry too much about getting lost because you didn't have to go through
(08:52):
such restricted pathways. And you also always had something to do. There wasn't really just
traveling, walking back and forth, backtracking. There was something around the corner everywhere
you turned. And I do have to appreciate them for adding two challenges, two challenge stages on the
first area so that you could play these mini games repeatedly and get the highest score possible.
(09:18):
They're not the craziest things ever. And once again, if you beat the demo, you can't play these
anymore. But there's a nice way to challenge yourself and maybe help you master the mechanics
of both this and the multiplayer mode. But otherwise, I don't think there's really much
(09:40):
else to dive into about this demo. It was kind of just really, really short.
In terms of difficulty, it was pretty easy. For a demo, obviously, it's not really that much in
depth. I do kind of wish that they gave us more difficulty options in a sense, because having to
(10:03):
play with one set difficulty, you kind of get used to the enemy AI pretty quickly. And to be frankly
honest with you, not many of the enemy AIs are actually that smart, at least early game. It also
kind of disappoints me that the demo didn't let us try this new nighttime mode or nighttime section.
(10:28):
You still had to bring all your Pikmin back to your base and bring it back to your ship so that
none of them get killed at nighttime. And it still felt a bit like the older games in that sense.
I kind of wish they let us try out more, but I can understand that
you pretty much should buy the full game to experience that. And yeah, it just, I don't think
(10:54):
it's the worst thing. It's just the taste. And I'll take it. I'll take it. This game also happens
to be a big collectathon. So if you're that type of person who likes finding, going on a massive
whole world scavenger hunt or going to get like the highest possible items. If you're that type
(11:20):
of player, this is definitely for you. If you really enjoy a simple strategy game, like something
that doesn't really like, you want to be strategic, but you don't also don't want it to annoy you with
the mechanics. I'd also recommend you try this out. Or if you're an O, you're that random Nintendo
(11:41):
fan, you're kind of wanting to try something new. Yeah. This is honestly one of the, this is a
really fun demo to play. It doesn't take too long. It took, a lot of people say it takes two hours,
but I'd say it probably takes maybe five. Five if you're really into it. And yeah, I think
(12:04):
if I were to give this game a play it by tier ranking based on limited impressions, I'd say maybe
a high B to low A tier, maybe, maybe close to the A tier when you, cause I think the other Pikmin
games don't have this much depth to it. There's not that much, there's not as much of a replay
(12:29):
value to it. But overall, aside from being a massive collectathon, it's a pretty, pretty easy,
pretty easy game to pick up and play. Very, very Nintendo of course. And yeah, you're going to love
the aesthetics, you're going to love the music, you're going to love the Pikmin themselves.
(12:52):
They're pretty cute. Writing, you know, commanding and writing Ochi is one of the things that I
want to do. One of the best additions. And overall, I think I'm going to buy the game
when it comes out. This is one of those games I'd probably grind to death and beat and then just
never play again. Yeah. This game unfortunately, you know, didn't, doesn't get everyone, you know,
(13:20):
it's not for everyone, but if you're listening to this Dakota and Tyler, I strongly recommend you
download the demo and play that. It doesn't take too long, you know, and it's pretty easy.
You'll enjoy it. Now, unfortunately, I don't really have any kind of speculation because I'm not
too much into Pikmin. But I will say though that I hope that the newer features that we get to see
(13:45):
later on, I hope they're not like unlocked halfway through the game or three quarters
through the game, because that would be a little disappointing. Maybe like chapter two or something,
I hope they give us a little more new stuff close to the beginning and then start giving us
the older stuff later on. Other than that, I don't think there is much else I could talk about this
(14:08):
demo. It's, it's pretty small. You know, do try it out because in case you are planning to get the
game or not, if you're still undecided, it's a, it's a good, it's a good five ish hour play through.
Get that safe, get that safe data ready in case you actually decide and cave in to buy this game.
And yeah, I, if you are going to play, I hope you enjoy. Thank you for joining us in discussing
(14:32):
the Pikmin 4 demo. We would love it if you could follow us on threads and Twitter, listen to future
episodes on Spotify and iTunes, and join our community discord server to continue today's
discussion. We'll see you next time on the Switch Clicks podcast.
The Pikmin 4 demo has been out for a while. Let's hear what Nathan has to say about it.
(00:10):
Welcome to the Switch Clicks Podcast episode 144, recorded on July 11th, 2023.
My name is Nathan and I am alone today this time. Unfortunately, the others couldn't make it,
but they also didn't play Pikmin 4 anyway, so this wouldn't impact them.
So a few weeks back, Nintendo announced a Pikmin 4 demo. They also announced Pikmin 1 and 2,
(00:35):
and the demo itself was one of those demos where it gives you the first section of the game and
then it allows you to transfer that save data over to the final copy of the game.
And so I decided, why the heck not? I played a bit of Pikmin 3, so I might as well hop into this.
I've got to say, first impressions, I'm impressed. It's a really fun demo, it's really easy to pick
(00:58):
up and play, and I think Pikmin as a whole is very, very underrated. Now with the way that this demo
was structured, I actually had to play through it twice to get the full experience. The first time
was kind of just screwing around, playing with the mechanics, and kind of just learning the whole
Pikmin gameplay. And the second time was me 100%ing the demo, which would actually help me a lot
(01:23):
once I get the full game. And I've got to say, it was pretty easy. It was a little bit grindy, but
not the worst thing in the world. It wasn't like the 20 hours I spent on the Age of Calamity demo,
which probably should have ended at five hours or so. And at least in comparison to Pikmin 3,
(01:46):
this game didn't feel that repetitive. There was something new around every single corner you went
to, and the whole first area kind of worked really well as a tutorial. It's kind of like Breath of
the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, where they kind of streamline you into the gameplay. And it was
(02:07):
designed in such a way that as you progress further, you start to discover more stuff,
which is probably the best way to do a tutorial. Although there is a lot of dialogue, unfortunately.
So either you have to keep pressing the plus button to skip all the dialogue, or just spam A,
or sit through all that to actually learn how to play the game. Not the worst thing in the world.
(02:31):
Definitely not like the Xenoblade level of tutorials, but it was certainly a big complaint
among a lot of players. In terms of the new aesthetics, I really do dig that whole...
How do I describe it? It kind of feels like you're at someone's house, and the very start of the game
(02:53):
kind of takes you inside someone's living room, as you play as Captain Olimar. The actual tutorial
area of the game takes you towards basically what looks like a park or someone's backyard,
with a garden, some fruit all around, and lots of monsters of course. One of the new additions to
(03:14):
this game was an underground segment. They're kind of like the Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the
Wild shrines, where you essentially go in and complete a couple of tasks or puzzles, and then
come out with a percentage or some important treasure. It's in its own microenvironments,
and I think this system was pretty well done. It also kind of reminds me of how you're basically
(03:38):
playing a level-based game. The overworld would be the place that you'd explore and do stuff, but
the main content would be within those levels. It's kind of like a blend of Mario when you think
about it, but I think this was done in such a way that everything felt really seamless, and it also
felt pretty easy to grasp. It wasn't like you had a whole different system down there to learn. It
(04:03):
was basically the game's mechanics, but they kind of compressed it so that certain things would just
add towards your goal, rather than just simply boost your gameplay. And of course, you can't
forget about Ochi. Good old Ochi, the dog-like companion that you have throughout the entire
game. Ochi kind of behaves like a Pikmin, in the sense that you can command him to do certain tasks,
(04:28):
like bring resources or attack enemies. But what was interesting is, I think halfway through the
demo, you unlock the ability to ride Ochi, and as you progress later on throughout the game,
Ochi starts learning more and more skills. And there's actually a skill tree for Ochi as well
that you can apply, and this would allow you to upgrade his health, his damage stat, or maybe his
(04:55):
lifting stats. It's basically like an RPG in that sense. I actually didn't really expect much from
him at a base level. I thought you could just hop on, ride him optionally, or command him. I didn't
really expect the game to actually go into this much depth, and it's a welcome addition.
(05:20):
Some of the things that Ochi introduces would be like jumping. For whatever reason, Pikmin never
really had jumping in it. So you could finally jump in Pikmin, I guess. It's kind of like how Zelda
Breath of the Wild added a jump button that wasn't ever featured since Zelda 2. You can also get
Ochi to destroy certain objects or dig up and uncover certain secrets. It's such a really fun
(05:46):
sandbox-like adventure, and I think having a companion now is better late than ever.
Right, now I should probably talk about my playthroughs of the game. So my first playthrough was
kind of like a lot of video capturing screenshots, kind of immersing myself in the environment.
(06:08):
I didn't really know Pikmin too well. I only played a bit of the Pikmin 3 Deluxe demo.
I never actually got the game, and I never played Pikmin 1 and 2. I just kind of knew them by a few
trailers and YouTube videos. I've got to say, it wasn't really the best thing. The game doesn't
really communicate to you as well when the demo would end. If you don't complete everything,
(06:36):
you don't actually need to complete everything to complete the demo, per se. But the demo does
force you to quit the game once you've reached a certain amount of collectibles. They're called
Sparkleum, but they're meant as rocket fuel to progress to the later areas. And if you get enough
of that, the demo pretty much just kicks you out of your save file. So I had to start a second one.
(07:00):
I bomb rushed through the second one, and I made sure not to collect items to increase this rocket
fuel amount so that I accidentally end the demo prematurely. And as a result, I 100% at the demo,
which gave me a couple of bonuses, and now I'm pretty much all set for the full game.
(07:24):
Not exactly the best demo design. I wish they kind of just let you keep playing the first area
even after you've unlocked the next area. It was a weird design considering something like
the Age of Calamity demo didn't kick you out after beating the story chapters. But, you know,
(07:44):
oh, well. I suppose that's not the end of the world when the demo itself can still be accessible
as many times as you want. You can create new save files, you can do whatever you want, you can
grind up to 9999 in each type. And, yeah, it's pretty, pretty easy, not too repetitive.
(08:06):
Yeah, speaking of which, I think the gameplay loop for this is much better than the previous
Pikmin games. Now, I said I haven't really played them extensively, but knowing from my experience
with the Pikmin 3, I didn't really catch on to the game, primarily because the gameplay loop
(08:28):
wasn't, was a little too repetitive, too grindy with the way that the Pikmin 4 world was playing.
The way that the Pikmin 4 world was designed, everything was kind of more set on discovery.
You had something to do everywhere you went, and it was in such a massive world, but you didn't
really need to worry too much about getting lost because you didn't have to go through
(08:52):
such restricted pathways. And you also always had something to do. There wasn't really just
traveling, walking back and forth, backtracking. There was something around the corner everywhere
you turned. And I do have to appreciate them for adding two challenges, two challenge stages on the
first area so that you could play these mini games repeatedly and get the highest score possible.
(09:18):
They're not the craziest things ever. And once again, if you beat the demo, you can't play these
anymore. But there's a nice way to challenge yourself and maybe help you master the mechanics
of both this and the multiplayer mode. But otherwise, I don't think there's really much
(09:40):
else to dive into about this demo. It was kind of just really, really short.
In terms of difficulty, it was pretty easy. For a demo, obviously, it's not really that much in
depth. I do kind of wish that they gave us more difficulty options in a sense, because having to
(10:03):
play with one set difficulty, you kind of get used to the enemy AI pretty quickly. And to be frankly
honest with you, not many of the enemy AIs are actually that smart, at least early game. It also
kind of disappoints me that the demo didn't let us try this new nighttime mode or nighttime section.
(10:28):
You still had to bring all your Pikmin back to your base and bring it back to your ship so that
none of them get killed at nighttime. And it still felt a bit like the older games in that sense.
I kind of wish they let us try out more, but I can understand that
you pretty much should buy the full game to experience that. And yeah, it just, I don't think
(10:54):
it's the worst thing. It's just the taste. And I'll take it. I'll take it. This game also happens
to be a big collectathon. So if you're that type of person who likes finding, going on a massive
whole world scavenger hunt or going to get like the highest possible items. If you're that type
(11:20):
of player, this is definitely for you. If you really enjoy a simple strategy game, like something
that doesn't really like, you want to be strategic, but you don't also don't want it to annoy you with
the mechanics. I'd also recommend you try this out. Or if you're an O, you're that random Nintendo
(11:41):
fan, you're kind of wanting to try something new. Yeah. This is honestly one of the, this is a
really fun demo to play. It doesn't take too long. It took, a lot of people say it takes two hours,
but I'd say it probably takes maybe five. Five if you're really into it. And yeah, I think
(12:04):
if I were to give this game a play it by tier ranking based on limited impressions, I'd say maybe
a high B to low A tier, maybe, maybe close to the A tier when you, cause I think the other Pikmin
games don't have this much depth to it. There's not that much, there's not as much of a replay
(12:29):
value to it. But overall, aside from being a massive collectathon, it's a pretty, pretty easy,
pretty easy game to pick up and play. Very, very Nintendo of course. And yeah, you're going to love
the aesthetics, you're going to love the music, you're going to love the Pikmin themselves.
(12:52):
They're pretty cute. Writing, you know, commanding and writing Ochi is one of the things that I
want to do. One of the best additions. And overall, I think I'm going to buy the game
when it comes out. This is one of those games I'd probably grind to death and beat and then just
never play again. Yeah. This game unfortunately, you know, didn't, doesn't get everyone, you know,
(13:20):
it's not for everyone, but if you're listening to this Dakota and Tyler, I strongly recommend you
download the demo and play that. It doesn't take too long, you know, and it's pretty easy.
You'll enjoy it. Now, unfortunately, I don't really have any kind of speculation because I'm not
too much into Pikmin. But I will say though that I hope that the newer features that we get to see
(13:45):
later on, I hope they're not like unlocked halfway through the game or three quarters
through the game, because that would be a little disappointing. Maybe like chapter two or something,
I hope they give us a little more new stuff close to the beginning and then start giving us
the older stuff later on. Other than that, I don't think there is much else I could talk about this
(14:08):
demo. It's, it's pretty small. You know, do try it out because in case you are planning to get the
game or not, if you're still undecided, it's a, it's a good, it's a good five ish hour play through.
Get that safe, get that safe data ready in case you actually decide and cave in to buy this game.
And yeah, I, if you are going to play, I hope you enjoy. Thank you for joining us in discussing
(14:32):
the Pikmin 4 demo. We would love it if you could follow us on threads and Twitter, listen to future
episodes on Spotify and iTunes, and join our community discord server to continue today's
discussion. We'll see you next time on the Switch Clicks podcast.
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