Support NeoGAF

[TheSpaceBetween]

The disparity between Story mode and Mission mode's difficulty is huge. There are a few Missions where I struggle to even get Gold, yet Story mode was laid back the whole time. Pretty much every obstacle in Story mode you can defeat by just coming back with more pikmin, but Mission mode forces the most cutthroat, split-second multi-tasking,

I just got my first Platinum on one of the Missions, and I barely got it with seconds left. I don't think I'll even go for all the Platinums.

I can see how some wouldn't enjoy it, especially for those new to the series. After Pikmin 2, which was pretty challenging to me, I didn't find P3's story mode to be very hard, so I welcomed the tough as nails challenges. It took me about 10 hours to get all platinums.

 

[Freezie KO]

I can see how some wouldn't enjoy it, especially for those new to the series. After Pikmin 2, which was pretty challenging to me, I didn't find P3's story mode to be very hard, so I welcomed the tough as nails challenges. It took me about 10 hours to get all platinums.

It's funny you mention Pikmin 2. I actually thought that had a better Story Mode challenge than Pikmin 3 does, especially since I liked the enemy difficulty more in Pikmin 2. I even got the top flower ranking (or whatever it was) for all the Challenge missions for Pikmin 2.

But the Platinum medals (particularly Treasure hunt) are kicking my butt. I am enjoying going for Gold, which I can usually do in a 3-5 tries. But Platinum is too stressful for me.

 

[Seik]

I got the game yesterday and just started a new game and finished Day 1.

I love it! Starting Day 2 at the moment!

 

[ArchangelWest]

I've gotten platinum for all 5 treasure modes single player. Enemy mode I haven't put as much time into yet, and am not as skilled at I guess. I definitely plan to get platinum for them all though.

 

[Deku Tree]

What's the shortest number of days that people have taken to beat the main game?
I think I will do it in 18 or 19 days while collecting a lot of stuff.
I'm convinced people can do a lot better somehow, especially if you only collect the minimum needed.

 

[Freezie KO]

What's the shortest number of days that people have taken to beat the main game?
I think I will do it in 18 or 19 days while collecting a lot of stuff.
I'm convinced people can do a lot better somehow, especially if you only collect the minimum needed.

10 days, all fruit.

Insane, I know. I haven't watched the playthroughs yet.

 

[Pyrokai]

This final boss is kinda terrifying o_0

 

[D-e-f-]

Though a few things are bugging me. Like... why can't it be a new game+ instead of me just apparently having to go back to the day where I beat the last boss and then find the rest of the fruit (I think)[1]? Also, unless I'm missing something... why no Piklopedia [2]or White/Purple Pikmin in Story Mode[3]?

[1] because new game+ would make you have to play through the entire game again. this way you can go back, get everything, beat the boss for 100%. the game is made to be replayable anyway. you'd gain nothing from NG+-

[2] Piklopedia has been replaced by the Fruit descriptions you can find in the notes section.

[3] because they don't make sense there. Whites and Purples are entirely useless for Pikmin 3's design. this has been discussed to death already but here's a summary: 7 types are overwhelming and confusing; both of them have no design justification for this management-focused game whereas they did have relevance in the combat-focused Pikmin 2, their abilities were partially moved to other Pikmin, they didn't have Onions, they actually do serve a purpose in mission mode where it's all about speed and high scores and you get predetermined Pikmin.

Is there a way to have bingo mode working with one person on the TV and the other on the gamepad? So the second player can have an entire TV?

No.

It's a design choice. Part of the fun comes from glancing over to what your opponent is doing and said opponent being aware of that, setting up crazy shit and then turning the camera away and you only seeing innocent trees or whatever. It's a fast paced game and not a base-building RTS where you have to hide your build order behind the FoW.

The disparity between Story mode and Mission mode's difficulty is huge. There are a few Missions where I struggle to even get Gold, yet Story mode was laid back the whole time. Pretty much every obstacle in Story mode you can defeat by just coming back with more pikmin, but Mission mode forces the most cutthroat, split-second multi-tasking,

I just got my first Platinum on one of the Missions, and I barely got it with seconds left. I don't think I'll even go for all the Platinums.

But that's the thing: In Mission Mode, you have the prescribed goal of "do well, be fast, get the most stuff!" and in Story Mode, that is entirely up to you. You can make it just as hard or even harder on yourself but it's your choice. Not via an artificial difficulty selection but via your strategical gameplay decision.

 

[Freezie KO]

But that's the thing: In Mission Mode, you have the prescribed goal of "do well, be fast, get the most stuff!" and in Story Mode, that is entirely up to you. You can make it just as hard or even harder on yourself but it's your choice. Not via an artificial difficulty selection but via your strategical gameplay decision.

It's just a design preference. Personally, I would rather an "artificial" difficulty selection. Because, for Story mode, there's no external incentive to push yourself. With a Hard Mode or whatever, the incentive is that you might not be able to beat the game. Any self-imposed limits beyond that are arbitrarily imposed because they're not an intrinsic part of the game.

Obviously if they did have a difficulty selection, I'd want it balanced by the developers, so it was a good experience and not just adding "Each day takes up three juice bottles." But a Hard Mode with more enemies, different enemies (from Pikmin 2), and more aggressive attack patterns all intelligently scattered about the map? I'd really like that.

For me, that feels more like a challenge to overcome than telling myself "I have to beat the game in 17 days." Because there's no penalty if I lose. Again, just preference.

Mission Mode is good for that, but it doesn't have the same sense of accomplishment because you're not working towards one grand goal of beating the game or saving your planet or whatever. Each experience is disconnected, and past missions have no impact on the next.

 

[Deku Tree]

10 days, all fruit.

Insane, I know. I haven't watched the playthroughs yet.

Wow. I just watched part of a speedrunners video.

10 days all fruit & no pikmin deaths
7 days 2 fruit

Major sequence breaking tricks used.

Imagine if Nintendo released a patch which put up invisible anti sequence breaking walls.

 

[The Librarian]

That's what puts the challenge in challenge mode.

I understand that's part of the challenge, but I was having difficulty enough getting platinum on the first mission where you don't have to multi-task. It took me several attempts to get gold. I mean, that's just me, and others can have an easier time with it, but, hey, variety!

 

[Dr.Hadji]

Explored a couple for other play styles in my Story Mode run. Surprised at how fun both of the play styles were.

1. Roaming around the levels, not quite knowing where to go or what to do is actually very fun. Mostly thanks to the "go here" command. As long as there is some automatic means of locomotion, I never seem to have a problem with traversing (and re-traversing, and re-re-traversing) long stretches of land (same with sailing in Wind Waker, and the train in Spirit Tracks). Its one part tranquil and one part a huge time waster. Which lead me to

2. Retrying the days or set of days to make up for my lackasdaisical play, basically turns the Story Mode into the Mission Mode. Its a great change in play and feel from the first play style. From calm, casual, unfocused fruit gathering and environment exploration, to directed, focused execution.

Also started using the WiiU pad map pre-missions to survey the area. Its completely useful and wholly different than what I'm used to doing. Both functionally (looking down from your TV at a second screen for information) and game wise (last time a did this was in Fire Emblem and that's only after losing on the map 12 time prior). Really drives home that this Pikmin3 WiiU experience is a great and unique paring.

 

[Yuterald]

Finished last night! Didn't go for all Fruits, but I pulled off a zero death run attempt on my first go of the game!



The final boss was pretty frustrating to take down without losing any Pikmin. It took me a bunch of tries, but I finally got him. I had to split him up across two days though. I didn't even realize you could do this with the final boss. I was just taking so much time at the start of the fight that my timer ran out and I escaped for the day unharmed to see what would happen. Lo and behold, the following day you could run right to the boss and his health was about half way down. I was expecting to have to run the Formidable Oak again in order to fight him. It was pretty cool that you could clear out the Oak, leave and come back to speed up the process (even cooler that there was a shortcut to get through that place faster!).

Overall, I'd say this is my favorite of the bunch. It just felt like the perfect balance between the first two games. The bosses were just way too cool (my favorite being the guy in the mud...amazing). Will probably mop up the remaining fruit and check out the Mission Mode over the weeks to come.

 

[D-e-f-]

It's just a design preference. Personally, I would rather an "artificial" difficulty selection. Because, for Story mode, there's no external incentive to push yourself. With a Hard Mode or whatever, the incentive is that you might not be able to beat the game. Any self-imposed limits beyond that are arbitrarily imposed because they're not an intrinsic part of the game.

Obviously if they did have a difficulty selection, I'd want it balanced by the developers, so it was a good experience and not just adding "Each day takes up three juice bottles." But a Hard Mode with more enemies, different enemies (from Pikmin 2), and more aggressive attack patterns all intelligently scattered about the map? I'd really like that.

For me, that feels more like a challenge to overcome than telling myself "I have to beat the game in 17 days." Because there's no penalty if I lose. Again, just preference.

Mission Mode is good for that, but it doesn't have the same sense of accomplishment because you're not working towards one grand goal of beating the game or saving your planet or whatever. Each experience is disconnected, and past missions have no impact on the next.

Good points. Maybe they'll do remixed" story mode DLC ... or Pikmin 4

 

[Boogiepop]

[1] because new game+ would make you have to play through the entire game again. this way you can go back, get everything, beat the boss for 100%. the game is made to be replayable anyway. you'd gain nothing from NG+-

[2] Piklopedia has been replaced by the Fruit descriptions you can find in the notes section.

[3] because they don't make sense there. Whites and Purples are entirely useless for Pikmin 3's design. this has been discussed to death already but here's a summary: 7 types are overwhelming and confusing; both of them have no design justification for this management-focused game whereas they did have relevance in the combat-focused Pikmin 2, their abilities were partially moved to other Pikmin, they didn't have Onions, they actually do serve a purpose in mission mode where it's all about speed and high scores and you get predetermined Pikmin.

For 1, I actually phrased that really badly for some reason. I meant post-game, not new game+. It's not really a huge difference, but I really liked the way Pikmin 2 pulled the "you beat the game, now complete it!" thing. I'm sure there's not much in the way of actual difference between that and the way the game plays now, but for some reason I'd really prefer a little cutscene to set up the rest of the fruit collection or some final task that takes place after the credits roll.

As for 2, I can accept the fruit descriptions as acceptable substitutes for the treasure reports (though I admittedly still need to actually look at that stuff. I usually like to fill in these sorts of things and then binge read. Also, I really wish they wouldn't have used repeat fruits. There's definitely enough types of fruit in the world that they didn't have to, even if they would've had to use some "obscure" fruits.) And the data logs are kind of neat too. But the lack of a proper enemy encyclopedia where you can mess with the enemies is really sad, and then there's the fact that Pikmin 2 had the full on descriptions from Olimar, Louie, and the ship. Just feels like a step down, which is a shame as that was one of my favorite parts of 2.

And for 3... I guess that makes sense, but I think I just mainly wanted them to use that chance to finally give whites and purples their own Onions and make them "proper" Pikmin types. By not even giving them a place in the story, they feel even further removed from the other types, which is a little sad.


Still, I did have a lot of fun with the game, and I'm definitely prepared to dig in more. I love the fruit idea, even if I was almost never in danger (outside of Louie reprising his role as a super big dick). And the bosses are amazing. My jaw dropped a little at the one in the swamp, just super cool.

 

[Mr-Joker]

I am properly reading this wrong but is Alph gay? After all he keep interrupting Charlie move on Brittany.

 

[SpoonyBard]

I am properly reading this wrong but is Alph gay? After all he keep interrupting Charlie move on Brittany.

He's trying to save them from embarrassment, I think.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

This is my first pikmin game and Im loving it so far but it's really hard.

This first boss is crushing my momentum.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

I am properly reading this wrong but is Alph gay? After all he keep interrupting Charlie move on Brittany.

How exactly does interrupting someone have anything to do with being gay? They are both very rude to Charlie, especially Brittany.

Edit: Sorry I read it wrong. I think he just kind of idolizes him. I guess I could be wrong though.

 

[The Librarian]

This is my first pikmin game and Im loving it so far but it's really hard.

This first boss is crushing my momentum.

Go in with rock pikmin first. Destroy his shell/claws to make him vulnerable and harmless. Then go in with the red pikmin.

 

[Treythalomew]

This is my first pikmin game and Im loving it so far but it's really hard.

This first boss is crushing my momentum.

I just finished the game and the first boss was the hardest for my journey. It's rough getting into the groove of strafing and keep Pikmin from getting caught. I felt that the game got easier after you finish there.

 

[dkeane]

I'm a noob at this game . How do I kill animals and have them not crush one of my pikmin?

 

[Tathanen]

I'm a noob at this game . How do I kill animals and have them not crush one of my pikmin?

If you see an enemy about to do something crush-ey, whistle to call the Pikmin back before they do it. Try throwing Pikmin on an enemy's back, so even if they do a crush-ey move, the Pikmin are thrown off by the impact, instead of crushed beneath. And perhaps best of all, use Rock pikmin, since they are invincible vs crushing or piercing attacks (still vulnerable to being eaten, though). They do their best damage when you throw them at an enemy, they don't do much with their own pathetic little runups, so be sure to keep calling them back and re-throwing them.

Also, if you're fighting a bulborb of any sort, keep throwing Pikmin at its eyes. It'll keep it disoriented so it doesn't start chowing down on your min.

 

[Deku Tree]

20 days!!!

 

[Jazzem]

Collected all the fruit, now trying to get 100% memo completion. Unfortunately I'm missing two of the control ones, and I can't seem to find any specific info on them online

 

[Tathanen]

Collected all the fruit, now trying to get 100% memo completion. Unfortunately I'm missing two of the control ones, and I can't seem to find any specific info on them online

Some memos appear when you pull one of those spinny things out of the ground with flying pikmin, others are in pellet posies. Just go Scorched Earth on an area, be sure to destroy everything you see.

 

[Appleman]

Man, I have no idea how people are completing the game this quickly and with zero deaths. I'll have to do more of a speedrun on my next playthrough as I'm really taking my time for exploration but also getting my troops absolutely ravaged during some of the boss battles...

 

[Vyer]

Man, I forgot how much I loved PIkmin.

My kid is watching me play this one. He is completely awestruck. The Pikmin game world is probaby pretty engrossing to a preschooler (I mean I know it is for me).

I'm out of practice though. Going pretty slow on this first playthrough and got my ass kicked by a few bosses. Mass pikmin loss of life.


I wonder how hard it is to find the Wii re releases of Pikmin and Pikmin 2.

 

[Parallacs]

I beat it last night finally. I did all fruit in 34 days with about a hundred deaths. There is certainly room for improvement haha.

The final boss was actually really fun. The Oak was stressful and I really had a hard time multitasking until I realized Britney gives a 5 second audible.

The fight itself was suprisingly easy:

Spoiler

. I got about half of the health down on the first day of fighting him (third overall). I decided to take a risk and go back with only red, blue and rock and ignore the flying parts and hope he didn't drop a charge (which was a correct assumption). In total I lost maybe 20 pikmin just in that final 3 way split.

Compared to Pikmin 2, all of these bosses seemed fairly easy. The only one I got truely frustrated with was the sand boss, only because I was trying to collect 4 extra fruit on the same day and kept trying to down him with 1/3 of the day left. I sorta miss the way time stops in Pikmin 2 for underground bosses.

 

[friskykillface]

just finished the game and wow what a rush, that last level was amazing and last boss djjdjkeidjwkijjdksjsjdj

lost so much pikmin

Spoiler

when the gold guy had a bit of health left I went all out and throw every single pikmin, with the fire floor, water bubble and electric shield around me, jeez what a last moment.

but.............

Spoiler

there was another gold guy at the top of the tree/mountain at the end, dlc?

overall, just a fantastic game and sad its over, got 40 fruit my first run

 

[Parallacs]

just finished the game and wow what a rush, that last level was amazing and last boss djjdjkeidjwkijjdksjsjdj

lost so much pikmin

Spoiler

when the gold guy had a bit of health left I went all out and throw every single pikmin, with the fire floor, water bubble and electric shield around me, jeez what a last moment.

but.............

Spoiler

there was another gold guy at the top of the tree/mountain at the end, dlc?

overall, just a fantastic game and sad its over, got 40 fruit my first run

To final spoiler:

Spoiler

yeah I saw that also, it looked like a bull, or at least something with horns. Interesting.

Also, I think didn't get the final ending because I'm missing what caused the ship to crash. Maybe I need to make sure I collected all the memos.

 

[Tathanen]

but.............

Spoiler

there was another gold guy at the top of the tree/mountain at the end, dlc?

Spoiler

Same guy, I think. When you beat him his gooey remnants eek away offscreen.

 

[dkeane]

If you see an enemy about to do something crush-ey, whistle to call the Pikmin back before they do it. Try throwing Pikmin on an enemy's back, so even if they do a crush-ey move, the Pikmin are thrown off by the impact, instead of crushed beneath. And perhaps best of all, use Rock pikmin, since they are invincible vs crushing or piercing attacks (still vulnerable to being eaten, though). They do their best damage when you throw them at an enemy, they don't do much with their own pathetic little runups, so be sure to keep calling them back and re-throwing them.

Also, if you're fighting a bulborb of any sort, keep throwing Pikmin at its eyes. It'll keep it disoriented so it doesn't start chowing down on your min.

Playing again tonight. Thanks! Helping.

 

[balohna]

Just got this and a Wii U recently. I have to say, the controls with the wiimote/nunchuk + gamepad are fucking PERFECT. Definitely the most intuitive game I can recall playing recently. Commanding people around on the gamepad feels so right and works flawlessly. Playing on just the gamepad doesn't feel quite right, and I feel bad for anyone out there that doesn't have Wii controllers and is trying to play this.

The one thing I really don't like so far is having to worry about Pikmin going back to where they took something from, but I'm getting better at remembering to round them up. Using the map to track them down also helps.

I rented the original Pikmin on GC back when it was somewhat new and 13-year-old-me was turned off by the strategy elements and time limit. Pikmin 2 was vaguely on my radar for years, and I'm happy to finally be jumping in with Pikmin 3.

 

[Defect]

I need me some DLC!

 

[fred]

Lol, I've played the game with absolutely no strategy whatsoever, think I've slaughtered over a thousand of the poor little buggers so far. I'm very tempted to start all over again and stop throwing the little things until the enemy dies lol.

 

[Madouu]

I finally got to play the game for an hour or so yesterday. I forgot how great Pikmin was! Such a sweet game and I only got around to playing two ingame days.

Oh and I definitely echo the sentiment that wiimote/nunchuk + pad for the map is just great. (I guess I'm used to always looking at the map since I play a lot of rts/moba games)

 

[Parallacs]

Just got this and a Wii U recently. I have to say, the controls with the wiimote/nunchuk + gamepad are fucking PERFECT. Definitely the most intuitive game I can recall playing recently. Commanding people around on the gamepad feels so right and works flawlessly. Playing on just the gamepad doesn't feel quite right, and I feel bad for anyone out there that doesn't have Wii controllers and is trying to play this.

The one thing I really don't like so far is having to worry about Pikmin going back to where they took something from, but I'm getting better at remembering to round them up. Using the map to track them down also helps.

I rented the original Pikmin on GC back when it was somewhat new and 13-year-old-me was turned off by the strategy elements and time limit. Pikmin 2 was vaguely on my radar for years, and I'm happy to finally be jumping in with Pikmin 3.

This behavior is annoying, especially on the final level. It would be nice if they either went to the completed bridge or back to the ship (though obviously this isn't practical either).

I think the best option would be for the pikmin to rejoin the captain after the project is completed.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Just played the game for a few hours and finally reunited the team. One thing I hate though is that we can't have the Pikmin form a line to quickly have them attack, pick up stuff or do any other task for me without having to throw them like in Pikmin 2. Why was this skill removed?

 

[KingSnake]

Just played the game for a few hours and finally reunited the team. One thing I hate though is that we can't have the Pikmin form a line to quickly have them attack, pick up stuff or do any other task for me without having to throw them like in Pikmin 2. Why was this skill removed?

Wiimote: hold Z on the enemy/wall/object until it zooms in and mark the target (lock on) then shake the nunchuck to attack.

Gamepad: ZL to lock-on, press B (or shake the gamepad) to charge.

 

[kizmah]

Some pics from this gorgeous game.

 

[D-e-f-]

Some pics from this gorgeous game.

dat uprezzed wii game ...

 

[kizmah]

One more.

 

[Parallacs]

I would pay $100 for a model of that ship. So awesome.

 

[D-e-f-]

One more.

did you photoshop two shots together or did you take that from direct feed and cut it down?

 

[jmls1121]

Reflecting over my time with this game, I have to say that the use of depth of field was simply incredible and unlike anything in any game I have ever played before. And it actually added to the gameplay, focusing the player's attention and giving the background a lush, watercolor effect.

 

[kizmah]

did you photoshop two shots together or did you take that from direct feed and cut it down?

I just turned the Gamepad on it's side when taking the picture.

 

[D-e-f-]

I just turned the Gamepad on it's side when taking the picture.

But the height of the picture doesn't fit with the format of the 480p shots at all! Expose your magicks at once!

edit: wait, I guess my brain is fried. It actually does fit. 450x800 vs 800x450 ... but your shot looks so incredibly wide. must be because of the angle. ...or you're a wizard!

 

[kizmah]

But the height of the picture doesn't fit with the format of the 480p shots at all! Expose your magicks at once!

edit: wait, I guess my brain is fried. It actually does fit. 450x800 vs 800x450 ... but your shot looks so incredibly wide. must be because of the angle. ...or you're a wizard!

Trying to discredit a wizard never pans out It's just the low camera angle and the verticality of the background that fools the eye.

 

[D-e-f-]

Trying to discredit a wizard never pans out It's just the low camera angle and the verticality of the background that fools the eye.

I repeat: