Ultimately our disagreement on a game's overall appeal will remain unresolved, as it is a simple matter of personal taste. We might be better off argueing over which color is more appealing to the eye, green or blue. So understand that my reply is not trying to persuade you to agree with me, I am merely trying to establish why it is I like green better, and hope that you can understand the possible advantages of choosing green instead of blue, even though blue over green isn't
wrong.
Also, its just fun to envision a more mature themed Pikmin. I know Nintendo will never make it, but I enjoy thinking about what it would be like if they did.
I am talking about a radical shift in the game's stylistic direction, but I don't think simplistic weapons, or even a more violent method of fighting "bare-handed", would be out of place in the current Pikmin setting. I agree that one of the key elements of Pikmin was the sense of being in an alien environment (though with neat similarities to our own), a
wild one, but in my opinion a wild environment should imply a certain amount of savagery, hostility, and carnality. The Pikmin's "cuteness" detracts from all of these elements, and so I would say that the
current look of the Pikmin is what doesn't fit in with the Pikmin story and setting. Olimar's situation, and the game's purpose, is to get off the planet as quickly as possible. A little impetus to do so, as in making the environment a less than idyllic place to be, would go a long way to achieving that. So in that respect, I don't think making the Pikmin tribal, capable of using tools, would detract from the sense of wilderness in the game. If anything it would add to it. And if not, then give the Pikmin some sort of natural appendage or physical trait, like a stinger or sharp teeth, that would make them capable of attacking other beasts to make the battles more entertaining. Slapping things to death is visually boring, and unsatisfactory, and the solution to this lies directly in losing the cutesy-appeal.
You're right, in that
fun is the name of the game. I think keeping the current aesthetic appeal in Pikmin is holding it back from its full potential. Preparing for a battle, playing through the battle, and celebrating in victory or dealing with defeat, could all be made into an emotional and epic adventure if the Pikmin themselves are more than little plants. Imagine if losing one Pikmin in a battle actually left the player with a sense of loss, the kind a commanding officer has when one of his soldiers gets killed, and how much more riveting the game could be if that were the case. What if losing a hundred Pikmin was an actual tragedy, and not just a mere setback for Olimar to achieve his goals, and how much more involved would the player be if that were the case. As it stands right now Pikmin is basically a puzzle game, and the Pikmin themselves are the tool used to solve those puzzles, open up new areas, and repeat. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with that, and it is fun, but how much more fun could the game be if the player was actually disheartened when new roadblocks came up, and if the player was actually challenged and burdened by the conflict between reaching his own goals and using the Pikmin to do it? To feel
fear when exploring a new area,
panic when forced to retreat, and
pity for those fallen comrades.
Its not about adding gore for the sake of adding gore, and its not about feeling embarassed when playing the games as they currently stand. Its about choosing content that optimizes the gameplay, and I'm not convinced the current artistic choices are doing that. At the very least I'd like to see what would be possible if Nintendo would not
restrict the game's possibilities by choosing aesthetics that limit the player's involvement with the characters on screen. Its not about making a game violent enough to get a mature rating, its about making the best game possible even if that means a mature rating. In the same way you don't want to see the "content of the product" aimed at getting an M rating just so it can have an M rating, I don't want to see the content of the product confined to an "E" rating just for the sake of having that rating.
