52 Games Challenge 2023!!!

[kashell]

My stance on XVI is that it is a very good story trapped in a terrible game!

The combat is terribly basic, I had an attack pattern for normal enemies & a pattern for bosses, this needed no variation. This could have easily been solved if they put Elements into the combat system. Take the Bomb Enemy, usually it is weak against Ice but in XVI there are no elements intergrated into the combat system so its just attacks - What's worse is that you gain summon abilities which have no elemental attributes either.

The sidequests are as generic as generic can get, fetch quests or monster hunts - Oh and the seperate monster hunts are all re-skins of enemies you've already beat with the basic combat layout wokring again. As soon as I would advance the story and see al new sidequests appear I'd sigh, it owuld take 2-3 hours to get rid of them at times.

The biggest offence is the Map system. The game isn't open world, which is fine but the game doesn't even have areas that connect - Like in Final Fantasy X or XII. You reach the end of one area and then are thrown onto the map and have to select the next area. This gameplay structure ruins all sense of adventure & journey, it felt like experiencing a heavily cut movie.

XVI is ranked in the lower end of FF games for me, I just found it a chore to play in the end.

The bold/italic part could not ring more true. As soon as a new chapter started, and as soon as I saw those disgusting green exclamation points, I would groan. Then, I'd go get my iPad and put on a show so I could have something to watch while I skipped through the dialogues during the side-quests. I think there were only like seven of them that were worth doing (one for Ambrosia, two for increasing your item limit, and four for getting the best weapon for Clive) but even with those I'd skip the dialogue just so I could carry on.

[telly]

Game 12 - Mega Man Battle Network 4: Blue Moon (Switch) - 15 Hours

I had heard from many people online that Battle Network 4 was the worst in the series. While I don't agree that it's the worst, it's definitely a step down in many ways from BN 2 and 3. That doesn't mean that the game has nothing to offer that's new or that it isn't fun to play. The first thing that I noticed was a completely refreshed and updated graphic/color palate. The music also received a nice facelift and sounds way better than previous games. On the gameplay side, there are several additions that become staples in BN 5 and 6 that I really appreciated. I had really missed full synchro for one thing, which can really speed up battles, and the soul-crossing that starts in this game and going forward works better than the "styles" in BN 2 and 3, particularly since they have more complex changes and you can enter them whenever you want. There's also some interesting karma system with the new darkchip mechanics that can get pretty interesting but I didn't really explore it that much.

I also really liked the inclusion of multiple regions for you to explore beyond Electopia. You often hear about Netopia, Yumland, etc. But you never get to explore those physical areas in the other games. While none of them were expansive, I really liked that part of the game.

So you may be asking, why is this game looked down upon so much? For me it's definitely the story. Frankly, none of the BN games have a great story, so this isn't much of a surprise. To me this game felt a lot like the first game. That is, the story feels segmented into episodes, without a strong major narrative driving the plot. There's a main plot about darkchips corrupting the soul and impending meteor strike but all of that is left by the wayside and is instead focused around several major tournaments with mostly superficial and time-consuming filler to complete before each match. The main plotline about a meteor strike is so off in the distance in service the tournament plot for most of the game until the very end, and the villain as a result is so underdeveloped it's laughable. Translations are awful too, by the way. Tons of spelling and syntax errors, and overall is way worse quality-wise than the previous games. Wish they could have fixed some that in the HD remakes but alas.

The other main point was the fact that you have to replay the game multiple times to unlock everything. Personally I don't mind that so much. I wish more BN games had a new game plus option like this one and the fact that some of the content is locked behind this restriction makes the new game plus option more appealing in my opinion.

So while in many respects it is a step backwards in the series, the 4th entry in the series retains the excellent gameplay with some more modern polish and gameplay tweaks that I still enjoyed.

[bikingjahuty]

It's been since mid July since I last beat something, however with Armored Core 6 coming our Friday I will break that streak of no games played and get back on it. I'm taking a little break from gaming right now, and luckily I'm starting to feel remotivated to hop back in. After Armored Core I'm likely going to start playing games again at a regular cadence and I'm still confident I'll hit that golden 52 number by the end of the year.

[kamikazekeeg]

25 - Armored Core VI (PS5 2023) - BEAT - It's been a long time since I've played a proper mech game, I played Gundam Evolution recently when that came out, but that's more hero shooter with mechs, than a mecha game, and before that probably would've been like Hawken a few years back, but it was nice to have a real solid, customizable, mech experience.

Overall the game is solid, you can tackle stuff how you want, though I quickly found you could basically brute force your way through stuff with either dual miniguns and grenade launchers, or dual shotguns and grenade launchers, at least in terms of taking out individual units.  It's like the heavy armor and huge two hander weapon builds from their Souls games, which lets you just power through fights if you are having trouble dodging.  Doesn't work with every battle, but if you built up a middle ground mech and then slap that stuff on, you can melt a lot of AC's fast, or get through boss fights easier.

I don't care for the story, it's barebones, the characters aren't interesting, I'm both important to the story and not, because my character isn't a character.  It's like their Souls games, you are a just a void there to progress the plot while everyone talks you up.  It didn't bother me too much, till the end, and I'm just like, "I wish I could have a dialogue with the characters right now".  I also feel like the gameplay could have more depth, it's very straightforward, like I was sorta expecting these big boss fights you could maybe attack certain parts, disable them, which could change up their attacks or strategies, but nah, AC's are very straightforward to fight and the big robots and other stuff are pretty basic to fight, though they do have second phases. 

In the end, I don't think it's up there with their other games like Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, etc, but it's a good mech game and there definitely aren't enough of those.  I know New Game Plus gives more to do also, so I'll probably tackle that stuff abit more casually over the next week or so.

[kashell]

46. Albert Odyssey

Despite all of its ups and downs, this is still one of my favorite Saturn games. Working Designs did what they did best: gave the game extra "personality" by implementing a generous helping of 90s cultural references and questionable programming changes. Their translation notes in the instruction manual claimed they made some improvements to overall playability. I don't see them, and I suspect they took it a step further and increased every boss' HP, too. If I ever get a chance to play the original Japanese version, then I'd be curious to see what other stunts they pulled. Still, the game epitomizes classic role-playing. Aside from two tedious boss battles it's an easy-breezy quest from the start. And it's also one of the most gorgeous 2D games I've ever played. My first time playing it was long, long after its release but it still had this ability to "take me back." The same can be said for this replay. Leos is best girl. Gryzz is the MVP.

[bikingjahuty]

32. Armored Core 6 (PS5)

I have some very fond memories of playing Armored Core 2 and 3 back in the PS2 days, however other than dabbling in Armored Core 4 as a rental around the time it came out, I've mostly been away from the series all these years. It isn't that I didn't like the older AC games I played, but rather they just never stuck with me the same way many other games have over the years. Still, the AC6 trailer from last year blew me away and delivered a level of hype that made me know I'd be getting this game day 1, which is precisely what I did!


AC6 is a pretty fun action game with a crazy amount of customization for your mech, which was one of the biggest draws to this entry. Other than that, all the fan favorite modes like the Arena and story mode make a return. The story of AC6 is nothing remarkable, however it's a nice addition to you just doing one merc mission after another just for the credits. Still, I found this game difficult to play for more than 2 out chunks due to it not keeping my interest as much as I was hoping it would. The OST is decent, but it is often drowned out by the sound of explosions, weapons firing, thrusters, and general destruction all around you. The level of detail to the mechs and some of the environments and enemies is impressive, however I found the snowy wasteland setting of Rubicon to get a little stale after a while, even though many of the stages look a decent amount different. Sadly, I feel like if I were more of a Souls fan, I'd probably have liked AC6 more. That isn't necessarily because AC6 has a ton in common with the Souls series outside its developer, but rather because it shelves exposition and world building for the saje of action, giving the player only breadcrumbs of lore to sustain them. There is certainly more there in this regard to AC6, but overall it was game I had less and less fun with the longer I played. I guess I'm not the AC fan I thought I was, or at least what I used to be. (8/31/23) [33/50]

[kamikazekeeg]

26 - Atomic Heart (PC 2023) - BEAT - This is the most aggressive 6/10 I've played in awhile lol It has stuff that could easily knock it down to a 4, but also as some points, the game feels like an 8.  It's basically an amalgamation of Bioshock, Prey, and Wolfenstein.  Gameplay is pretty decent, decent spread of weapons, customization/upgrades, melee is basic but functional, gunplay is basic, but functional, and there is a whole powers system, but I honestly wasn't that impressed by it.  It seems cooler than it is, it never felt as super useful as in Bioshock to me and most fights didn't feel like I would have benefited from using them more, especially since you get so many heals as you play. Boss fights are pretty exciting, there's some killer tracks from Mick Gordon in this too.

What was killing me in this game is the dialogue and lead, it's awful.  It's not every character, but for some reason the lead almost comes across as like a stereotypical action game badass, but done with very poor voice direction, so he feels like he's from a different game.  Like he would be better off being a character in Bulletstorm, or some other goofy shooter from the mid to late 2000's.  By the end of the game, I had a feeling it was a mixture of a script translation issue or something, it's never like outright the wrong words, but it comes across weird and unnatural and the wrong tone, combined with the voice direction.  I hated listening to him, he's annoying and obnoxious and I almost quit the game because of how unlikable it is and his dumb catchphrase that is absolutely not justified when you learn why he uses it lol

Another huge problem with the game is the large open world sections.  There's a couple strewn about and at first they seem neat, but they completely botched it.  Basically there are cameras across much of the map and if you get spotted, you'll get tougher enemies on you, and you'll basically fight alot.  You can't clear out an area though, because there infinite auto-repair robots, so after a very short bit of time, all robots you destroyed, will be rebuilt.  So you can't explore things at your leisure after a fight, you are forced to constantly fight and move fast, which absolutely undercuts the experience.  I ended up mostly skipping this stuff, missing out on weapon upgrades, because I didn't want to deal with the constant fights.

It's a game that I can see where it could be amazing, like top tier stuff, but multiple parts just didn't work for me.

[bikingjahuty]

Alright, I'm less than 20 games away from reaching 52! Knowing what I have going on for the remainder of the year, it's going to be an uphill battle getting there, but I'm determined to not miss that goal after meeting it every year since we began this challenge. I'm going to have to mix in more short games if i'm going to make it, which is fine by me since I'm a huge fan of arcade games, which is about as short as you can get. I woke up in a SHMUP mood so I decided to revisit a shmup I haven't played since my massive binge of the genre back in 2017 and 2018.


33. Dengun Feveron (PS4)

I didn't remember much about Dengen Feveron from when I originally played it other than it felt like Dodonpachi with a strange disco-ish aesthetic to it. Well, this is more or less what you get with Dengen Feveron except it still just feels like 90% a Dodonpachi clone. This is by no means a bad thing, and in fact Dengen's gameplay is a step above many other shmups I've played, cave or otherwise. However, it's fairly generic feel and look really prevents this game from being more memorable or fun for me. The audio is decent, the enemy variety is pretty good, but so much else in this game just feels interchangeable and bland. There are a few strange gimmicks in this game that I wasn't a big fan of either. Still, this is definitely a shump I'd recommend, especially if you're a fan of Cave's older stuff from the 90s. (9/3/23) [30/50]

[bikingjahuty]

36. Skullgirls: 2nd Encore (PS4)

The Skullgirls series is one I've been meaning to check out for a very long time. Not only have a heard about how competitive it has been as a fighting game for years, but the look of the game has always appealed to me. I finally decided to sink some time into this game and while i absolutely see why this game is so loved and also has found its way into the modern rotation of competitive fighting games, I was somewhat disappointed with it still. Let's just get it out of the way; Skullgirls plays incredibly well. The gameplay is fast, tight, and pretty dynamic. While it isn't flawless, mostly due to some balancing issues I encountered, it's still a ton of fun and reminds me of a mix of ArcSys games mixed with late 90s CPS2 Capcom fighting games. That is certainly a compliment if there ever was one. Visually the game is very well done, although it does still show its independent, lower budget hand a bit more than I would like. Still, the characters and their animations are great looking, and most of the stages are pretty cool. There is also a story mode where characters interact and each character's progression is unique. While I didn't find any of the story particularly interesting, it at least adds value to what is already a pretty robust fighting game. And then finally, the audio is also pretty damn good. Between the cool jazz music and pretty well done voice acting, this game definitely hits most of the marks it needs to to be a pretty memorable game from an audio standpoint. So where does my disappointment come from with Skullgirls: 2nd Encore? While the game does mostly everything right, it just never really grabbed me the way that a lot of other fighting games do. I enjoyed playing it, but at the same time I was just sort of like, "eh, I'm ready to play something else now." I guess in a way, Skullgirls just felt a bit unremarkable and had me wanting to play something else like Marvel vs Capcom 2 or Super Street Fighter 2. Still, I get why this game is so loved and commonly used in fighting game tournaments, it just isn't for me as much as it is for many others. (9/3/23) [36/50]

[bikingjahuty]

35. Mortal Kombat XL (PS4)

It's been a long time since I last played MKXL, and when I did I remembered it being fun, but it lacked far behind MK9, and also its sequel, MK11. Beyond the gameplay, the real meat and potatoes of the newer MK games has been their amazing story modes; the gameplay is honestly secondary to what has been the best story delivery of any fighting franchise game I've ever played. Unfortunately, 6-years later replaying MKXL, my opinion of this game hasn't changed.


MKXL's story is okay, but definitely the weakest compared to its predecessor and successor. I was never super invested in Cassey Kage and her crew as much as the original MK Earth Realm team, but for what it's worth they're still okay. Also, Kotal Kan is no Shao Kan, nor is Shinok or Quan-chi a good substitute for Shang Sung. I certainly don't dislike the story of XL ,but it is certainly inferior to the rest of the arc, hence why I forgot most of it in just 6-years. The gameplay is fairly good, although a variety of balancing issues and just feeling kind of stiff at times holds it back from really shining in this area. I will say, it's still leagues better than most of the previous entries in the series before 9. Still, unlike the story of MKXL, its gameplay is on par with both 9 and 11. The audio is similar in terms of quality with some great voice acting, cool stage music, and just overall excellent audio on all fronts. In the future I can see myself playing through MK9, 10, and 11 just to complete what is overall a great story arc. It will also help fill in some blanks as MK1 (the 2023 one) releases soon. (9/5/23) [35/50]

[kamikazekeeg]

27 - Starfield (PC 2023) - DROPPED - Man, I'm struggling abit with new games lately lol First I can't get through FF16 and now I can't get through Starfield.  Starfield is a much more flawed game though and I kinda went into it not expecting it to grab me, as the trailers were never all that enticing for me.  I put about 17 to 18 hours into the game, and I've tried a little bit of everything, but it's not coming together.  I'm a big Fallout fan, and fully aware of the faults that game has, but I think the setting and tone of that game does a lot for me compared to Starfield which is a lot more bland and straightforward in its tone, so the faults of Starfield aren't being covered up with things I enjoy.

At my core with these games, I'm a loot goblin, I love gathering up armor sets and cool outfits, and getting interesting guns and all that.  Here, it's all mildly similar space suits, and the clothes can be kinda colo, and the weapons are okay, but they then went and really limited storage space in this game.  In Fallout 4, I had Sanctuary, so I could take my haul, organize it there with resources and gear and all that, but they made ship cargo holds fairly small, and I had the first level of ship storage filled up in like the first two hours of the game and that's just from very normal collecting of weapon and gear and resources.  You can upgrade the ship to be like 4 times the base I think, but I didn't want a huge bloated ship, so I modded this out.

The biggest problems to me is that the combat isn't very good, the AI isn't very good, interactions with characters and looting is all basically the same as it was in Fallout 4, but even less so as there's no VATS, there's no back and forther dialogue like with Fallout 4, not even like camera switching, so I almost never see my character unless I purposefully stay in third person.  Fallout 4 is 8 years ago, this game needed to be way better.  The stuff they added isn't very good either.  I use to love exploring, because it was one big map with unique locations and stuff, and now it's all these mostly randomly generated locations on planets that you get to with lots of loading screen stuff inbetween.  It's incredibly immersion breaking and just disconnects you from the experience.  Ship combat is also pretty lame.  You can still have a lot of random events like before happen, but it's not the same to me.

Also I just don't think the main story is very interesting, it's got kind of a slow, boring, intro, all the characters and companions are very bland and standard, the side stuff can be okay, but wasn't enough to keep me engaged.  Visually, while I like this "NASA Punk" aesthetic, it also just leads to a dull game.  My first fight was against pirates in red spacesuits.  I then came across Spacers, which are basically scavengers in grey space suits.  I then once came across a group called Ecliptic I think, fighting pirates, who are just guys in green space suits, but not the Var'uun, who are cultists that also wear a green space suit, but there's is cooler.  You can see how boring that gets compared to Fallout with Super Mutants, Ghouls, Raiders, Mercs, Brotherhood with their more unique elements, or Skyrim with all sorts of fantasy creatures.

I've seen a lot of people REALLY get into the game, great for them (I think people giving it 10's are kinda way off the mark though lol), but as a continuation of the Bethesda formula, it doesn't do anything to draw me in.  The faults of Fallout I could let slide, because I loved the aesthetics and setting and crazy characters and interactions and that's not happening in the same way as Starfield.  Starfield has longer term play potential because it has NG+ stuff and all the randomized content creates infinite stuff to do basically, but I'd rather have a 100 hour game that I enjoy a lot and complete, than a game I could play for 500 hours and still not be finished with.

[bikingjahuty]

I decided to have a SHMUP night.


36. Darius Gaiden (PS1)

It had been a while since I played Darius Gaiden last, but I remembered it being pretty good overall. My memory served me right, as it was actually slightly better than I had remembered it. The gameplay was surprisingly balanced and fun for the most part, however it does have some noticeable cheap spots throughout, and some of the bosses can be fairly annoying at times for one reason or another. The other thing this game is guilty of is slightly marooning you with powerups when you die, which is a huge pet peeve of mine when it comes to shmups. Still, the branching paths in this game make this a very replayable shooter, which only add to its overall fun factor. The audio and visuals are really the showstoppers in Darius Gaiden however, as the blend of 3D and 2D, combined with a ton of unique bosses and enemies makes for a really good time. I was surprised to see destroyable environmental objects as well, and also unique animations for some of the bosses and scripted sequences. As mentioned, the audio is great too, with some pretty ambient tracks that somehow really compliment the strange aquatic theme of this game. Darius Gaiden was a pleasant surprise to return to and certainly one of the better shmups I've played from the mid-90s. (9/7/23) [34/50]

37. Raiden (PS1)

Even though I'm a fairly big fan of the Raiden franchise of shooters, I've actually spent very little time with the first game. That changed tonight when I decided to play the first Raiden on the Raiden Project release on the PS1. The game is essentially arcade perfect, which is nice, however the game itself leaves a lot to be desired. For one, Raiden is probably one of the worst shmups I've played in terms of power up marooning. Not only does the game not throw you a bone between lives and continued, but power ups in general are relatively sparse, meaning the odds are always against you unless you just never die. Unfortunately for 99% of the people that play this game, they will die, and then die rapidly numerous times after from not having enough power ups to get through certain areas. This becomes very annoying, and the only things that somewhat mitigates this is the fact that the balancing of enemies and projectiles remains fairly consistent, with the exception of some of the later stages, which are the definition of cheap. The audio is decent, and the visuals are certainly pretty good for the era this game game out in arcades. Luckily the Raiden series improved dramatically in later entries, although as Raiden II will demonstrate, it wouldn't hit its stride until sometime later. (9/7/23) [26/50]

38. Raiden II (PS1)

While Raiden II does make some improvements over the original game, it still has a lot of annoying gameplay issues, most noticeably the dramatic spike in difficulty almost from the getgo, which makes Raiden II a fairly cheap and unbalanced shmup. Sure, the game isn't marooning you as bad with no power ups after you get killed, but it barely gives you anything still, and good luck reaching the power up before you're fragged again. I can't really say the gameplay is an improvement, it's just annoying in various new ways. The audio is on par with the first Raiden, however the visuals did dramatically improve with much cooler destruction animations and just the quality of sprites too. It's both sad and sobering that I didn't much care for Raiden II seeing how this was the first shmup I remember playing in the arcade during the mid-90s and also I remember thinking the game was awesome back then. Sure, I was just a dumb kid who didn't know any better, but it's always nice when you can revisit a game from your past and still feel idealistic about it and enjoy it. Unfortunately this game is not one of those titles for the most part. (9/7/23) [28/50]

[bikingjahuty]

39. Metal Slug 5 (PS4)

I was on a bit of a Metal Slug kick towards the beginning of this year only to find out that the deeper into the series I played, the more diminished returns the series was giving me with each new game I played. Unfortunately, Metal Slug 5 mostly continues this trend, however I did find it slightly better than 4, which is the worst in the series imo. Visually the game looks pretty cool, but not really anymore than 4. The same can be said about the audio. Gameplay is as crazy as ever with some strategy involved, but mostly you can count on dying over and over, and over again. Luckily, I'm playing this on a PS4 with unlimited continues, because had this been an arcade, I'd have spent nearly the price of what a new game costs now in quarters. These games are meant to devour unsuspecting arcade goer's change, and they are effective at doing so thanks to the spectacle occurring on the screen in front of you. Still, it would have been nice to have a bit more depth to the gameplay instead of feeling like you're just mindlessly jumping into a meat grinder half the time. Still, it's a short, mostly fun game that is worth a play every decade or so. (9/8/23) [29/50]

[moonlightvalkyrie]

9.) Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PS5)--Why would I not do this version as well? This run went a lot smoother than the last run.

[telly]

Game 13 - Pikmin 4 (Switch) - 30 Hours

I have always been a huge fan of the Pikmin series. As a testament to that, I bought the 4th entry day one and played almost right after it came out, whereas I'm usually about 2-5 years behind the curve with most new releases. That's how much I like the series, and Pikmin 4 proves to be worth the many years it's been since Pikmin 3 came out on the Wii U. As a result, I have a lot of thoughts about this game.

Pikmin 4 is in many ways the best game in the series, certainly from a technical and gameplay perspective. You can almost feel all the 10+ years of new ideas being stuffed into this game from Pikmin 3. It's tough to know even where to start. First, the game retains the beautiful, brutal world with disgusting yet cute monster design. This time around, the game leans a lot more into the connection with our human world, so much so that you explore an entire floor of a house later in the game, which I thought was interesting.

Second are the changes in gameplay, of which there are many. There is one new Pikmin, the Ice Pikmin, which were great for freezing enemies and bodies of water alike, and I used them frequently. Rather than just 1,2, or 3 people to find over the course of the story, this game has a whopping 50 castaways for you to rescue, each with their own personalities and reasons for being on the planet. They also unlock an expansive shop with upgrades and special items using raw materials in the overworld, which opens up your gameplay options. My favorite addition was Oatchi, a lovable dog-like creature who's biggest benefit is carrying Pikmin on it's back for you. This means you become a harder target for enemies to hit which helps you conserve Pikmin. The game also includes extensive cave systems like in Pikmin 2, and integrates different challenges into the story like timed modes a PvC competitive mode. That's not even all of the new things in this game, but overall it was a real treat to experience everything. The one gameplay aspect I didn't really like was the night expeditions. They weren't that deep and felt tedious to complete. They also don't scale the rewards to match the increasing challenge as you go through each mission.

While I do think Pikmin 4 remains an excellent game to play, to me it is slightly outclassed by Pikmin 3 in a few subtle but important ways. The largest difference for me is the change in tone. All those castaways that you rescue over the course of the game fill up your base camp where they sit around doing nothing or giving you some superficial sidequests to complete. As a result, this game feels very crowded and noisy, which diminishes the isolating atmosphere that I've enjoyed from previous entries in the series. The treasures that you collect all over the planet are all turned in to "Sparklium": i.e., fuel for your ship, which feels more lazy and less grounded than searching for money, food, or spaceship parts in previous games. You rack up Sparklium so quickly that in no time you have enough to scan the whole planet and fuel your ship so everything becomes more tedious to collect. Lastly, I really despised the lack of a time limit, and Pikmin 2 had the same problem. For a game that drills the whole efficiency thing into your skull, there's no real incentive to be efficient because you're not working against a clock at all. It doesn't have to be anything major, but just a little something in the game that helps me feel that efficiency (or Dandori as it's called now), matters really goes a long way.

The other thing for me is the lack of the dual Gamepad and TV screen. In Pikmin 3 you could send multiple explorers with different parties of Pikmin and perform multiple tasks easily. They tried to do that in Pikmin 2 but it didn't really work and this game doesn't have a suitable alternative. Oatchi can do some things on his own but it really isn't all that impressive. You could also more accurately throw Pikmin using the Gamepad, and it did feel like a downgrade in quality.

As an aside, the game's story progression was a little strange. You have 2 overarching missions from the start: rescue Olimar and the rest of the castaways. When you rescue Olimar the game goes through full credits but then you're brought back to the planet to resume rescuing the remaining castaways and with a new mission to cure Oatchi. I think they were trying to go for a "postgame" that you could do after rescuing Olimar. To me it felt like the credits were popping up when the game wasn't really finished. So I did rescue all the castaways and complete the final questline even though you could argue that you don't have to, for the story to be finished.

Even though the subtle shift in direction was a bit of a miss for me, and the amount content felt a little bloated at the end (the game is more than twice as long as Pikmin 3), I did really enjoy my time with Pikmin 4. It's an excellent addition to the series, and well worth your time. It seems like I had a lot of negative things to say about the game, but they're really just nitpicks shining through.