Category: RTS

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Game Ramblings #174 – Pikmin 4

More Info from Nintendo

  • Genre: RTS
  • Platform: Switch

I’ve always enjoyed the Pikmin series, but something about the time restriction never really clicked with me. For the original game it made sense given the story, but after it went away in Pikmin 2, it was frustrating to see it come back for 3. This game took the day limit away again leading to a game that feels like it’s built around exploration rather than rushing against the clock, and the resulting game has clicked for me more than any game in the series to this point.

The actual core loop of the game feels perfect for what Nintendo has been experimenting with since the DS days, where there’s a really tight small loop that can just be repeated while always making some sort of forward progress. In this case, it’s the same sort of core loop that Pikmin has always had – start at sunrise, collect as much as you can before sunset, repeat – but the removal of a day limit really changes how I thought about things. Each core loop is a really tight period of time so you can have a distinct start and end point for a single session, or do multiple loops for a longer session. Both scenarios work great and give you obvious progress with obvious break points.

Rather than having the goal of each day be a mad rush to collect as much as possible, I treated trips as sort of one of two phases. In a first run through an area, my goal was simply to unlock as much stuff and remove as much danger as possible. I would clear obstacles, kill enemies, and dig things up, but I would largely ignore it and leave it around. The things you kill and remove persist to future days so there was no danger of losing progress. Once I had a large area cleared, I would then go through and have my Pikmin collect everything and start clearing out the caves that I ran across. This was also important in that it allowed me to compartmentalize the squad build out a lot better. Rather than worrying about whether or not I had the right Pikmin for the situation, I could just make mental notes of spots that I didn’t have the right squad for and come back later with a different makeup.

I totally get where the removal of the day limit mechanic would bother people looking for more challenge, but I just don’t share the sentiment. Yes this game is easy, but it’s because fundamentally the difficulty of encounters is pretty low. Its lack of difficulty is definitely something that I would consider an overall negative to the game, because there’s very few points where I was actively in any danger, let alone felt like I was having a difficult time. I think there’s an opportunity for this style of game to be made difficult in a way where the mechanics of the encounter are the difficulty factor, because there’s a lot of tuning knobs that could quickly make this game very hard. Tighter timing on getting Pikmin off enemies, quicker deaths if you throw them into areas they are prone to damage in, less leniency on taking multiple hits before the Pikmin die, etc. I think there’s an interesting potential here for a true hard/new game+ mode here but I don’t think that limiting day count is the way to do it.

This change also led to what ultimately felt like more interesting environments. The individual areas were a lot more open than I remember them being in the past. It’s not that previous games were linear, but these areas felt truly open to me. Generally speaking environmental interactions were less about opening new areas, and more about opening shortcuts through the full level to make traversal back quicker or simpler. Some interactions did truly modify the environment – one particular example being a low/high tide transition in a beach theme level – but for the most part the changes you make are to make your life simpler in coming back to an area.

The return of caves from Pikmin 2 is also welcomed, though they are in a far more complete form here. Pikmin 2‘s were mostly randomized generic caves, but in the case of 4 they are generally fully formed and more centered around specific mechanics. In some cases it might be Pikmin restrictions to test your ability to effectively use some types. In a lot of cases, it’s actually the use of unique bosses. What this ended up doing for me as a player was to give the game something of a Breath of the Wild vibe where the overworld segments were for testing my overall knowledge and the caves were for hammering on specific segments. The caves are certainly more involved than a Zelda shrine, but it had a similar feel of always having something slightly different to play through.

I think overall this game feels like the sequel to Pikmin 2 that I’ve wanted for a long time. I didn’t necessarily have issues with 3, but it felt like a step back towards the original. Rather than being an exploration-focused game, that one felt like more of the restricted stress game of the original. 4 feels like where the series should be going to me. It’s built from puzzles and collecting and exploration of a large alien environment, encouraging the player to check every corner carefully, rather than rushing through to maximize things as quick as possible. The series has had its time as a series about rescuing, so going in the direction of exploration as a focus is something I’d like to see them continue to grow.

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Game Ramblings #120 – 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

More Info from Atlus

  • Genre: RTS
  • Platform: PS4

I know it’s weird that a game by Vanillaware is a strategy instead of a side scrolling action-focused combat game. However, it oddly works really well. This one combines Vanillaware’s history of good writing and branching narrative, their very distinct art style, and an RTS combat system that combines fast action with some clever tricks straight out of JRPG combat systems into a game that is definitely niche, but something worth exploring.

The first thing to really understand is that 13 Sentinels is to some extent two separate games. Narratively speaking, there’s an entire visual novel section that goes into the back stories of the title’s 13 sentinels and how the characters all came to be together. The RTS section of the game takes place largely after the game’s core narrative, serving as a way to finish the story. While that may sound confusing, narratively it works really well.

Part of why this all works is that in order for the combat to start, things before it have to be explained, and boy do they get explained in great detail. Each of the 13 main characters has their own back story that you work through in a branching fashion. Completing branches gives some back story, but also starts to unlock the stories of other characters. You then end up revisiting a lot of these story points with the other character, seeing how they got there and where they go from there.

For a story that should have been so confusing, it ends up working in a way that somehow didn’t lose me. Reinforcing a plot point from a different point of view really reinforces remembering the core plot. It also effectively fills in information gaps throughout. The way that you jump between characters and different plot branches then ultimately ends up dropping breadcrumbs in a way that gives you enough information to infer some plot points ahead of time, but not enough to avoid some of the big surprises from catching you off guard.

This is all helped by the fact that I wanted to know more about the plot of the game. If I didn’t care about the plot, I definitely would have been lost. However, this one really hit a sci-fi slice that I really find enjoyable. Without giving away too much, you’ve got giant hilarious mecha, you’ve got time travel paradoxes, you’ve got androids and future weapons, you’ve got self-replicating robotic enemies. It’s just such a core of things that I find enjoyable that it was easy to continue to hit the button to start the next story segment and just lose track of time. Ultimately this is Vanillaware’s narrative sense working at full capacity in a way that works far better than it should.

This is all backed by the visual style that Vanillaware is known for. It’s still got a gorgeous hand-painted aesthetic with fluid animation that just continues to work so well. If you’re played Muramasa, Odin Sphere, or Dragon’s Crown, you’re familiar with it. If not, well, there’s three more games I highly recommend…

The other half of the game is all about combat. Technically speaking, it is part of the narrative, but the connections to the story really don’t start to make sense until closer to the end. Luckily, the combat is fun in a way that allowed me to get to the end, and then some.

Good RTS games outside of PC are such a rarity, and a lot of that has always come down to odd control schemes compared to your normal PC keyboard/mouse setup. Games like Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings have worked by replicating that control setup on a touch screen. However, 13 Sentinels goes in a different direction, and is helped along by three main things.

The first real benefit is that control is down to single units. You aren’t trying to group select a bunch of things and move them around all at once. You move one unit, you attack with one unit, you use an ability on one unit. It reduces a point of complexity down to individual decisions that allow you to quickly hop around with cycling on the d-pad, rather than having to drag select a bunch of stuff.

The second is that attacks are not point and click, at least not in the traditional sense. Every unit attack or ability has some sort of AOE capability. Basic attacks may just be first-target or narrow cones. More costly abilities things may be circular AOE or long range line attacks. However, they all originate either from the unit itself and can be set by just pressing a direction on the joystick, or they originate from a specific location in which case you’re just dragging a targeter around on screen. It’s all incredibly effective, but also incredibly intuitive to just drop into. You start an attack, you move it with left stick, and you confirm. No fuss, no fighting controls. Your focus stays on the result of the attack.

However, the third thing is probably the most impactful. While this is technically an RTS, the combat system pulls some features from ATB-style JRPGs. Namely, it brings in meter charge to start a turn, and it brings in combat pausing when it’s a unit’s turn. These two add a nice sense of control the the combat pace which plays well with the general limitations of the platform. What this ends up meaning is that the game can also throw hundreds of enemy units at you without giving you a sense of being overwhelmed.

That said, the combat does have some rough points, particularly around overall balance as the game progresses. I got to a point probably around the 60-70% point where I’d upgraded a bunch of units that can spawn turrets, and it was basically an unbeatable strategy. ALWAYS have four turret guys, then add in two random units, and I was basically going to win with some small amount of effort. As the screenshot above shows, the turrets will shoot all over the place and hit everything, and when upgraded with more range and damage they got kind of ridiculous.

It didn’t ruin my sense of enjoyment of the game, and there’s definitely something to be said about trying out different strategies just for the hell of it, but if you’re a one-and-done clearing type, there’s distinctly optimal crews to use.

All that being said, this was a hugely enjoyable game. It hit a sci-fi plot that really worked well with me. It had the Vanillaware touches that I’ve always loved in their past titles. It had a unique RTS combat system that blended in some JRPG mechanics with some clever choices around console limitations. In general, it all worked in a way that surprised me, even given the studio’s storied history.

Is it niche? Yep, it sure is. Is it worth playing anyway? Also yes.