But it’s not over yet! I finished the cave with the nasty thing on rollers, which was much easier in the end than it seemed. Got a few treasures in there, but not many. I then went back to one of the first caves I’d done, but not got everything in – Hole of Beasts – and completed it. The amount of treasure I got from there was enough to finish the game! However, after that, you can carry on …
Finished up the cave I was in previously, defeating some Breadbugs (which were quite bizarre), and gathering a load more treasure. I have 91% of the debt repaid now. Wandered round Perplexing Pool for a bit, getting more berries and worked my way to another cave, which was in the water. Now, it says at the cave entrance, that I need some of each type of Pikmin, but that clearly isn’t possible as only Blues can get to the cave. …
Just had a quick go, working my way to one of the caves at the back of Perplexing Pool, and grabbing some treasure on the way. Got into a cave, seemingly set in a toy room. I’ve done three sub-levels so far, and it seems very easy. There’s not a lot of treasure to be had yet either.
Went back to Perplexing Pool today, and drained a large area of the level. This also provided access to another dungeon, which I went on to complete. There was a boss at the end (as usual) who was tricky to kill (again) until the method of doing so was found. That he was easy. After that, I wandered around Perplexing Pool for a bit, and then got attacked by loads of huge baddies (including the giant spider thing from another …
Finished the dungeon I was in, racking up to 64% debt repaid in the process. Collected loads of Bulborb Pikmin thingies whilst I was down there too, although when I finished the dungeon, they didn’t follow me out. Shame, since they’re everything-proof, it seems. Had a bit of a hard time with the boss of the cave; some huge great slug Bulborb Queen thing, that kept spewing mini-Bulborbs out of her arse, and rolling around flattening everything (mostly my Pikmin). …
Am working my way through another dungeon in the Valley of Repose at the moment. Have found some bulb-baddie thingies with leaves on them that seem to like me, and act like Pikmin. Very bizarre. Just as well I found them too – most of my yellow Pikmin got squashed by another rock-firing baddie, and I needed some electricity-proof Pikmin to get through some of the sublevels. Thankfully, these new allies are electricity immune too!
More fun today in the Valley of Repose. Realised I had some more treasures to find above ground, so set off to kill the two big baddies I hadn’t yet seen off. One was another rock-firing thingie that killed 10 Pikmin, and the other was a flaming thingie that I couldn’t kill with blue Pikmin (‘cos it was flaming), and couldn’t kill with red fire-proof Pikmin (as I had to cross water to get there). Coaxed the flaming munchy thing …
Finished what I started last night, and made my way into the Subterranean Complex cave in the Valley of Repose. First few floors were pretty easy, but then I had to kill some floaty things which dropped bombs, and some electric beetle things, and some spidery things, AND get rid of some poison clouds, all in the same three square millimetres. Lost a few Pikmin, but made it through. Then had some big metallic thing that kept firing things at …
I decided to go back to the Valley of Repose (the first level) today, now I’m armed with every type of Pikmin. Although I opened up a fairly large area (and killed another bodyless bird, and some other things), about 40 of my Pikmin got squished by a rock fired from a big baddie. Bah.
So I found the blue Onion today, and merrily spent an hour racking up my Blue Army. Then proceeded to wander through one of the levels and kill no end of huge baddies, including one of those bird-head things. I have all the Pikmin colours now, but it does annoy me a little that you can’t grow more white or purple ones, but instead have to find flowers and convert five or so other colours at a time.
Pikmin is, essentially, Nintendo’s take on the real-time strategy format, only you direct little carrot creatures to fetch and carry and multiply and stuff, rather than build tanks and so on. There are different colours of Pikmin which have different strengths and skills, and there are baddies to fight who all want to eat them. Pikmin 4 doesn’t deviate too much from this, but it is just so much more relaxing than the other games in the series. In the …
And go back for the remaining fruit I did. None of it was that hard to reach, but I did seem to be missing one fruit in the Distant Tundra area. Nothing was showing on the map, but I figured out it was a bunch of grapes I’d somehow not picked up (even though I recall doing so), so headed for where they were. Only to find a single grape was there. Just one. How I missed one, I don’t …
15 hours, apparently. Which equated to 39 in-game days. That’s how long it took me to find the Cosmic Drive key, best the final boss, and escape from Certainly Not Earth and head home with all the fruit juice and seeds I could carry. Well, most of the fruit juice and seeds. 43 of the 66 fruits available, in fact. And rather a lot of carrotmen died for the cause. Er, about 700, all in. Which sounds horrific, but you …
Little Inferno (Wii U 02/01/2013) New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS 06/01/2013) Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (3DS 22/01/2013) Gunman Clive (3DS 25/01/2013) Trine 2 (Wii U 03/02/2013) The Cave (Wii U 26/02/2013) Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (360 03/03/2013) Batman: Arkham City (Wii U 10/03/2013) DLC Quest: Live Freemium or Die (360 20/03/2013) F-Zero (Wii U 23/03/2013) Assassin’s Creed III (Wii U 30/03/2013) Code of Princess (3DS 01/04/2013) Picross e2 (3DS 26/04/2013) Lego City Undercover (Wii U 26/04/2013) …
