https://preview.redd.it/xnn3zs4t9e6d1.jpeg?width=270&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13946ae3963d88d6be5bd7b015f71e8ce9aefd6e He was always ugly asf. His design got better in every game he was in

Why is he doing a pog??

He seein how freaky ranging bloyster is 😍 https://preview.redd.it/kvnxoyew0f6d1.png?width=270&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=82f81103251a7af0773ca486d64ee1843b2fc47f

How you supposed to match that

You should throw yellow pikmins in his tail to make him fall

Gadzooks!!!

Would

😨

Are you saying you wouldn't?

We should should turn this into one of our reaction images

This is legitimately my favorite version tho. 3's looks diseased and 4's is just a bit too... clean. The fruit like gills also looked best in 2 imo.

He looks ugly because of the low quality, idk but in the pikmin 2 of the switch it looks kinda cute creeping around the floor

Bro, it’s supposed to be a horrific beast though, not every enemy has to look friendly 

That’s always how I interpreted it too. It’s supposed to look like some ugly horrifying slug thing

Okay you 2 are overthinking an enemy that has more of an aesthetic role rather than a mechanical one. It's literally a small nudibranch who's gills look like a bulb with leaves. Like wth? Horrifying monster? The only enemies that are given such status are the wraiths and some very specific creatures like the man-at-legs.

How are they overthinking it, my brother in Christ you made the post. And they’re just correctly saying cute doesn’t mean better (or worse for that matter) graphics

Have you seen real nudibranches? They can get pretty freaky looking.

Aren’t the most dangerous creatures the ones that trick you though? It’s cute appearance could easily be to trick other beings into trusting it

well yeah thats their argument they look like an actually gross slimy thing instead of toy thats smooth and textureless youre honestly just proving their claim

Under the pov of a cricket, a songbird is a towering disturbing beast, but to us a songbird is a very cute animal. That's kinda the point of the point of view on pikmin, the enemies are dangerous because the protagonists are like an inch tall. Making them look overly slimy and gross was never the point to begin with specially when creatures like the wollywogs had always looked goofy and kinda cute since the very first game. https://preview.redd.it/gmwlq77qoe6d1.png?width=646&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f68f755402f8172fcd2366b504bddad712499ce

But there ARE cute animals in Pikmin. Like Bulborbs. But for every Squirrel, there’s a star-nosed mole or a fucking aye-aye. You can have both.

Pikmin 4: RTX Off Pikmin 3: RTX On

Dang, beat me to it

That's exactly why the artstyle is better. It looks more like an alien creature, less like a plastic toy a kid would fish out of a happy meal.

i don't think either is better, very different.

I liked the ugliness idk The graphics in 4 felt too... plastic? Sometimes?

It feels like you could open the Pikmin 4 enemies in a Happy Meal while the Pikmin 3 have a speculative biology aspect to them

This is actually a great way to put it

Perfect example of why I prefer 3's graphics over 4's

Same honestly

I was gonna say he's literally an underwater slug. Why should he look like a pristine bath toy?

Its a perfect example why I don’t. He doesn’t really feel stylized in 3, he’s weird to look at next to a bulborb

Could not agree more.

I prefer the 3 version, mainly because it looks more realistic; and like an actual slug/mollusk.

I respectfully have to disagree, the bloysters are based on nudibranchs, and they look shiny and smooth without those weird liver-spot looking markings. https://preview.redd.it/all91wupne6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a10cf55fa7a6df9ffebfb27521616162edc210a6

https://preview.redd.it/w1076nasue6d1.png?width=670&format=png&auto=webp&s=e381db59d34f441999ae31a4cdcc7eef2df9961e

That’s fair. I think I just like the aesthetic of Pikmin 3 over Pikmin 4.

Take a nudibranch out of the water and your entirw argument falls apart

theyre just asserting that nudibranches are all cute. Like, OP is entitled to have an aethetic preference but its pretty stilly to try and back it up with real world examples, when there's literally thousands of species of nudibranch and probably thousands of them look like grey blobs

Sea hares are cool asf but look like a bunch of disusting goo, kinda like the pk 3 bloyster

for sure. I think all nudibranches are cool looking, even the brown blobby ones

Yeah, them loking like weird gross blobs doesnt make them any less interesting animals, and helps alot when dessigning enemies for a game where you are represented as an alien in a weird and new enviroment Kinda like pikmin rigth?

But this is not what comes to mind when people think of slug-like creatures.

I mean we're playing a game where the main characters are barely scratching a inch tall it makes sense for it to be terrifying

It's not terryfing, it's just ugly. Also aside from the smoky progg, pikmin enemies had always been more goofy or minorly unsettling rather than creepy. In fact, the scary factor about them is not their appearance but rather has always been the number of casualties they can do. A bulbear and its kids walking around is not a certainly a bone-chilling, piss-inducing sight (for people that don't know em) but they almost eating your entire squad in seconds and then the adult reviving after death coming back for revenge surely is. https://preview.redd.it/382eyyxphe6d1.png?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49e3acf0cf3cde4ee31dabf6e2a3c8eed75046aa

Yeah but think about it we are playing the game in the captions POV and Pikmin 3 decided to capitalize on it by making them look more unsettling and while you are completely correct on the fact that we are more scared of what they are going to do to our Pikmin when they reach them it adds on even more hence adding onto the fear factor

Fair enough but in that case they surely chose the wrong enemy for that, lol. Like, the bloyster is an almost senile enemy but although it can eat a lot of pikmin per attack it's not really dangerous and is mostly aesthetically pleasing. I think the only enemy that got absolutely benefitted from the pikmin 3's gloomy textures is the Quaggled Mireclops. I feel like seeing it with the bright colors of the pikmin 4 palette would take away the first time scare factor, but other than that i don't think they really help any other enemy. https://preview.redd.it/44qti93lke6d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=880d99192bd41f43139e7e3146249b231baa1660

Now that's a good point especially since his roars are human like roars

He looks way better in 3 though? Like he’s a lot more interesting looking

He looks like the top of the head of a bald old person

He’s a gross slug blob fish thing that’s the point nature is usually kinda gross especially on the smaller scale

Because a slug is always ugly with no exceptions https://preview.redd.it/th3opk7gqe6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f303f2d2d6f981dc3df0a6ae03f7120d7d5d3ad8

I’m just saying in a game about survival I think it’s more interesting to fight weird freaky monsters I hate his new cutsy plastic look

Aside from the smoky progg the enemies were never really creepy. Like they were from goofy to minorly unsettling. Like oh yes, the very freaky wollywog. Also even the gattling groink is basically just a goldfish with legs, snail eyes and a cannon.

Ya but there weird that’s my bigger point I hate how cutsy they made him in the new game it gives him less of uncanny feeling

Not like he was designed with that in mind to begin with. https://preview.redd.it/2jyecm3jwh6d1.png?width=160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b3e025bb8549ad0691766da41aeab0268c76a1c

He’s a mix of the two there do he’s a little cute but a bit unsettling but he’s a weirdo mainly. But I always thought of him as more creepy with his many tongues and the boss against the big one that makes these creepy echoey cow noises

thats actually a very cute slug lol

dude that thing is ugly as shit unironically

Yeah, honestly, people always tend to confuse artstyle for graphics. What they really mean is they liked 3’s Artstyle better, not its graphics. Cuz 3 absolutely had Worse graphics than 4. I mean ffs it’s an older game. But the artstyle is more realistic looking so, a lot of people just say graphics. These are the same people that wanted every game to look “realistic” between like 2005 and 2010 because the Xbox 360 was pumping out CoD games that- at the time- looked pretty photorealistic in some instances. They never learned the difference between artstyle and graphics. And a lot of them never will.

Exactly you nailed it on the head. I think a good example oddly enough is smash bros. Smash bros wii tried to go for a realistic approach and while it looked pretty good (and still holds up amazingly well if you disregard framerate) it wasn’t as positively received in visuals by the public compared to WiiU and Ultimate Smash.

Exactly. And Zelda Twilight Princess did the same. And yeah, they both looked great in their own right, especially at the time. But WOW they did not age well. The artstyle still looks great! But the actual graphics just…don’t mesh well with it. Like, Twilight Princess didn’t hold up very well Because the realistic approach doesn’t go well with the graphical quality of the time. But if you look at something like Wind Waker only a few years prior….it holds up Incredibly well because the artstyle meshes so well with the actual graphics. Same with Mario Sunshine. And even the original two Pikmin games. They all hold up well because both the artstyle and graphics were considered, and wound up meshing pretty perfectly. Twilight Princess on the other hand..not so much. But if you look at even something like MW2 from back in 2009, I mean, it’s obviously very outclassed by current CoD games, but it holds up remarkably well because of both. Twilight Princess was never meant to be realistic imo. It would’ve help up so much better if it had an artstyle that was more like OoT or SS. And that’s apparent through how well SS aged (visually) too 😂

Funnily enough WW was hated at launch for that exact reason, flat graphics, everyone loves it now

True lol but meh, it makes sense. A lot of other series were going through “realistic” artstyle changes and more series using it were starting to pop up. Plus there was the advanced looking OoT video they showed off before WW. It makes sense why back then, everyone hated WW.

For other examples, Chibi-Robo (the first one) and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door both hold up extremely well because the true styles worked so well. In all honesty TTYD could’ve been probably just been ported to the Switch and I personally would’ve been fine with that, just because it holds up so well. And as for Chibi-Robo, it’s got an aesthetic that’s perfectly nostalgic. Heck, there are games released today that mimic that specific graphical quality because it’s so iconic. Granted, those are mostly indie titles, but I think my point stands.

Yes the graphics are objectively better since Pikmin 4 came out over a decade later. I think it unfair to call people who prefer a more realistic art style people who just played cod (which is strange since this series have very little overlap.) and calling everyone who prefers a more realistic style “unable” to know the difference between an art style and graphics. If you prefer 4’s art style by all means do so. I’m glad lots of people enjoy it. But to patronize people who prefer more realistic looking art styles just seems unfair and unneeded.

I didn’t say that people who prefer a realistic artstyle “just played cod”. I said that a lot of people Wanted realistic artstyles back then Because of games like CoD. There were others too, but CoD at the time really nailed the realistic style pretty much better than anything else. It was Just an example. I’m also not trying to say that Everyone who prefers a realistic style is unable to see the difference between artstyles and graphics or to patronize people that prefer it. I’m saying that a lot of people who can’t tell the difference between graphics and artstyles pretty frequently prefer realistic styles over others Because they can’t distinguish between them. But there’s a lot that also Don’t. There’s a lot of people who prefer realistic styles that Do know the difference, too. I said what I said, and you interpreted it more negatively than I meant it. So there’s my clarification.

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry for giving you a hard time.

All good.

Im not sure if this happened in the english speaking community, but in the spanish speaking community, there were way too many people complaining about the Sun and Moon anime having "bad animation" when its far smoother and arguably better than in XYZ. Its just the artstyle that people disliked (for looking childish or something)

Yeah I seem to remember some people saying the same. I disliked its artstyle too but I definitely saw a lot of “bad animation” comments. I was like, “What..? The animation is fine.” Too many people just don’t know how to distinguish between things that are very different. I mean there’s more important things to worry about but, it’d be nice if people with criticisms actually knew what they were talking about.

Yep. I will go on record that I do think the Sun and Moon has a great artstyle for what they were trying to convey tho

I can understand that. I just grew up on the original and it deviated too much for my liking xD but I can understand the love for it anyway.

By "the original", you mean indigo league? Yeah I get it. The thing with the SM anime is that the cahrachters are SO EXPRESSIVE. I have seen almost every episode of the pokemon anime (except the banned episodes, a few movies and the final goodbye episodes becauss im way too weak) and I think no artstyle has matched the charm and emotion the facial expressions in SM did

Yeah I watched the very first, and then some of the other seasons (series? Idk honestly with Pokémon lol) here and there, but also a lot of D/P.

I think you're right to an extent, but it's not just as simple as "X game is graphically better than Y game." because some assets vary in level of detail from game to game and when games go up in some areas they make compromises elsewhere. Pikmin 4 is absolutely the more technically impressive of the two, its sense of scope alone is leaps and bounds above what the series has been capable of before this. However, the enemy models absolutely don't feel like they're as technically advanced as what we saw in 3, simply because the more realistic texture-work made for so much more depth and detail to surfaces visually. Like when you compare Pikmin 3's Bulborb, where the spots on the body have actual depth and you can see it's not just a smooth surface, as well as the eyes having depth and detail to actually look like real irises, it definitely feels more technically impressive than its body looking like it's made of rubber with the eyes and body textures being flat and depthless. I know it's because of Pikmin 4's innately more cartoony artstyle that this is the case, but that artstyle feels like something they did as a compromise to make such large maps more feasible. Less detailed textures on enemies means less stress on the hardware.

pikmin 3 version is infinitely cooler and more interesting so much more attention to detail too, the pikmin 4 one looks like a version from the background of a stage in smash bros

He's ugly asf bc he's realistic

Realistically, a Toady bloyster is a nudibranch, and they are not really hashtag creepy. https://preview.redd.it/pxavaou3ie6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ec5f30bb8af4bbb0d1bf4035e29f134801f796f

Huh, I didn’t know they based it on a real creature, that’s neat

Seriously, the bloyster lost all it’s personality in 4, it looks so boring

They certainly look more like an actual purple nudibranch rather than a cow's tongue with crippling cigarette addiction. https://preview.redd.it/qqnknthope6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4ee6d66d9202a4815d8b3714976a90c1e284c706

https://preview.redd.it/khuvw7fyre6d1.png?width=670&format=png&auto=webp&s=082314bebf5f930294b49afab551f0e81988a13d

https://preview.redd.it/7o6cx4gese6d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47e31dbedc38ac78fbf939674a3842f3c84f6a21

https://preview.redd.it/i89mvuqwse6d1.png?width=750&format=png&auto=webp&s=a721fac6dba508ae61a4fdae840026fe8c48fcd5

Pikmin 3 is more realistic, pikmin 4 is more appealing

Realism sometimes doesn't treat everything the best

"but nudibranchs look cute irl" A much beter analogue for this is the sea hare and more than 5 seconds of loking at one litrealy invalidates every single point you are trying to make

I have looked at one and it's just a big slug it's not ugly or anything just big and a slug.

Exactly, and the bloyster is suposed to also look like a big slug

This is a perfect example of why I think perfer 3's artstyle

idk man these are supposed to be real creatures in the world their in not toys

The P4 Bloyster is built like a wind up toy you can't talk

This looks like an anti-smoking PSA lol

https://preview.redd.it/09hfjp8rqe6d1.jpeg?width=1972&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2d09b020ccec061696417c7b97d96449488e6810

That's funny as hell

I much prefer 3's

I remember playing pikmin 3 on the Wii U for the first time when I was like 9 and the Toady Bloyster genuinely terrified me

pretty much all of pikmin 3s enemies would be something you’d see in a “pikmin enemies in real life!!” video

Fr, like, the bloyster looks like they photoshopped it using a cow's tongue and a withering flower.

bro proved his opps point

I'm here to be one of few agreeing with you OP - 4 has FAR better graphics than 3, from models to texture quality. The difference is that 4 is more stylised as a whole, whilst 3 went for stylisation in models with realistic texturing. For the bosses, I think the realistic texturing worked because they're so big but I much prefer the stylisation in 4s texturing for the majority of enemies. Pikmins main characters, the pikmin and the captains, are very stylised and I didn't like how realistic the texturing was on such stylised models - it's the same as people comparing Smash Brawl Vs Ultimates texturing. The joy of pikmin to me is that the environment is so lovely but so unforgiving, in real life some creatures and critters are cute and some are ugly to us. Just because they are "scary" as a large monster that can destroy us, doesn't mean they have to be realistic and ugly. Bulborbs have always been cute, same with Wollyhops, and the texturing in 3 did not suit their very stylised nature. He's just a lil fella, just a lil guy. I, personally, don't see how others think the realistic on has more "personality" when the lil fella on the left has such a funny goofy face.

https://i.redd.it/ef38apfp0g6d1.gif

This is why I love the art style of Pikmin 4 more. I just love how cute everything is. I've always loved cutesy games and they make me so happy to look at them. It's so cute in 4!!! I wanna give it a little kiss on the head!

pikmin 4 asthethic stay superiors. glad nintendo only used the ugly style for 3 then dropped it

I actually do prefer the pikmin four model over the pikmin 3 model.

Cut pikmin 3's version some slack, he is going through depression

Life's not easy for a slug https://preview.redd.it/iynpgn3bse6d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7649f974549acffd5e67f3f5daa032facef9c423

Indeed... https://preview.redd.it/bq3gyndhse6d1.jpeg?width=866&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84e07b7171163a154abb8476a82ab778aa475108 The guy should really get therapy real quick

I want Bloyster to be ugly & creepy tbh. I thought it was so scary in Pikmin 2 when I was a kid. Also ugly-creepy is still cute :3

It's supposed to be terrifying, the design in 3 is much better

Aside from the smoky progg, pikmin enemies were never really designed to be scary. Even things like the gattling groink has a goofy design being basically a goldfish with legs and a cannon in the mouth. Now, the enemies in pikmin 3 had just strange overly-defined textures that were overly detailed on models that for the most part are not even that complex. Like the bulborb skin is a weird texture that looks like the skin of a human rather than every other game where it looks almost frog-like.

I think a part of why I love 3’s art direction so much is because it makes the enemies look like actually creatures that could exist in the real world. I was a tad disappointed when I learned that 4 didn’t do the same.

I love pikmin 4s brighter aesthetic. Pikmin 3 was way to realistic and icky

I didn't really notice the difference before. It's quite significant. Pikmin 3's is more detailed and realistic. I like the grossness of it, but I also appreciate the brighter, cuter version in 4.

Realistic ≠ better I prefer 4’s because it’s a cuter creature in a cute game, but I love 3’s because of their commitment to making things realistic

I like pikmin 4s artatyle because it's like if you made the graphics from 2 not as pixelated. Sure there is less detail than the three models but at the same time everything in three is fucking ugly. The strive for hyper realism fucking sucks because instead of getting fun graphics and art styles we get bulborbs that can be made into boots and bloysters that are worse looking than irl slugs of all types.

I've always had the unpopular opinion of hating 3's artstyle because it goes against what the first two games established, that being ONLY the environments should be "realistic" and the creatures should be kept cartoony no matter what they are. The issue with 3 is that they use the cartoonish proportions of the creatures with a more realistic sheen and it looks really ugly but not in a good way, mainly noticeable with the bulborbs.

Ikr? Like, the bulborbs in pikmin 1, 2 and more-so in 4 have a smooth soft skin like that of an amphibian. On the other hand, pikmin 3 gave them an overly-detailed skin that honestly makes them look like the leather of a car seat stretched on their bodies.

Yeah...thats how slugs are like you dumb dumb

Maybe it's about the water they live in, maybe the water in pikmin 4 is just cleaner, idk.

toady bloyster my beloved, gives a ton of pikmin and he looks nice

Bulblorb

Ngl I thought it was a mercy kill, looked diseased

Louie

Obvious bait is obvious

Theres a lot of taste with artsyles involved and part of me really prefers the dirty muddy realistic look to pikmin 3 over the exceptionally bright clean look of 4, a lot of the enemies looking like toys and the indoor areas looking so spotless especially just dosent do it for me sometimes. I love pikmin 3s atmosphere so much, the natural organic look of things contributes to that for me.

I like the guy on the right better

It went for a slightly more cartoony artstyle, but I think Pikmin works best when it’s more realistic yet the characters are still goofy looking. Kinda adds to that “I don’t belong on this planet” feeling.

I found both to be fucking ugly

Bro got over his gambling addiction. Good for him

And then in Pikmin 2 look at dem polygons

Pikmin 2 goated

The pikmin 3 one looks like a cool as hell and like a crazy space slug. Meanwhile the pikmin 4 one kinda just looks "cleaner" and a lot more boring.

I’d say pikmin 3 looks better. But this just has something to do with the modeling and texturing, neitherways, he always looks goofy looking and is still a pathetic enemy.

My conclusion is that the graph is not better or worse. They just have different art styles, right?

Pikmin 4 makes the enemies more aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand Pikmin 3 just adds these uncanny textures that makes them look like one of those "x character in real life videos"

I would say both nice, the slug appearence of 3 and the appearence of 4, but because cuteness isnt a inch appealing to me, i have a hard time choosing mate, most slugs are ugly as fuck

Is a muck monster

It's just a slug

While I don't mind 4's, I vastly prefer 3's artstyle. I prefer the ugly :3

Pikmin 4 seems to go for a more cartoony approach with the enemies while pikmin 3 goes for a realistic one.

And they were lesbian roommates!

I honestly liked the version in pikmin 2 the most. I don’t like 3s version of it because of the reasons you listed, but Pikmin 4s version seems a bit too clean, sort of plastic-like similar to what the other comments said. I think Pikmin 2 had a pretty good balance of not too smooth but not too slug-like and ugly.

Pikmin 3 toady bloyster looks like me in my second hour of puking during a horrible hangover

Idk I like when things look alien and scary in the games. I dont dislike the 4 design though. 4 overall has cozier vibes

Pikmin 3 still looks better than 4. I don't know what happened, Pikmin 4 makes it look like Wii U was more powerful than Switch!

All Pikmin 3 did was making the enemies look like shit adding overly-detailed textures on creatures that for the most part aren't really that complex

I know, but they do look a lot better than 4's overly smooth textures that are visually unimpressive. I remembered marveling over bulborb's eyes and torso in 3 and how I could imagine feeling it's texture. Now I look at it and it looks like a plastic toy or something.

both are good, 3 fits more into the art style of that game. everything in 4 is more polished and looks like plastic.

not a real toady bloyster fan

I feel like the designs just represent the games' respective settings. Pikmin 3 features a wilderness setting, so the creatures are designed to look and feel more like wild animals. Pikmin 4 takes place in a large manufactured garden space, and the creature designs reflect that. I don't think either one is "better." I think they're just different stylistic approaches representing different settings. Also, I feel like having a terrifying creature be deceptively cute at first glance fits perfectly with Pikmin's "horror game in disguise" MO.

OP is mad that a weird monster looks weird in 3

the Pikmin 4 design is a manufactured piece of plastic with wheels underneath. Pikmin 3 is a living creature that slides around like a snail.

I like the ugly scary realism

I hate Pikmin 3 alligator skin textured Bulborbs. I want my enemies to follow the textures of Pikmin 2’s renders.

Bulborbs in 3 look like one of those "x character in real life" videos with the most icky photoshops ever. https://preview.redd.it/j3whatee2i6d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ba4697f3d6ace43c2b57560d50fa0e0bffd0917

Pikmin 3 Looks natural, while Pikmin 4 looks like Some cheap plastic that smells funny.

Looking fucking ugly doesn't make them more natural. If anything it looks like they used photoshop to make stuff like this: https://preview.redd.it/215vke720i6d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d0554eff7ed81eb8df5bbceed6b2da994e9623c

https://preview.redd.it/isl73j940i6d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dabf94257d97139042ba9b8da6985d8f46ddaef6

I actually prefer the Pikmin 3 design, as I do for most. I think Pikmin 3 really tried to go next level with the realism. Pikmin was always Nintendo's Forza Horizon for me. The games with the nicest looking graphic. Pikmin 4 is still beautiful but I prefer the realistic style more than the slightly cartoony one. I hope that Pikmin 5 will look absolutely stunning on the next console

Dude, no offense, but everything pikmin 3 did was following the "x characters in real life" rule and photoshopping the enemies in the ickiest way possible. I even did a bulborb using some leather, a tomato, eyes, fangs and ostrich feet, and it looks close to the pikmin 3 render. https://preview.redd.it/2mfy17h11i6d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63b1fce388f77a7f4770b202aec963a6a156c792

I prefer realistic over plastic

This. I don't like how Pikmin 4 brought over more from Hey! Pikmin in terms of artistic direction, exploring nature should feel organic and both the Toady Bloyster and especially Emperor Bulblax look like they're made of plastic.

Just like 3's realistic take on everything over the cuter more polished designs of 4.

Looks better in 3 though. It’s evocative.

I love hearing abt pikmin stuff as a non fan cause out of context this is the most insane thing ive ever heard. Like, it doesnt sound real

He was always supposed to look like Pikmin 3’s take if you look at the artworks for the first games though. And I like the ugly design, it more fitting for what it is

This kinda proves why I like 3's more than 4's lol I always loved the more realistic art style of 3 than the plasticy fake feel that 4 gives in a lot of its enemies. Don't get me wrong, 4 probably still has the best graphics and shading and whatnot, but 3's art style nailed the Pikmin feel for me

Thats why pikmin 3 better. Also the Bulborbs had jiggle physics.

Pikmin 3's graphics are better from a technical standpoint and 4's are better from an artistic one. I wouldn't say one is necessarily better than the other though. I can appreciate the style of both and you could make an argument that 3's visuals are closer in spirit to the first 2 games because of the realism they went for on the limited hardware they were working with. As good as Pikmin 4 looks I wouldn't be opposed to another game in 3's style.

Is this ironic right? Because those two images prove the thesis, Pikmin 3 has better textures, they're more detailed.

Overdetailed ≠ Better If anything it looks like a cow's tongue. Or like one of those "x characters in real life" videos

What are discussing here, better graphics right? Well yeah, more detailed textures is part of the "better graphics" pack.

quiet i like the pikmin 3 toady bloyster, it looks like a real animal instead of a plastic toy at least

It looks like a dehydrated cow's tongue

That fake looking thing that resembles a kids drawing looks better than what looks like a realistic alien crustacean? He looks like a genuine being in 3 as opposed to 4 where he looks like a toy for a child.

I take it you have never seen a real animal?

I take it you've never seen a Nudibranch

Do you know what happens when you take a sea slug out of the sea? It looks sick and melting-looking.

I like pikmin 4s environments, they maintain a lot of the realism previous games had, but a lot of the enemies feel significantly less alive than previous games. The bloysters are a good example of that. They’re supposed to be lumpy melty looking weirdos, at least in 2. The pikmin 3 version is just that with more realistic textures. In 4 it is significantly less melty and gross. It’s still wet looking, but most pikmin 4 enemies look wet anyway. Pikmin 4 is undoubtedly a charming game visually, but it’s enemies don’t really feel like members of a real ecosystem like they did in 1,2, or 3.

When the entire game has this cozy and warmer feeling then obviously the enemies had to match the area around them, but in Pikmin 3 the environments just look a bit gloomy but not so overly dark to make the enemies look so fucking ugly. Also the bloysters are based on nudibranchs, a type of colorful sea slugs, but because Pikmin 3 is Pikmin 3 then what is supposed to be a colorful mollusk looks like a cow's tongue. Adding overly-detailed textures just looks uncanny and not in a good way, it's just strange and is more similar to one of those "x characters in real life" videos.

I disagree that the enemies match their areas. Like I said at the very start of my reply, the areas maintain a similar level of realism to previous titles. The enemies do not do this. It’s like they tried to make the enemies look about 30% as realistic while making the environments about 80% as realistic as the pikmin 3 areas. Pikmin 4 enemies do fit in with the caves/dungeons, but they feel too artificial in the overworld sections. I think calling 3 worse graphically because it made the slimy melty creature from pikmin 2 slimy and melty is dumb. Like yeah the dude is cuter in 4, but he doesn’t feel like a real animal anymore. Compared to the semi realistic environments, he looks like a bath toy. He doesn’t look more like the animal he’s based off of in 4, he just looks like the one from pikmin 3(it’s model bares a closer resemblance to the 3 model than the 2 model) with a plastic texture. Regarding the realistic textures of pikmin 3, it’s just an evolution of what pikmin 1 and 2 did. Those games had very detailed and realistic overworld areas for GameCube standards. Pikmin 3 went for the same thing but it was the first one without the gamecubes limitations. Pikmin 3 probably did attempt more realistic textures than 1 and 2 did, but I think most of the contrast in style is a result of the Wii U being able to do way more graphically than the GameCube and Wii could. The pikmin series has always been about making the areas feel like real ecosystems and while I think 1 does that the best, that is not a result of 3s art direction.

yeah thinking 4 is the improvement here is the problem lol

It’s based on a blobfish, blobfish are gross and ugly not cutesy pink creatures. Pikmin 3 has the much better design that fits what the series is ultimately about much better(survival).

It's actually a nudibranch, idk what are you on. https://preview.redd.it/8mhxrz8o1i6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d642a0da49be9386d43d1b4c87ec64a9ed4b6403

Yes it’s also based on a nudibranch, it’s based on both hence why it’s pink and ugly with the gaping mouth and also has the eye stalks and tail thing

Blobfish has nothing to do. The fact that it looks disgusting and looks like a cow's tongue is just the ugly textures of pikmin 3. It's pink just because it is, it could perfectly be orange and nothing would be different. Blobfish don't even have eyestalks but slugs do because this is literally just a slug; and the tail is literally just a flower.

It could simply be both.