In this third and final instalment of the Pikmin 4 developer interview, they touch upon the size of Pikmin, some of the nostalgic treasures you’ll be able to find and how Pikmin has the most universal appeal of all Nintendo titles.

Returning again are Shigeru Miyamoto, Yuji Kando, Yutaka Haramuki, Taku Matoba and Mitsuhiro Kida. Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed them!

Pikmin 4 is set to be more immersive and ‘real’ than ever before, as the developers utilised new camera angles and objects to really drive home the fact that these are real little creatures scurrying about the land.

Hiramuki:
In the first three games, you basically looked down at the ground from up high. But in the fourth game, we've created it in such a way that players can get a better sense of what's around them in this world. For example, players can go under benches and desks or dive into deep water.

Kida:
We've also adapted the sound to match this change in perspective. When the camera is close to the ground, you can hear Pikmin's voices and footsteps loud and clear, as if you were listening with your face close to the ground. In contrast, when you zoom out and look down, amidst the ambient sounds, you'll hear the faint noises from the world of tiny creatures spreading out below.

Kando:
By setting the camera angle at a near-ground level, you’ll look up at the objects in the environment and see things from a Pikmin’s perspective instead of a human’s. We wanted to emphasise how small Pikmin were by showing how the world looks to them.

Those of us old enough to remember may recall that in the manual of Pikmin 1 there was a diagram showing a Pikmin next to a GameCube disc, depicting the actual size of Pikmin! It seems these days, the developers want to be a bit more vague about the size of the Pikmin, as while they are still small, they have no specific size.

Kando:
One of the things we wanted to achieve was to make it believable that Pikmin actually exist by depicting them as very small compared to humans.

Miyamoto:
However, if you show a Pikmin next to a battery, for example, it gives people an idea of its exact size. I don't feel entirely comfortable with this. While we want to show a good comparison between Pikmin and man-made objects, we don't want to determine their specific size.

When it comes to treasures, Nintendo haven’t got a set era in this title which is why anything from the mid-2010s Fidget Spinners to early 2000s GameBoy Advance SP can be found in the world. The developers hope that this mix of nostalgic items can drive conversation between generations of players.

Matoba:
In this title, we selected treasures that would make players feel nostalgic and that they would want to take home. We also chose items that make the smallness of Pikmin palpable. We didn’t limit treasures to a specific time period, so there are both new and old items.

Hiramuki:
When we were kids, even things that are considered junk seemed like treasures to us, and we collected them. This game contains a bounty of treasures that’ll stir up memories of your childhood.

Kando:
Since Pikmin 2's development, the team had been discussing the idea of adding something that would appeal to the parents' generation. It’d be nice if parents and children had conversations like, “Mum, Dad, what’s this?”. “I had one of those back in the day. Want to know how I played it?”.

Hiramuki:
We hope you'll enjoy reading the Treasure Catalog, where you can see explanations of the treasures you've collected, and the Piklopedia, where you can take a closer look at the creatures.

The interview wraps up with Miyamoto’s feelings toward Pikmin and what they mean to him.

Miyamoto:
I’ve been saying for a long time that Pikmin games tend to stand out due to their world and characters, but I think they're also interesting as a game genre. Furthermore, I want people to have this real sense that Pikmin are all around us, that they aren't just fantasy creatures. Pikmin have no set age or nationality. They have a unique presence as creatures that exist somewhere on Earth. That's not the case with Mario. We know he's of Italian descent in the movie, but it’s not like you can bump into him walking down the street, because he lives in the world of Mario. (Laughs)

In fact, I consider Pikmin to be Nintendo’s most global characters. Since the promotional campaign we launched over ten years ago, we've been saying, “Pikmin are all around us". I think we've finally reached a point where people can find Pikmin in various places, not just in their imaginations. I hope more and more people become aware of Pikmin and play Pikmin games.

For a more in-depth peek into the minds of the developers, read the full interview on Nintendo’s official site here!