Pikmin 2

Pikmin 2 follows captain Olimar and his coworker, Louie following their company’s entry into bankruptcy (worth noting is not on earth, turning the splendid into the mundane, a common post modern trope).
The game opens with Olimar’s return to his home planet, the lead up of this return are the events of the previous game, which sees captain Olimar crash on an unknown and treacherous planet (heavily implied in both games to be our own planet Earth, albeit irradiated,) with a broken ship, the goal of the game being to fix it. In pikmin 2, when olimar returns, his ship, which proved a Herculean effort to repair, is immediately pawned off for the company to repay a meager fraction of its debt. While it is never expressly stated how much the ship was worth in the game, the company still is in 10100 pokos debt (pokos being the currency of Olimar’s home world.) However, the bottle cap Olimar brought as a souvenir for his son, is worth 100 pokos, apparently more than a year’s salary. It is hard to say whether or not this is a vast amount or not, as olimar is implied to be underpaid.
Thus olimar and his coworker are ordered by their boss to risk life and limb in order to repay their debt. This is of course done with little, if any compensation at first. It is unknown what the hocotate job market looks like, but one must presume olimar could find another job and throughout the game olimar is very open about his virulent hatred of his boss, comparing him to enemies he finds unappealing. Though this hatred is more present in the first game. Regardless, other than his academic interest in the life of the planet as well as the loss of a low paying job, he has little reason to go to a deadly planet filled with hostile life. This shows the strange characterization which proves somewhat postmodern of olimar, a man filled intellect and daring yet working as a virtual delivery boy (Think Fry from futurama, for example.)
Olimar also has a wife who looks strangely similar to him- which makes one wonder the possible narrative implications, is his wife merely a figment of his imagination, perhaps worryingly a not too distant relative, one can only ponder, as olimar’s wife is never seen directly. Common in postmodern narrative (Gravity’s rainbow having several different examples, it being a sort of triumph of the postmodern style) are unconventional, often taboo or even outright disturbing relationships, such as pederastic or incestuous relationships, or homosexual ones, when those relations were considered more taboo. Olimar’s children seem to be like our children back home on earth, often having similar interests or embodying the stereotypes of their gender (interestingly hocotations have a similar gender expression to western influenced humanity- and presumably have similar sexual conduct).
On the planet, (retroactively titled PNF404 by the game’s sequel) are various creatures, most notably the titular pikmin, plant-animal hybrids who are capable of some feats of intelligence, similar to our modern ants, albeit with some strange features such as asexual reproduction .The pikmin largely seem incapable of survival on their own, despite some demonstration of free will, the predators of the planet as well as its natural features often prove too dangerous for pikmin, resulting in their deaths without proper command. For the player, and presumably captain olimar and co, these deaths become a natural part of the game, and while inconvenient, there is virtually no moral repercussions for the player to lose many pikmin, and while olimar seems to view himself as a fatherly figure towards them, seems to hold little sadness for their on masse deaths, in both games. Viewing pikmin as a sort of number. As the player likely also does due to their detachment from the situation. Pikmin are shown to have souls, alongside the other creatures of the planet. But whether or not these souls are real or not is meaningless, seeing as they have no effect on gameplay or story, and are to my recollection never acknowledged by the characters. However, it shows the refutation of sanctity common in postmodernity, as while the sacred may exist, what effect should it have on the material world? Is it ever visible? Why not embrace the absurdism of mass deaths and the enslavement of a species for the purposes of what? Perhaps hundreds of pikmin die for the attainment of commodities, what we today often view as junk or otherwise relatively cheap everyday items become endlessly invaluable for the hocotations, who of course give nothing in return to the pikmin other than increasing their number.
The very first “treasure” encountered in the game is not, like other games, something remotely useful, or even fantastical, even the mystique of a fictional brand is stripped from the item, as we see an Ozymandius visage of the neoliberalized human race: a Duracell battery. Is that all humankind shall be remembered by? A single tiny object, left for untold years in the snow, whose contents are likely useless by the events of the game. Just some empty plastic and metal shell, showing little of the supposed greatness of humankind. While there are other objects of more value, few of them represent what would traditionally be interpreted as the greatest works of humankind, they all come from a desacralized age. No Tallis musical pieces, no great da Vinci works, no great wave of Kanagawa.
And as well worth noting is the period in which the vast majority of these treasures come from. Mostly hailing from ~1970-2004. Few things seem to be older than this, other than some natural objects which serve as treasure as well. Like some sort of Delillo Novel a great deal of these objects are branded, thus integrating advertising into the plot. The Items are often tilted flattering things as well such as “quenching emblem” for a pop bottle cap. The items which are sacred in real life, of which there is one I am aware of, a Hinawa doll which is sold without second thought by olimar and co. Of course, this would make sense to aliens who have no connection to earth material culture.
Now the end of history bit is something I’ve been alluding to throughout this thread, but not only is the material which serves as treasure an expression of the idea of the end of history, but hocotations culture is as well. Human items in the game are largely junk, scattered about. Most of which, as mentioned earlier, dates to around what was titled by Fukuyama as “the end of history” and this end of history seems to be quite literal, as it has outlasted human existence otherwise. And while our history has quite literally ended due to unknown causes in the game, our material junk has proved helpful to the hocotations, who use it to bail their company out of debt and then make massive profits.
The hocotations for their part, despite being a hyper advanced spacefaring civilization seem to hold little difference to the culture of 2004. They have delivery companies with underpaid employees, eat carrots and meat, and trade currency and accumulate debt. There seem to be no serious political rivals to hocotate in the game, nor even a vibrant political scene, similar to the United States in the 1990’s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Perhaps hocotate is home to a pedophile who plays their equivalent of the saxophone. The only non hocotation “polity” mentioned in the first two games is “space pirates” who are presumably like the pirates of our own modern day, who chase shipping lanes. Otherwise there is little to be gleaned in regards to the political situation.

Cute story, loads of charm, and a great soundtrack. Sadly the removal of the timer from Pikmin 1 harshly deflates the game's difficulty. The incentive to optimize your routes for maximum efficiency is absent, and what we're left with is a Pikmin that leans heavier into kinda-sorta-RTS combat and puzzles (the majority of which are set in drab interchangeable caves), both of which are middling. The new Pikmin types are fun to play around with, but there's just too much wasted potential in what a Pikmin sequel could have been. I'm surprised it's still held in high regard.

While largely the same, there are a few key differences between this and the previous game that differentiate them greatly. The major difference is the addition of underground caves. Time stops when in these areas, but there are far too many of them and they are way too long. A vast majority of the treasures are in these caves, so they can't really be avoided. The main reason they are a pain is because, in the previous game, it was all about time management and thinking strategically. In the caves, it is just about combat. There are a few obstacles to get by, but the real strategy of trying to multitask around the map to get things done as fast as you can is basically gone. Even the above-ground areas don't feel as fun.

Another major difference is the addition of a second character. Adding co-op is always a good idea, but if you are playing alone, it doesn't really help much. You can separate them so you can have two squads doing other things, but since you spend most of your time in caves, it isn't used much.

Lastly, there are two new pikmin types and a few changes to the existing ones. It adds some strategic depth, but not a whole lot. Other than being required at the start, the purple ones aren't very useful, and only being able to get the new types through flowers underground isn't as fun.

Overall, the game is still fun and enjoyable, but it isn't nearly as good as the previous game. The first is hard to put down, when you know you left things undone and need one more day to finish your projects. In this game, you know it is just another nearly identical cave waiting for you and there isn't a whole lot to drive you to play continuously.