Splatoon

Splatoon trademark filed by Nintendo in mid-December.

I started Splatoon 2 on Sunday and I don't feel really good about stealing salmon eggs. It doesn't seem to pay well either.

Salmonids are apparently Omnicidal Maniacs, so don't feel bad about it. You can feel bad about your boss totally skimping out on paying you by giving you ability chunks and coupons for soda instead of money, though.

We'll likely be getting one more expansion pack like the Octo Expansion for 2, or a story focusing on the Salmonids for 3. The New Year image on the Splatoon Twitter pretty much confirms it.

I would be very surprised if we got another DLC for Splatoon 2. There's been almost no new content for Splatoon 2 — either in terms of game updates or news/social media posts — since the final splatfest six months ago. Nintendo definitely seems to have moved on, though the small amount of activity there has been (like the New Year's post you mentioned, or the balance patch earlier this month) shows they haven't completely abandoned it, which is nice.

I wonder if we'll get any Splatoon 3 information in 2020. I'd be a little surprised if it actually released this year (though it's not outside the realm of possibility — it was about a year between the final splatfest of Splatoon 1 and the release of Splatoon 2), but I hope we'll at least hear something about it and get a teaser on a Direct or something.

Hopefully if we get a new game there'll be dedicated servers this time.

My guess is Splatoon 3 will be on Nintendo's next console. It makes more sense to keep online-multiplayer-only games to one per console.

And in the name of preservation, I hope that they stick with peer-to-peer.

Seriously? Paying for peer-to-peer is a joke. Dedicated servers would at least justify the cost of the Online subscription, and allow for better connections over long distances, and not crashing the whole match if the host disconnects.

But the servers won't last forever. Eventually, Nintendo will turn them off. And then Splatoon 3 would become literally unplayable, while 1 and 2 will be playable as long as there are at least eight people who want to splat out.

Have both options available.

Local and free Online P 2 P plus paid servers FTW.

I wouldn't doubt that some of the team was kept to the side (or was done as a side project by the whole team) to make either new 2 content or a spin off while they were making New Horizons.

Also, it's very likely they will start 3 after New Horizons is finished. Hopefully they'll take 3 years to make 3 as best they can and stall it until whatever the Switch's successor is.

I'm on the fence. It's true that they waited for the new console before launching Splatoon 2, but that's largely because the Wii U was on its last legs at that point anyway. An important thing to remember is that Splatoon isn't like most of their properties because it's primarily an online multiplayer game. They have others, like Mario Kart and Smash, but those can be played locally or in singleplayer, which isn't true of Splatoon. This one requires an active fanbase to keep the main play modes viable. As such, they might find it in their best interest to either release another sequel before the playerbase declines too much, or otherwise add more content to keep people interested if they decide to hold off on it.

An interesting way to split the difference would be to have another major content update. Not necessarily something story-driven like Octo Expansion, but maybe a map pack or something.

I'm trying to figure out why I like Octo Expansion more than the single-player for the base games.

The atmosphere and story?

It feels a bit more directed, I guess? It's challenging, it's got a set series of objectives, and it has a sort of creep factor to it, too. I really liked Splatoon 1's story (and I still like the end boss of 1 more than the end boss of 2's base story), but you just can't beat Fly Octo Fly.

Yeah, in general it feels like the gameplay and story aspect has much more depth than the singleplayer mode. Case in point, it actually has a story that builds some tension and raises some questions about the nature of the setting as opposed to the "X is kidnapped and you must rescue them" setup that the default modes use.

The gameplay is tougher, obviously, which makes for a better challenge, but I also think that the ending section works better because it feels like you're actually in a location that exists rather than just being a floating obstacle course. The story and gameplay mesh better.

Octo Expansion is where I had the most fun with Splatoon and I hope Splatoon 3's single player campaign is as good.

Octo Expansion's first half is basically distilled gameplay goodness — it's all the bits and pieces of stuff that they came up with but couldn't fit into a "rescue the zapfish" level, so it does a lot of interesting and novel things without any filler to speak of. The second half of Octo Expansion is a strictly linear experience (as opposed to the main campaign, which lets you do the stages in any given level in any order you want), which helps immensely in telling a story that has all the rising tensions, setbacks, twists, and climaxes that you'd get from a more traditional storytelling format like a book or a movie.

So basically, Octo Expansion is a better experience because it's the game at its raw best, first in gameplay terms and then in narrative terms, with all the fluff stripped out and nothing left but the heart of what makes the game appealing. The downside to this is that they can't keep that up for very long — it takes a ton of dev resources and it's exhausting for the player, which is why Octo Expansion is significantly shorter than the main campaign. Maybe "more intense" would be a more accurate description than "better".

One thing that Octo Expansion lacks compared to the main campaign is opportunities to relax and enjoy yourself — stuff like places where you can get a cool view that overlooks the entire level, or hidden nooks and crannies where you can poke around a bit and find something fun like a useful item or just a comment from your Mission Control.

Octo Valley is really a tutorial. Octo Expansion is designed as a single-player campaign.

Dammit Cuttlefish, I don't remember what Agent 3 looks like. That was several years ago on a completely different system.

My latest artwork of my Octoling Avatar, Sadie.

Good art!

I beat the bonus boss! I'm the greatest ink shooter person ever!

Congratulations you are a super player!

Edited by Bocaj on Jan 23rd 2020 at 8:22:35 AM