#Though mostly Octo Expansion and Alterna

[emile-hides]

Like a quadtrillion years ago I talked about a concept I had for a Full Squidbeak Platoon AU where we have about two agents per game, and my OCs I'd made to fill in those gaps. But back then I couldn't draw as well as I can now so I just made them in Splatoon's character creator and left it as that.

But now I CAN draw and now that Splatoon 3 has ended live updates and we've been told Splatoon 4 will be stepping away from these characters, I might as well finally draw and post them, right?

[liquidcrystalsky]

i saw someone say they never actually played a splatoon game and only watched two story modes. it felt a bit weird to me but i think there is something to think about.

most of all the story/lore/worldbuilding in-game is text and images and are basically identical if you read them on a wiki

The chat logs and sunken scrolls and alterna/dev logs, have nothing to do with whats going on. The gameplay, the things you do, don't inform what information you're given at all.

You unlock things either just with normal progression or as random collectables. In splatoon 1 and 2 the sunken scrolls corresponded to each level, but they didn't take advantage of that at all. Most sunken scrolls just were about whatever. They made it per area in splatoon 3. So it's even more detached from the gameplay.

The Dev Diaries and Acht's letters, are all unlocked in exactly the same way. Every single one, other than having to change what weapon you use, it's the same.

Shit, most of the god damn world-building, ISN'T EVEN IN THE GAME! It's on the websites, in artbooks, interviews (both in-universe and developers), soundtrack releases, whatever.

Other than the first two story modes, there are like Actual things which happen in the games which can't be summarized in a sentence (most of the story about Octo Canyon was in the "Squid Sister Stories." Not Even In The Game).

Octo Expansion has an amazing final sequence, which, is mostly cutscenes and you can just sorta watch on youtube. You don't need to know what happens in Girl Power station or any of the levels at all.

RotM had a Lot Of Shit Happen but... actually i think it did it the best for experiencing the story Through The Game (not by much). Though It sucks that the story has absolutely nothing to do with the gameplay and they often straight up contradict or just doesn't make sense. Oh yeah the whole fucking thing crashed and killed everyone. Don't ask why everything's in completely pristine condition.

Side Order sort of just cleared up all of the story points within the first 10 minutes of the game, right after the tutorial Marina just explains Everything and then that's just what happens for the rest of the game. There's no twist or any evolving story that isn't in the Dev Diaries which don't affect the Actual Game.

The thing i'd say you miss out the most on is small character moments, but there's also plenty of compilations and people pointing them out too. There's definitely a lot of things you'd miss, a lot of spectacle, and some emotions, but idk i feel like it's not too much in the grand scheme of things.

Splatoon has amazing world building, but kind of bad storytelling (i guess nintendo in general, i can see it a bit in botw/totk as well) and it kinda gives room for people to actually be genuine fans of the series, story and world, without even touching a game at all.

As much as I don't want to buy a switch 2 and all that, i really hope Raiders does this storytelling well.

I also have nothing against watching like longplays of the game or just like full game walkthrough or whatever. I call myself fans of games which i've only watched and not played. I'm saying you can totally be a fan with a really large amount of knowlege of splatoon without even doing that.

I have had this comparison of RotM to Outer Wilds in my head a lot and i'm gonna walk my dog then i'll write it out

[twipsai]

god, this took me DAYS to make, but i finally finished my interpretation of Dedf1sh and Paul throughout the years!!! some notes under the cut lol

2015

Ahato and Marina are childhood friends, Marina was even there for her when her parents passed. Marina helped her take care of Paul when they were growing up to the point that Paul considered her a second big sister. this, of course, changed when

the two worked on music together when Ahato wasnt working (which she got increasingly busier up until she left to go to kamabo), and the melody for Chopscrewey and Crush were made by them during this time!

while Paul was a musical genius, he did struggle in school quite a bit as his creative drive often overwrote his working drive :P

the skull/octo logo is a logo they made for themselves for when they got to the surface and formed a band together

Ahato dropped out of school to work full-time to support her and Paul (which,,, isnt very uncommon for octarian families)

2017

the Kamabo sanitization program (tm) requires patients to remove strings such as shoelaces and hoodie strings from their clothing to reduce the risk of them trying to strangle themselves or each other, which is why Ahato doesnt have shoelaces

Paul didnt go to the surface until he was recruited to Sashimori, and started living with the three of them

Ahato has amnesia, she knows she had a family, but cant quite remember who they were or where she even came from. most of her memories are muscle memory, which is why she remembers how to make music and such

Ahato cant hear anything around her-- she wont become out-right aggressive when approached like most sanitized octos are, but she will be a little jittery and on-guard

2022

im not really prepared to say too much about Ahato/Acht here bc of how little we know about her role in side order as of writing this (1/7/2024)

Paul has mostly moved on from trying to find Ahato, while he does wish they could be reunited, a lot of his memories of that time have become fuzzy... he wouldnt be able to recognize her face if he saw it.

Ahato's dress got ripped when she first left kamabo (which was a few months after octo expansion)-- she found some red thread to stitch it up and lace up her shoes! :D

on that note, the addition of more red in her design is to symbolize how more and more memories of her life are resurfacing-- same thing with being able to see her eye on her visor

also her eye is supposed to look like a turret from portal lol

Paul regularly commutes from inkopolis to splatsville-- i think he went crazy for the alterna tracks when they were first recovered lol

andddd,,, thats it!!! if you have any questions about my headcanons for these two, feel free to ask in my inbox!!! though i dont have EVERYTHING fleshed out yet, im still waiting for side order to release before i figure it all out ^^;

[superluigiglitchy]

Triple Dose Timeline (canon is puddy in my hands)

here's an explanation on how exactly Meggy got fucked over by the universe 3 times

note: The following events replace the anime arc because everyone was to busy searching for Meggy that the anime challenge never happened

Meggy was kidnapped by a group of octarians (who were ordered to do so because DJ Octavia discovered Agent 3 had a sister and had a big brained idea to not only brainwash Callie but also her as well) and got brainwashed by a second pair of hypnoshades that Octavia made (though she didn't quite go down without a fight, Octavia can attest to that)

Agent 3 (Paige) was too busy on a separate mission to go looking for Meggy much to their frustration so Marie recruiting Harbor as Agent 4 came in clutch and also Mario coming along because of course he does which both makes things easier but also more complicated

However during the final battle around the time Marie and Sheldon came barging in the platform Meggy was on ended up collapsing and she fell into the abyss below much to Mario's and everyone else's horror

Fast forward a couple weeks and after hundreds of dead ends and countless sleepless nights, the NSS were finally able to find a lead to where Meggy ended up (and also got confirmation that she still lives thank god, Paige cried a lot at the news out of relief) and so Cuttlefish and Agent 3 are off without hesitation to search for Agent 3's sister in the Metro

Meanwhile Meggy has been Sanitised by Commander Tartar who found her unconscious in the subway, and is currently accompanying Cuttlefish, 8, Desti and The Octoposse who are all stuck in this medical nightmare hell hole because of course and all (well except cuttlefish) of them are missing their memories

Cuttlefish is really worried how 3 will react to their sister being well, green now and zombie like

However despite being sanitised, partially emotionless and amnesiac she is still technically Meggy so sparks still fly between her and Desti much to the others chagrin

At least it makes solving the puzzles easier (especially the 8 ball thank GOD)

The plot of octo expansion stays relatively the same albeit with more people and a more chaotic group chat

They all end up having to team up against a partially sanitised Paige who is somehow stronger than in canon which is terrifying, and it took everything to knock them out

When the boss fight with the giant statue and Tartar happens (who wants to blow up the world because it's gone insane and so has he from the meme energy) Meggy, Desti and the Octoposse jump in the assist 8 in inking the statue to high heaven

Sanitised Meggy is basically a watered down version of canon Meggy having her emotions and memories stripped from her, she still has the desire to win splatfest ofc but she doesn't quite have the drive that made her want her to, and this deeply scares Paige and Mario

A couple years have passed since the incident and Meggy is MOSTLY back to her old self, still a bit amnesiac and lacks the reaction speed for certain emotions but better now

Then she gets fuzzified by Mr. Grizz

Meggy started to work at Grizzco. Via the suggestion of Harbor because she felt self conscious about how she looks during turf wars now cause well she looks like a zombie and it went pretty well for about 3 years

Harbor did a total fuck up and Meggy not wanting him to get fired ended up taking the fall for him

unfortunately this ended up with Mr. Grizz fucking up her back a bit, kidnapping her and then getting fuzzified which FINE

and somewhere during that struggle Meggy ends up in the Splatlands an FAR from Grizzco. and ends up running into Andi and being found thankfully by Cuttlefish

unfortunately they all soon end up falling into Alterna but hey at least she reunited with the others!

splatoon 3 remains relatively the same albiet they know mr. grizz's plan to rid he world of sea life MUCH sooner

[class444swr]

1. 2 probably? We got into it with 3, but honestly 2 just has stories we prefer.

2. Inkbrush mostly jfjsjdjfj (Splatoon 3 anyway), although the Bloblobber is preferred by some of us.

3. Humpback Pump Track, it’s just quite fun to us.

4. This depends on the alter, but I (Woomy) wear a jellyvader cap, anakki blue cuff and the pink trainers.

5. Side Order, mostly just because we don’t like how sidelined Deep Cut was in Alterna.

6. Uhh, honestly Rock vs Scissors vs Paper, probably nostalgia bias.

7. Present! Although honestly every one of them was fine for us.

8. I think given half of us *are* Agent introjects this isn’t one we can answer nvjxjjxkckc.

9. Hmm, Eight’s probably? It felt rewarding to finish with it anyway.

10. Deep Cut was done *so* fucking dirty, didn’t even get a story mode to themselves, whilst Off the Hook got a DLC to themselves in the same game. Callie and Marie are nice, but we wanted more Shiver, Frye and Big Man.

11. I think all of the new gear is quite interesting!!!

12. Not really, kind of suck at it kgjjdjdjd.

13. Best outfit for any idol to us? Probably the milk chocolate one for Frye honestly.

14. Hard one, we like a ton of songs for very different reasons, but if we had to choose just one, probably Spectrum Obligato - Ebb & Flow, even if it’s probably a somewhat common pick, it absolutely goes hard as fuck fjjzkxjcjxj.

15. DJ Octavio probably? He has way more personality, more justifiable motives, and is just kind of funny to us:

16. We’re feeling too lazy to open up the game atm jfjsjjfjf but it’s a light blue one with some of the idol group posters, a couple plushies, clothing some alters wear, a bunch of random weapons, and a bag of crisps for no reason.

17. No strong feelings.

18. Octo Expansion honestly, there’s more of a story there, and the vibes are absolutely perfect! Side Order is great though.

19. Frye and Pearl are gay for each other, we will not be accepting any questioning of that jcjdjjskfkxj.

20. It filled our head with cephalopods and helped us realise we were a girl, so it certainly has had an impact jfjsjjcjc it’s probably positive.

Splatoon Ask Game 🦑🐙

[This is for y'all to reblog and use, not actually to ask me these questions. You can if you want though idm]

❤️ Favorite Splatoon Game? ❤️ Favorite Weapon? 🧡 Favorite Stage? 💛 Show or Tell your Favorite Gear Combo? 💚 Did you Enjoy Alterna or Side Order More? Bonus: Why? 💙 Favorite Splatoon 3 Splatfest (Excluding Grand Fest)? 💜 What Team Did You Pick for Grand Festival? 🖤 Favorite Agent? Bonus: Show your own Agent Design? 🤎 Favorite Palette to use in Side Order? 🤍 Biggest Gripe with Splatoon 3? 💗 Best Thing About Splatoon 3? ❤️‍🩹 Do You Enjoy Salmon Run? Bonus: Favorite SR Stage? 💘 What is your Favorite Idols Best Fit? 💝 Favorite Splatoon 3 Song? 💔 Best Splatoon Villian? (Can Be From Any Game) Bonus: Why? 💓 Show Your Locker? 💟 How Do You Feel About the Catalog System? 🥰 Octo Expansion vs Side Order? Bonus: Why? 😍 Share a Splatoon Headcanon you Have 🤩 How has Splatoon Positively Effected Your Life?

[dogtoling]

DLC Thoughts

This is continuation from a previous ask! It was going to get REALLY LONG so I decided to just make this separate post, also because I know some people are going to want to know (and not want to scroll through my whole previous essay post to find out).

So, what are my thoughts on the DLC (Wave 1 and 2)?

Honestly, not much so far to be completely real. I'm disappointed by the DLC looking like it's going to be another character-centric story in some kind of subarea or straight up mirror dimension that's probably going to have abstract platforming with (likely) reskinned Octarian enemies... again. They started doing this with Octo Expansion and continued it with Alterna, putting extremely strange and grand stories out and shoving them into some largely irrelevant pocket of the world that has nothing to do WITH THE ACTUAL WORLD or has no consequences, and I'm frustrated that Side Order is looking like it's going to be that... Again, judging from just what we've seen so far.

Of course, I am AWARE that this is a good decision for DLC as it allows the stories to be completely separate from the main game and having DLC visibly affect the world even for people who didn't play it could be confusing. And yes, I'm aware that both the Deep Sea and Alterna have EXTREMELY IMPORTANT LORE that definitely have something to do with "the actual world". But what I mean is you don't get to explore THE WORLD of the game, in favor of being shoved into some random, dead, insignificant completely new and disconnected area that ultimately tells you nothing new. As someone who is like, in love with Splatoon's world and DESPERATE to just have adventures IN THE WORLD, see other cities, wilderness, ANYTHING of the sort, it is AWFUL every single time we get a single player campaign and it somehow completely dodges expanding on the world. It makes me feel Pain inside.

But complaining aside, I'm talking about the Inkopolis Plaza hub first. Honestly? Extremely torn on it. They've made a whole wave that's essentially just a reskin of the hub you can use, I'm assuming, instead of Splatsville? It's extremely underwhelming, to be honest - I'm almost positive we are not getting Squid Jump or any of the minigames back (the minigame machine's location has been mowed over by Grizzco's new Inkopolis Plaza location), and 99% we are NOT going to be able to visit Octo Valley. And of course Battle Dojo has been replaced by the Shoal (though I doubt many people would've missed the dojo, lol). So like, really the Inkopolis Plaza wave is a rehash of a hub we already had before, with LESS content than it had before. It's not a very easy sell for a big portion of Splatoon 3's userbase from what I can assume, but at least that's not the main thing you're buying, so it's really more of a side...

And a quick note in-between, I'm really happy that they're doing the DLC in waves like many people were theorizing. It even looks like based on trailer graphics, there might be FOUR waves, which is going to be extremely exciting if it's true (because honestly I'm really underwhelmed with what we have if it's going to be... everything.)

But returning to Inkopolis Plaza (literally), I'm pretty happy we're getting it, mostly because I love seeing its progression in the timeline and it actually does bring us some crumbs of worldbuilding. We see that the train station has been rebuilt and there's now a stairway leading to the plaza, which is much more accessible than there Literally Being No Road and you had to Illegally Trespass Train Tracks and Parkour Over A Plant Display to actually get to the plaza in Splatoon 1. There's new shopkeepers, and new businesses, and familiar faces, and Grizzco has a really shitty location here. I just like seeing the game world live and move on with the times, so just for that reason I'm going to be really happy to step foot in there. It confirms that there IS still some life in that, despite what they were saying in Splatoon 2 about the plaza being a ghost town.

And speaking of life, you can probably use Inkopolis Tower as a lobby, which raises more worldbuilding questions I've briefly thought about before... but not too much because there were no direct answers. Are all the lobbies in business at the same time and are they running shared turf war matches, or is there some kind of region or ruleset split? Considering Splatsville's lobby does Turf Wars in Inkopolis, too, I think that's a solid "no" for the regional split at least now with the flying spawn points; it might've been a "yes" before. I always wondered whether Deca Tower and Inkopolis Tower were active at the same time and just running different Turf War scenes, or if the Inkopolis Tower lobby shut down as Deca Tower became active, or if Deca Tower was active even during 2015-16. While there's no solid yes or no answer, I think at least NOW it's safe to say the answer is probably... the lobbies ARE all in use at the same time. Which is cool!

In other worldbuilding crumbs the plaza gives us: yes, the Super Advanced High-Speed Technological Marvel of Transport that allows Splatlands Inklings to battle in Inkopolis despite being oh so far away.... is the train. Just like what everyone assumed it would be when it was first said. I mean, cool! With that, we get the confirmation that YOU CAN take the train from Inkopolis to Splatsville and realistically, it would probably not even be an hour considering it might be mostly crossing desert and we don't know of any other cities on the way. It IS strange to me that you would make that trip on the same kind of commuter train that does low-speed transport in the heart of the city, though, seeing as longer stretches of land usually utilize different high-speed trains. But whatever, man. We learned something, I'll take it!

You may be wondering how I've already talked about the Inkopolis Plaza HUB RESKIN for like 4 paragraphs. Jokes on you, here comes another paragraph. As for what I can pretty much already tell about it, we’re probably not getting Octo Valley (that’s a whole singleplayer campaign they’d have to remaster and I doubt they’d just port it) or Squid Jump. But there’s a few things I’m hoping we will get... those being:

1. Squid Sisters stage news. It would feel extremely strange to me if they went through all the effort to bring back Squid Sisters performing just to, uh... show us Splatsville’s news in Inkopolis. It would feel extremely cheap to be honest, but even still I kind of doubt we’re getting the OG Inkopolis News back. After all, Inkopolis News was taken over by Off the Hook in Splatoon 2, although they’re... PROBABLY not doing it anymore? Idk, we’ll see.

2. Slightly more likely: Ammo Knights SPLATOON 1 TEST RANGE. Seriously, it’s a small thing but come on!!! In Splatoon 3, there’s already like what, 4 separate test ranges (the Lobby one, Grizzco, Shoal and Ammo Knights Splatsville). Inkopolis Plaza is just a reskin, but it would go a long way to at least include all of it. The test range from the first game in the back alley is my favorite test range out of all of them just by aesthetic, and I’ll be very disappointed if it doesn’t make it. Not to mention it will just... feel extremely weird if I go to the test range in Inkopolis and the game magically warps you all the way to the Ammo Knights test range in another freaking city.

3. The Inkopolis Tower lobby. This is for the same reason as above: MAN is it going to break immersion if you have this perfect replica of Inkopolis, and then.... you go to Inkopolis Tower just to magically be transported back to Splatsville’s lobby????????? I feel like the Splatoon 1 lobby wouldn’t be an impossible expectation, because we already have a retro lobby screen in the game with what happens when you go into the kettle in the lobby building and it pulls up a menu. The ideal outcome to me would be that they’d model the inside of the Inkopolis Tower lobby and make it walkable just like Splatsville’s, but I’m not getting my hopes high... I’ve just always REAAAAAALLY wanted to know what it’s actually like and how it works.

(And I’m aware that a retro lobby would make waiting for matches boring as hell again, but maybe they could put squid jump there? Again, doubt it. But also, PLEASE.)

4. Splatoon 1 battle music. Old music is literally already in the game, it just can’t play in battle. I would love it if entering battles from Inkopolis would play Splatoon 1 music. Just anything to make the plaza something more than JUST a visual reskin!!!

I think I’m finally done with the plaza for now so let’s move onto what people probably ACTUALLY want to hear about, that being Side Order...

So, as with like every person on the internet, I also at first glance thought it was going to be a Marina origin story (which clearly it’s not). The character in the trailer is presumably Agent 8 with black tentacles, and it seems to have a black and white theme, which is cool. The teaser we got did not give us a whole lot to work with, and the assumption is that the DLC is a huge WIP, maybe even mega early in development - we literally got One Single Shot of gameplay footage and even that was just... inkopolis square.

Oh, but it’s NOT REALLY Inkopolis Square. I didn’t notice at first, but Deca Tower, despite having the same screens (just perfectly aligned instead of pointing at all different angles, in theme with Order), is actually replaced by a whole other tower underneath. By now everyone reading this has probably seen all the speculation on tumblr or twitter or elsewhere or both, so I’m not going to be parroting much of it here because to be completely honest, if it’s a character-focused story again taking place in (supposedly) a mindscape... i don’t really care lol

One thing we can say pretty much for sure; the world is not real. The popular consensus right now is that there’s a big emphasis on self-reflection, of course we all know that Agent 8 lost their memories in Octo Expansion. They never got those memories back, right? So I could see that being some sort of focus... or the focus is some new random threat that works based on shock value again and doesn’t add anything interesting to the world OR the characters. But as I said, the world is very likely not real. Inkopolis Square is completely white, the tower has been literally replaced, the ground is covered by some kind of... sand, and there’s weird corals everywhere. Considering the place is not that far from the Plaza, whatever’s happening there would definitely be reflected in the Plaza as well, which I don’t see happening.

Moving on to the corals. We’ve seen corals in Splatoon before in Shellendorf Institute! But none of them have been THAT BIG or on land. I’ve been a land coral believer this whole time and I’ve been wanting to see them (alongside other wildlife) SOOOOOO BAAAAAAAAAD, so I was extremely excited about seeing the corals! To my dismay, if the story really takes place in a mindscape, facility, or digital world or whatever, those corals don’t REALLY mean anything in the end. But at least the imagery is there?

People have already made the connection to coral bleaching, a phenomenon where corals lose their colors and become white due to varying factors, such as pollution or global warming. I actually like how this connects to the Splatoon world because corals are naturally extremely colorful, and them being washed of all color is extremely unsettling, which is pretty much an exact statement you can also say about the Splatoon world. I’m predicting that the DLC will be about restoring color to these monochromatic, decayed hubs (HOPEFULLY PLURAL AND THE SQUARE ISNT LITERALLY THE ONLY WALKABLE AREA, WE LITERALLY HAD THAT FOR 5 YEARS) and restoring them to their full color over time. It could be a perfect tie-in if we were having a memory thing going on, or a path of self-discovery.

Obviously the other connection to coral bleaching and its causes is the extinction of humans. Humans caused global warming, rising sea levels wiped them out, humans caused pollution... both of those things would cause coral bleaching and we can pretty much assume that humanity, or the fall of humanity rather, will be linked to this story somehow. Nuclear pollution was even one thing pointed out in the images (the weird black tall spike things), and nuclear war is something that VERY MUCH ALSO HAPPENED in the Splatoon timeline, prior to humanity going extinct. For the record, I have no idea how Agent 8′s mindscape, bleached coral, a mysterious elevator tower and humanity’s extinction and nuclear war are going to tie into a story together, but I’m interested to see it anyway.

Also, fossils and oil. I think it’s extremely likely that we’re looking at the skeleton of a whale in one of the images. Whales have been in a surprisingly big role in Splatoon despite being supposedly extinct and not having been outright talked about a whole lot. We see they’re still in big use culturally, and Inklings likely find them extremely fascinating: we’ve seen whale bones as a centerpiece at Shellendorf Institute and whale falls are present in Octo Expansion’s domes. Of course, we don’t have confirmation that the stuff in the concept art is oil rather than black ink (you do play with black ink, after all) but it would fall in line with the appearance of what seems to be a fossil and the theme of pollution.

Uh, also Pearl and Marina are there. It seems like at least Pearl might be helping you out in Side Order, given that there is that shot of her looking down on you in the square (?), which to me is pretty similar to the opening shot of Octo Expansion with Cuttlefish looking down to you. As for Marina, there’s not a whole lot of thoughts or information. The only notable thing I can really say about Marina’s art is that there might be a significance to the digital pixels around her. Possibly unrelatedly but maybe not, sanitized Octarians in Octo Expansion also spawned in (and out) through pixels. Not the same kind of pixels, but it was a thing that very much happened. Also Tartar might be there but that’s extremely heavy speculation so not going to say more about it.

In terms of gameplay we have nothing, pretty much. I’m equal parts worried and excited by what the gameplay could potentially be. ALL WE HAVE for game footage about Side Order is the hub world, which is Inkopolis Square except they turned the Object Materials off. All I have to say about that is... i really, REALLY HOPE that the square isn’t all or the majority of walkable area in the DLC. It would be akin to the Deepsea Metro Central Station in OE... except OE had a separate tutorial and the metro and central station were brand new areas. If the Square is all or most that there is, not only is it visually bland as hell, BUT IT’S LITERALLY REUSED CONTENT THAT WE ALREADY HAD and tells us nothing lol.

Gameplay predictions. I have no idea! The best clues we have are that yes, you have some kind of Splattershot, and yes there’s an elevator. My guess is that the elevator either takes you to stages like the Metro did, or... my other better guess is that it would take you to completely different hub worlds or larger levels. Something like that; I would love to play something that’s not just soulless platforming levels over and over again for some arbitrary goal. Even just bigger segments in-between those levels would be really cool.

Oh and I am 90% sure that we’re getting Octarian enemies again. We’ve pretty much only seen concept art of the DLC at this point in time, but given that we’re in Inkopolis and Pearl and Marina are there and Agent 8 is there, I don’t see them making a whole new slew of enemy species and types just for the Probably Not Even Real DLC side story. It’s going to be white octarians or something. I’ll be extremely surprised if not lol... with how little they had to show, I have to assume that very little of the DLC is actually done, and with how rushed Splatoon 3 seemed to be at launch I don’t have a lot of hope that there’s some kind of massive open-world extra game they’re hiding from us. Even some of the functionalities we were promised at and before the game’s launch aren’t out or even talked about yet (Online Tableturf, the jukebox is in the game but also isn’t, the keyword matchmaking we still haven’t gotten)....

Overall thoughts on Side Order. I’m interested to see what it’s going to be about and I’m very interested about the lore it looks like it might give us. On the other hand, I find it extremely underwhelming so far, just for my personal reasons of wanting to see campaigns that take part in the actual RELEVANT WORLD. Splatoon has a really bad case of telling instead of showing. I want to play through story campaigns that take place in the world instead of completely secluded abstract areas with stories that aren’t really that relevant most of the time. I want stories that are smaller in scale and importance and more focused on the everyday life and characters that the game has to offer! The world has endless possibilities for side stories like that, ones that take place in The World in the current time and help with immersion and bringing out the personality of Splatoon. And I really wish we had those instead...

Overall thoughts on the DLC? Well we don’t have it yet and we don’t know what’s going to be in it yet other than a hub reskin and an extremely non-telling teaser trailer that was 98% concept art. I’m not really excited about it to be honest, I’m feeling a lot of similar things I was feeling with RotM... as in it’s probably going to be really cool or fun, but completely miss the mark on what i actually want out of a Splatoon story. I’m more interested in the potential of there being 2 more waves afterwards because of course, the unknown is always endlessly more exciting and fascinating than something you know about if only briefly. I’m holding out hope for playable cuttlefish in a later wave (solely because it seems like it SHOULD happen, even with no prior story foreshadowing).

But of course there’s no saying that Waves 3 and 4 will be anything substantial, given that a Wave can literally be as little as just a reskin of the main hub with no actual new content. We could get Waves 3 and 4 as just cosmetic stuff, or random side content (Squid Beatz 3...?)... and of course there’s no guarantee that we’re getting Waves 3 and 4 at all! It’s wishful thinking based on very little (but likely) evidence. But hey, that’s my thoughts on the DLC!