#*salutes*

[autosadist]

puking on your hog has been an honor, ma'am

[stanleyparableaudio]

Transcript:

Narrator: We updated the game!

(jingle you would hear for important breaking news)

(jingle clicks off)

Narrator: (calling into the distance) Is that all you need?

(party music clicks on)

Narrator: Great, now get out of my sight.

(party noises from outside) Hey, Kevan! Get back in the pool!

(loud splash) (cheering)

[soliusss]

7am reporting fr yuri duty

[deesi-academia]

taylor swift said "don't you worry your pretty little mind people throw rocks at things that shine" and I said yes ma'am

[turrondeluxe]

[octoshott]

So. Side Order, huh?

I've been chewing on my thoughts over this for a good few days now. Want to spit them out somewhere. Vague-ish spoilers ahead.

I want to preface this with saying that I love Splatoon, I've been playing it since 1, really dropped off near the end of 2. Nintendo made Octo Expansion for me, they released it on my birthday and I love it so fucking much.

Side Order is fun, but lacking criminally in content.

You can argue Roguelites are like this in general, its the core princible to replay them over and over again and as someone who enjoys Roguelites, I agree!

However, a key thing that good roguelites do is continously give you a reason to keep playing- whether that be addictive gameplay or, usually, good story and lacing that in with difficulty that becomes the players goal to lessen- It rewards the player for being curious, experimental and above all else persistant.

I am fully aware that difficulty, due to Splatoon's target audience, in something like a roguelite was never going to be an easy thing to balance let alone pull off but having the main plot resolve itself once you hit the top of the tower was, in my opinion, the first of its blunders.

I feel as if the Splatoon developers know how much the lore and worldbuilding of these games matter to players. Side Order was advertised in very similar veins to Octo Expansion. The trailers had mystery and intrigue with clear connections to the well recieved and loved Octo Expansion to the point of having the same protagonist among other simularities.

They were clearly teasing this to be a successor of SOME capacity to Octo Expansion. And even as I went into this expecting it to be nothing like OE in terms of it's personal weight, I wasn't expecting something so short.

Classically, in roguelites that focus on story, you would gain story beats the more you replay. And techincally you gain this with the keys gathered from each fully cleared palette. But usually your story rewards in roguelites come from clearing or attempting runs and rewards:

With Side Order's story being resolved the MOMENT you step onto floor 30 with no real context unless you've intentionally avoided the top or have genuinely been slowed by its difficult (which I assume is what the devs intended) makes it's climax feel fast paced and lackluster- undeserved, even.

And, yes, I am fully aware that when you climb the tower agani after the credits role, you begin gain more lore about whats going on. But with the actual, main threat neutralized in every possible way it feels as if this lore should've been offered to us much sooner and much more spread out for a better pay off.

It's story feels like its being told out of order and, in my personal opinion, the themes and actual telling methods of Side Order we're a largely missed opportunity to tell something a bit more indepth. Climbing a tower that gives you essentially nothing until you reach floor 30 (which in my experience takes about 35-40 minutes) only to recieve about two scentences of lore is incredibly tiring and feels dissastifying when the main plot is already over.

It's lack of variation in level design, tasks and chips doesn't help with the climb each time if you're looking for the lore or just to 100% either. And you can argue this is a roguelite problem, but Splatoon's scenario's for a tower climb are pitifully small and you will start to seem repeat almost immediatly on your second or third run.

I also feel like it relies far too heavily on the player knowing and caring about Octo Expansion. I'm not saying that I think it was a bad idea to have most of what's going on in Side Order happening because of Octo Expansion's events. Hell, I was happy when they were very blatently showing this early on.

But it does very little with its ties to Octo Expansion, making Side Order feel like its constantly struggling to be its own thing away from the original DLC.

I think I can almost see what they wanted to go for here, and its frustrating, it felt close to something at least telling a decent story.

Every single little beat I've gotten has helped me understand more and more what they were going for, but since the main conflict is already resolved I find it hard to be excited and more frustrated that I wasn't given these during my initial playthrough.

I feel as though the roguelite formula was an interesting idea that they polished the best of their ability and to make work both for casual and experience players- but I think thats where the problem comes in.

With Side Order being the same price as Octo Expansion and offering very little in terms of replayability and most especially for me, story, the whole thing ends up feeling like a muddled mess that would've worked better had the roguelite aspect perhaps been dropped in general for a general tower climb.

Missed opportunies feel like they decorate Side Order in a way that leaves me fairly disappointed.

I think, overall, Side Order is a fun time that can be enjoyed but the way it was implimented into the gameplay formula was largely a mistake, especially coupled with the marketing of this being something more indepth with its story when it's not, and I can absolutely understand why I'm seeing a lot of disappointment for it.

[emotionally-clumsy-soldier]

[Click, click, click.]

[Heels were clicking against tile floors, echoing softly against bland walls. The women that walked quickly across tile floors fiddled with folders in her hands, lightly twisting them and pulling them open to stare at them again and again and again. Trying to memorize it as hard as she possibly could despite already knowing it by heart.]

[She mentally mapped out every corner she turns, brows slightly furrowed as she glanced at the little poorly drawn map on top of the first folder. She frowns a little, Miss Pauling sucks at drawing. She'll make sure to make a comment about that next time.] "Oh! Wait... wrong corner..." [She must have spaced out, walking past where she wished to go. She steps back, tilting her head into the hallway she had just come from. She spotted the door she was seeking out, lined along many others similar in nature. It was the way it was ordered that made her recognize it. Counting the doors under her breath as she approached.]

[She shifts the folders in her arm and slowly makes her way to the door. Knocking lightly on the door. Not over-confident but also not too quiet.] "Um, excuse me, is anyone in there?" [Her voice was polite at first, tinged with a heavy Hispanic accent that slurred her words in a way that made it seem as if English wasn't her first language. She kissed the inside of her teeth, swinging on the balls of her heels as she waited quietly.]

-( @emotionally-eager-assistant )-

"No! Go away!"

Soldier retorts defiantly, hugging the wall behind the door with a shotgun in hand. He scratches his beard as he loads a shell in the chamber, eagerly waiting to pump it into its place. What he didn't seem to notice - or perhaps, care - is that this visit in particular seemed pretty important. She sounded like one of Pauling's. Nevertheless, he figured he could never be to cautious.

"Unless your the delivery guy. Then leave my canned beans by the door and scram!"

[boanerges20]

Motolegends. Barry Sheene Salutes.

[hotmothsummer]

@fascinationex I found your sealpatico au and consequently somehow lost 5 hours of my life idk what happened all I can remember is seals. I’m also admitting I have no idea what brainstorm looks like in canon but I am passionate about creatures and speculative biology so this is all I have to offer you. I cannot accurately draw ur faves but I can spit up a concept of what I think a seal mermaid might look like. Excellent au!!!!! highly entertaining to spin around in my head !!!

[swifty-fox]

New @sig-nifier wild things update no context

[bignasty001]

EM EM EM EM EM…

YOU SHOULD LIKE DEFINITELY MAKE MORE.

PLEASE.

um....

ALREADY ON IT BOSS

HAHAHAHAHA

[risuwu]

hi there! just wanted to say that when my friend and i were watching the latest ep of the anime, when they were taking out falin's bones from the dragon, we both shouted at the same time "I PUT EVERY BONE BACK IN PLACE FOR YOU!!!!!!!" so that art of yours has just really altered our brain chemistries thank you so much for drawing it <3

glad that so many people liked the caption cause it felt like i couldnt capture that moment well enough in the drawing so i supplemented as best as i could with words

[poppy-metal]

eddie brushing your teeth for you before bed <3

your back is pressed up against his chest while he has one hand on your jaw keeping it open and his head is turned to look at your side profile so he can see what he’s doing

🇺🇸🫡

im gonna cum.

[megamindsupremacy]

alright, internet’s just makin me sadder. im outta here until the queue runs out

[vohtaro]

everyone say goodbye to the panel i am finally axing despite my best efforts 💔

[ourladyofomega]