Splatoon 3 (Splatfest #16: Springfest!/April 19th - 21st, 2024)

[Blue Blood]

I had my share of downright miserable matches this time around. It just really takes you out of it when you're forced into an unwinnable situation and just have to wait it out. If this was the first game, I'd say that the poor match making was due to the fact that this a pre-release demo where no players have a recorded play history by which the game can judge their skills. And I mean, that probably is the case here. But this is Nintendo we're talking about. We just know it's as broken as ever. 

I'm pretty sure that you can skip the news broadcasts now. That probably doesn't apply to the the Splatfest announcements though, and I'm not sure about the startup broadcasts. I've not found them to be an issue since Splatoon 2 stopped forcing you to watch a broadcast every time the maps rotated. And speaking of map rotation, I've never seen the problem with that either. It ensures that you get ample opportunity to practice the different maps in actual matches and you can prepare a loadout that suits the two levels on offer. I actually like the map rotation feature. 

[NegaMix]

43 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Furthermore, I hate how it's still running into problems that the game has had for ages and refuses to fix. Why are maps still on a rotation system of only two at a certain time? Why am I still forced to watch a boring cutscene of announcements every time I boot the game? It's so easy to fix yet they refuse to fix it.

The latter shouldn't be an issue in the full release. They mentioned in the direct that the usual startup announcement will simply play in the background (via the player's in-game phone) and you can decide whether to watch it, or simply get on with the game.

I can only assume it wasn't added here because the game was only playable for a day, though I really think they should've included it regardless. It just sends mixed messages otherwise.

[Sonictrainer]

Here are the Halftime Report & Final Results of the Rock VS Paper VS Scissors Splatfest!

Splatfest Halftime Report

There are no breakdowns of the points during the Halftime Report.

Halftime Report Score

• 1st: Team Scissors
• 2nd: Team Rock
• 3rd: Team Paper

Splatfest Final Results

1. Votes

1. Team Rock Votes: 42.70% = 10 Points
2. Team Scissors: 40.26%
3. Team Paper: 17.02%

2. Open Clout

1. Team Rock Open Clout Wins: 37.03% = 15 Points
2. Team Scissors Open Clout Wins: 33.06%
3. Team Paper Open Clout Wins: 29.89%

3. Pro Clout

1. Team Paper Pro Clout Wins: 34.91% = 10 Points
2. Team Rock Pro Clout Wins: 32.76%
3. Team Scissors Pro Clout Wins: 32.32%

Final Results

1. Team Rock Final Score: 10 (from Votes) + 15 (from Open Clout) = 25 Points
2. Team Paper Final Score: 10 Points (from Pro Clout)
3. Team Scissors: 0 Points

TEAM ROCK WINS!

Quote

Shiver: YESSS. Team Rock wins it!

Frye: Ooh! It was so close though!

Big Man: Too close for comfort. Like using a rock for a pillow.

Shiver: Big Man, that makes no sense. Anyway, congrats, Team Rock! What a battle!

Frye: Shout-out to Team Paper! We almost turned 'em into pulp.

Big Man: Don't forget Team Scissors! Deep Cut thanks you, uh, deeply...

Shiver: And that's a wrap on the Splatfest World Premiere. Well played, everyone!

Frye: Can't wait for the next one!

Big Man: Thanks for your support! Hope to see you soon!

So it seems that even if each team wins a category, the one category you need to win is Open Clout.

Also, it seems that Team Scissors got cut by the Tricolor Turf Wars...

EDIT: It's been confirmed that Tricolor Turf War Wins are counted towards the Open Clout Scores.

 

BTW, I'll post my own impressions of the game later.

[Blue Blood]

Yep. Results were pretty much what I was expecting; team paper lost the popular vote by a huge margin, and team rock won overall. I expected scissors to win the popular vote though, because nobody would shut the fuck up about Big Man, but I'm glad people didn't simply vote for the internet's darling mascot. 

Scissors went from having the most clout at the start losing in every category at the end. Yeah, those tricolour battles need some balancing. Maybe there should be more than one half-time intermission, so that the defending team can be changed based on tricolour battle clout? It would bring a bit of variety within the Splatfests as well as giving different teams a chance to catch up.

[NegaMix]

Tricolour battles definitely need to be rebalanced in the future, otherwise those half-time results will only exist to reveal which team's gonna lose.

[Sonictrainer]

Have some great news regarding Salmon Run

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SRL HR dept. here. No, it's not another mandatory seminar about conserving printer toner. Rather, we're confirming that Salmon Run is available 24/7 in the Splatoon 3 game! That means you can work nonstop to climb the corporate salmon ladder—maybe all the way to Eggsecutive VP!

Quote

We also have info on some new perks, like a break room where you can practice Egg Throws or try out new weapons. And you'll NEED practice, as a team of Eggsecutive VPs could face a hazard level of 333%! Last but not least, you'll be able to set up Private Jobs with your friends.

Quote

Sadly, it's not all break rooms and promotions in the working world. Sometimes you have a tough day at the office and get attacked by a King Salmonid. HR recommends fighting it off with an egg cannon (you could earn bonus fish scales) and then taking a personal day.

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Now, at the end of the day, it's all about that paycheck. And we think Salmon Run workers are handsomely rewarded! Diligent employees who have collected fish scales can trade them in for bonus items like designer work suits. As always, we support a healthy work-splat balance.

 

[Blue Blood]

The story mode in this is so good. So incredibly good! It starts off slow as you go through a bunch of bitesize tutorial levels that are incredibly vanilla, but then it all changes. Story and gameplay structure spoilers below. I didn't know any of this stuff going in, but maybe some of it was in trailers and previews that I avoided. 

Spoiler

First you face off against Octavio as the first boss fight. It's a very simplified version of final boss of the second game (which in turn was a simplified version of the first games final boss) with one or two new attacks. And then you get sent into the real meat and bones of the story mode: Alterna. Here you meet up with Callie, Marie, the new captain (Agent 3 from the first game) and search for Cuttlefish after you got separated following the Octavio fight. 

Alterna is divided up into islands/sectors like the previous story modes, but each one is much more cohesive and fun to explore. There are lots of things to find. You spend power eggs to remove pills of fuzzy goo. It's pretty free form. As far as I can tell, you my don't have to beat any specific levels other than boxers to process. As long as you find the route to the next sector and can pay your way to clear the path, you can go anywhere. 

The levels are more bitesize than the previous games, usually made up of only 3 checkpoints that are so pretty close together. Expect completion times of around 3 mins on average. They're presented in an Octo Expansion fashion, where you can choose from between 1 to 3 weapons that all have different clear rewards and difficulties. Some of the levels are OE style challenges (burst all balloons, about damage for 1 minute etc) but most are standard levels. What really sets them apart from previous games though is that they aren't hyperfocused on a single gimmick and bleeding or dry. Each level includes a few ideas and they're short. And aside from power eggs, there are no collectables in the levels anymore. They're found in Alterna instead. This makes the levels much faster. It creates a great feedback loop wherein I've been clearing each level with each weapon back-to-back. 

Then there are the bosses. They're much fewer in number now. I'm in the fourth sector, about to fight the second boss. The bosses are actually Deep Cut! I don't quite understand their role just yet, but yeah they're minor (I think) antagonists. That's a fun change. It sets them apart from SS and OTH. 

There's a huge amount of lore dumping, exorbitant about humanity, that's all pretty interesting to read through too. The lore dumps unlock automatically as you beat levels. 

So yeah, I'm taking my time with it because I'm going for a near 100% completion as I go, only missing out the most sadistically difficult challenges on the way. And the reason for that is because its really bloody good. Finally, a Splatoon single player mode that isn't just an extended, bloated tutorial. OE was great, but many of its levels were a bit too focused on single mechanics. There were only so many times I could stomach busting all the crates before getting fed up with the concept. This time they've really hit the nail on the head. 

And then there's multiplayer. Dunno what I can say about this. It's Splatoon, and you already know how it goes. I've only played enough turf war to reach level 4, but still haven't purchased any new weapons. Haven't tried Salmon Run either. I bought this game for the single player campaign. I've been playing a lot of Splatoon 2 these last few weeks, and I don't much fancy starting from scratch to get all the gear and weapons that I like again. 

[NegaMix]

Having just finished the campaign to... roughly 100%, I agree that this is a major improvement over Splatoon 2's campaign.

Spoiler

(I say roughly 100% as, while I've finished every level and fully explored every Site, I haven't used every weapon in each level.)

The shake-ups in both plot and structure go a long way to helping it stand out from previous story modes, even the Octo Expansion to some extent. It really does feel like they took the best parts of each style and carefully blended them together into a neat little package. While there are a few stages near the end that could test my patience, no matter the weapon set I chose, they were few and far between.

I wasn't exactly expecting Deep Cut to be the boss battles here, but it's once again a welcome change of pace. No more do we have to worry about fighting the Octostomper (or whatever it was called) for a fourth bloody time.

Though speaking of the bosses... well, I'm not gonna outright spoil the boss of Site 6, but I will say that I can see why they call themselves Deep Cut.

There's a lot more I'd like to talk about, but it veers more into finale territory, so that can wait a week or so.

But yeah, I've really enjoyed the single-player content. It's honestly gotten me quite interested to see what they'll do for the future DLC content and if they can keep up the consistency. Until then, I've still got the multiplayer to keep me... semi-interested, as that's more of a "short sessions at a time" kind of thing for me. But overall, I'm not regretting this purchase whatsoever.

[Blue Blood]

I've just beaten story mode. Easily the best campaign of all four that we've had so far. It was fun, and the story was genuinely interesting. Not hugely deep or anything (this is Splatoon, after all), but it kept me engaged. 

Spoiler

I suspected Mr Grizz as the antagonist from the moment we first saw Little Buddy, and fully expected him when we saw the furry Octarians with the"Return of the Mammalians" tag-line. It was kind of formulaic. But despite playing it straight, Nintendo managed to fully deliver. Throwing in Deep Cut as antagonists was a great touch too, but I wish that they were genuinely evil rather than do-gooder bandits.

And is... It's Cuttlefish permanently dried up now? Damn! 

There was one level that I absolutely hated. Plenty that were challenging, but only one that stuck out to me as bad. It was a rail-grinding level where you had to shoot all of the targets (ala Octo Expansion). It was a long level, and most of it was very easy. But the very end was a crapshoot. I repaired the whole level so many times over just to get another attempt at the final portion. No checkpoints, no time to figure out what you're doing right or wrong. That level was bad. Fortunately it was an outlier though. All of the other difficult levels either have checkpoints are are super short (like the one with bouncing targets) so it's fine for them to go hard. 

And yeah, that boss... It was incredibly easy, but it was just great to see it. If you know, you know. 

Now for the next Splatoon campaign... Real levels, please? This was better than previous attempts, but still left a bit too be desired. The hub areas were stellar. I'd like to see those fully realised as the core of the game. 

And for the love of God, please let me play the campaign as an actual character. I've got my avatar for online mode, but I'd really like to take control of the actual characters. They were narrating the entire adventure, they were supposedly right there beside you almost the entire time. Let me play as them, instead of a random kid with no personality. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Still playing through story myself…

Spoiler

But very pleasantly surprised by the plot twists. Having it fake out by making us thing it’ll be another traditional Splatoon campaign, only to pull the rug from under us and drop us into an Octo Expansion campaign is excellent, exactly what I wanted.

 

[Blue Blood]

2 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Still playing through story myself…

  Hide contents

But very pleasantly surprised by the plot twists. Having it fake out by making us thing it’ll be another traditional Splatoon campaign, only to pull the rug from under us and drop us into an Octo Expansion campaign is excellent, exactly what I wanted.

How far through are you? This is a spoiler for just before the final boss, so obviously don't read it yet:

Spoiler

I laughed when I got to the part where you find the Great Zapfish and everyone's like "oh yeah, forgot about that..." If the other characters hadn't pointed it out, I'd probably have completely missed it myself. 

s far as story modes are concerned, I'm starting to think of Octo Expansion as the real Splatoon 2. The developers were definitely trying not to do the same thing for a third time, and poked fun at the fact that the previous two outings were too similar.

The regular S2 campaign was just so pathetic, almost a carbon copy of the original and bloated to the extreme where 100% completion was concerned; it expected you to bear every level eight times. OE was a step forwards and now S3 builds on that. I enjoyed S2, but not like I empire S1 and S3. 

And is anyone up for some friendly matches sometime? I've not played Splatoon online with people I know since the first game. I ain't amazing (level 39 in S2) but I've been trying to get better. I'm not a basic-bitch Sploosh-o-matic guy anymore. 

[NegaMix]

Splatoon 2's story always felt to me like they were aping the first game solely because that one was on Wii U, which only amplified the feeling that the sequel felt more like a 'Deluxe Edition' of the first instead of a true sequel. That seemed to be Nintendo's mentality at the time of the Switch's release, considering how a fair chunk of their Switch games over the first couple years of its lifecycle were just updated Wii U releases.

The Octo Expansion definitely felt like the first real evolution of the story formula, which sometimes makes me wonder if that's what the developers originally envisioned for it, before deciding to play it suuuper-safe for those who never touched the first game or a Wii U before. Though I doubt that's actually the case.

2 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

And is anyone up for some friendly matches sometime? I've not played Splatoon online with people I know since the first game. I ain't amazing (level 39 in S2) but I've been trying to get better. I'm not a basic-bitch Sploosh-o-matic guy anymore.

Sure, I'd be up for a few matches someday. I rarely get a chance to play with familiar faces in Splatoon (aside from the... 1 or 2 times it's popped up for Game Nights here) so it could be fun!

[Ryannumber1gamer]

4 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

How far through are you? This is a spoiler for just before the final boss, so obviously don't read it yet:

Just past the 

Spoiler

Frye boss fight. 

 

4 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

And is anyone up for some friendly matches sometime? I've not played Splatoon online with people I know since the first game. I ain't amazing (level 39 in S2) but I've been trying to get better. I'm not a basic-bitch Sploosh-o-matic guy anymore. 

Yeah, I'd be down for it some time.

[Blue Blood]

Add me guys, 

So, post final boss stuff:

Spoiler

That final level was ace. Brutally difficult, but perfectly reasonable. Apart from the target shooting challenge oh my god I hate those so much!

But yeah, that final level was an incredibly fun gauntlet. It's roughly 20 minutes long, but the game resets the timer when you return to a checkpoint. My final time was 19:48, but in reality I spent probably close to two hours trying to get through it. It was a great way of testing all of your skills from the campaign, moreso than the Inner Agent 3 fight from OE (which I never did beat).

Best Splatoon yet. It takes a lot for me to fall in love with a game and just get obsessed with it these days. Splatoon 3 nailed it. After these past couple of months have been the worst of my life, this was a welcome change of pace. 

Roll on DLC! 

[Sonictrainer]

10 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Add me guys

Send a Friend Request

Btw my Friend Code is SW-2593-3385-0127 

 

Cool Easter Egg for people who completed Story Mode

Spoiler

Inside the Grizzco Office, the statue is now reversed, showing Hugefry chomping down on a bear.

Speaking of which, who's running the company...? Did Mr. Grizz come back from space?

 

[NegaMix]

18 minutes ago, Sonictrainer said:

Spoiler

Speaking of which, who's running the company...? Did Mr. Grizz come back from space?

I've heard some suggest that...

Spoiler

...Mr. Grizz's dialogue in Salmon Run is possibly just pre-recorded, while he himself was busy down in Alterna. They might give an explanation in a future DLC, or just leave it ambiguous. Who knows.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

12 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

Add me guys

Any chance you could send me your friend code? Having a bit of bother with the QR code and it’d be handier to add via the Switch itself for me.

[Blue Blood]

1 hour ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Any chance you could send me your friend code? Having a bit of bother with the QR code and it’d be handier to add via the Switch itself for me.

Sure. I hope a request from someone called Ryan last night and I assumed that was you! 

SW-7132-4142-7833

[Ryannumber1gamer]

2 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

Sure. I hope a request from someone called Ryan last night and I assumed that was you! 

SW-7132-4142-7833

Nah, there’s another SSMB member who uses Ryan as their Switch username. Gets pretty confusing if we’re matched during 2v2s during Game Night lol.

Anyways, sent a request! 

[Blue Blood]

Got it and accepted. I'm going to be playing tonight, but not consistently. I can't commit to actually being around for organised matches. I'll be totally free from tomorrow, however. 

[NegaMix]

If anyone wants to add me, my friend code is:

SW-1992-0597-4593

Might not be as active as I'd like to be this week due to various things, but I should have some free time in the evenings.

[Blue Blood]

I think I've found my new favourite weapon. The Dualie Squelchers are fantastic. Excellent range, plus Splat Bombs and the Wave Braker make it perfect for applying pressure. I didn't think much of the Wave Breaker when it was revealed, but it's seriously good. Whilst it only deals chip damage to enemies that it hits, it forces them out of hiding even if they don't get tagged. Pairing it with bombs is savage. 

[Sonictrainer]

The second Splatfest (and the first official one to reward Super Sea Snails) has been announced for September 23-25

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Time to pick a side, squiddos! 

Here’s the theme for the first post-launch #Splatoon3 Splatfest: Which would you bring to a deserted island? Gear, grub, or fun? 

This Splatfest takes place Sept. 23-25, so get ready to make waves!

 

[Blue Blood]

My initial choice was going to be grub, but I like foraging and would probably manage to find food. And taking "fun" seems pointless when you're glum to be stranded and have to fight to survive. What you'd need actually need is gear. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Am I alone in thinking One Way Ride Through Target Town is easily the worst level in the entire game? The lack of checkpoints mixed with how awful the Trislinger is really makes it feel like a ridiculous difficulty spike and poorly designed/tested.