Topic: Splatoon 2

@Vee_Flames I hope you guys don't mind. Let me know if you'd prefer keeping it to teammates at the same title, since I know we can't get promoted this way.

@Nicolai Oh, really? Well... if that's the case, I won't be levelling up to Profreshional. That's okay, though. I'm in no rush to get the highest grade.
Created a new room, by the way.

Well, that was weird. I just played a match on The Reef and one of my teammates two seconds before the start of the match. Nobody else moved and he'd disconnect like 30 seconds into the match.

Is anybody else having problems with people disconnecting? Almost every match I've played today has had at least one disconnect, so it must be a problem with Nintendo's servers rather than individual people's internet connections dropping out.

@Dogorilla, I've had problems with people and myself disconnecting for no reason now for the past two days. I got disconnected mid game yesterday which was annoying to say the least.

@NEStalgia
I quit using social media, but, Twitter is good for gaming. I created an account specifically for Switch- for posting screenshots I can easily access on my phone, for Splatoon 2 miiverse posts, for in-game invites, etc. As long as you don't follow anyone else, it's like having a private account. I highly recommend considering it- just a gaming account, because it offers so many benefits without any downside.

Obviously, I follow the people in our LINE chat and rjejr and a few other gaming associates/friends for quick invites, but it's definitely not used for typical social media purposes

@Vee_Flames @Nicolai With regards to Salmon Run and different ranks:

If you play with someone of a higher rank you can still level up. But the person of that higher rank wont do so until you catch up to them

I'm stuck playing the story mode until my ISP decides to fix my internet connection of freaking 0.5 Mbps. Thanks a lot, Movistar.

Oh well, either I advance in Breath of the Wild or take the chance to train a lot with the weapons.

@meleebrawler They're the 21st century equivalent of a palette swap It's just a little weird they created characters so well liked that they had an actual concert tour as vocaloids, only to recast them as kind of "extras" in the side-game of single player. I think life would have been a lot more interesting with both C&M and P&M taking turns either on different days or different times, and/or having competing dialog as kind of rivalry between the duos. I'm not against the new characters, but I'm against tossing aside existing characters in favor of new characters that don't actually feel that new rather than being more or less a palette swap for no reason other than what I can see as trying to make the stars "less Japanese" and more relevant in the West (with C&M being an idol duo through and through, with P&M being a more conventional hip hop collab.) Then they stick Marie in a kimono with a paper parasol standing in front of paper lanterns with koto music playing...

As far as we've seen, Marina is the ONLY Octoling living among Inklings, though, isn't she? Without any story at all? Maybe there's some kind of story telling in some Japan-only manga, but I can't really take seriously story content that takes place outside the game when the game does nothing to explain what's going on. I swear the only purpose of Marina being an octoling is Nintendo trolling all the fans that "knew" playable octolings were coming in Splatoon 1

@JaxonH Yeah, LINE and Discord are more conventional communications applications, not actual "social media" which despite certain things in common is really a whole different thing. I'd half consider twitter for using as you described, but I still gravely dislike the very idea of giving them any info of any kind. Bad enough I'm obligated to do so with Google because of organizational needs. At this point "social media" is really limited to those three companies, I can't think of anything else that even qualifies. Disquss I suppose sort of counts. instagram is just part of facebook. Snapchat I suppose is quasi-independent. It's still just a data mining service though.

@jwfurness I'll hit you up either via email, or just add you from my played list and let you know! My net's been wonky lately, so my play has been intermittant. I played RM for a good hour and it was fine, then I got DC'd and couldn't connect to anything for a half hour or so, then got in and played the Salmon match you were in, then couldn't get into another match for another hour after that....what luck, I got into only one match and someone I knew from here was on my team! Supposedly they're working on it.....

@bengals76 I haven't forgotten btw! I have your FC, just haven't added it yet. My net's been a mess, and I've been Splatoon-ing when I get the chance so I haven't gotten back to Arms (and am super rusty already!)

I finally got a Swim Speed Up drink ticket, which I wanted to counteract Ninja Squid, but it didn't give me one Swim Speed Up on my Ninja Squid Shirt! How did I get so unlucky?

Also, I realized today that despite people saying Spla2n is too similar to Splatoon 1, I think the gameplay is different enough that I could go back to Splatoon 1 and still have fun becausne of the more powerful specials and other things Nintendo changed in Spla2n.

Also also, can anyone help me with my gear? I always wear my hat with Ink Recovery Up across the board, but I don't know what to do for my shirt or shoes. I flip-flop between an Ink Saver Main shirt and Drop Roller shoes with Run Speed Up for all three subs and a Ninja Squid shirt with Ink Saver Main shoes. Which set should I choose, if any? I mostly main the Dualie Squelchers, by the way.

@BLP_Software Oh, that's good to know. It was a little frightening to find that you can actually get pay cuts, but not pay raises! It was a losing battle the whole way! Thankfully, we didn't lose many matches anyway.

@Nintendoer Personally, I'm trying to create a wardrobe for different situations, and I really like Ink Savers. So what I'm doing is pairing up my favorite abilities (Swim Speed, Run Speed, Sub Power, Special Charge) with the various Ink Saver Sub, Ink Saver Main, and Ink Recovery. I'll usually have a total of 3 of that ability (3 sub abilities equaling 1), which according to the algorithm in Splatoon Wii U, gets you to about 75% of the way to the max anyway, and the rest is filled with Ink Savers, and maybe an optional nonstackable ability like Haunt or Stealth jump.

That's just me, though. I've never been crazy good at juggling perks in video games, I mostly just try to make up for it by practicing the technique and skill of it all.

@NEStalgia I've seen the analogy that the Squid Sisters represent 'J-Pop' and Off the Hook represent 'A-Pop' before, but I'm not entirely convinced. I mean, Pearl is cut from pretty thick Loli cloth (to my mind her design is way more 'only in Japan' than either of the Squid Sisters), and female DJs are common enough in the Shibuya club circuit to be taken as part of the aesthetic, which gives Marina some sort of Tokyo-based analogue. Maybe her darker skin tone makes people think of the group more internationally than narrowly Tokyo-centric, but I still think there are plenty of parallels to be drawn with the Shibuya club scene and the region's wider cultural footprint, even if they're mixed with a lot of other, less obviously parallel influences.

But really, Inkopolis is it's own world, and the inspiration behind it can come from anything, anyone, or anywhere. Trying too earnestly to link it to the real world counterparts is just going to result in frustration.

@Maxz I see your point, to a degree, and it's not to say that P&M don't fit the J-Pop mold to a degree, they'd certainly fit with the J-Pop hip-hop scene easily, and the music fits (even with the Murky Warfare track aping the "far east movement" wing of J-Pop hip-hop scene.) But to me, where I see C&M as purely the idol duo that doesn't really exist at all outside Japan (matching red/green outfits, bubblegum music style, and all), P&M can easily be Japanese or non, with the hip-hop scene in Japan being more Western influenced but with a (slight, at times) Japanese flair. So, yeah, I don't disagree that they may fit the Shibuya club circuit, so they're not alien to Japan (perish the thought given the Japanese obsession with Splatoon!), but I'd argue the real life Shibuya club scene is really more "Western" than it is Japanese. It mostly draws from Western influence primarily. It's about as "Japanese" as the last Devil May Cry Thus is a better fit for worldwide audiences.

Interesting thought on Pearl. I never actually got a Loli vibe from her. She's not exactly Elise from FE:Fates She seems like she's actually just young, reckless, arrogant, and kind of hard-edged. Which fits the Splatooniverse well, the young inkling that wants to be such a bad-a, and is a bit tomboyish. To me, Pearl's one of the few child (or child-like)? Characters in Japanese games that doesn't seem even slightly sexualized at all which kind of negates any possibility of Lolification. Though Marina's soft-focus, hip-hugger mini-skirt (that lights up!), and dewey eyes probably more than counterbalance that

I hated it the splooshomatic in splat1, but holy crap I was going crazy with it last night. The curling bomb really makes this weapon for me.
I was running sup power up main(increases curling bombs speed) and ink recovery main. My third main ability was most of the time swim speed up for added flanking ability, but I was able to rotate pretty much any other ability in and do just as well with this set. I haven't done any chunk grinding yet so the sub abilities are pretty random right now. I don't know how many times on Port Mackerel I pushed to the other side before the other team would even get to their big open area.
This surprisingly worked really well on Moray Tower as well for getting behind the enemy and distracting them from the rest of the team.

EDIT: This was TW though, I didn't test it much in ranked much other than RM. But the curling bomb makes a great path for the rm holder.

@NEStalgia It's all true. I guess they're really one of a kind. Which perhaps shouldn't be that surprising coming from a Hip-Hop Squid-Pop Octo-DJ Duo.

While we're throwing out faintly accurate analogies though, I did get this sort of this vibe from them:

I mean, Marina isn't a blond-haired Japanese dude in shades, but I can't think of all that many groups that really emphasise the DJ/Frontwoman setup, so it came to mind. And Ms. Pamyu Pamyu's hair is kind of simililar to Pearl's. A bit. Maybe. Or maybe I'm stretching things.

Finally reached S rank Rainmaker, with A+ Tower Control and A+ Splat Zones not far behind.
I'm actually pretty proud of the SZ rank, I thought it'd be far lower than it is.

Took me 50 levels to do it last time, so I'm pretty happy to have done it in 22 this time.

@NEStalgia It's implied Marina was originally an Octoling like any other (aka evil, or brainwashed if this game's revelations are anything to go by), until the final battle in the first game inspired her to quit/break free and start her own musical career. She had the voice, but no real experience in coming up with any songs. Enter Pearl, who is described as an artistic genius able to write very creative songs and rhymes (as seen with her Mayo victory), but whose singing abilities are... questionable, as implied by scroll 1. Thus, a dynamic is formed between the two where Marina provides the melody missing from Pearl's songs.

Then again, Splatoon is a game that barely takes anything seriously. Even in seemingly bleak scenarios like Salmon Run, the Inklings are barely fazed and seem to treat it as just another game.

@Maxz LOL, Pearl as Kyary. Thank you. That image is going to be stuck in my head every single day. It's fitting though if there's any inspiration there, didn't she recently do a 3DS commercial in Japan?

She looked familiar but I didn't recognize her without the whole decora getup, I only knew of her solo stuff. Who's the DJ?

@meleebrawler It amazes me how much interpretation fans can make from a handful of vague sentences

Do we actually know WHAT is going on in Salmon run? It seems like we're poaching the salmon hatching (making us the bad guys), though considering the advanced mechanization of....salmon....it seems to be routine. I'm still convinced we're working for Octavio there....

@Maxz Actually, looking at that again, without all the crazy get-up, Kyary kind of looks a little like Keity.Pop, Callie's VA.