Topic: Splatoon 3

.....Why is Salmon Run a living nightmare all of the sudden? The difficulty just randomly spiked and I cannot win anymore...

Played for about 3 and a half hours there, getting to Level 4 in order to unlock the shops, dabbling in Salmon Run and beating the first world of Story Mode.

• God it feels good to be back. It's hard to really describe what makes 3 feel so, SO good to play but I think if you try and compare it to 2 you'd understand: 2 is (mostly) about skill, 3 is (mostly) about expression. Both still have the main qualities of each other but between the new movement techniques, specials that perform a wide variety of actions both for you and your entire team and the general speed increase across the board, whenever I get nostalgic and decide to go back to 2, it'll be like trying to wade through enemy ink....but all the time. 3's general game design seems fantastic so far.
• Specials are pretty cool as well for the most part. I've only bought 4 weapons so far (Splattershot, S Jr, Slosher and Tri-Stringer) but the specials are mostly fun to use with a decent amount of situational depth. Only one that hasn't really worked as well as I was hoping was Big Bubbler (especially when that's your only one for your first couple of matches minimum) but it definitely seems more Ranked focused than other ones so we'll see how that pans out.
• Salmon Run is basically exactly the same which is fine by me. It's still the same chaotic fun it was before and the changes they did make are great, such as a training range, egg throwing and a wider variety of usable specials. Only complaint I'd have at the moment are that the new Boss Salmonid types are almost all just....ok? Big Shot (doo doo doo doo doo) is fantastic with how he not only fires off a Wave Breaker, but also how his cannon can then be used to fire eggs towards the basket, just absolutely MUAH, perfection. The rest on the other hand are either annoying (Fish Stick) or pretty ineffective as bosses (Flipper Flopper and Slammin' Lid). Maybe I just need more time to get accustomed to them but that's just my two cents.
• It goes without saying, but the music is sublime. Off The Hook's new songs, C-Side's music, the best rendition of Now or Never ever made and EVERY SINGLE PLAYER SONG (so far), each and every one of them is simply astounding in how good they are and I guarantee you: they will be blasted on repeat in my YT playlists for the next long, LONG while.

And here's the story spoilers for the first world so if you aren't there yet, avert your eyes:

• What a fascinating opener. Cuttlefish is missing, we get to team up with the previous Agents and there's an AI located in what seems to be the last surviving human settlement from all those years ago. Also, Deep Cut are both BANDITS and MORALLY AMBIGUOUS? WHAT!?
• Fighting Octavio as the very first boss fight in the game is both really cool and absolutely hilarious. Octavio as the final boss in 2 was so easy that they made him harder....and he's still only the first boss. Love it.
• The levels are so damn cool to go through. It's framed like Octo Expansion (though not nearly as unforgiving) mixed in with the level design techniques of the single player's from both previous games. That, combined with the sheer amount of stuff able to be done in Alterna as a hub world is absolutely staggering. It might be a bit early to tell but I think this is hands down the best Story Mode we've ever gotten in a Splatoon game (yes I know the bar isn't exactly high but you know what I mean).

I've adored what I've played so far and would literally still be playing it right now if it weren't for the current time here being 00:45 XD. I will be back though because wow: this seems like it'll become both one of my most played games and one of my favourite games I've played in 2022 (and when Pokemon Legends Arceus and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles are on that list, you know that's high praise).

@Fizza This game really does feel oddly better to play, idk what it is tho lol.

On and btw, you can now cloud save this game unlike 2, so no worries about lost progress!

So am I missing something or are there no knew cloths in the shops?

Judd told me the clothes changed before, but nothing happened. So, yeah, no idea about that...the General section is changing.

Got to Level 4, decked out my locker, played a round of Table Turf, and checked out all the locations and stores.

It's so cool- not only is there a training room built in to the lobby, there's a separate training area for Salmon Run, and even another for The Shoals where you play local wireless. I also especially love how fast load times are, and how you can use gyro to aim your launch from the base platforms in a match. And checking out others lockers is more fun than it has any right to be. There's a lot of individuality expressed through the locker room. Oh, and replays! The game saves replays! I checked one out- you can switch perspective between anyone on your team or the other team, complete with normal playing view and overhead view. You can even mark "highlights" during playback to quickly skip to those points in the playback timeline.

This game just screams polish and perfection. Every little quality of life thing you could think of... they've done it.

@Budda
I came back after a few hrs and the issues were resolved. Must have just been a niggle in the server or something.

Hmm.

It's a fun game, but communication errors shouldn't be happening as often as they are.

Hopefully they address it quickly. I actually started the sp campaign because it got to the point where I couldn't get into a match.

@Ralizah
I mean sure, I agree. But I also don't think those two statements conflict with each other.

The game really does scream polish and perfectionism, in numerous respects. That is, by far, the overwhelming impression I get from the game. But that doesn't mean it's flawless. Given the excellent experience I had in Splatoon 2 for hundreds of hours, I'm quite confident whatever launch hiccups they encounter with regard to the network will be quickly ironed out with subsequent patches.

I dunno, I just know that Nintendo's online always has issues...doubt the errors will go away. Maybe they'll get a little better...I dunno.

That's objectively not true. Many Nintendo titles have fantastic online. They might not offer all the features some want, but the online is perfectly serviceable in countless Nintendo games, Splatoon 2 being one of them.

I guess I've been fortunate, I've only encountered 2 maybe 3 connection errors since I got the game yesterday afternoon playing turf war & salmon run. And I've played a bunch of hours.

@Joeynator3000 Ahh, man. I had a masterful screenshot of when I wrote the d-word with hot pink ink on the Splatoon 2 training room wall.🤣 I used a splattershot pro. But was always too scared to share it here.

Heads up:

The Squid Sisters Amiibo 2-Pack (Callie & Marie) is back in stock at most major retailers, including Nintendo's own store!

https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/amiibo-callie-marie-2...

Finished the story mode and got all the unlocks from it. It was nice getting back to a Splatoon single player campaign (Octo Expansion was in 2018), I found it the best of the bunch. Not really going into details to avoid causing spoilers.

As for multiplayer I unlocked the rank 4 features, played a match of the card game, played a round of Salmon Run and got to play on the maps that weren't in the beta. Splatoon multiplayer is still enjoyable though much like the beta I experienced a higher than normal amount of disconnects (not me getting disconnected but rather match ending because someone else got disconnected).

I hope when general Directs return that Splatoon 3 news becomes a regular presence in them like with Splatoon 2.

@Grumblevolcano "I found it the best of the bunch" - do you mean you liked Splatoon 3's single player best? Dang, I'm excited. Thanks for avoiding spoilers.

@Grumblevolcano
I had one of those myself due to another player DCing. I guess it kills the match, unlike Splatoon 2 where you finish the match at a disadvantage.

I suspect in the first month or so post launch we'll experience more of these, then as the algorithm funnels out the high DC players more and more, it should become less common.

@JaxonH The game design is solid, but it's definitely not polished and perfected at the moment in terms of how the online is working.

Smash Ultimate's online play is also particularly bad. Unlike this (mostly likely), though, that was never sorted out via patches and updates.

It probably helps contribute to the perception that Nintendo games don't play well online.

For my part, I've never had a single issue in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Monster Hunter Rise.

Well I give up, back to single player, Salmon Run is randomly too hard to play, and Turf War keeps giving me errors...ugh.

@Ralizah
With specific respect to the online, at the moment of post launch window when initial network issues manifest, I agree.

With respect to literally everything else, I think it absolutely is.

Hopefully we get a update next week. Should fix the issues.

@Ralizah @JaxonH My experience so far has been almost flawless, aside from two instances where I got a communication error before a match started and two of my teammates just dipped midway through Salmon Run. Apart from that though, couldn't ask for anything more (though if they were to make online better through patches and such, I would never complain about that).