Maybe Nintendo Should Make Side Order a Stand Alone Title?

[Driftwood]

As a Splatoon fan and a roguelike fan I'm *really* looking forward to Side Order. While we can't tell for sure until after it comes it releases, it looks like it could be amazing. However I'm kind of worried about how successful it will be. Roguelike/lites aren't for everyone so there still could be a large portion of the Splatoon player base that won't give it a chance. At the same time there are certainly a lot of roguelike likers who don't have Splatoon, and having to pay $85 for the bundle is a pretty high barrier to entry if they are simply interested in checking out Side Order. I know that part of the hope for the DLC is that it will drive more interest into Splatoon 3 as a whole, but given that it's a pretty distinct genre of it's own (unlike Octo Expansion which, while really well done, was kind of extension/improvement of the single player levels from the base game), I'm worried that the base of players it will attract to the main game might be more limited. I'm open to having my mind changed though. Thoughts?

 

[EnbySquid]

I was thinking about this too. I don't think it's going to happen, but I'd bet that there's a decent non-Splatoon audience that would be into this if it was standalone/cheaper.

 

[Cephalobro]

The problem in making this mode a standalone is because it has rewards for the main game. Making it a standalone will require fundamental changes to the mode itself to suit it being exclusively single-player. There really isn't a reason for gear and weapon replicas as rewards if they can't be usable in multiplayer matches.

Rewards for multiplayer are a big reason why many players are willing to play through the single-player modes.

EDIT: Also, as seen from clips of gameplay from the Japanese version, there will be a lot of rewards to get, all of them related to multiplayer in some way.

 

[Driftwood]

The problem in making this mode a standalone is because it has rewards for the main game. Making it a standalone will require fundamental changes to the mode itself to suit it being exclusively single-player. There really isn't a reason for gear and weapon replicas as rewards if they can't be usable in multiplayer matches.

This is a really good point though I think some rewards you can get unlock permanent buff's for Side Order so there will be at least some things to grind for even if you don't play single player. I think one thing that could make a big difference is if Side Order has any score chase mechanics. A lot of roguelikes have a daily challenge where everyone gets the same seed (i.e. same map/challenge/reward order) but you can only play it once, and when you are done you see how you did against everyone else in the world. Something like that could be enough of a hook even if some of the other rewards are things you can't use.

 

[:pancakes:]

The problem in making this mode a standalone is because it has rewards for the main game. Making it a standalone will require fundamental changes to the mode itself to suit it being exclusively single-player. There really isn't a reason for gear and weapon replicas as rewards if they can't be usable in multiplayer matches.

they could give you the rewards anyways as cosmetics for the singleplayer and a "if you buy the base game you'll get these" as a sort-of advertising tactic.

 

[missingno]

Considering how well S3 sold already, I honestly doubt there's that much of a market of people who skipped the base game but are clamoring for a standalone.

 

[Driftwood]

Considering how well S3 sold already, I honestly doubt there's that much of a market of people who skipped the base game but are clamoring for a standalone.

I mean S3 has sold 11.71m units which is impressive but the Switch has sold 132m units and other games have sold way more (BOTW: 31m, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 60m), so I figure there are still a lot of potential Switch players out there that haven't gotten Splatoon 3 yet. Hell even Splatoon 2 sold more at 13.6m units.

 

[missingno]

That's an extremely high attach rate already. You seem to be implying that Side Order could ever sell Mario Kart numbers, that's not going to happen.

The point I'm making here is that the venn diagram of people who would buy Side Order and people who bought Splatoon 3 is probably very close to a single circle.

 

[Driftwood]

That's an extremely high attach rate already. You seem to be implying that Side Order could ever sell Mario Kart numbers, that's not going to happen.

The point I'm making here is that the venn diagram of people who would buy Side Order and people who bought Splatoon 3 is probably very close to a single circle.

I'm not trying to say that Splatoon 3 would ever match BOTW or Mario Kart, just that there are a lot of Switch owners who haven't gotten Splatoon 3. I'm not sure why you think that anyone who would be interested in Side Order would have already gotten S3 though. It's pretty safe to say at this point that Side Order is a roguelite, which is a different genre than anything that is currently in Splatoon. How do we know that all the Hades/Enter the Gungeon/Binding of Issac/Spelunky/Nuclear Throne etc enjoyers have picked up Splatoon 3 already?

 

[Aiko.Octo]

There are very valid points to be made about the unconventional decision to introduce a different genre as an expansion to an existing game. I think right now Side Order alone probably isn't viable as a standalone title for the technical reasons already mentioned, but... maybe if it gets an overwhelmingly positive reception, there could be a chance that a roguelite-splatoon spin-off game gets developed as its own full title later on. It's quite a stretch but for all we know this could be a test to see if the IP is worth branching out into other genres, given its success already.

On the other hand though, they do seem to just really enjoy mixing in other genres in general. I mean, look at squid beatz and tableturf; this isn't the first time they've included another, totally unrelated genre of game inside their main game. But.. this is certainly the most effort and resources they've put into one, and maybe that puts it on another level.

 

[reelrollsweat]

if they made side order a separate game you would have to pay 3x as much for it lol