Squidboards

I get the frustration and worry for what this will do to the next game but I'm going to stay hopeful that this won't actually prevent the series from moving forward.

Eh, splatfest results only ever affect the lore. Marie wins the final fest of the first game, Callie goes missing in 2's story mode. Chaos beats order in 2's final fest, we get a chaotic city. If they keep up the trend there might be some retro styling or aesthetic for the story mode and in some places of the next game, but it isn't going to impact the actual competitive gameplay.

yeah this will absolutely not affect gameplay. i highly doubt even the more common "team past winning means the next game is set in the past" theory is gonna come true. seconding @Dessgeega in thinking it'll be more of an aesthetic thing, my pet theory is that it might affect the message of the base story mode ("don't forget the past!") but i wouldn't even bet on that

if chaos winning s2's finalfest was supposed to affect gameplay the devs would be drastically changing weapon stats every patch in the name of chaos or something

SQUID SISTERS ON TOP RAAAAAAAHHHH

I do agree that it's not likely to affect anything gameplay wise but I could see specials returning again because of past winning which is my main concern. I also don't think that just because the previous games didn't get changed drastically from their final splatfests means that it would never happen.

Regardless, I'm not going to concern myself about the results right now since it'll be a long time until S4 is revealed.

my thing with that is that i don’t think something like game balance and which weapons return would be left to be decided by… which group of players won the most matches on one specific weekend. yknow? i guess i can see “past = returning reworked specials” but i feel like that has happened and will continue to happen regardless

“The squid sisters are boring”
You have ten seconds to run, buddy. (JOKE)

average twitter user

"The squid sisters are boring"
THEN EXPLAIN THIS
SQUID SISTERS ON TOP BABIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

skill issue

It's all just quite frustrating. Final fest has always dictated which idol is at the forefront of the next game's campaign mode. The Squid Sisters have already had a complete story arc with the first three games, while Off the Hook could certainly do more with the memverse, not to mention how badly Deep Cut needs a second chance for a better single-player appearance.

We don't need another campaign with the New Squidbeak Splatoon. Best case scenario at this point is the Squid Sisters return for the news segment and the other idols get the campaign spotlights.

I do really like the Squid Sisters but I agree that they shouldn't be a part of the next story in S4. If they're going to bring back any of the idol groups then it should be Deep Cut for how they barely got to do anything in Alterna. They didn't even get a second chance through DLC like OTH did.

look i'm a s3 newcomer but did finalfest ever dictate who was at the forefront of next game? s1's maybe, but you can argue that s2's hero mode was about callie; s2's wasnt idol v. idol - s3 was themed around chaos, not pearl specifically. i think seeing this as an idol battle is a reductive way of thinking of it. s1 did literal callie v. marie, this wasn't squisters v. OTH v. deep cut

and i really don't think that past winning means more new squidbeak splatoon. s3 is the last of the trilogy, wasn't that stated somewhere? i think splatoon 4's story mode is gonna be something totally different, and was going to be such regardless of who won. honestly there's a million directions the devs can be planning to take a team past win, the theme really isn't as concrete as folks seem to think it is

Marie played guide and mentor in S2, while Pearl was a literal companion character in Side Order. Meanwhile both losing idols came back as bosses. There is a pretty noticeable correlation there. We'll have to wait and see, though, because I'm expecting Splatoon 4 to be pretty different than the first three games.

Its not like S2 and S3 are getting deleted lmao chill

i'd argue that pearl was not more central to side order than marina just because she was the companion, but i see your point. i honestly hadn't thought about the "losing idol as final boss" correlation before, that's neat