There are rare exceptions of a sequel outshining the original
Except, it really isn't that rare, not for video games anyway. General consensus is Metroid II is better than Metroid, F-Zero X is better than F-Zero, Super Smash Bros. Melee is better than Super Smash Bros., Halo 2 is better than Halo, etc. (Gunforce I to Gunforce II is easily the biggest jump in quality a sequel has ever made, lol.) There are also several sequels that are viewed as being equal to the original, such as Super Monkey Ball 2 or Doom II. Unfortunately, I've began to feel that Splatoon 2 doesn't fall under either of these categories.
There are a ton of things to nitpick about it, both issues that were already present in S1 and new ones that appeared in S2.
Agreed. Even some of the problems that Splatoon 1 had were exemplified, such as even worse weapon diversity in the metagame (from what I've seen anyway), ****tier online infrastructure, and more grinding.
You grind using drinks to get better odds of subs, you grind to get chunks, you grind for money to scrub gear, then you grind some more because you want a different set of gear with different abilities, you grind in SR just to get more stuff that'll ease your grinding needs.
At least you had the ability to hack your Wii U for perfect gear, lol.
I think the slow content crawl is what is killing my interest the most right now.
Except most of my problems with the game won't be fixed by adding new content.
with S+ being a stone throw away there really is no faraway objective for me to reach anymore.
I almost can't believe how much the rank system impacted my enjoyment of the game. There were several times I would stay up till 4:00AM on a weeknight in hopes of advancing a rank; it was a bit of an addiction really. I actually never played Turf War unless I wanted to improve my freshness meter for money. Salmon Run is the same way in Splatoon 2; I don't enjoy it, but I get money. It's actually exactly like a job if you think about it.
in a game that will stop being relevant a few years from now.
A few, as in literally two. :/ I think I'll just forgo the final Splatfest, because I really don't care about Pearl or Marina.
Splatoon is just so much more aesthetically pleasing. Inkopolis Plaza, the characters who are now absent, the Squid Sisters who might as well be, the music, the story revealed through the Sunken Scrolls, the original artwork, the original menu graphics, that apartment loading screen at the beginning, the lack of hairstyles that move and deform tentacles... Oh, and Nintendo, wtf is with the gender-exclusive pants? It's 2017, not 1957. Not particularly Nintendo's fault, but I also found that the Miiverse posts much better; I don't know would make them though. Splatoon 1 almost felt like a special club, as you had to own a Wii U, which, you know...
Perhaps the thing that annoys me the most about Splatoon 2 though, is what I thought we were getting. Seeing the initial trailer with dodge rolling, the jetpack, and the large esport stadium, I thought we were getting some fast-paced, ultra-competitive version of Splatoon. Except, aside from the spectator mode, Splatoon 2 is even less rigged for competitive play than Splatoon with the high input lag and low tickrate, but also with its maps with 10x the obstructions that increase the number of unforeseeable splats due to positioning and discourage use of the weapon with the highest skill ceiling (charger), and also with the nerfing of gear abilities that helped players better perform a specific role for the team or otherwise just speed up the game. Don't forget about the "everyone's a winner" ranked system either.
If I didn't sound like enough of an a**hole yet, I'll end by saying that I honestly would have just preferred a Splatoon port in similar vein to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
. Range, CQC, comeback-enabling, the gun had it all. Y'all can talk about your Hydras and Neo Splashes, I'll be sitting here quietly waiting for that CJS to finally drop. It'll be glorious, I'm sure.
