Compeletly Reimagining Side Order's Story

[OnePotWonder]

I'm going to preface this briefly and bluntly. Once the hype for Side Order died down, I only found it more and more disappointing. It barely feels like a full gamemode at this point, being comparable to Tableturf Battle in a lot of ways. This disappointment stems from several issues, including the low difficulty of the post-game, repetitive bosses, and the final palette, but nothing is more heinous than the lackluster story.

Even if you think Side Order is already great, I recommend reading my vision. I think you'll find it enjoyable.

Side Order's story is extremely bland. Think about it. The main story is as simple as meeting Pearl and Acht, ascending the tutorial spire, fighting Marina, getting introduced to Order and flung out of the spire, only to ascend it again (and again, possibly) in order to defeat Order once and for all immediately thereafter. Seriously?
The main antagonist has roughly two minutes of screen time overall, not counting its boss form.
Order has to be the weakest villain in any Nintendo game, ever. I will be fixing this.

The main problem with Order is that it's too developed as a character by the time Eight meets it in the control room. It's already completed its master plan and set it into action, which is a problem, because its plan must ultimately fail for the story to work. What I think they heeded to have done with Order is stall its development.

-=-=-

When Eight defeats Marina Agitando, Order has already developed enough to no longer be in need of a host. Scratch that, instead of launching Marina out of the spire with Eight, Order snatches her back before upgrading the difficulty of the spire. It still needs her.
Marina throws Eight a locker key before being dragged away, and her laptop is stowed in the first locker. This gives Eight access to some of Marina's hacks without Marina needing to be present.

Without Marina, most of the mode's lore remains shrouded in mystery. The confusion aspect of the tutorial tower remains intact for the first part of the story, already a marked improvement over already knowing literally everything other than the villain's motive.

Upon reaching the Control Room of the 30 floor spire, Eight is met by a buffed Marina Agitando. This is, of course, a fake-out final boss. After Marina is rescued from the machine, Order reveals itself, now fully realized, and transforms into Overlorder for the boss fight proper.
Instead of Order's plot being ready at this point, the boss needs more time to prepare. After the Overlorder's final phase is defeated, Order will resume its gaseous form and retreat into the grate floor in the middle of the stage, not before threatening Eight and the others one more time. As Order has not yet been defeated, Inkopolis Square won't become accessible. Not yet.

Now, the post-game becomes integrated into the main story. Order still lurks in the control room, and with Marina freed from its grasp, we learn about its master plan and how to stop it. Recalibrating all of the palettes cuts off Order's power and prevents it from being able to execute its grayscaling.

Order is fought in the control room every subsequent run of the spire until all of the palettes have been reconfigured. Each time, Marina tries a different approach to calming it down, and Order shares the lore that would normally be revealed when battling Smollusk during the post-game.
When the player gains access to Eight's palette and reaches the control room with it, Order becomes more desperate. After being defeated, its plan goes off, and the climactic final battle occurs. Then after Order is destroyed once and for all, the elevator appears, the credits play, and Inkopolis Square finally becomes accessible.

-=-=-

I will admit, there are a few holes and issue with this altered story. First is making Inkopolis Square take far longer to access, a necessary change if Order is to remain a threat after being defeated for the first time. Smollusk's notes on each palette have to be revised, as does the character itself, it still being the boss for subsequent runs of the spire after the first clear with Eight's palette. Then, since the post-game is integrated into the story, there's kind of no post-game left; outside of encountering every floor, maxing out every Jelleton Field Guide entry, and collecting every Color Chip.
Still, I think my version works a bit better.

I encourage you to comment on my retelling of Side Order, your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I may follow this up with another post detailing a few gameplay changes I'd like to see made to the mode, them combined with the story changes transforming the mode from pallid to perfect.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and have an absolutely wonderful day!

 

[isaac4]

I will admit, there are a few holes and issue with this altered story. First is making Inkopolis Square take far longer to access, a necessary change if Order is to remain a threat after being defeated for the first time.

I think you could also just give the players access to Inkopolis Square after beating Order for the first time, but have it so the area has less Inklings and Octolings around, Marina and Pearl haven't gone back yet, and overall just make the Square feel a bit more empty than usual.
As you keep beating Order with every palette, more people start showing up until Inkopolis Square is as lively and energetic as it used to be.
Obviously, Marina and Pearl would be back after completing everything as well.

That's just my idea on how they could have given players access to Inkopolis Square if they didn't feel like trying every palette (or just wanted to play at their own pace) but still giving them an incentive to go back while making the threat of what Order is doing feel more impactful.
I personally wouldn't mind having to play through everything since I would have done it anyway but I know there's a lot of more casual players who would probably be annoyed that they have to do every single palette before they can visit Inkopolis Square. It'll especially be frustrating for those who don't like how repetitive Side Order can feel.
This is assuming everything else is exactly the same though, but if there was just a bit more to do then I could see that being less of an issue.

 

[OnePotWonder]

I think you could also just give the players access to Inkopolis Square after beating Order for the first time, but have it so the area has less Inklings and Octolings around, Marina and Pearl haven't gone back yet, and overall just make the Square feel a bit more empty than usual.
As you keep beating Order with every palette, more people start showing up until Inkopolis Square is as lively and energetic as it used to be.
Obviously, Marina and Pearl would be back after completing everything as well.

That's just my idea on how they could have given players access to Inkopolis Square if they didn't feel like trying every palette (or just wanted to play at their own pace) but still giving them an incentive to go back while making the threat of what Order is doing feel more impactful.
I personally wouldn't mind having to play through everything since I would have done it anyway but I know there's a lot of more casual players who would probably be annoyed that they have to do every single palette before they can visit Inkopolis Square. It'll especially be frustrating for those who don't like how repetitive Side Order can feel.
This is assuming everything else is exactly the same though, but if there was just a bit more to do then I could see that being less of an issue.

This is an excellent fix, I like it a lot. Good thinking.

 

[Cephalobro]

I would personally have made it so you only access Side Order with the train once. The rest of the time you would access it on Marina's laptop, which is guarded by Agent 4 (who is doing a bad job of guarding the laptop in the first place). This Agent 4 would take the customization features of your Splatoon 2 Inkling (if you let Splatoon 3 read your copy of Splatoon 2, but can be customizable anyways) but still wear a modified version of the Hero Gear.

 

[Eel-Ectric]

I think your suggestions are really good! Keeping several details a secret definitely helps the story.
I would like to add one of my own:
Compared to Octo Expansion, you don't get that slowly developing knowledge and attachment to any of the characters in Side Order. We already knew that Pearl and Marina were basically married and that Marina was from the octarian domes. Granted, we did get lore for Acht, which was great! But, I felt it was too little, too late. Eight literally expresses nothing the entire DLC, while in OE we got their thoughts, feelings, and aspirations through their poems and memcakes.
I feel like more of an exploration of Acht or Eight would have added weight to the story. Maybe more conversations including Acht talking about their past? I know the Spire is meant to help regain memories, so maybe if Acht also helped out somehow (taking the place of Pearl drone) maybe that could lead into a storyline where they slowly start remembering things. That's only Acht, though. I missed Eight's personality the most during this DLC. I'm not really sure how one could implement a similar kind of look into Eight's growth or personality in SO. I would love to see how Eight has grown or changed while beginning to live aboveground. Maybe a journal of some sort? I'm just throwing out ideas here, I just really like how OE used the memcakes to add to Eight's personality <3

 

[isaac4]

I missed Eight's personality the most during this DLC. I'm not really sure how one could implement a similar kind of look into Eight's growth or personality in SO. I would love to see how Eight has grown or changed while beginning to live aboveground. Maybe a journal of some sort? I'm just throwing out ideas here, I just really like how OE used the memcakes to add to Eight's personality <3

I honestly think it'd be a very easy process to implement Eight's thoughts in Side Order.
My idea would be to have her give her thoughts on the character that each palette belongs to after you clear a run with that weapon.
Basically what Smollusk does but now Eight would be giving her separate thoughts as well.

 

[OnePotWonder]

I honestly think it'd be a very easy process to implement Eight's thoughts in Side Order.
My idea would be to have her give her thoughts on the character that each palette belongs to after you clear a run with that weapon.
Basically what Smollusk does but now Eight would be giving her separate thoughts as well.

A perfect replacement for Smollusk’s notes, which was another part of my revised story that was left as a loose end.
How do you keep pulling this off?

 

[Eel-Ectric]

My idea would be to have her give her thoughts on the character that each palette belongs to after you clear a run with that weapon.
Basically what Smollusk does but now Eight would be giving her separate thoughts as well.

Oooh that's a great idea! Maybe the comments are not in the form of little poems anymore, but actual journal entries. I'm not sure if that would mess with the ambiguity of Eight, as she is still a player character, so maybe longer poems? Still a great idea nonetheless!