Discussing Inkling/Octoling Biology

[Pinko]

Though I think this one has been mentioned before, let me ask again: "What do Inklings and Octolings eat? What do they drink?"
And how do they consume food?

They have chips (Callie mentions it as her favourite food in several quotes, all the american ones completely disregarded it) sundaes and apparently waffles (Urchin Underpass quotes, waffles for japan, sundaes for EU). They mention fruit, although I think it was in the artbook and strange fruit was shown (http://prntscr.com/91hhlc). In the Eating Sleeping fest, Callie also mentions chocolate and cheese.

'salted squid is a delicacy' is just weird since the original Japanese source never said anything like that so I wouldn't actually take that seriously since 60% of the quotes were changed in meaning entirely. It'd practically be cannibalism.

They also seem to have marshmallows (not sure about hot dogs) and other things.
I also think they have some form of food liquid or not in the vending machines.

I tend to take the EU version as seriously as the JP version since the EU version tries very hard to be closer to the source material, and Japan is where the game came from so I take it the most seriously.

 

[Pinko]

Anyway, while Marie's expression when she makes the salted squid comment implies that she finds it disturbing, I wouldn't call it canabalism because I assume she is talking about the squids which live in the ocean as opposed to the inklings.

The squids in the ocean aren't considered sapient like the inklings are, so eating the squids of the sea wouldn't be eating a sapient species.

The corresponding quote she says in our version is "It makes my skin totally dry as well..." which is why she has that expression. She makes a joke about it in the JP version but doesn't reference it as food, just a name (supposedly her response is "After the battle, you could almost call us the Salted Squids~")

They might have other squids, might, but I doubt it mostly since it as a reference to food is for NA and I doubt that version the most in terms of relation to the source since it changes a lot about the source material.

 

[ShinyGirafarig]

None of that stuff is mentioned otherwise so I can't take the peanut butter thing seriously (because that replaces one of the chips quotes) and I never remember 'french fries' being in any quote to replace the chips. Except that one time Marie mentions it in Kelp Dome. Otherwise, they're just called chips, which several of the NOA quotes completely replace with peanut butter, burgers etc. because referencing one thing too much is ridiculous hurrrr

I assume that Splatfest meant different sides of the war in-story, considering that artwork of Callie and Marie with an Inkling and Octarian respectively, so in-story it probably made sense to assume it to be that way. I don't think they actually eat squid/octopus since it was a licensed splatfest anyway

The hot dogfish thing was for burgers, and yous did that for catfish as well. Not only that, that once again replaced the chips quote over here, so I can hardly take that seriously. Plus, not ONLY that, your version has hot dogfish burgers AND hot dogs, as by Camp and Arowana's quotes, both of which are absent from both other closer-to-the-source-material versions.

Lots of things were edited just to suit likings, so I highly doubt some of the stuff mentioned in your quotes, especially for other reasons which I see the NA version as disrespectful to it as well.

Fun fact: In NA Camp Triggerfish before Marshmallows and Hot dogs Splatfest, we did have the quote that Marie ate the marshmallows.

At least the region differences are not as bad as Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (NA) and Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (EU). All the COs and other characters with names all have different name changes except for Lin because you just don't mess with Lin. Some unit names also have changes and a unit name for one region is a name of a different unit in another region which makes discussing the game with people who own different versions of the game very frustrating. With hacking you can change the language in the game itself (Days of Ruin or Dark Conflict version) including to either NA or EU version and even the JP version.

 

[BlackZero]

Though I think this one has been mentioned before, let me ask again: "What do Inklings and Octolings eat? What do they drink?"
And how do they consume food?

The Japanese Flying Squid, which is what Inklings are based on, eats fish and crustaceans. Wiki says they can resort to cannibalism if food isn't available. In times of food shortage, squid sushi may not be out of the question...

I figure they would still eat fish and crab. I hear canned bread is a delicacy among squids, tho.

As for how, I would imagine they use their mouths in human form if they are liquid as squids.

 

[MissingNumbers]

I doubt it mostly since it as a reference to food is for NA and I doubt that version the most in terms of relation to the source since it changes a lot about the source material.

But it's also a lot more fun.

In any case, I think it can be possible to have a happy medium with all of the translations. For the most part.

 

[BlackZero]

Lots of things were edited just to suit likings, so I highly doubt some of the stuff mentioned in your quotes, especially for other reasons which I see the NA version as disrespectful to it as well.

Localizaition isn't merely translating text. They have to tailor the game to the regional consumer, which means re-writing dialog or plot so that the target audience can connect with it. Most Western gamers wouldn't understand the joke the Japanese version was trying to make, and some may not even realize the game was making a joke. Some concepts simply don't translate, either. FFX's plot spent a lot of time focusing on how Tidus hated his father. For Westerners, we think of it as having "daddy issues." In Japan, harboring that kind of animosity towards one's father is a huge deal. The localized game stayed true to the source material, but there was simply no way to properly communicate the significance of Tidus' angst because that concept simply didn't cross cultural barriers.

With that in mind, I think localization teams deserve some slack so long as they don't completely butcher important plot elements/character development or fail to make the localized dialog interesting.

All the COs and other characters with names all have different name changes except for Lin because you just don't mess with Lin.

QFT. Lin is a terrifying mixture of Erwin Rommel and Sun Tzu.

 

[Globin347]

For the record, it's extremely unlikely that oceanic squids would have dissapeared.
That's just not how evolution works.

Evolution works via the use of random mutations, and then takes out those creatures which don't do as well.

While the idea that one group of squids could move on to land is unlikely, it is theoretically possible.

But the idea that oceanic squids would go extinct because squids move on to land is absolutely ludicrous.

Species go extinct because they are unable to survive and reproduce in their environments. Oceanic squids have no such inability. They span an incredibly diverse group with thousands of species.

And the world shown in splatoon has no differences that would prevent squids from continuing to thrive.

Keep in mind: fish moved on to the land and evolved legs, but there are still fish in the ocean. For squids to have undergone a different process would require an incredible biological pressure that is nowhere to be seen in splatoon.

Also, there's the japanese "octopus meat vs squid meat" splatfest, so...

 

[Dolphoshi]

For the record, it's extremely unlikely that oceanic squids would have dissapeared.


Also, there's the japanese "octopus meat vs squid meat" splatfest, so...

let the feast begin
i think they eat seafood, cuttlefish mentions crabbycakes as well as spike being able to eat the super sea snails, and from what we got from splatfests they eat hot dogs, marshmallows, and candy. And they invented? vegetables so they must be omnivoires

 

[BlackZero]

The correct answer is Soylent Green.

 

[Paragon-Yoshi]

You guys forgot about my other question: "How do they keep themselves clean?"
Can they even get dirty (and stinky)? Or does the Ink do the job for them, so they don't have to do anything?

Yes, I am running out of ideas. X_X
But it still interests me.

 

[ShinyGirafarig]

You guys forgot about my other question: "How do they keep themselves clean?"
Can they even get dirty (and stinky)? Or does the Ink do the job for them, so they don't have to do anything?

Yes, I am running out of ideas. X_X
But it still interests me.

They do the shake dry motion at the start of matches that many animals do when wet. So they probably submerge in ink and shake it off the ink that contains dirt and do it over and over again until clean.

 

[BlackZero]

You guys forgot about my other question: "How do they keep themselves clean?"
Can they even get dirty (and stinky)? Or does the Ink do the job for them, so they don't have to do anything?

Yes, I am running out of ideas. X_X
But it still interests me.

Whenever they splat, the dirt explodes off of them. I don't think they can get stinky. That's usually due to sweat. Being ectothermic, squids (and inklings) would not have physiological mechanisms to regulate their body temperature (e.g. sweating or shivering). No sweat means no stink.

There's still one subject we've yet to discuss, and I feel its the one we've all been waiting for. Can Inklings use their hair tentacles like limbs? Why don't they hold one weapon with their "hands" and another with their hair? How badass is it for an Inklette to do pull-ups with her hair? Or hold the steering wheel with her tentacles and eat while driving? Tentacle hair is the wave of the future.

 

[Globin347]

Well, with such big tentacles, I imagine it would be hard to hold a gun and pull the trigger.

Same for chargers and splatlings.

Rollers might be too heavy and unwieldy to hold effectively that way.

As for the buckets... well, perhaps turf wars have an understanding/rule against multiple weapons.

But I imagine that an inkling's tentacles could act as limbs.

Also; inklings probably didn't "invent" vegetables so much as "discover" that they were edible.

 

[ShinyGirafarig]

Whenever they splat, the dirt explodes off of them. I don't think they can get stinky. That's usually due to sweat. Being ectothermic, squids (and inklings) would not have physiological mechanisms to regulate their body temperature (e.g. sweating or shivering). No sweat means no stink.

Kelp Dome quotes mention sweating. And yes both NA and EU translations refer to it. And I see in the Kelp Dome quotes that taking cold showers are mentioned (also both NA and EU quotes) so have to rethink about how Inklings clean themselves.

 

[Globin347]

Ink showers, maybe?

Although that wouldn't be an issue in the solid model.

 

[Tentatek]

I think we're overthinking this. This is just a fun videogame where you're a squid but also a kid and you run around with a water gun filled with squid ink. This is Nintendo; Splatoon is a made-up fantasy that defies logic. A lot of videogames like defying logic. I think it'd be similar to Pokemon evolution (and then devolution) but much much faster. Then again another sunken scroll shows how it grows and evolves... Eh I'm just not gonna think about it and just enjoy the fact that we're able to transform from kid to squid.

 

[BlackZero]

I think we're overthinking this. This is just a fun videogame where you're a squid but also a kid and you run around with a water gun filled with squid ink. This is Nintendo; Splatoon is a made-up fantasy that defies logic. A lot of videogames like defying logic. I think it'd be similar to Pokemon evolution (and then devolution) but much much faster. Then again another sunken scroll shows how it grows and evolves... Eh I'm just not gonna think about it and just enjoy the fact that we're able to transform from kid to squid.

 

[Flareth]

Can Inklings use their hair tentacles like limbs?

I wondered this myself. For that to be possible... well, I imagine they'd require some serious muscles (mussels?) to provide the power that such prehensility at that size requires. Closest analogues I can think of are insect wings and (to a lesser extent) monkey tails.

Now that I think of it, even if the Inklings were strong enough to move their tentacles in kid form, I have my doubts about how well they could actually use them. Look at the tentacular club: it only has a single large sucker. Good for sticking onto walls and grabbing things, I guess, but is it as effective as the multiple smaller suckers that real-world squid possess?

[Off-topic, but a year-and-a-half later & I'm still struck by the decision to make their tentacles their hair. Like I said on Miiverse, I always figured that they'd develop into hand analogues, considering their purpose in real life...]

 

[Pinko]

Localizaition isn't merely translating text. They have to tailor the game to the regional consumer, which means re-writing dialog or plot so that the target audience can connect with it. Most Western gamers wouldn't understand the joke the Japanese version was trying to make, and some may not even realize the game was making a joke. Some concepts simply don't translate, either. FFX's plot spent a lot of time focusing on how Tidus hated his father. For Westerners, we think of it as having "daddy issues." In Japan, harboring that kind of animosity towards one's father is a huge deal. The localized game stayed true to the source material, but there was simply no way to properly communicate the significance of Tidus' angst because that concept simply didn't cross cultural barriers.

With that in mind, I think localization teams deserve some slack so long as they don't completely butcher important plot elements/character development or fail to make the localized dialog interesting.

That's the thing, the EU localisation pretty much translates directly from the Japanese script (with SOME rewording so it isn't jerky) and nothing feels out of place.
Every single NA quotes removes Callie's love for chips entirely and just drags in random foods. It's not like she mentions rice or something, no, then I'd understand, but she mentions that she loves chips in several quotes but this is replaced with several other food items and it's difficult to assert that as a trait when it's totally butchered and removed.

Other quotes also get entirely changed for reasons that seem ridiculous. In Camp Triggerfish, there's a quote where Callie says in the EU/JP versions that the sun is warm and Marie mocks back at her 'it's not as warm as my indoor heating' and that's changed to reference the advertisement for some really weird reason I can't even begin to comprehend. Another one in Flounder Heights has Callie saying she'd rather take the stairs to work instead of taking an elevator. Marie's dialogue is different in JP/EU but in NA the quote mentions Super Jumping for seemingly no other arbitrary reason other than 'it needs to relate to the game' even though in EU, the quote was perfectly formidable even if the meaning of Marie's response was different.

In Kelp Dome specifically, there's a quote in the NA version mentioning Super Sea Snails eating kelp. Though I know a JP friend and they said that Kelp Dome doesn't actually grow kelp (it's a company name) but odd fruits and vegetables instead. So it's just misleading.

With most of the things as I've seen to be aimed more at the players instead of an ingame word (since that stuff's 'too trivial').
The problem is to the NA version Callie and Marie HAVE to be funny. They aren't just news presenters, they HAVE to crack a joke every so often, like Marie being sassy and all. Both of them are nothing like that.

Since the JP script is the original, I tend to take that with more credibility. Thus, what it says goes. Secondly EU since it mostly directly translates from it rewording and other things aside.

I think we're overthinking this. This is just a fun videogame where you're a squid but also a kid and you run around with a water gun filled with squid ink. This is Nintendo; Splatoon is a made-up fantasy that defies logic. A lot of videogames like defying logic. I think it'd be similar to Pokemon evolution (and then devolution) but much much faster. Then again another sunken scroll shows how it grows and evolves... Eh I'm just not gonna think about it and just enjoy the fact that we're able to transform from kid to squid.

The response whenever anybody goes too in-depth.

 

[BlackZero]

The problem is to the NA version Callie and Marie HAVE to be funny. They aren't just news presenters, they HAVE to crack a joke every so often, like Marie being sassy and all. Both of them are nothing like that.

They're a comedy duo: that's what they do. The Boke vs Tsukkomi Japanese Splatfest is a reference to this (the boke and tsukkomi style comedy). Callie is the Boke (someone who comically misunderstands something or has amusing misconceptions) and Marie is the Tsukkomi (the "straight man" or the person who's correcting the Boke's misconceptions). Think of it as a Japanese version of Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert playing off of each other.

The problem is, Westerners don't always find this as funny as Japanese audiences. The NA localization team turned them into a more westernized comedy duo (Callie's wacky, Marie's deadpan) because they thought Americans wouldn't get the Japanese style humor. Considering most self-proclaimed Japanese cultural experts over here get their knowledge from anime instead of actual anthropology and sociology, they were probably correct. The EU/AU probably made a judgment call to not change their lines too much, but that doesn't mean people get what they're referring to.

For example, Callie's love for chips is probably a reference to Japanese Squid Chips. We don't have those over here, so American's probably wouldn't make the connection between Callie (an evolved squid) and a squid themed snack food more or less exclusive to Japan. Since the whole joke relies on the audience knowing what it's referring to, the NA version replaced chips (which would have seemed random to Americans anyway) with more popular American foods.

The EU/AU version probably kept it because British "chips" are what the US calls French fries, and are absolutely delicious with salt and a little malt vinegar. Chips are popular and very common in the UK and AU (can't speak for the rest of Europe), so they likely didn't bother changing it.