OnePotWonder
Inkling Fleet Admiral
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Splatoon 3 has a lot of special weapons. This means that they vary quite heavily in design quality, with some of them being absolute masterpieces of game design (Crab Tank) while others are abominations handled in the worst way possible (Splattercolor Screen). One thing is practically guaranteed; some of these specials will return in the next Splatoon game. I figure it would be a good idea to make a place for people to share their opinion on which should stay and which should be left behind. As you might expect, I have opinions on literally every special, and I'll try to cover them as concisely as possible in this post with the aid of a tier list:
I'll quickly go over the tiers one at a time, starting at the bottom.
Leave it Behind
I am a firm believer in the idea that nearly every special concept can be salvaged and turned into something good. Then you have these two extraordinarily terrible specials; glass cannon panic buttons that are practically guaranteed to splat anything they're aimed at, and be splatted by anything that aims at them. This dynamic needs to die in this game, and not carry over to the next. I don't care that these specials are visually cool or have their good traits, they simply cause too much harm.
Would Need Full Rework
This is the largest tier for a very good reason. It contains every special that I think shouldn't return, but could be used as the groundwork for a new special that wouldn't be as terrible. While I do have ideas for how each of these specials could be reworked, you probably don't need to read all of that in this one thread. Despite that, for those of you who do want to see them, I wrote them out anyway:
Would Need Changes
These specials are all decently well-designed, but have things holding them back from being worth adding in the next game unchanged. Most of them are fairly obvious, the specials are just not very interesting to use or play off of. The exception is Zipcaster, which has its own set of issues; I could probably write an entire thread going over how overrated it is, but that's definitely something for another time.
Should Return
If I had to pick five specials to bring into the next game, these would be four of them. Even though Super Chump and Wave Breaker are on the weaker end of special power levels, their designs are just too fun to pass up bringing back, even without buffs. The other two specials are self-explanatory in being two of the most fun specials in the series to use and fight (bar gold Aerospray). There's a better one, though.
MUST Return
I'm going to be completely honest, I would have doubts about buying Splatoon 4 if it didn't bring back Crab Tank. This special is the only one in the entire Splatoon series that I would consider absolutely perfect, and the only one that should definitely return unchanged. I don't think I need to spend much time arguing this. You've all used it at one point or another. You know what I'm talking about.
Feel free to share your own opinions on what should and shouldn't come back in the next game. If you really think Ultra Stamp should return and Wave Breaker should stay in Splatoon 3, I'm curious to hear your reasoning.
Thank you for reading this post, and have a wonderful day.
I'll quickly go over the tiers one at a time, starting at the bottom.
Leave it Behind
I am a firm believer in the idea that nearly every special concept can be salvaged and turned into something good. Then you have these two extraordinarily terrible specials; glass cannon panic buttons that are practically guaranteed to splat anything they're aimed at, and be splatted by anything that aims at them. This dynamic needs to die in this game, and not carry over to the next. I don't care that these specials are visually cool or have their good traits, they simply cause too much harm.
Would Need Full Rework
This is the largest tier for a very good reason. It contains every special that I think shouldn't return, but could be used as the groundwork for a new special that wouldn't be as terrible. While I do have ideas for how each of these specials could be reworked, you probably don't need to read all of that in this one thread. Despite that, for those of you who do want to see them, I wrote them out anyway:
A quick note that most of these ideas aren't really what I want to see done with these specials if they return in the next game, but would definitely help them in the current game. Something like Reefslider would work better with an entirely new set of mechanics, such as steering. I've marked the specials I think could work in Splatoon 4 post-rework with an asterisk '*'.
Ink Vac* sorely needs a way to protect itself when teammates aren't around. I would give it a new air-blast attack (triggered by releasing its suction early) that consumes some of its charge to knock enemies backward and deal 40 damage. On top of that, I would make it so the special maintains a small area of suction while it aims its shot if the vacuum isn't full.
Kraken Royale is a special that can feel like it handicaps the user more than it empowers them. I would remove the ability for main weapons to knock it back and increase the momentum it conserves when jumping to make its standard movement more effective, then compensate by replacing the special’s invulnerability with 700 HP of armor, the special ending early if it’s broken.
Reefslider needs to be reverted to its original form and given better recovery instead of a better explosion. Its 70 damage explosion radius would be reduced by 25% and its paint radius reduced by 10%, in exchange for the ability to roll off of the special when it explodes as though landing from a super jump with the Drop Roller ability.
Splattercolor Screen needs to not be completely terrible. First things first, the grayscale filter would be lightened and the fizzing sound effect removed in favor of muffling game audio. Touching the screen would also cloud out an enemy's HUD with gray bubbles, and most importantly, the user's team would be able to see through the entire screen.
Tacticooler is a special case since it isn’t inherently bad in terms of design, everyone is just sick of it. The drink stand concept should return for future support specials, but an entirely new boost effect will be needed; I’m not coming up with one right now.
Tenta Missiles* would be combined with Triple Inkstrike* to create a new special better than both of them. With Tenta Missiles' targeting circle, the special would lock two inkstrikes equal in power to Triple Inkstrike's onto up to two of the closest enemy players. Missiles’ method of targeting would create enough delay to make following up on the strikes possible on the part of the special user, and make leading the strikes away from objectives possible on the part of the targets.
Trizooka is a mess, and not in a good way. A change as simple as giving it four shots that fire one glob each with a straight trajectory would be a big improvement for it, but with just that it would be rather boring. One idea I had for making it interesting again would be to let its single shots bounce off of terrain once or twice like Bloblobber blobs.
Ink Vac* sorely needs a way to protect itself when teammates aren't around. I would give it a new air-blast attack (triggered by releasing its suction early) that consumes some of its charge to knock enemies backward and deal 40 damage. On top of that, I would make it so the special maintains a small area of suction while it aims its shot if the vacuum isn't full.
Kraken Royale is a special that can feel like it handicaps the user more than it empowers them. I would remove the ability for main weapons to knock it back and increase the momentum it conserves when jumping to make its standard movement more effective, then compensate by replacing the special’s invulnerability with 700 HP of armor, the special ending early if it’s broken.
Reefslider needs to be reverted to its original form and given better recovery instead of a better explosion. Its 70 damage explosion radius would be reduced by 25% and its paint radius reduced by 10%, in exchange for the ability to roll off of the special when it explodes as though landing from a super jump with the Drop Roller ability.
Splattercolor Screen needs to not be completely terrible. First things first, the grayscale filter would be lightened and the fizzing sound effect removed in favor of muffling game audio. Touching the screen would also cloud out an enemy's HUD with gray bubbles, and most importantly, the user's team would be able to see through the entire screen.
Tacticooler is a special case since it isn’t inherently bad in terms of design, everyone is just sick of it. The drink stand concept should return for future support specials, but an entirely new boost effect will be needed; I’m not coming up with one right now.
Tenta Missiles* would be combined with Triple Inkstrike* to create a new special better than both of them. With Tenta Missiles' targeting circle, the special would lock two inkstrikes equal in power to Triple Inkstrike's onto up to two of the closest enemy players. Missiles’ method of targeting would create enough delay to make following up on the strikes possible on the part of the special user, and make leading the strikes away from objectives possible on the part of the targets.
Trizooka is a mess, and not in a good way. A change as simple as giving it four shots that fire one glob each with a straight trajectory would be a big improvement for it, but with just that it would be rather boring. One idea I had for making it interesting again would be to let its single shots bounce off of terrain once or twice like Bloblobber blobs.
Would Need Changes
These specials are all decently well-designed, but have things holding them back from being worth adding in the next game unchanged. Most of them are fairly obvious, the specials are just not very interesting to use or play off of. The exception is Zipcaster, which has its own set of issues; I could probably write an entire thread going over how overrated it is, but that's definitely something for another time.
Should Return
If I had to pick five specials to bring into the next game, these would be four of them. Even though Super Chump and Wave Breaker are on the weaker end of special power levels, their designs are just too fun to pass up bringing back, even without buffs. The other two specials are self-explanatory in being two of the most fun specials in the series to use and fight (bar gold Aerospray). There's a better one, though.
MUST Return
I'm going to be completely honest, I would have doubts about buying Splatoon 4 if it didn't bring back Crab Tank. This special is the only one in the entire Splatoon series that I would consider absolutely perfect, and the only one that should definitely return unchanged. I don't think I need to spend much time arguing this. You've all used it at one point or another. You know what I'm talking about.
Feel free to share your own opinions on what should and shouldn't come back in the next game. If you really think Ultra Stamp should return and Wave Breaker should stay in Splatoon 3, I'm curious to hear your reasoning.
Thank you for reading this post, and have a wonderful day.
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