Serious Splattercolor Screen Discussion

[mossyquartz]

Actually I think it’s a good idea to have the debate now and take measures
once more screen weapons get added the discussion will get worse and worse, having things preemptively is a good idea
if people are making such a fuss about it despite being on 2 weapons imagine how it will get when more get added

i think Nintendo won’t give a second thought to the accessibility issues and will just go business as usual cuz that’s just how they have always been across the series in many different aspects

My bad if I worded it wrong. I've been affected by screen so I also think it's important to have the conversation, but it's important to stay civil about it and try to find solutions via healthy conversations

 

[Sun3]

My bad if I worded it wrong. I've been affected by screen so I also think it's important to have the conversation, but it's important to stay civil about it and try to find solutions via healthy conversations

Oh yeah being civil should be the first thing we do, I appreciate this thread cuz it’s serious discussion sorry for the misunderstanding

 

[mossyquartz]

Oh yeah being civil should be the first thing we do, I appreciate this thread cuz it’s serious discussion sorry for the misunderstanding

No worries!! I should've worded it better. And yeah I rly appreciate being able to have a real conversation about it too

 

[zyf_]

I'll give my accessibility opinion and my opinion of it as a concept.

For accessibility, its definitely not great since it changes from such vibrant colors into gray scale which is quite a stark difference, and the audio adds to that with how unpleasant it is. I know it triggers migraines for a good chunk of people, and I'm not sure what potential conditions/disorders it could still be affecting.

I've actually really loved the concept that the screen brought to the game. Obscuring vision has always brought a really fun element into fps and tps games. While it may be used at bad times occasionally, I think it could be really strong if used at the right times within a game(going into a number disadvantage and realizing they will push your team). Also learning potential line ups and spot could be a really fun way to up the skill ceiling

I completely agree that smokes and obscuring vision are super cool mechanically

with that in mind i feel like there is an EXTREMELY simple solution to screen.

make it completely opaque.
keep the damage.
delete all the other crossing effects.
and probably make it stationary

literally that's it
it isnt even a proper smokescreen and thats what makes me angriest

fix accessibility and make it an actually interesting special
it's REALLY not that hard

a giant flashbang smokescreen is already so stupidly annoying
it's not strong but it's annoying that youre just like "welp time to get flashbanged"

 

[Joy]

From what I know, there haven't been any complaints about sensory issues before screen...

Players with sensory issues before screen would’ve selected themselves out from the game, as it wouldn’t be something they’re able to play whatsoever. Issues are probably there for many already, they just never pick up the game. Screen is highlighted because it takes people who were probably at or near the threshold of being overstimulated and have been playing the game long have suddenly been forced to deal with a special that pushes them past that threshold.

 

[beam]

I've actually really loved the concept that the screen brought to the game. Obscuring vision has always brought a really fun element into fps and tps games. While it may be used at bad times occasionally, I think it could be really strong if used at the right times within a game(going into a number disadvantage and realizing they will push your team). Also learning potential line ups and spot could be a really fun way to up the skill ceiling

I agree with your opinion of it as a concept. I think a vision obscuring special brings a lot to the table for new ideas and strategies. Of course, it needs to be on more weapons (which will happen with time), and it might need some buffs (like removing the dumb holes for example), but as a concept I'm excited to see how teams will use it in the future.

 

[ieha]

View attachment 8260

Players with sensory issues before screen would’ve selected themselves out from the game, as it wouldn’t be something they’re able to play whatsoever. Issues are probably there for many already, they just never pick up the game. Screen is highlighted because it takes people who were probably at or near the threshold of being overstimulated and have been playing the game long have suddenly been forced to deal with a special that pushes them past that threshold.

Ahh yeah that's a good point, the game before screen was already pretty chaotic-- never really thought of that cause I myself don't have any issues with the game. Thanks!!!

 

[Winky!]

I'll give my accessibility opinion and my opinion of it as a concept.

For accessibility, its definitely not great since it changes from such vibrant colors into gray scale which is quite a stark difference, and the audio adds to that with how unpleasant it is. I know it triggers migraines for a good chunk of people, and I'm not sure what potential conditions/disorders it could still be affecting.

I've actually really loved the concept that the screen brought to the game. Obscuring vision has always brought a really fun element into fps and tps games. While it may be used at bad times occasionally, I think it could be really strong if used at the right times within a game(going into a number disadvantage and realizing they will push your team). Also learning potential line ups and spot could be a really fun way to up the skill ceiling

This, splattercolor screen is a really cool special design in concept and it's something completely new to splatoon and something splatoon has ever seen,the closest would be using bubble blower and hiding behind the bubbles or swimming into a booyah bomb while it's going off, but the special is just so weak and has more problems than pros, hopefully it gets more tweaking in the coming patches / a full on rework,and I hope the weapons it gets on in the future are sensible strong kits. (Heavy edit noveau maybe?)

 

[MrEgg73]

Ahh yeah that's a good point, the game before screen was already pretty chaotic-- never really thought of that cause I myself don't have any issues with the game. Thanks!!!

This is fair however if the game before screen was too much for someone, they wouldn't be playing it in the first place. Problem now is you've got people who were ok sensorily with the game before, but now they've added something that can push that over the edge. Instead of being filtered out by the game itself, it's people who "passed the filter" being affected and being forced out

This, splattercolor screen is a really cool special design in concept and it's something completely new to splatoon and something splatoon has ever seen,the closest would be using bubble blower and hiding behind the bubbles or swimming into a booyah bomb while it's going off, but the special is just so weak and has more problems than pros, hopefully it gets more tweaking in the coming patches / a full on rework,and I hope the weapons it gets on in the future are sensible strong kits. (Heavy edit noveau maybe?)

This is the annoying part, its really cool design wise and a special messing with perception could have been done in a really cool way but instead of changing what you see and hear, they just added a ton of sensory clutter. I feel like the muffling sound approach would be the right way to go about it at this point

 

[hippoueenv]

its like smokes in cs or val, its supposed to split the enemies so you're taking 2/3v1s at an advantage.

In those games the maps were always designed with smokes in mind, unlike Splatoons maps (which are already very poorly designed), because no vision blocking mechanics existed in Splatoon until 2 months ago. Screen is so massive and the maps are so simplistic with so little routes to manoeuvre through that there just aren't positions to use it where it gives your team a significant advantage. Literally every time Screen gets used it either just ends the fight because everyone backs off and rotates to a different position or everyone just ignores it and takes the 30 damage and be completely uninhibited by the greyscale effect because the effect is an utter joke for a competitive game and only inhibits people physically harmed by it because of a disability.

Even then forcing someone to take the 30 damage and providing nothing else for the team (and outright inhibiting your own team if you have a backliner or someone ready to use a long range special) isn't an effective use of the special, considering Splattercolor Screen is the lowest damage special in the game, and even Super Chumps of all things does at least 35 damage and can hit enemies multiple times. Enemies moving through your Splattercolor Screen will likely also be using their specials and the more powerful damage and secondary effects of their specials will cancel out any advantage you got by forcing them to take 30 damage.

The only success I've had with it is in TC and Rainmaker, using it to stall at the tail end of a push to give my teammates safe super jumps in so we can regain our advantage and keep scoring points. (Note: It's my allies that use it, I would never condemn myself to play a weapon with this special in ranked, and even when I 1 starred Screen weapons for the Sheldon License in Turf Wars I never used the special then either) But people are stupid and use their specials thoughtlessly and I've had many more instances where a teammate uses Screen while we're pushing and we already have the advantage and it either does nothing and we just move through it, or it forces us to stall and let the enemy team regroup, ending the push.

Those games are also far slower paced than Splatoon and they also have voice chat to communicate. There's no way for my ally to coordinate their Screen with me, if I use my Trizooka or Crab Tank right when my teammate uses Screen, we've basically just wasted 2 specials.

Anyways I'm Splattercolor Screens No. 1 biggest hater from literally every possible perspective that you could analyse this special weapon from and I'm probably gonna dump 1k+ words of my thoughts on it when I return to this thread sometime tomorrow. (Spoiler: I think it should be removed from the game)

 

[BJ8649]

Discuss.

Nintendo once again lives up to its reputation of being the anti accessibility company
fr tho screen not only isnt very good rn, it causes issues for the players too
Terrible design tbh
Literally no reason to use it unless reworked

 

[BJ8649]

Nintendo once again lives up to its reputation of being the anti accessibility company
fr tho screen not only isnt very good rn, it causes issues for the players too
Terrible design tbh
Literally no reason to use it unless reworked

An idea i had for a rework is for the special to very literally splatter colors on your screen. As in, your screen gets obscured by multiple large and semi opaque ink splatters
The ink colors will be different shades of the screen's ink color to prevent nausea

 

[Takan]

My opinion on screen is that it has no place in a game like this. On a game where maps are straight lines and people are moving, shooting, using specials, and throwing bombs a lot, adding something that can completely block your vision on all of that is awful game design. It’s obvious that screen is made to be a direct counter to long/mid-range stuff, and works well for that purpose. But is it worth the accessibility issues people have? Is it even the hassle to rework it and make it less annoying and have no accessibility problems when it should’ve never been in the game in the first place? This special just feels unfinished, and I wouldn’t be surprised if nintendo doesn’t fix the audio or changes the special to be better competitively and it eventually becomes a kit killer akin to angle shooter.

 

[CookieOCE]

instead of desaturating the screen they could limit visibility by giving the victim foggy vision like in salmon run? which would turn it into a near-sighted blindness effect instead of destroying all colour perception

 

[vvorm]

View attachment 8260

Players with sensory issues before screen would’ve selected themselves out from the game, as it wouldn’t be something they’re able to play whatsoever. Issues are probably there for many already, they just never pick up the game. Screen is highlighted because it takes people who were probably at or near the threshold of being overstimulated and have been playing the game long have suddenly been forced to deal with a special that pushes them past that threshold.

^thiss
and also something ive noticed in all this conversation is that a lot of people dont really understand why screen or other elements in the game can make autistic players (or people with hearing/sight sensory issues) overwhelmed.
The issue with screen is that its effects were are still actively harmful, which is a different experience from sensory overload. The effect on the audio hurts yall ://
I shut down whenever hit the special, like i am not processing what is happening at that point. This is not an experience i ever have with the rest of the game.

 

[SquidHunterX]

At the end of the day, it's Nintendo's fault for designing such a **** special. I never liked the concept of it and don't think it's practical enough compared to what other specials can do and are doing. It does exist though, so the best we can do to be able to accommodate to everyone (since people do use it) is regulate its usage- aka getting that opt in/out system going.

 

[LegoSquirrel]

An idea i had for a rework is for the special to very literally splatter colors on your screen. As in, your screen gets obscured by multiple large and semi opaque ink splatters
The ink colors will be different shades of the screen's ink color to prevent nausea

Turning screen into the mario kart blooper effect would be very funny
It would be more accessible and honestly probably more effective than the current effect, though I'm not convinced it fits the special all that much
maybe if they just made both ink colors appear identical, with no other visual changes, that could be closer in theming and execution to the special's conceptual design

 

[hippoueenv]

Okay it's Splattercolor Screens No. 1 biggest hater here. Here is every reason why Splattercolor Screen is a horrific affront to humanity:

First things first, have you LOOKED at this things design. Not even like it's gameplay design, just what this thing looks like. Beginning with the canister itself, would you be able to tell what the scallop is going on there at first glance? It's supposed to be a bottle of bubble solution, but has the person who designed this canister ever in their life SEEN a bubble bottle? It's like a painting of baby Jesus from the 15th century; you can just tell that the monk who made it has never seen a baby before. The bottle itself with the industrial cap, is reminiscent of a protein shaker, with the strap on the side, the latch closing the lid and especially because the bubble wand inside of the bottle could easily be mistaken for the implement inside of a protein shaker to mix your workout shake.

Now, after reading all that and then looking back at the Splattercolor Screen canister, you might think you've got it all figured out and that the magenta piece in the middle of the lid is the handle for the bubble wand. WRONG. Look at these official blueprints for Splattercolor Screen:

LOOK AT THE SHAFT OF THE BUBBLE WAND AND LOOK AT THE SHAFT OF THE HANDLE. THEY DON'T LINE UP. What you might assume is a handle for the bubble wand is actually a joystick??? So add that to the list of design inspirations for Splattercolor Screen. Looking at the lid more closely, it SCREWS ON. SO WHY IS THERE A LATCH??? IS THE LATCH JUST THERE TO ATTACH THE PERIPHERAL STRAP??? YOU DON'T NEED THE STRAP. INKLINGS HAVE OPPOSABLE THUMBS THEY CAN HOLD CYLINDERS!!!

Continuing to look at these blueprints, there's just some sort of circuit board and a random button. It seems like you're supposed to use the joystick and the button to configure the liquid in some way. But the only thing actually touching the liquid is the bubble wand so how does a circuit board affect a bubble wand to affect the liquid and how are you supposed to use a joystick and ONE BUTTON to control this??? And as far as we know, Splattercolor Screen has ONE effect. Exploding and blinding enemies. Why couldn't this effect be automatically be applied to the liquid. Why does the user need to play Pac-Man to use their special weapon.

Also, pay attention to the warning sign on the blueprint right next to the graphic of the liquid affecting the enemies eyes. Yeah. That's a little bit cruel and ironic, isn't it.

Moving on from the canister to the screen itself. It seems like the screen keeps its shape by 2 bendy straws on either side, but they're really just stretched out bubble wands that LOOK like bendy straws. I don't have it in me to suspend my beliefs enough to think that a tiny bubble wand that could fit in your hand could extend THAT MUCH to fit a GIANT SCREEN.

Talking about the screen itself, the pattern on the screen is marbled paper. Made from oil paints. Not bubble solution. Somehow touching marbled paper created by a knock-off raspberry pi controlling a bubble wand mixing bubble solution, makes you see the world in greyscale and makes you hear tv static. Excellent.

And moving onto the name. "Splattercolor Screen". Apparently it's a pun on watercolors? Paper marbling doesn't use watercolors. It uses water and colors, believe it or not, but not watercolors. I've gone on record saying I'd burn down the house of the localisers who named Big Swig Roller and Heavy Edit Splatling. But Splattercolor Screen is actually the worst name in all of Splatoon.

Like can WE STOP USING THE WORD SPLAT AS A PUN. FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY. STOP. We have Splattershot, Splattershot Jr. Splattershot Pro, Splattershot Nova, Splat Bombs, Splatlings, Splat Brella, Splatanas, Splattercolor Screen. WE GET IT. THE GAMES CALLED SPLATOON. I CAN'T WAIT TO BOOT UP OVERWATCH 2 AND PLAY MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER OVERWATCH AND FIGHT PEOPLE WITH MY OVERWATCH SHOOTER AND MY OVERWATCH BOMB. DON'T YOU GET SO EXCITED WHEN YOU'RE PLAYING FORNITE AND OPEN A CHEST AND GET THE FORTNITE BAZOOKA? CONGRATULATIONS. WE'VE SOLVED LOCALISATION. GO HOME.

THE JAPANESE VERSIONS OF THESE NAMES DON'T OVERUSE THE WORD SPLAT. BECAUSE SPLAT IS AN IN-GAME BRAND THAT PRODUCES WEAPONS. SPLATLINGS, THE SPLAT BRELLA AND SPLATANAS AREN'T PRODUCED BY SPLAT IN-GAME, BUT THE ENGLISH LOCALISERS NAMED THEM THIS WAY ANYWAYS.

I can excuse Splatlings and Splatanas because those are admittedly clever puns. And don't get me wrong, Splat Brella is kind of a catchy name. (Regardless, when I am reborn in Tarterus I will find the person who named the Splat Brella and strap them to a stalactite) But Splattercolor Screen. If you pronounce Splatter and Water the same way, I will turn you into a jellyfish and you will experience the endless suffering of eternal life. It's inexcusable. The hodgepodge of design inspirations for this special weapon. Bubble wands, protein shakers, circuit boards, retro controllers, paper marbling, colour blindness, tv static. And then the pun is based off of watercolors. WATER. COLORS.

For context for how ridiculous all of this is. Look at how concise and perfect the aesthetic design of Reefslider is. It's an inflatable pool toy (a shark), kept on a track made of buoy barriers, launched by soda bottles, and references the Akira Slide. The name Reefslider comes from the place where sharks live and also references the Akira Slide. A couple of closely knit inspirations that mesh together well and 1 outlandish reference that fits the whacky nature of Splatoon but manages to keep the specials design cohesive. Maybe these devs could take notes from the specials they designed a year prior to Splattercolor Screen, as ridiculous as this sentence sounds.

Lets move on to the gameplay design of Splattercolor Screen.

Smokescreens don't work for Splatoon. They could, but they don't. Not with these maps. What a lot of people don't seem to realise is that map design is one of the most important things for a game like Splatoon. There are quite a few weapons in Splatoon that are garbage or overpowered because of the map design and only the map design.

In other competitive shooters with smokescreens, there are quite a few features that their maps have that Splatoon doesn't, that makes smokescreens work. They have many routes through the middle of the map and they have many side routes. They have enclosed rooms in conjunction with open areas. Every choke point has at least 3+ entrances. I'm not an expert on these other shooters, but I've played them enough to see that the maps are what make smokescreens viable and makes them feel balanced and fun to play into.

Hey you know what shooter has a similar map design philosophy to Splatoon? Overwatch. Does Overwatch have smokescreens? No. I wonder if that means something.

The kicker is that the devs already know smokescreens suck for Splatoon. Between Splatoon 2 and 3, they adjusted Ink Storms and Toxic Mist to make it easier to see through them. Ink Storm and Toxic Mist already weren't completely opaque, and they were adjusted. SO WHY DID THEY COMPLETELY JUST RIP OFF THE BAND-AID AND ADD A GIANT SMOKESCREEN TO THE GAME?

One game of playing with Splattercolor Screen tells you all you need to know that the smokescreen just doesn't work. That there aren't good positions to use it in. That it either just makes everyone back off and stalls the match or 1 side ignores it and just walks through it. That it's so easy to use it in in an uncoordinated way to give your team the disadvantage. We know they play tested this special. There's gameplay in the trailer that revealed it. HOW DID IT MAKE IT INTO THE FINAL GAME.

Lets move onto the debuffs Splattercolor Screen gives you. I'm not gonna talk about how it effects disabled people. I know. I have Retinitis Pigmentosa, the greyscale effect causes eye pain and headaches for me. But the discussion about disabled people has been going on for 2 months. If you're actually reading this post, you already know the deal.

There's 2 types of debuffs in a video game. One effects the gameplay, one effects the player. Debuffs that effect the player are flat out UNCOMPETITIVE. This isn't up for debate.

What makes a mechanic uncompetitive?

1. It removes skill expression from the game. In any situation in a competitive game, the more skilled player should perform better. With something like Triple Splashdown, it's uncompetitive because it's binary, there's one way to use it. There's one way to deal with it. You put an S rank player and a 3000xp X rank player in the same exact situation and they'll do the exact same thing. If you're using it, you just press the button when someone's in your 1-shot range. If it's being used on you, you run away if you're in the one-shot range, and if you have time to do both, you can point upwards and kill them.
   Splattercolor Screen removes skill for a different reason. You can't control how your body manages seeing the game in greyscale and hearing tv static. Removing audio processing disorders and light sensitivity from the equation, there's still a discrepancy here. The effect doesn't inhibit everyone equally and there isn't an easy or fast way of practising to get over it. If you're lucky and not inhibited by these effects, congratulations, you now have an advantage against more skilled players who ARE inhibited by these effects for free. If you are inhibited, you might have a way of getting over it, you might not, and you'll lose in situations you would've otherwise easily won because you got unlucky with the circumstances of your birth. You might be able to practice and get better at fighting through these effects, but even if that works and even if you aren't disabled, practicing this sort of thing for so long will be a strain on your eyes and ears.
2. It's just not fun. Competitive games require an element of fun to be competitive. You need to want to strive to improve. You need to enjoy the game. You need to not get bored when playing the game. It needs to not be a chore. At least with Splashdown, getting a kill with it is satisfying, and on the other end, killing someone in the middle of their Splashdown is exhilarating. For Splattercolor Screen, does anyone actually enjoy getting their senses stripped away from them? If you miss the sound of a bomb and die because of the static sound, no one thinks "aw GG, they got me." No one hands it to the enemy team when they lose because of Splattercolor Screens effects. It feels cheap when you lose to it, akin to someone screen peeking or abusing a glitch.
3. It limits choices. There is no or limited counterplay. Like with Kraken Cheese. There's 1 thing that stops Kraken Cheese when it gets going and that's killing the super jumpers on frame 1 with Triple Inkstrikes. You don't have Triple Inkstrikes? Well then you better hope that there's a huge skill gap between your team and the enemy team so that you can lock them out of mid, because if they get the opportunity to score then they're going to get a massive amount of points with no counterplay. With Splattercolor Screen, is there even any counterplay? It's just a thing that happens. It's like asking if there's counterplay to the spinners on Museum d'Alfonsino. You're either inhibited by the effects or you're not. If you want to play the game and not stall for 10 seconds, you're forced to just take it.

You wouldn't toy with the idea of a debuff that flips the screen upside down or inverts your controls. Yet somehow a greyscale effect gets a pass, despite suffering from the same exact problems, just slightly more bearable. These are all debuffs that effect the player and not the game, and they SUCK. And to the people in this thread suggesting something similar to the blooper from Mario Kart. I see you, and I will duel you for my honor.

There are so many ideas for debuffs that don't involve the player that Splatoon doesn't have. What if there was an effect that temporarily disabled your sub and special weapons? What if there was an effect that gave you increased run and swim speed when moving towards a target inhibited by it? What if there was an effect that temporarily puts the ground in stasis, preventing both teams from painting over ink? There is an endless waterfall of creativity that comes with a game like Splatoon and they choose a greyscale effect. Abhorrent.

It's honestly absurd how Splattercolor Screen got into the final game. Surely after testing it you'd realise it's hot garbage. In the studio of any other game developer that makes competitive shooters, this idea wouldn't make it past the first round of play-testing. In a perfect world, no one would even THINK about Splattercolor Screen, and it would only appear in our nightmares. Maybe this entire universe IS a nightmare. Maybe when I hit send on this post, I'll finally be granted the sweet release of death. My world will crumble, time nor space will remain, and Hishashi Nogami will wake up in a cold sweat in his bed at 2 AM, crying tears of joy that he lives in a world where Splatoon 3 doesn't have Splattercolor Screen.

On another note. Why couldn't Bubble Blower come back? Splattercolor Screen is clearly a vague iteration on Bubble Blower. Wasn't Bubble Blower almost universally beloved? Maybe it couldn't have been a simple rework like Inkzooka to Trizooka. Maybe they didn't want to iterate on the special like they did for Kraken to Kraken Royale. But not even an evolution of the special that only keeps the bones of the design, like Bubbler to Big Bubbler?
If you're going to make Splattercolor Screen so different anyways, why keep any indication that it's related to Bubble Blower. Why taunt us. Why make us yearn for a better world.

I don't get it. Sure, the Splat Bomb + Bubble Blower combo was broken. OH NO. A SPECIAL THAT DETONATES AND KILLS YOU IN UNDER A SECOND. WOULDN'T IT BE CRAZY IF IN SPLATOON 3, THERE WAS A SPECIAL WEAPON THAT COULD ALSO KILL YOU IN UNDER A SECOND, BUT WITH FAR MORE RANGE THAN THE BUBBLE BLOWER, WITHOUT THE NEED FOR BEING PAIRED WITH A SPECIFIC SUB WEAPON?
Even in that case, there are other broken combos possible in Splatoon 3. .52 Gal with Burst Bomb. .96 Gal with Burst Bomb. Splat Roller with Burst Bomb. A lot of things that deal 50+ damage very fast + Burst Bomb. Jet Squelcher + Tenta Missiles. Hell, Torpedo + Tenta Missiles is definitely broken, but they gave it to the Goo Tuber and it's still hot garbage. Just give Splat Bomb + Bubble Blower to the Undercover Brella. Like, just because a ridiculous combo exists doesn't mean it needs to happen. Like great, pack it up guys. Splash Wall + Zipcaster is a hot garbage combination, I guess we have to delete Zipcaster now. Congratulations you've solved game design. No more need for video games I guess.

Oh well. I hope Splattercolor Screen ends up like Stingray, never getting put on more weapons and being absent from the next installment of the game. Hopefully they've learnt their lesson. On a positive note, the recent buffs to Wave Breaker and Ink Storm are really promising because it shows that they're thinking about special weapons in a different way and it makes me hopeful for the state of special weapons at the end of Splatoon 3's lifespan and the beginning of Splatoon 4. If you're reading this last paragraph, why the shell did you read all of this. And if you didn't read of all this, why did you skim through my post and only look at the last paragraph. I hate you.

 

[vitellary]

that seems a bit harsh

there's a lot of aspects of that that i don't really think are fair criticisms (disregarding the critique of the visual design which i don't think is a big deal). specifically the 2nd and 3rd points in the "uncompetitive special design" section feel like they're a bit exaggerated: whether it's "fun" or not is very obviously a subjective thing and can't really be disputed as something that affects the quality of the special, and there's plenty of counterplay. at least, there's as much counterplay with it as there is with storm, a special that nearly no one claims is poorly designed (in fact, you praised storm's design in your essay!)

this isn't meant to be a gotcha, it's obvious the special has problems, but a lot of that feels like it's looking to criticize Every Single Little Thing about it, which really you could do for any special in the game to make it look bad. it doesn't feel constructive to nitpick something to such minute details when the glaringly obvious problems are more important to discuss anyway

 

[hippoueenv]

Yes that is because I am Splattercolor Screens no. 1 biggest hater