OnePotWonder
Inkling Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2024
- Messages
- 871
- Location
- Marooner’s Bay
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Switch Friend Code
- SW-2068-8904-6306
The educated inkfish among us should already be aware of the fact that Side Order, as it is today, is very different from the initial teaser for the mode and much of its concept art. Those tasteful inkfish among us should know that Side Order as a mode is not great.
The story is bland, with Eight's motivations for climbing the spire being completely artificial, and them gaining nothing from even clearing it with their own palette. The only character to receive any kind of growth or development is Smollusk, with Acht doing virtually nothing for the mode's story or lore. The most we get on them is distant background information from clearing the spire with... Eight's palette? The gameplay also quickly gets repetitive, with campaign mode gimmicks being used in one or two stages each.
So, what happened? What made the mode like this? Well, I have a theory. A GAM-
The first point of the theory is straightforward: Side Order was originally supposed to be a roguelike, not a roguelite. Marina's hacks were added in the last few months of development, presumably after Nintendo's play testers had awful taste and found the mode too punishing. The mode is clearly balanced around the default amount of hacks: 3 lives, 1x enemy damage, and slight color chip bias. You can even regenerate lost lives by buying more at Vending Machine Corners. Hacks were added after the mode had already been balanced, and keeping up the difficulty ended up becoming impossible. This is why the mode is so easy with full hacks.
The second point of the mode addresses the story: Marina Agitando was supposed to be the final boss, or a fake-out final boss. Order was supposed to only appear for the cinematic final battle. She was removed from this role in order to justify hacks as a gameplay device. If this hadn't happened and Marina remained the final boss, it would have had several significant *positive* consequences on the story.
For one, we wouldn't have had ninety percent of the elevator dialogue be Pearlina fan service. More importantly, Eight would have actually had a personal reason to climb the spire in rescuing Marina. Even more importantly, Acht would have an actual role in the story beyond being a third wheel to Off the Hook, being a relatable confused character in the same boat as Eight. But most importantly, and the one thing that would have saved the story, the nature of the Memverse would remain a mystery, revealed exclusively through Marina's dev logs. With the exception of Order, who would only be revealed once a player defeats Marina in the floor 30 Control Room.
With these two points alone, the setting of the memverse instantly becomes a lot more interesting, since information about it is drip-fed to the player over their many attempts at the spire with different palettes, rather than completely dropped on them after clearing the tutorial spire. Additionally, thanks to the lack of hacks, players would struggle to quickly clear the 30 floor spire and get all of the lore for free by rescuing Marina. There's a ton of evidence that this is how the mode was originally designed, since it all fits together perfectly. Even the Color Chip Collection and Jelleton Field Guide support this; they're both designed to give players insights on how to defeat enemies and create builds more effectively, already serving as a way for players to get stronger between runs by learning new information and tactics.
Oh, but I'm not done just yet. Remember the original teaser and concept art? Yeah, I'm covering that too.
Side Order's memversal setting was already set in place from when it was first revealed, but the theme of the memverse used to be a lot darker and more sinister, with Eight starting out in a much grittier, more corrupted place than what we have in-game. Marina was planned to be the boss of the mode ever since Team Order lost Splatoon 2's Final Fest, following in the footsteps of Callie after her team lost Splatoon 1's Final Fest. Side Order originally tried to follow in the aesthetic footsteps of Octo Expansion, with Eight awaking in a mysterious place (possibly with Pearl, possibly alone) and trying to figure out its true nature while traversing its trials. Acht was supposed to fill the role Off the Hook filled in Octo Expansion. It only stands to reason that the developers would start with the formula they knew worked for Octo Expansion.
The only thing I can't concretely explain is the repetitive stages. I only assume that the developers were scrambling with developmental upheavals and didn't have time to put a lot of effort into creating interesting floors while also keeping their difficulty balanced. This could also explain the addition of Danger; a shoddy, easy-to-implement fix to add difficulty and diversity to existing floors without changing their actual layouts.
To say I wish the developers had stuck with this theorized original vision doesn't come close to how I actually feel. If I had a wish to spend, I would use it on restoring this mode to its unrealized glory. Side Order isn't a bad mode, but it's easily the biggest miss the developers have had in the series what with just how hard it could have hit if it were executed properly.
Ultimately, TL;DR: My theory is that we have disgruntled play testers to blame for Side Order being mediocre.
Thank you for listening to my ramblings.
Have a wonderful day.
The story is bland, with Eight's motivations for climbing the spire being completely artificial, and them gaining nothing from even clearing it with their own palette. The only character to receive any kind of growth or development is Smollusk, with Acht doing virtually nothing for the mode's story or lore. The most we get on them is distant background information from clearing the spire with... Eight's palette? The gameplay also quickly gets repetitive, with campaign mode gimmicks being used in one or two stages each.
So, what happened? What made the mode like this? Well, I have a theory. A GAM-
The first point of the theory is straightforward: Side Order was originally supposed to be a roguelike, not a roguelite. Marina's hacks were added in the last few months of development, presumably after Nintendo's play testers had awful taste and found the mode too punishing. The mode is clearly balanced around the default amount of hacks: 3 lives, 1x enemy damage, and slight color chip bias. You can even regenerate lost lives by buying more at Vending Machine Corners. Hacks were added after the mode had already been balanced, and keeping up the difficulty ended up becoming impossible. This is why the mode is so easy with full hacks.
The second point of the mode addresses the story: Marina Agitando was supposed to be the final boss, or a fake-out final boss. Order was supposed to only appear for the cinematic final battle. She was removed from this role in order to justify hacks as a gameplay device. If this hadn't happened and Marina remained the final boss, it would have had several significant *positive* consequences on the story.
For one, we wouldn't have had ninety percent of the elevator dialogue be Pearlina fan service. More importantly, Eight would have actually had a personal reason to climb the spire in rescuing Marina. Even more importantly, Acht would have an actual role in the story beyond being a third wheel to Off the Hook, being a relatable confused character in the same boat as Eight. But most importantly, and the one thing that would have saved the story, the nature of the Memverse would remain a mystery, revealed exclusively through Marina's dev logs. With the exception of Order, who would only be revealed once a player defeats Marina in the floor 30 Control Room.
With these two points alone, the setting of the memverse instantly becomes a lot more interesting, since information about it is drip-fed to the player over their many attempts at the spire with different palettes, rather than completely dropped on them after clearing the tutorial spire. Additionally, thanks to the lack of hacks, players would struggle to quickly clear the 30 floor spire and get all of the lore for free by rescuing Marina. There's a ton of evidence that this is how the mode was originally designed, since it all fits together perfectly. Even the Color Chip Collection and Jelleton Field Guide support this; they're both designed to give players insights on how to defeat enemies and create builds more effectively, already serving as a way for players to get stronger between runs by learning new information and tactics.
Oh, but I'm not done just yet. Remember the original teaser and concept art? Yeah, I'm covering that too.
Side Order's memversal setting was already set in place from when it was first revealed, but the theme of the memverse used to be a lot darker and more sinister, with Eight starting out in a much grittier, more corrupted place than what we have in-game. Marina was planned to be the boss of the mode ever since Team Order lost Splatoon 2's Final Fest, following in the footsteps of Callie after her team lost Splatoon 1's Final Fest. Side Order originally tried to follow in the aesthetic footsteps of Octo Expansion, with Eight awaking in a mysterious place (possibly with Pearl, possibly alone) and trying to figure out its true nature while traversing its trials. Acht was supposed to fill the role Off the Hook filled in Octo Expansion. It only stands to reason that the developers would start with the formula they knew worked for Octo Expansion.
The only thing I can't concretely explain is the repetitive stages. I only assume that the developers were scrambling with developmental upheavals and didn't have time to put a lot of effort into creating interesting floors while also keeping their difficulty balanced. This could also explain the addition of Danger; a shoddy, easy-to-implement fix to add difficulty and diversity to existing floors without changing their actual layouts.
To say I wish the developers had stuck with this theorized original vision doesn't come close to how I actually feel. If I had a wish to spend, I would use it on restoring this mode to its unrealized glory. Side Order isn't a bad mode, but it's easily the biggest miss the developers have had in the series what with just how hard it could have hit if it were executed properly.
Ultimately, TL;DR: My theory is that we have disgruntled play testers to blame for Side Order being mediocre.
Thank you for listening to my ramblings.
Have a wonderful day.