Cyan
Inkling Commander
Before I start off, this thread is going to be aimed at the discussion of the demo (which should also be the Testfire next month). As of right now the only people able to contribute more in depth thoughts are those who have played the demo at an event (as I was fortunate enough to yesterday in London). Of course you can still contribute on what you have seen from footage on YouTube and other sites. Once the Testfire is over this thread can possibly continue with thoughts about the updated news of weapons/specials/subs and tweaks to weapon classes should there be more, although it may be better to throw that at the main sticky we have at the time of writing.
As was just briefly stated I attended a Nintendo Switch event on Sunday in London. It was a 2hr event with Splatoon 2, Breath of the Wild, Snipperclips, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Snipperclips, ARMS and 1, 2, Switch. My train of thought will be focused purely on Splatoon 2 here. As for the demo, it was typical bog-standard stuff: The Reef was the only map, you had the tutorial section and played one match, then the demo ended (basically a modified version that only ran one match before stopping) and the same 4 weapons were playable. The only control scheme available was the Joycon Grip (aka Dog Controller), as the event was trying to show off all the different ways to play Switch.
First off I will say that the Joycon Grip felt very awkward at first due to the placement of the ZL/ZR buttons (the most important buttons for Splatoon, but after about 30 seconds in the tutorial section I got to grips with it and it seems like the Joycon Grip will suffice for most regular users, although those with the money should go with the Pro Controller, as that felt way more intuitive and comfortable to hold (even though I only got to use it on BOTW). The control sticks don't have great range on the Joycons, doesn't take much to hit the full range, so it may be harder to get precise control and directions with the Grip control scheme. It definitely felt more sensitive when using the right stick to rotate the camera, so it could be either a side effect of the smaller radius or that the stick control for the camera has increased sensitivity (the regular motion felt like Splatoon's default -1). There definitely will be difficulty trying to jump and use the right stick for camera swings with the Joycons due to the face buttons being so high up compared to the stick. As for the size of the Joycon Grip that was the best part, it fits the hands nicely and has a pretty comfortable back to hold on to.
As for the demo and weapons itself, I managed to get 2 rounds in total, and picked the Splat Dualies first to try out the roll and Inkjet, and the Roller for the vertical flick and increased roll speed buff (something I noticed during the Treehouse stream in January). As I've seen others mention, the Splat Dualies definitely feel similar to the Splattershot Jr. in both range and kill time, but because 3 mins isn't long enough to guarantee that is entirely the case. They're a 4 shot splat (like the Jr.) and are on the shorter side of the range spectrum, but obviously comes with the benefit of being way more accurate than the Jr. and obviously the roll feature helps it avoid shots or get in close quicker (or both in the right circumstance). The roll is really nice and it helped me once where I weakened an enemy Splattershot, they started shooting at me as they went past (heading right on my screen) when I rolled to the right, dodged the shots and finished them off, so the roll should definitely help win firefights, especially if you got a few shots in before being spotted/attacked. The Inkjet itself feels pretty slow when manoeuvring around and is quite tricky to aim with due to the elevation and how the map geography can push you higher or lower as you move (you have a fixed height above the ground which is why the geography can mess with your aim). I did get a lucky direct as someone moved into my shot and it was an instant splat, but I think I also got a few chip damage splats (makes it an AoE like Blasters). Definitely gave me the impression that it was a weaker/more "balanced" Inkzooka special, since you are way more vulnerable, have less movement, but still have unlimited range and the potential OHKO. Because of it being an event, most people were not experienced with Splatoon so they didn't camp out the return marker for the Inkjet, but that is also a thing to consider. Also you can't use your sub weapon whilst you have the Inkjet on, I definitely recall hitting R and not throwing a Suction Bomb. As for that match, we pretty much dominated and I went 13-0, but that's more to me being experienced with 1 and more familiar with the game and mechanics than the opposition (I have around 812hrs on Splatoon 1 at the time of playing it). Overall very excited for the Dualies and the roll, can't wait to see variations on it and different sets for it (the vanilla Dualies seem to have the Tentatek set with the Suction Bomb and Inkjet).
The Splat Roller feels really nice now, and finally seems to have a way to be more viable this time around. The vertical flick is so useful for having more range and dealing chip damage (definitely does not splat those at max range), and allows the Splat Roller to get rid of the issue where it was steadily outclassed as more weapons came out with better range and TTKs (amongst the few nerfs it received). It felt like the lethal splat range was equal to that of the regular flick, but it might be extended a little further forward than that. In any case, you can always follow up a horizontal flick that barely missed the centre splat hitbox with a vertical if they retreat, or finish off an opponent another teammate weakened. The roll speed increase after 2-3 seconds of rolling feels really nice too, as it can cover ground faster now and be less of a liability in potential turf loss than it is in 1 (ignoring the Dynamo of course). The Curling Bomb is really interesting, I only used it 2 or 3 times in the match, but was slightly surprised at its ink usage, so I fully filled up my tank and fired one off and it seems to use about 70% of your ink tank, which makes it one of the more ink intensive subs. Aside from that the kit for this weapon is a gigantic improvement over the original Splat Roller, Suctions were great for climbing walls and leaving traps, but weren't useful in securing splats with the main weapon whereas now you have a sub that can be used more strategically for splats on top of the fact that they paint a path for you like Seekers do. Splashdown seems to be similar to the Killer Wail for vulnerability during it, because from what I've seen on YouTube you can get splatted at any time in the animation, even when you've performed the attack (there was a trade on a video where one roller vertical flicked them and they both got splatted more or less simultaneously). Even with that it still seems better than the Killer Wail for what it can do for the roller, but I think that will become irrelevant if you can camp the user by throwing a Suction Bomb or Splat Bomb in the centre of the radius so they get splatted as soon as they land. Time will tell to see how useful Splashdown is, but it seems to have more utility than the Wail. I went 12-1 with the Splat Roller (I got run over by an enemy Roller as my vertical flick didn't come out in time), again another complete domination match.
The Reef is a bit of an odd map for me, it played better than I expected (I was not happy with the small area of map both teams have access to), but it is very easy to get disorientated on which spawn belongs to your team due to the lack of major landmarks to help you. Whilst the map has a fair chunk blocked off to presumably block spawn camps, you can still camp fairly efficiently on the far left, but the sections by the water should stop complete camps and lockouts because of how far away that is from the drop down by the tree. Curious to see how the other maps play out, and I hope that they are bigger and easier to distinguish what side of the map you're on with landmarks and clear differences on the map design.
The game still feels like 1 with the physics and main mechanics, but at the same time still generates an entirely fresh (no pun intended) feeling with the specials alone. Combining that with the Splat Dualies and changes to the Roller and Charger and we've only scratched the surface with how much this game has changed and what else there is to come. Final thing that I noticed is pushing X to bring the map up on the results screen shows you the map like the one on the GamePad, which is kind of irrelevant but still there. It definitely will take getting used to super jumping that way, but you can still move and shoot whilst looking at the map, just that spotting a player to jump means seeing them and finding the button that the game mapped to them, but jumping to spawn will be extremely easy since you just tap X, hold Down and push A, which can be done in seconds.
So those are my thoughts on what I played of it so far, definitely like it so far and am interested to see if we get another weapon class, not to mention any new subs and specials left to be announced (I believe the devs have said that there will be more specials in the game than 1 had, so there should be around 2-4 specials yet to be unveiled, maybe more). If you've played the demo at a Switch event, what are your thoughts and opinions? What control schemes were available and what weapons did you play? I also look forward to your thoughts and opinions on the Testfire, how the different sessions evolve and what you learn from it. Until next time, Stay Fresh! :P
As was just briefly stated I attended a Nintendo Switch event on Sunday in London. It was a 2hr event with Splatoon 2, Breath of the Wild, Snipperclips, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Snipperclips, ARMS and 1, 2, Switch. My train of thought will be focused purely on Splatoon 2 here. As for the demo, it was typical bog-standard stuff: The Reef was the only map, you had the tutorial section and played one match, then the demo ended (basically a modified version that only ran one match before stopping) and the same 4 weapons were playable. The only control scheme available was the Joycon Grip (aka Dog Controller), as the event was trying to show off all the different ways to play Switch.
First off I will say that the Joycon Grip felt very awkward at first due to the placement of the ZL/ZR buttons (the most important buttons for Splatoon, but after about 30 seconds in the tutorial section I got to grips with it and it seems like the Joycon Grip will suffice for most regular users, although those with the money should go with the Pro Controller, as that felt way more intuitive and comfortable to hold (even though I only got to use it on BOTW). The control sticks don't have great range on the Joycons, doesn't take much to hit the full range, so it may be harder to get precise control and directions with the Grip control scheme. It definitely felt more sensitive when using the right stick to rotate the camera, so it could be either a side effect of the smaller radius or that the stick control for the camera has increased sensitivity (the regular motion felt like Splatoon's default -1). There definitely will be difficulty trying to jump and use the right stick for camera swings with the Joycons due to the face buttons being so high up compared to the stick. As for the size of the Joycon Grip that was the best part, it fits the hands nicely and has a pretty comfortable back to hold on to.
As for the demo and weapons itself, I managed to get 2 rounds in total, and picked the Splat Dualies first to try out the roll and Inkjet, and the Roller for the vertical flick and increased roll speed buff (something I noticed during the Treehouse stream in January). As I've seen others mention, the Splat Dualies definitely feel similar to the Splattershot Jr. in both range and kill time, but because 3 mins isn't long enough to guarantee that is entirely the case. They're a 4 shot splat (like the Jr.) and are on the shorter side of the range spectrum, but obviously comes with the benefit of being way more accurate than the Jr. and obviously the roll feature helps it avoid shots or get in close quicker (or both in the right circumstance). The roll is really nice and it helped me once where I weakened an enemy Splattershot, they started shooting at me as they went past (heading right on my screen) when I rolled to the right, dodged the shots and finished them off, so the roll should definitely help win firefights, especially if you got a few shots in before being spotted/attacked. The Inkjet itself feels pretty slow when manoeuvring around and is quite tricky to aim with due to the elevation and how the map geography can push you higher or lower as you move (you have a fixed height above the ground which is why the geography can mess with your aim). I did get a lucky direct as someone moved into my shot and it was an instant splat, but I think I also got a few chip damage splats (makes it an AoE like Blasters). Definitely gave me the impression that it was a weaker/more "balanced" Inkzooka special, since you are way more vulnerable, have less movement, but still have unlimited range and the potential OHKO. Because of it being an event, most people were not experienced with Splatoon so they didn't camp out the return marker for the Inkjet, but that is also a thing to consider. Also you can't use your sub weapon whilst you have the Inkjet on, I definitely recall hitting R and not throwing a Suction Bomb. As for that match, we pretty much dominated and I went 13-0, but that's more to me being experienced with 1 and more familiar with the game and mechanics than the opposition (I have around 812hrs on Splatoon 1 at the time of playing it). Overall very excited for the Dualies and the roll, can't wait to see variations on it and different sets for it (the vanilla Dualies seem to have the Tentatek set with the Suction Bomb and Inkjet).
The Splat Roller feels really nice now, and finally seems to have a way to be more viable this time around. The vertical flick is so useful for having more range and dealing chip damage (definitely does not splat those at max range), and allows the Splat Roller to get rid of the issue where it was steadily outclassed as more weapons came out with better range and TTKs (amongst the few nerfs it received). It felt like the lethal splat range was equal to that of the regular flick, but it might be extended a little further forward than that. In any case, you can always follow up a horizontal flick that barely missed the centre splat hitbox with a vertical if they retreat, or finish off an opponent another teammate weakened. The roll speed increase after 2-3 seconds of rolling feels really nice too, as it can cover ground faster now and be less of a liability in potential turf loss than it is in 1 (ignoring the Dynamo of course). The Curling Bomb is really interesting, I only used it 2 or 3 times in the match, but was slightly surprised at its ink usage, so I fully filled up my tank and fired one off and it seems to use about 70% of your ink tank, which makes it one of the more ink intensive subs. Aside from that the kit for this weapon is a gigantic improvement over the original Splat Roller, Suctions were great for climbing walls and leaving traps, but weren't useful in securing splats with the main weapon whereas now you have a sub that can be used more strategically for splats on top of the fact that they paint a path for you like Seekers do. Splashdown seems to be similar to the Killer Wail for vulnerability during it, because from what I've seen on YouTube you can get splatted at any time in the animation, even when you've performed the attack (there was a trade on a video where one roller vertical flicked them and they both got splatted more or less simultaneously). Even with that it still seems better than the Killer Wail for what it can do for the roller, but I think that will become irrelevant if you can camp the user by throwing a Suction Bomb or Splat Bomb in the centre of the radius so they get splatted as soon as they land. Time will tell to see how useful Splashdown is, but it seems to have more utility than the Wail. I went 12-1 with the Splat Roller (I got run over by an enemy Roller as my vertical flick didn't come out in time), again another complete domination match.
The Reef is a bit of an odd map for me, it played better than I expected (I was not happy with the small area of map both teams have access to), but it is very easy to get disorientated on which spawn belongs to your team due to the lack of major landmarks to help you. Whilst the map has a fair chunk blocked off to presumably block spawn camps, you can still camp fairly efficiently on the far left, but the sections by the water should stop complete camps and lockouts because of how far away that is from the drop down by the tree. Curious to see how the other maps play out, and I hope that they are bigger and easier to distinguish what side of the map you're on with landmarks and clear differences on the map design.
The game still feels like 1 with the physics and main mechanics, but at the same time still generates an entirely fresh (no pun intended) feeling with the specials alone. Combining that with the Splat Dualies and changes to the Roller and Charger and we've only scratched the surface with how much this game has changed and what else there is to come. Final thing that I noticed is pushing X to bring the map up on the results screen shows you the map like the one on the GamePad, which is kind of irrelevant but still there. It definitely will take getting used to super jumping that way, but you can still move and shoot whilst looking at the map, just that spotting a player to jump means seeing them and finding the button that the game mapped to them, but jumping to spawn will be extremely easy since you just tap X, hold Down and push A, which can be done in seconds.
So those are my thoughts on what I played of it so far, definitely like it so far and am interested to see if we get another weapon class, not to mention any new subs and specials left to be announced (I believe the devs have said that there will be more specials in the game than 1 had, so there should be around 2-4 specials yet to be unveiled, maybe more). If you've played the demo at a Switch event, what are your thoughts and opinions? What control schemes were available and what weapons did you play? I also look forward to your thoughts and opinions on the Testfire, how the different sessions evolve and what you learn from it. Until next time, Stay Fresh! :P