Splatoon producer hints at more upcoming content

[Zombie Aladdin]

True. Miyamoto's not entirely opposed to story, but from what I can get, he's opposed to having too much story, and his threshold is lower than most's. He is somewhat like John Kricfalusi in that regard (creator of Ren & Stimpy and founder of Spümco): Both of them are animator artists who believe that the ideal level of story is enough to allow the audience to understand what's going on and attach to the characters, then let other factors take over from there: Comedy for John, gameplay for Shigeru.

The key thing, however, is that bare story works for some franchises and not others. Sonic has been big on story and characters ever since the beginning (only they were between the lines until Sonic Adventure--notice, for instance, that each Round in Sonic CD is more industrialized or urbanized than the last), but when a new writing team took over who has a Miyamoto-like belief that a video game should let its story step aside, fans were not happy. This time, however, I would side with them in that, by the time Sonic Colors came out, Sonic lore was already rich and vast, and the bare-bones story felt like a step down, albeit I found the gameplay to be a big step up.

 

[Award]

True. Miyamoto's not entirely opposed to story, but from what I can get, he's opposed to having too much story, and his threshold is lower than most's. He is somewhat like John Kricfalusi in that regard (creator of Ren & Stimpy and founder of Spümco): Both of them are animator artists who believe that the ideal level of story is enough to allow the audience to understand what's going on and attach to the characters, then let other factors take over from there: Comedy for John, gameplay for Shigeru.

The key thing, however, is that bare story works for some franchises and not others. Sonic has been big on story and characters ever since the beginning (only they were between the lines until Sonic Adventure--notice, for instance, that each Round in Sonic CD is more industrialized or urbanized than the last), but when a new writing team took over who has a Miyamoto-like belief that a video game should let its story step aside, fans were not happy. This time, however, I would side with them in that, by the time Sonic Colors came out, Sonic lore was already rich and vast, and the bare-bones story felt like a step down, albeit I found the gameplay to be a big step up.

I don't think early Sonic was any more story oriented than Mario. Both had a thin story that stepped aside from gameplay. Knuckles was the "biggest" story it had in Sonic 3 (part 1) and that was the worst received of the original trilogy until 3&K came out. Because of gameplay reasons (I loved it, but that was me.)

They went more story in CD because CD was meant to compete with what they saw the 32 bit console would be. But I'd also argue when people fondly remember Sonic, it's the original trilogy, not CD and beyond that people identify with Sonic. And lets face it Adventures and beyond has made such a mess of the story, a good reset to "this is sonic. he runs, jumps, and spindashes around loop de loops. Robotnik (He will AWAYS be Robotnik!) kidnapped furry animals again!" might do the game some good.

After all, kids these days are into mobile games that make a Miyamoto story look like an Asimovian epic.

There are only two major times I disagreed with Miyamoto's choice. Rosalina is what MADE Galaxy such a magical place. The world was so captivating and unique and really defined that era.

And Sticker Star is a travesty. I know Mario is his story universe, but what I don't get is he accepts AlphaDream's work more readily than Intelligent System's. Both feature larger stories and characterizations.

Though I think if the gameplay wasn't fundamentally broken in Sticker Star (those large rare stickers and trial & error usage!) we might not have CARED that it lacked story. Miyamoto might not be as wrong on this one as we tend to think. The problem was the gameplay had serious problems and story couldn't make up for it.

 

[BlackZero]

The flooding and the intelligent sea life were both deliberate. And not by humans, though humans became the victims of them. Rather, a civilization from another planet had been looking for another planet to call home after space had run out on their own, but they can only live submerged in low-salinity (but not salt-free) water and chose Earth as it's the only planet they can find with liquid water and a suitable temperature. With their extremely advanced technology, they teleported water gathered from other areas of space and, over a very long period of time, put it all on Earth, hence the rising sea levels, which would explain why there's more water on Earth than it should have and why this excess water doesn't get forced under the crust via plate tectonics.

As they chased the humans off the planet (or killed them off, indirectly or no), they began to colonize in the ever-deepening oceans. However, they discovered Earth has abundant sea life, and using more of their technology, accelerated and guided their evolution to become amphibious, then to live on land, to safely get them out of the aliens' way. The truth, however, is that they don't care one bit about any other life form on Earth and want it all to themselves, intending to submerge every last bit of land so that they can use it. The Octarians, living underground, have somehow stumbled across scraps of this ultra-high technology and have reverse-engineered it to a limited extent (but without fully understanding electricity), hence their more advanced devices.

This extraterrestrial civilization underneath the waves will then be the antagonistic force of Splatoon 2, where Cap'n Cuttlefish will discover something weird in the oceans that leads him to this civilization. Inklings and Octarians will team up when they learn the horrifying history of this planet and fight the aliens' forces to drive them back, realizing the Ancient Turf Wars were the aliens' fault. In doing so, they will hopefully lower the sea levels to open up more land to share, especially as the aliens have no intent to share themselves. The direct result of this is a split among different cities with different cultures, architecture, music, and climates. But Splat Wars will still be popular in every region with a lot of Inklings and Octolings.

Interesting idea, but I sincerely hope this isn't the case. One of the things I love about Inklings is that they are so alien and foreign, yet they are from our own planet. It highlights the rich diversity of life we have on our own world. The human extinction and rising sea levels highlights how nothing is permanent and the world is always changing and reinventing itself (either through the natural course of time or through environmental disaster). It shows that even after everything we know has ended, the universe goes on and civilization is reborn. It's an optimistic and somewhat comforting idea that, after our story ends, a new and exciting adventure beings and the torch will be passed to a new form of life unlike anything before it.

The Octarian/Octoling story is interesting as well. Where the Inklings chose to be more free spirited, the Octarians were industrious. That kinda plays off the modern scientific opinion that Octopodes are actually highly intelligent. They are a scientific, industrialized society that favors intellectual pursuits as opposed to the Inklings that are more free spirited and fun loving. The Octarians were able to develop technology humanity never could by building on what their human predecessors had already done. Even though humanity's chapter had ended, the universe goes on.

No offense, but saying "aliens did it" kinda cheapens that. It takes the whole theme of death, rebirth, and new life, and says "nah, jk. Sci-fi magic." Octarians and Inklings can be united in a fight against many things. They could be invaded by shark-people (which would be epic), have to fight a radical group of their own kind, or even alien invaders. I think having the whole story come down to some alien conspiracy rejects a more interesting story of someone hitting Earth's reset button and turns it into...

 

[Award]

No offense, but saying "aliens did it" kinda cheapens that. It takes the whole theme of death, rebirth, and new life, and says "nah, jk. Sci-fi magic." Octarians and Inklings can be united in a fight against many things. They could be invaded by shark-people (which would be epic), have to fight a radical group of their own kind, or even alien invaders. I think having the whole story come down to some alien conspiracy rejects a more interesting story of someone hitting Earth's reset button and turns it into...

Shark people for 3-team matchups....I love it!

Or better yet, The Jellyfish....we already have models...everybody loves them....and Jelonzo's broken "Engrish" is an in game meme already. I WANT PLAYABLE JELLYFISH!

 

[ϛ(°³°)/`]

I can't imagine we'd be getting a new clothing slot entirely; that would throw off the game play pretty severely, both adding further ability stacking and a larger selection to run with. On top of that they'd have to design pants-exclusive abilities, which I don't see happening. I selected weapons as one of my votes, but I don't think that'd happen either, for similar reasons; we already have a light/medium/heavy class for every weapon, with a few oddities here and there - more would throw it off without introducing a new class entirely, then there's balancing to worry about all over again.

I can see gear being a definite possibility, and I would be pumped to get some more Ink Resistance/Cold Blooded/Ninja Squid/Tenacity options, as well as more Damage Up hats and some Squidforce brand shoes.

Adding new single player levels would be odd, with the Hero and Octoling gear already a reward for beating every level - unless they add a weird expert mode or hard sequel levels, but that's more like Amiibo content (which seems viable for hero slosher/splatling, as much as I'd love a blaster too we do have shooters covered)

I'm not sure what to think about new maps. I think they did well to end off on a game studio, because it gives the vibe that they'll be continuing to work hard on a sequel game, or at least it acts as a kind of hat-tip to the developers that worked so hard thus far. I'd be down for a kind of ridiculous nothing-but-vertical level, or an equally dumb superflat mode, maybe to be excluded from the regular rotation.

 

[Leronne]

I can't imagine we'd be getting a new clothing slot entirely; that would throw off the game play pretty severely, both adding further ability stacking and a larger selection to run with. On top of that they'd have to design pants-exclusive abilities, which I don't see happening. I selected weapons as one of my votes, but I don't think that'd happen either, for similar reasons; we already have a light/medium/heavy class for every weapon, with a few oddities here and there - more would throw it off without introducing a new class entirely, then there's balancing to worry about all over again.

I can see gear being a definite possibility, and I would be pumped to get some more Ink Resistance/Cold Blooded/Ninja Squid/Tenacity options, as well as more Damage Up hats and some Squidforce brand shoes.

Adding new single player levels would be odd, with the Hero and Octoling gear already a reward for beating every level - unless they add a weird expert mode or hard sequel levels, but that's more like Amiibo content (which seems viable for hero slosher/splatling, as much as I'd love a blaster too we do have shooters covered)

I'm not sure what to think about new maps. I think they did well to end off on a game studio, because it gives the vibe that they'll be continuing to work hard on a sequel game, or at least it acts as a kind of hat-tip to the developers that worked so hard thus far. I'd be down for a kind of ridiculous nothing-but-vertical level, or an equally dumb superflat mode, maybe to be excluded from the regular rotation.

Don't worry. Most of those were added out of pure boredom like maps, weapons and pants (though pants could be added as pure accesory, meaning no ability, but i don't think it's coming either). I didn't want the list to look empty so i crammed as much as i could on there.

 

[BlackZero]

My guess would be maps and gear. I don't see pants coming. They would have to do rigging for the Inklings legs, which I think have the most animation of all the body parts. They would then have to create and animate the pants/skirts unless they just did a retex with minor model changes of the biker shorts (like with the Octoling pants). Sounds like a bit of a headache if the devs are wanting to do some simple 11th hour content. Maps and reskinned weapons are the safer bet, though they could introduce some new subs or specials.

Some additional multiplayer music would be a nice addition too. Maybe something from the concert they had?

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Interesting idea, but I sincerely hope this isn't the case. One of the things I love about Inklings is that they are so alien and foreign, yet they are from our own planet. It highlights the rich diversity of life we have on our own world. The human extinction and rising sea levels highlights how nothing is permanent and the world is always changing and reinventing itself (either through the natural course of time or through environmental disaster). It shows that even after everything we know has ended, the universe goes on and civilization is reborn. It's an optimistic and somewhat comforting idea that, after our story ends, a new and exciting adventure beings and the torch will be passed to a new form of life unlike anything before it.

The Octarian/Octoling story is interesting as well. Where the Inklings chose to be more free spirited, the Octarians were industrious. That kinda plays off the modern scientific opinion that Octopodes are actually highly intelligent. They are a scientific, industrialized society that favors intellectual pursuits as opposed to the Inklings that are more free spirited and fun loving. The Octarians were able to develop technology humanity never could by building on what their human predecessors had already done. Even though humanity's chapter had ended, the universe goes on.

No offense, but saying "aliens did it" kinda cheapens that. It takes the whole theme of death, rebirth, and new life, and says "nah, jk. Sci-fi magic." Octarians and Inklings can be united in a fight against many things. They could be invaded by shark-people (which would be epic), have to fight a radical group of their own kind, or even alien invaders. I think having the whole story come down to some alien conspiracy rejects a more interesting story of someone hitting Earth's reset button and turns it into...

Hey, that's absolutely fine. What I came up with was what one single thing can explain as many of the mysteries of Splatoon as possible and would also justify playable Octolings in the sequel. (Though I am still pretty certain Splatoon 2 will introduce a new enemy that requires Inklings and Octarians to team up, and I am still pretty suspicious that nothing is ever explained about what is actually in the oceans now.)

 

[Rina S]

Ahh I really hope new gear~! But after the Idol A and idol B leak from Nikki I think it might be amiibo stuff @_@