(This was my reply to someone in a comment thread, but I'm copying it here as it may help more people understand this perspective) *"Why did people think that Mr. Grizz wasn't a bear when the only evidence about his identity suggested that he was a bear?* A lot of people were hoping that Grizz would not be the antagonist of Splatoon 3 at all. I remember thinking it would be unfortunate to unveil his true identity just one game after his introduction, when he could have been built up across a longer period and given more time to develop BEFORE his big reveal. Of course, with the reveal of ROTM, many people believed Grizz was going to be involved. It was easily assumed that he might be the one attempting to bring back the mammals, but we didn't have any confirmation that HE was a mammal himself. Grizz likely knew of the Ark Polaris bear, but that didn't have to mean he WAS the bear. And the bear radio at Grizzco would make a lot more sense if he wasn't obscuring his appearance through a device that... shares his appearance. While there wasn't any solid evidence of him being something *other* than a bear, it was left vague enough that he could have been *anything.* Some people wanted to see a sea creature scientist who was obsessed with the mammals of the past. Some people thought it could be an AI remnant of the humans like Commander Tartar. Others thought Grizzco could have connections to Lil'Judd, DJ Octavio, or the Professor. There was no reason to think any of these options *couldn't* happen, and it felt like the developers *wanted* us to speculate about Grizz's identity. The AI/ prerecorded voice idea is actually something that was hinted at in a dev interview, which is why many people now believe that is how Grizzco functions after the events of ROTM. These kinds of teases from the developers got people excited about all of the possibilities of what Grizz could be. It's not so much that the evidence was already there, but the potential was. Grizz could have dropped hints throughout Splatoon 3's story itself to make the reveal less random (something I think they should have done even with him being a bear). While his true identity may have not been directly foreshadowed by previous games if he were something other than a bear, such a reveal would allow the Grizzco statue and the Ark Polaris bear to serve as red herrings. Casual fans of the story would assume Grizz to be a bear, while dedicated followers of Splatoon lore would know that there could be *anyone* behind that radio. Grizz being a literal bear was disappointing to a lot of people because it rendered all of this speculation pointless. It wasted one of Splatoon's biggest mysteries on the most obvious answer. And on top of that, his backstory didn't even make sense.
Everything you’ve said here is articulating my gripes with Mr. Grizz. May I add on that, the realized version of him we have in ROTMM is just a worse version of Commander Tartar? Both villains want to see their idealized world come to light, and have unfavorable opinions on inkfish society. However, Tartar ties directly into the overarching themes of the series, and has its own background explaining why it thinks this way. Mr. Grizz on the other hand, while having his own background, doesn’t have enough in it to explain why when he woke up, he decided he must destroy Inkfish society & bring back mammals. It vaguely implies that he might’ve been upset that the age of mammals was no more, but it’s never stated like Tartar. In every way, Grizz is just a worse Tartar.
@@septic_cipher How is he Tartar at all? Both have connections to humans but that's it really. I mean...yeah all the villains do that, even with Octavia he wanted his idealized worrld too and didn't like Inklings. What themes ae those? Cuz with Grizz he connects with the theme of passing the torch and having the next generation carrry on and how he represents when someone not only doesn't want to do that or move on but also actively and forcefully tries to make things how they were in the past. I disagree his background does have enough in it to explain why when he woke up he decied to destroy inkfish society & bring back mammals being that he is all alone as a mammal and can't relate to Inkfish society so he wants others like him. I mean it's clearly shown while with Tartar he is a AI that went crazy, kinda like Order actually. Nah he isn't Tartar at all if anything Order is more like Tartar really.
Not gonna lie, being so far removed from the silly squid game for several years (the last splatfest I ever played was right before the toilet paper roll "drama" if that gives any real context, but i did play the Octo Expansion), and hearing that Mr Grizz, the mysterious force that wanted us to hunt Salmon in 2 was JUST a bear... is very disappointing. Like... thematically, I can think of someone who would have fit the role better, had a more emotional tie into the world we have, AND no one would have seen it coming. The cat. Forgive me for forgetting his name, but the cat was there since the Professor, he's seen EVERYTHING, from the fall to the rise and everything in between. He's watched generations of squidlings and octolings fight, and he could very well see that they were either a. Going to fall to the same hubris the humans did, or b. Not rise up to be what humans could have been. So he creates Grizzco, a red herring to throw everyone off of him. After all, a bear is an intimidating force that you can't predict, but a cat? "Virtually harmless." And using the power amassed from salmon eggs and finally cuttlefish, he could have been able to turn the world to his design, without the need for space kaiju battles, though have something just as spectacular with a more heartfilled ending that would give reason to Cali and Marie being there. They want to find cuttlefish, and only through them are we able to stop the cat and make him see that these creatures can be what he felt humankind wanted. They fight, they play, they perform, and they love. In turn, he would show the dark sides of humanity, betrayal, anger, unable to cope with grief, but still be shown that there can be hope to move forward, and, in turn, reach for forgiveness himself. It would also explain why he "retires" in 2, aside from having a mini me. But just a regular random bear? That's just sad.
I think Return of the mamalians is the same as the first splatoon: Story with questions to answer in the next game. Splatoon 1 made you wanted to know about Octarians, Splatoon 3 wants you to know about the experiments and the "soul" or whatever he did to Cuttlefish. I THINK!!! The reason why the little fish turned into a giant salmon and grizz turning into some kind of goo will be answered with the story of the Salmonids; The megalodon salmon bosses made by music, human pollution (the reason why the arc failed and something the game has not touched, like toxic waste and such) IF THEY ARE PLANING TO MAKE SPLATOON 4 ( I HOPE) I bet they will answer that in the next game, the only thing left is the invation of salmonids, I think Octavio will be the "In my time" kind of characters now that is been "humanized" in the DLC and main game.... or I am just coping hard
I think Splatoon 1 functioned very well as set-up for stories to come due to it being the first entry and very small in scope. Splatoon 3 was built up to be the "end of the Splatastic saga," which is why I was disappointed that it raised more questions than it answered. Some things really feel like they should have been explained then and there. But yes, I'm still holding out hope that all of these loose threads get tied up eventually. I definitely think the story will continue, and I'm still very excited to see where it goes next, especially after Side Order
I think it would've been better if Deep Cut were hired by Mr. Grizz to stop Neo Agent 3. If you think about it, the bear is loaded. He could offer to pay them handsomely if they dealt with us.
Yesssss this is exactly what I was thinking and what he was touching base on about inklings and octolings representing humans this would’ve been a great opportunity to exemplify the exploitation of the poor and working class for wealthy people/ people with and agenda or motive. That way deep cut aren’t just some random bounty hunters that are in the way, they’re cohesive within the story.
@@meptune0335 i mean OTH gave them too; i think it's an exception to the rule since stages need to be announced somewhere and it'd be distracting to have a seperate grizzco cast
That’s really smart!! Plus then once grizzco was defeated, the theee could’ve been all “well…we’re out of a job..” and Marie could’ve still stepped in and kept the dynamic we have now, but more depth to the trio :)
Whilst I don’t really have a problem with Return of the Mammalians at all. I just find it *EXTREMELY* hilarious, that for years there was a certain part of the Splatoon community was so confident and sure, that Mr. Grizz was 100% NOT a bear. Only to be gob-smacked in the fucking face, with him not only being a bear, but also revealing how he made Grizzco. And having him be the big spectacular finale to the game. I’m sorry that shit is so funny to me LMAO
There was definitely a bit of delusion going around. We were coping with ROTM scraps for months lol Even if Grizz being a bear does seem really obvious in hindsight, though, I still think it was fair to expect an explanation for him being an *intelligent, talking bear.*
@@TheCosmicCloud I always assumed that being in a "waking dream" or whatever for 12 000 years, way longer than the average bear's lifespan, allowed him to learn more, become more intelligent than a bear normally should be He's existed for a long time with nothing but his thoughts so I imagine over time those thoughts grew more complex
@@badopinionssquid1735 I think the idea of Grizz becoming intelligent over time could've been alright if it was explained in more detail, or if it explicitly involved whatever experiments the humans were conducting on him (or even the liquid crystals). The current explanation simply doesn't make sense. Obviously not everything in Splatoon is scientifically sound, but it feels like the developers used cyrosleep to explain Grizz surviving 12,000 years and then just tacked on the part about him dreaming to explain his intelligence. The fact that we don't even get this information until AFTER we defeat him just makes what should be a complex backstory feel like a last-minute, lazy explanation
@@TheCosmicCloudI think a big problem was that it kind of goes at odds with Judds lore being the only mammal left and the melancholy of that. The fact that the mystery of Grizz in splatoon 2 is so alluring that anyone could be behind that speaker. Do forgive people for thinking that McDonald’s is not actually literally owned by a clown. As funny as it would be
as someone who really enjoys return of the mammalians, i have to say that there were some things i did not like! i was very dissatisfied with the fact that deep cut were barely in the story mode and although i really like their boss fights, i wish we got to know more about them personally. i know we learn more about how they met in the different interviews and magazines but i wish it was explained more in the main story itself. i loooove splatoon lore very much however, deep cut is the one we know least about which makes me sad as they are probably my favorite group. i just wish they got more chances to shine in their own game!!!!
Deep Cut not getting their own storymode will always be the worst part about Splatoon 3. I get that they were probably planning on more than one DLC originally, but Deep Cut really should've been the priority over Off The Hook. Deep Cut has had their game taken away by the other idol groups time after time. And thanks to the newscast being skippable in this game, most people didn't even care to know anything about Deep Cut unlike the other two groups since those newscasts are the main way we learn anything about the characters and world in Splatoon
@@Freelancer837i agree a thousand percent they deserve the attention too! They are so much more uniqer interms of what they mean despite just being idols.. THEY ARE TREASURE HUNTERS AND HEADS OF CLANS!!! THATS CRAZY come on noooowwww and ontop of that now their agents more and such like 😭 GIVE THEM FIVE DLCS ILL BIY THEM ALL SPLATOON
the vast majority of lore we know about the other idols is from non in-game lore. why would you expect the opposite to be the case for S3 and deep cut? we didn’t even know really why callie and marie were separated in splatoon 2s story mode until we got more info outside of the game… i feel like i’m going crazy reading these comments
Honestly, I think my biggest disappointment is that we got a story with Mr.Grizz as the main villain.......And it has absolutely nothing to do with the Salmonids. They and GrizzCo barely even get a single mention (outside of Grizz's "corporate speak" jokes). Like, I love Little Buddy as much as everyone else, but he could have been replaced with a MacGuffin/plot item and nothing would change.
Something that did always rub me the wrong way, aside from the very obvious character butchering- Was that they told us ROTM would act as a finale for the SquidBeak Splatoon, yet the actual result we got didn’t feel like a satisfying payoff. I wanna believe they had a much grander idea for the trilogy conclusion, especially with what we’ve seen in the Art Of Splatoon 3. But a lot of those ideas had to be scrapped for something much simpler, so they could still ease in series newcomers.
Yeah, I keep hoping they don't try and pretend that Splatoon 3 was the great sendoff to the squidbeak saga like they tried to make it and they actually acknowledge "Yeah we fucked it up" and try again to give it a proper ending. But so much of what's going on is giving the impression that they are just going to pretend they succeeded at making that sendoff. Deep Cut didn't even get anything, and Agent 4 literally was completely left out despite getting their home address doxxed by Nintendo. That art that showed all of the agents supposed to be returning for Splatoon 3 would've actually been the kind of thing expected from the ending of the current saga.
The weirdest part about this to me is that Octo Expansion already felt like the finale of Squidbeak. The Octarians were finally acknowledged as equals, Cuttlefish ends up learning and growing close to the people he used to fight against, Agent 3 returns (with a remix of Splattack), and we face off against a creation of the humans. Even Callie and Marie are referenced a number of times---they're revealed to be important to 2 of the story's major characters, and we hear the Calamari Inkantation. It was every idea introduced in the first game turned up to 11. I don't know why they decided to stretch out this supposed "Squidbeak Saga" when, in my mind, it had already ended
I disagree I mean the plot isn't perfect buut the characters weren't full on butchered. I mean...going into space to fight a built up villian of half a decade didn't feel like a satisfying payoff?
About the characters not having any purpose--something Octo Expansion does SO well. Marina is actively hacking into Kamabo's system to keep track of 8, and Pearl uses her wealth to give 8 extra cash with the help of Marina. 3 saves 8 from the blender and gets to be a bossfight, Marina uses her tech and Pearl uses her voice to help you out during the final boss, in fact final boss is just you covering the statue so Pearl and Marina can have a chance to beat it. There's never a moment you ask "why are they just standing there" This is an issue in 2, but it's heavily exacerbated in 3 when the Squid Sisters, 3 and Deep Cut are standing around doing absolutely nothing for most of the story (until DC gives you a space suit out of nowhere and the Calamari Inkantion magically turns Smallfry into a Kaiju) (Also it's funny you didn't even mention there's absolutely no discussion about how the player and the idols have been collecting eggs for Grizz and Smallfry gets no dialogue or backstory)
Yeah, the Smallfry thing especially bothers me. I understand them not having dialogue because they either can’t speak at all or seem to only speak salmonid (maybe they’re even physically incapable of speaking inkling due to not being able to articulate it) but it bothers me a lot that we never got any backstory as to why they’re even with us (aside from one sunken scroll that wasn’t even specifically about them and you can only infer it may be applicable to Lil’ Buddy). None of the characters ever question why we have a salmonid with us, none of them are weirded out by it, even though salmonid are definitely not considered people as no one ever seemed to have moral qualms with murdering them by the millions in salmon runs, not even the player character, who has a smallfry friend, and the game never bothers explaining how the friendship between neo agent 3 and Lil’ Buddy came to be. Hell, why was neo 3 even in the middle of the desert in the first place? The lack of backstory for probably the only Splatoon protagonist that should have had one is disappointing.
@@foxsoul6691 I agree so much, I forgot about smallfry even when I was using him... so annoying that they butchered smallfry so much also I think Callie asks why we have a salmonid following us but that's it
I think most of ROTM's flaws are a result that Splatoon campaigns are still limited to short, 6-hour campaigns where the vast majority of storytelling is done through lore dumps in dozens of text files. Many of ROTM's inconsistencies is that it's really the first campaign to try and do more than that, but was still limited to the few resources the Splatoon dev team is given to make these campaigns. That's why we don't learn more about Mr. Grizz, why the test chambers exist, or where DJ Octavio is for the majority of the story. There simply isn't enough room to include those things without making ROTM a more standard, traditionally sized campaign. Even the best Splatoon story, Octo Expansion, did quite a bit in terms of character development, but it's ultimately still done through layers and layers of text on a screen rather than a more meaningful story sequence, and Sanitization as a concept is barely explained in the actual game, left instead to developer interviews for players to seek out. I think that's why I'm able to let a lot of ROTM's issues slide because it's having to do all of these things with more or less the same limitations as previous campaigns in terms of scope. Yes, all the issues you mention in this video are valid, but the highest highs in ROTM are still some of the coolest world-building and storytelling moments in a Splatoon game. The rocket ambience, for example, containing the last recorded messages of humanity is some of the coolest environmental storytelling in the series. The Crater sequence is also one of my favorite moments in a Splatoon game. Having Octavio show up as the first boss and making the player immediately question the true nature of what's going on might be the most memorable moment of the entire campaign for me. And even with Mr. Grizz's flaws as a predictable twist villain and lacking a proper backstory, he perfectly complements the story's themes about embracing change and how death can lead to life (the fall of humanity leading to the rise of the Inklings/Octolings). So while the story has many, many inconsistencies, it's hard for me to not say that the story is still very memorable and effective in many areas. It simply deserved to a bigger campaign; therefore, I would argue that ROTM's biggest flaw isn't a lack of attention to detail like you claim, but that it's trying to bring far too many details into a story that simply doesn't have room for them. That's why I respect ROTM more than Octo Canyon in Splatoon 2, a story with next to zero ambition or interesting things to say. ROTM at least has some incredible imagery, atmosphere, and themes. I also completely disagree with you that Side Order improves on any of these issues at all. I think nearly all of these flaws apply to Side Order as well, but in a greater amount while failing to make up for it with cool sequences and theming like ROTM did. Despite ROTM being flawed, the things about it that I mentioned that I loved gave me hope that ambition for Splatoon stories would continue to rise. Side Order pretends like it has a lot going on and wants to have an insightful, thought-provoking story but does none of the work to deserve that. While ROTM has many inconsistencies, it at least properly foreshadows many aspects of its conflict and themes, with the fuzzy ooze and Alterna logs. Side Order hypes you up in the beginning only for there to be literally zero story until the finale. How exactly is defeating Smollusk and working together with Pearl, Marina, and Acht supposed to be a satisfying conclusion to the story when none of these things are given a single moment to develop. If you beat Smollusk within your first few tower runs, chances are the only story you were given outside of the tutorial is 1 or 2 Marina Diaries and elevator text between floors. I can't describe how monumentally disappointed I was with how little thought and care was given to how this story is told. I think it squanders its potential far, far more than ROTM.
I absolutely agree that scope is a limiting factor for Splatoon's developers, and that ROTM could have fully realized its ideas given more resources and time. However, knowing that, I personally wish the developers would have not attempted to make the story so ambitious in the first place. It tries to explore a wide range of ideas, but without the space to do so, each of these ideas can only be examined at the surface level. The best example of this is Grizz; conceptually, his arc is compelling, but in practice, he only has a few meaningful lines of dialogue. If Nintendo did not intend to flesh out 11 characters in their story, I would criticize the decision to include 11 characters. On some level, I respect their ambition, but I would have preferred a story that was smaller in scope and deeper in meaning. Walls of text and developer interviews are not ideal, but they are at least a way to give that information to the players. It's true that a lot of important parts of Octo Expansion are not in the game itself, but what those interviews and pieces of concept art show us is that the developers thought deeply about the story that was being told. It's been 2 years since the release of Splatoon 3, and we have almost no information about ROTM's development, concepts, or explanations for its plot holes. This is perhaps a different issue entirely, but I do not feel like Nintendo has communicated to the fans that they care about this story as much as they used to. Side Order has plenty of its own flaws, and I'm not going to argue it's an amazing story, but for me it comes closer to what I just described. A story that is smaller in scope and grandiose, but with a more focused set of characters who are relevant to the setting and whose flaws and motivations tie them together. I completely understand if you find the storytelling structure of ROTM more compelling, and in many ways I agree. I think a GREAT Splatoon story is one that builds upon established lore while also carving it's own identity. Side Order feels a bit too much like an Octo Expansion 1.5, but I personally found it more satisfying than ROTM, which at times felt entirely disinterested in the existing canon
I will say, the lore we got in this game regarding humanity and discovering how it tragically fell legitimately gave me a sick feeling in my stomach. Like seriously, reading about how the pilots on the Arc were just left to drift aimlessly around earth and slowly die while the others eventually perished in the crash was really disturbing, like just imagining Grizz waking up to see the carnage of thousands of humans is really fricked up, and gives more believability to his motives, imo. Not to mention the way the logs describe how all humans in Alterna were either buried alive or just completely gave up is extremely sad, like legit I didn’t expect this lore to rock me to my core like that. Honestly I think part of the reason why I found it so disturbing is because the story feels a little too plausible. Like if there was no God, then a form of this carnage would most definitely be in our future. So yeah, while I definitely agree with a lot of your points on how the game’s actual story wasn’t presented too well, I think the behind-the-scenes-lore made up for it, for me at least. I just have a big thing for games with a cutesy exterior but extremely messed up lore underneath, a big reason why Kirby and Splatoon are my 1st and 3rd favorite game series of all time. (2nd is FNAF for similarly obvious reasons)😅
The Alternan lore was definitely executed well, and I have a lot more positive things to say about it than I could get to in this video. I just wish the rest of the game actually integrated it into the narrative. Grizz speaking about the Alternans would have made the weight of their death more meaningful to the characters and story we see play out in the present day
What I'd like to know is how Lil' Judd and Judd all mix into this whole mess. Clearly, Grizz is not the only Mammal left, but seemingly has not ever met any of these other two Mammals, that could have almost any answer he needs. (One being a MAMMAL clone of the other) Which makes it even more baffling to see that seemingly, Lil' Judd has taken over the Salmon Run Workstation as a sidehustle.
My question is if lil Judd took over or if he was already working with grizz before ROTM and is just picking up the slack after he was defeated. It’s still weird that his fur has become brown and unkempt despite being a clone of Judd who has black short fur which could have something to do with grizz’s fuzzy ooze. It’s already been established that lil Judd has been plotting to usurp Judd due to his resentment so maybe he wanted to help destroy the society of sea life that Judd shaped? Considering grizz seems fine floating around in space and lil Judd is now collecting golden eggs himself (even getting over a billion of them in the recent big run) Judd and lil Judd feel like a dangling plot thread to be adressed later, although that leads back to the problem that so much stuff in this campaign is left unexplained leaving it difficult to tell what’s left vague intentionally and what’s just been left unexplained because this campaign tried to do way too much
@@nolangerrans6083Everyone knows that Judd was there during the whole war between Inklings and Octolings in the first place and been there since then. The concept of having clone of Judd is very interesting from the start but maybe it adds more to their background. It was a scientist (What I’ve read on the Wiki) that created both of them and very unknown and we only had a few scraps of information of him. If we take a small look of Lil’ Judd Currently, he looks a lot more different than what he looks now with him having a lot more unkept fur, in a lot more light brown lighting, and having him with a full on headset that he didn’t had earlier in Splatoon 2. I’m not gonna assume anything, but it might foreshadow that we might see him in Splatoon 4 (Hopefully they can take some time on the game and create it for the new system) that had a lot more malicious thoughts than we originally thought. Maybe it’s just me but every time we play a round of turf war (Any game if I’m being honest) we only see Judd being on the good guys side while Lil’ Judd siding with the bad guys side and didn’t like Judd in the first place.
I feel like this should have been more of a super science adventure plot. Grrizz Co hires The Octarian Millitary, The New Splatoon, and Deep Cut to explore Alterna with different pretenses and unkown to eachother. They would butt heads inherently, creating all the conflicts already in game and setting up Grizz better as a villian. It would also invite the introduction of greater emphasis on the idea of Grizz being a hyper intelligent bear turned villian. It could have been like an episode of Venture Bros.
I think something that isn’t addressed in general by the community is how underwhelming deep cut are. I feel like they were clearly supposed to be the “evil” “edgy” group to parallel with off the hook and the squid sisters. Like rough housing brothers and sisters. But I think they got nervous or didn’t want to commit to deep cut being “bad guys”. Working for Grizz for money straight or simply looting for there own gain would have been much better alternatives with potential for characther development and a more closer tie to the setting and themes of anarchy, with maybe even a bit of societal commentary but we didn’t get that and I feel there a lot more underwhelming compared to the other idols. It’s a shame cause their designs rock
Cosmic strikes again with another god-tier video. a major reason I havent made a video on ROTM myself is for the very reason you said towards the end: I didn't want to make an overly negative video. people have been treating me like an idiot for having been "so sure" Grizz wasn't gonna be a bear (I never claimed I was certain, I just didn't want it mainly because too-obvious bear imagery seemed like a perfect red herring, among other reasons). Or that they think "bear=bad" is my only opinion on Grizz, and that I am stupid for not seeing the potential in Grizz's story, based on my live reaction from a 13-hour-straight gaming session. I posted my reaction because I think it's funny (and it still is LOL), but the amount of genuine condescension and hate that I got from people who could not handle someone on the internet disliking ROTM really turned me off from the idea of wanting to talk about it further. That coupled with it really being a big task to articulate in a digestible way all the issues there are with ROTM. Not just The Bear, but from the lack of explanation for things like the kettles and fuzzy octarians, to the unfocused nonsensical story, to how over the top the finale is, to how half of the characters serve practically no purpose, the sidelining of Octavio...yes there's good points to ROTM, but there's a lot of glaring issues! And my god you covered all of that. hit the nail on the head. Grand slammed. slam dunked. home runned. knocked out of the park. sports. what was I saying. right. 333/10 excellent video. 25:22 is especially SO GOOD. Splatoon's broader themes of its world being a reflection of our own, and by extension, inklings and octolings being a reflection of humanity, the sense of realism in that, and how Grizz's... goofiness... messes with the sense of believably that's been built up in Splatoon's lore. I don't think I'd ever been able to articulate that specific feeling without someone being like "um but this is the talking fish game why is this a problem lol" but again. you nailed it. genuinely thank you for making this video.
I have a question. He didn't want to touch on the tear of revival at 17:48, which is fair enough. The origin of [this] Hugefry being so strange compared to the other King Salmonids (because with Bonerattle Arena now, how can't he be the fifth, including Hizunamasu) is also something I'd rather just look past, because sometimes it's just the best course of action. I don't care about the revival, just the tear (because it theoretically might have been covered before RotM). There's water inside Inklings? I figured where we have water, they'd have ink, no? Actually, to what extent does water dissolve them? Would light or heavy rain spell disaster?
also how the hell is furry ooze created?? why does he need the octarians?? if he's a genius or even more smarter than the octarians then he shouldn't need them, also they add nothing to the plot! So many more questions is not a good thing
@@xinpingdonohoe3978inklings have some ink in their bodies but they're not fully made up of it, that's why they have an ink sac. water only harms them if they get into water that's too deep and they can't get out from- you can see them drinking water in the plaza in 2, not to mention the baths and other drinks and so on. Normal quantities of water are fine, it's total immersion that's dangerous (some people theorise it's because of the weight of the tank but I'm not so sure )
@@xinpingdonohoe3978Water is harmless unless they get properly submerged it it. It's not directly harmful to them- you can see them drinking water in 2's plaza and they seem to have fluids in their body besides ink given the internal glands, and some of the extra material shows them washing and such
26:14 no… you’re skimming over established Splatoon lore. Judd and Lil Judd can talk. There was no millions of years of evolution that granted them that power. They just can do it after hyper sleep. Which Grizz also undergoes to a degree. There’s nothing wrong with Grizz being able to talk.
I've addressed the Judds in a number of other comments already. In short, I don't think cryosleep is a good explanation for ANY of those characters being able to talk. Judd is a minor character whose existence is a remnant from when the game was about rabbits, and while he has been worked into the canon of the game, he essentially serves as a tutorial and a UI element. Grizz is the main antagonist of the game, and as such I think it makes sense to hold his backstory to a higher standard. If anything, I think ROTM should have told us why Grizz can talk and ALSO why the Judds can talk, as their intelligence is one thing that has always been overlooked by the lore. I get that you're saying I'm holding a double standard, but that's because Grizz is a significantly more important character than Judd; in my opinion, his lore matters more.
@@TheCosmicCloud “minor character?” Judd judges the results of EVERY TURF GAME YOU PLAY. That’s not minor. He’s incredibly important to the overall gameplay narrative! Now you’re just pick and choosing what you want to be important. Judd has been there since day 1. His backstory is the reason Turf battles even function in-universe of the game. He’s there for every match you play. Sunken scrolls talk about his significance in the great turf war. He’s no less significant than Sheldon is. You can’t take all that and go “oh he’s a minor character.” The problem isn’t the lore, the problem is you don’t want to engage with the lore.
@@jimlight5137 I guess it’s a matter of opinion? I would not say Judd is important to the narrative. He’s a part of the game’s multiplayer, and has some lore tying him to the humans and the professor, but he is largely unexplored as an actual character. Narrative is not the same thing as worldbuilding. He has not contributed to any particular Splatoon story at all
@@TheCosmicCloudI’m just flabbergasted by all this. I do not understand you. Because you’re supposed to be all about the lore, and then you’re just dismissive of anything that doesn’t interest you within said lore. Like, Judd was part of the great turf wars. His whole ability to determine the outcome of a turf battle at a glance is not only the explanation for how the multiplayer campaigns work, but it’s also the reason the inkling society by and large isn’t KILLING each other anymore because now they can engage in friendly battles instead of waging wars! He is technically revered as a GOD by the inklings! Lore-wise Judd is VERY important to the word building of Splatoon. Like I’m not trying to be facetious here… you don’t have to care much about Judd… but you should be able to recognize that he’s a big part of the history and lore that make up the games. Every piece of detail about characters or events in the story is part of the world building. That’s why Splatoon has such a RICH world to explore! I do not understand why you seem to choose to ignore parts of the world build and dismiss it as not as important as others when it’s all contributing to the same overall tapestry.
this is kinda not true though, judd and lil judd are telepathic, and he's been established to have supernatural abilities, most likely from experimentation by the professor, same can be said for lil judd. mr. grizz hasn't had any established supernatural links in his lore to explain his gigantic size, ability to speak, or enhanced cognition other than "experiment" and "cryosleep", which are quite a bit less in depth.
I feel like one way to make Deep Cut fit better into the story is to maybe make them after Mr.Grizz tail as these sort of Robin Hood types. After all they steal to help the less fortunate and who would be better to steal from than one of the *biggest* Bussniessman of all time. Of course that would mean Mr.Grizz would have to have a much more active role in the story as the antagonist, but thats not a bad thing. Imagine every now and again finding one of his radios dotted around the place, spouting proclamations or reminders to his employees. Maybe even begining to taunt the player as they begin to get closer to uncovering his plans.
if i could have changed anything about the alterna logs, i would have made the squid transformation thing happen BEFORE humanity was wiped out completely. not sure how, i would think maybe through toxicity in the water or something, but i think it would make more sense timeline-wise, and would explain the inkling/octoling specific tests in alterna. if the scientists saw this new life form growing right in front of their eyes, they would take them in and test them. which could also lead to why inkling society ended up being so similar to human society, because that’s technically where the first inklings grew up, etc etc. is this convoluted and a bit silly? yes. but i think it would be neat.
If you get Salmonid power eggs for beating the tests… do you think Mr Grizz was the one who elaborated the tests? To keep us from getting to him? Grizz is heavily tied with Alterna, he does have what appears to be a level of technical skill, given the fact he jet starts a space ship and supposedly designed the Grizzco weapons. Maybe through using his fuzzy ink on octarians he was able to make them give octarian devices like the kettles…? I’m mostly hypothesizing here, cuz there’s still the question on why grizz would give you power eggs in the first place, and the treasure thing. Idk lol
It definitely seems like Grizz would be aware of the Alternan tests. I have no idea why the tests provide Power Eggs, though. The salmonids didn't exist during the time of the humans, so we don't know why ORCA has them, and we don't know if ORCA and Grizz have interacted with one another. I'd love to see a theory that finds a way to make sense of it all, but it really just doesn't add up
@@TheCosmicCloud i think what hes asking is what if grizz id the reason theyre there, along with all the other test elements. Orca knows who he is, meaning he likely entered that information willingly. While its not stated anywhere, maybe those tests were made to test fuzzy ooze test subjects?
The tests provide powers eggs as rewards. Said eggs are used to clear the ooze. The tests aren't keeping us from grizz, they're helping us get to him by making it easier to explore alterna
@@TheCosmicClouddude, use your imagination. Mr Grizz has been down here rebuilding the rocket for decades for his plan. He’s been experimenting with the ooze and on octoling life forms to perfect it. Why is it such a far leap of logic that he had a hand in the test chambers being altered in their parameters and designed off octarian tech when he’s USING Octarians in his experiments???
im pretty sure that the ooze is an extension of mister grizz himself, remember that that thing is alive and you can see at the start of the game how it grab cuttlefish in specific and how it would grab the main character whenever we get close to it
A year ago I also had an idea for a video about why Splatoon 3's story feels unearned and empty, but I couldn't put my finger on what was lacking in it. I did briefly talk about it in my who is the best idol group video, but still really didn't find answers. But this video did so I appreciate your effort into explaining it so clearly and doing it in an entertaining way. For me side order's story was the breaking point to the point of stop being so passionate about the franchise. Not that it's terrible, but it feels the most out of place in the series. It feels like poor man's version of Klonoa (at least to me). Great video and hopefully you call also explain why Side order's story is also lacking if you want to of course! Good luck with your channel and have a great day :)
Personally I think that the reason Mr. Grizz is suddenly very intelligient is for the same reasons JUDD is intelligient They both went through nearly 12000 years of cryosleep each, Judd even more since he was there seemingly from the genesis of turf wars. Im guessing being asleep for such a long time simply develops the mind to unnatural standards due to how long a lifespan 12000 is, even if you weren't doing anything but sleeping during it. They are similar in a bunch of ways to solidify this theory further, as both can communicate with inklings in a langnuage they understand while also not moving their mouths. Judd is a confirmed telepath so it wouldn't be too far-fetched to consider Grizz a telepath too. Granted, none of this explains how Grizz understood rocket science so well, or why lil' judd is on the same level of intelligience as judd despite only being a couple of years old, but I think Grizz's intelligience does make sense in the confines of what has already been established ROTM is still flawed im not saying this SAVES it, but I think its a neat observation that I haven't seen brought up elsewhere
yeah all these complaints about why Mr Grizz is a talking, cartoonish bear while Judd and Lil Judd are RIGHT THERE acting even MORE anthro and cartoony than Mr Grizz
@@sarafontanini7051 along with Splatoon just inherently being a silly series overall lol NOT a reason to validate how ROTM was handled of course, but it was inevitable they were gonna get sillier with it
"There are no talking animals in Splatoon" Judd and Lil Judd: Though, I understand the critiques about Grizz's character and backstory since it's so vague
They never really *talked* though, they still act effectively as (Cartoony) cats in their dialogue and in the ways that other characters interact and talk about them without being too human. Grizz, For the most part, Was treated like he was an Inkfish like the rest of the cast. ..Still, Trying to kill them, But an inkfish nonetheless.
yeah, but they canonically speak in meows (similar to how Big Man only speaks in Aye's), and the translation is provided in parentheses, and there's no evidence that it's really too much of a language outside of how it is with real animals. Grizz just... knows how to speak inkfish, for some reason. it's possible he learned it, but it still doesn't explain why he has the intelligence to presumably form full sentences by just. dreaming.
I feel like the devs were like, “you know what, this would be funny” for like every part of this. One of the devs: “hear me out small fry becomes big fry.” Nogami: “YES give him a raise.”
said what? there’s more than one thing being said in the video. or did you just come here to post this to add to the negativity because that’s all you’re interested in.
As someone who absolutely loves RotM and everything that it brought (especially the human lore), this video feels like getting thrown into a pool of freezing water, but in a good way. I think it's a good thing to acknowledge all the plot holes and very bad decisions that the devs made. And it sucks that those decisions happened, because as you basically said in the video, we could've had something magnitudes better if a little more thought was put into it. But also, I like that there are plot holes and inconsistent things thrown into the mix, it fits the theme of chaos that the game has, and it allows us, the players to make our own ideas and conclusions to tie everything together. That's where I thinnk the majority of the fun of RotM is, not in everything being told to us, forcing us to use our imagination and make a more coherent story. All in all, great video! Always a blast when you upload! :D
this is the second video i’ve seen from your channel, the first being “what it means to be human” from splatoon, and i can confidently say your content routinely delivers!! your videos are amazing, keep it up!! ^^
Splatoon 3's story definitely dropped the ball a little, but I have to appreciate the "improvements" to Splatoon's general outline to stories is in this game, the extra lore from the Alterna logs(even if it was mid), more cutscenes, a more interesting hubworld, more interesting level design, the upgrade system for the gear, a flashy climactic boss(even if it was half baked) are all things I think they def have improved on, there's still a lot to work on, so hopefully in the next game they can write an even better story and maybe flesh out Mr.Grizz a bit more if they have the time, because I also equally went insane when I found out he literally looks like a bear from animal crossing.
This video put into perspective some feelings I had towards Return of the Mammalians. For starters, I was happy with Return of the Mammalians. I fell in love with Splatoon for the great lore, yes, but also for the details regarding the small parts of the world, the overarching themes of identity and cooperation, the sense of community and belonging and, most importantly, because it's really fun, both in terms of gameplay, but also presentation! And Return of the Mammalians had enough of that, that I was happy with it. But in my head, I always kind of distanced it from the other story modes in the series and I think this video expresses well why. Splatoon 3 has clearly shown that it's meant to be a celebration of Splatoon so far. Nearly all major characters return, we learn about life as one of the longest surviving humans, we learnt how the many creatures of the world actually came to be, we can play from all 3 hubs, the whole of GrandFest is just celebrating the series so far and, most relevant to this topic, Return of the Mammalians is the end of the saga. But I don't think it was meant to be. Return of the Mammalians felt like it was meant to be the start of a new story or a standalone story. But then, the idea of it being 'the climactic end of a saga' arose, and it lost a lot of its identity and story for references, call-backs and spectacle. I kind of always saw Return of the Mammalians as a new story with various vague ties back to the old stories, and I reckon that's the problem. A lot of Return of the Mammalians' issues, stem from its identity issue. It wanted to be a brand new story, but was forced to represent everything the series was meant to be up until it... So it kind of lacks in both. It's the kind of story where I could see a Side Order-esque lore dump in the future expanding a lot on it, and giving it a lot of the identity it was meant to have. I still really like Return of the Mammalians, except while I do love many aspects of it, I recognise where it falls flat and what the problems with it are.
i feel like i might be missing a part that has to do with your frustration with Grizz. sure, he has an uncharacteristically cartoony design compared to the game's style, and there's no explanation for why he's smart and can talk... but can't that all also be said for Judd? he's a cat. he was made immortal, but nothing i can recall was injected into him called "have human intelligence and also talk" juice.
The difference for me is that Judd is not a main character. I DO wish Judd had a better explanation for his intelligence, but it's easier to overlook when it's a minor tutorial character who has no relevance to the game's narrative. Mr. Grizz is the main antagonist of Splatoon 3, so I would expect his backstory to be more thought-out and clearly communicated. If anything, this would have been the perfect opportunity to explain Judd as well, but the game does neither
8:20 I also miss the loose ends splatoon 1 had too, and the theories they spawned. Like the relation between sheldon, his grandfather, and the squid beak splatoon. How callie and marie waved at you if you looked in the window cause they recognize you as agent 3.
I feel RotM needed one or two more rewrites and it would have been great. Just having small fixes like the test rooms were made by Mr. Grizz to see if Fuzzy Inkfish could survive and function, as there is no reason to waste all this time if everyone would die. Include some challenging fuzzy inklings to fight along side the fully formed octorians to show Mr. Grizz was a menace to all his potential workers. Maybe have a scroll stating after loss of leadership (Tartar) Kamabo Co was bought by Grizz Co to explain how he got access to this type of stuff. Because the stuff about humans being so desperate to see the sun, so much so their wishes bleed into the earth and live on in all sea life is amazing and I love it. I even like the over the top fight, showing all three sections of Splatoon, story mode with Octovio, Salmon Run with Little Buddy and PvP with Neo 3, working together to beat past sins to create a new future. (I also like the possible darker themes of predatory bosses with Mr. Grizz, although I know Nintendo would never look at fan ideas like "Bears do eat squids") Luckily though, I am a sucker for overal fun so I enjoyed the game play a lot
My biggest gripes were just how Deep Cut got shafted completely and how dissatisfying Mr Grizz was as an antagonist that had been built up from S2. And while it was sorta cool to learn about the complete link between humanity and how ink-kind came to be, deep down, I think I would have preferred more focus on character-work for the actual living characters like in Octo Expansion - rather than meticulously trying to explain how and why ink-kind are so similar to humanity. I feel the Squid Sisters should have been cut entirely. Their sole relevance was just to introduce new players to them, and to sing the Calamri Inkantation - which could easily have been brought back by Shiver, an octoling, for how and why she was freed and got to where she is. For sweeping changes, Mr Grizz could have been the tutorial and guiding voice motivating/luring the player into Alterna to convert them into a mammalian, or rope them into his schemes. Deep Cut would appear in search of missing inklings and octolings reported in the area, and after witnessing you doing shady stuff in each area under Grizz's orders, take you on to bring you to justice or something. For a singleplayer campaign which involves an antagonist who also serves as the talking guide in the PVE mode though, part of me wishes there was a bit more integration between these two things too - like Deep Cut trying to hijack a helicopter after a victory to see where golden eggs are taken to or something somehow.
Freed? Unless I am mistaken, from what I understand of the lore, the whole conflict of the Octarians and Inklings seems to be focused in the lands of Inkadia. The Splatlands seem to have no knowledge of the Great Turf War and there are indications that Inklings and Octolings of the Splatlands have been co-existing for centuries. What with the clans that Shiver, Frye, and Big Man hailed from.
@@AuraNova26Exactly. The Splatlands didn't take part in the war and so never had a divide between species. Instead, they had a flood that almost killed everyone. Which kinda explained that God exists?? But anyways, it's something that puts the Octo/Inkling conflict into perspective and makes it all the more realistic. It's especially funny because Shiver is like in an important family in the Splatlands that also takes care of the Splatfests so she's the complete opposite of how we conceived Octolings!
@@ondiiina yeah the deep cut mistreatment was insane, they gave us a completely new place, three idols with IMPORTANT SPLATLAND CLAN history which has so much potential and gave us zero info about it
@@ondiiina hobestly, the fact that other fans don't know that the splatlands didn't participate in the turf war kind of just... shows how splatoon 3 dropped the ball.
i think they couldve just done: neo 3 is interested in octarians and wants to learn about them, sees a poster or whatever for the rock area, fights them, mini boss is deep cut instead of dj octavio, they fall, deep cut helps neo 3 instead of squid sisters, and deep cut wants to take mr grizz down because he is a capitalist or something idk
one of the reasons i liked mr. grizz's reveal so much is because it was something that i had called so many years ago even before splatoon 3's announcement. it felt so satisfying to get a part of the story right.
I feel the last 5 minutes of the conflict section boils down your complains very well, and made me understand better how I feel about the disappointing parts of RotM. I personally have never felt too weirded out by Grizz being a bear, even after being fully invested on the lore of the series, and I feel your issues with Grizz are ones I can understand better than the issues other people have (which is not to say they are wrong just because I have a harder time understanding btw). I think the worst part for me is the characters being all over the place without much a purpose to them, I really, really enjoy when characters all have a clear role and significance to the story or plot, and is sad to see how this story could've worked better without a lot of them, especially when "essential" characters like cuttlefish really don't have any explanation as to why they are so essential, even though I can see why the New Squidbeak Splatoon is involved, since I find the need for the great zapfish believable. Even though this is the case, I really enjoy this story mode for reasons, I really enjoy the overworld, and I had a lot of fun trying to paint whole areas, plus having very interesting level concepts, I really enjoy the gameplay of Splatoon, at an almost equal level than lore, story and art, each of them complimenting my love for the other, I just really love Splatoon as a whole, even in a campaign that felt so lacking for many veterans, it was something I enjoyed playing a lot, and I have a hard time thinking back to it's issues heheheh. I really like it when people find the time to explain their issues with Splatoon in a way I struggle with! I still love the maps for the background details and setting, but there exist issues that you have expressed that I would have a hard time talking about in the same way simply because it doesn't bother me as much, but I'm also an artist, I also find value in the map itself cohesive stylistically, and the same goes for a lot of the issues for RotM, many of them don't bother me as much, but I still want to see this series be elevated to the heights I think it deserves, because Splatoon is really good and I want for it to be better, yipee! yeah! cool game.
I’m an avid Splatoon lore nut and competitive player; all my friends keep making fun of me for not having finished it, but I watched the ending and was not motivated in the slightest to save inkopolis. You articulate why well.
Absolutely nuts and off the wall things in games are the best when they are taken unexpectedly seriously, explained, fleshed out, and made into more than just a joke. Then you can both laugh at the initial aburdity of it AND then later get invested in the thing's place in the world. My favorite example of this is the King of all Cosmos from the Katamari series. He's initially just the funny floating space chad with way too tight pants. But then you learn his backstory and it turns out to be unironically tearjerking.
I was skeptical when i clicked but I totally understand and even agree with you. Big Fry and Grizz and the lack of explanation of the levels bugged me but it took you putting it into words for me to finally get it.
RotM feels like a mixture of third acts of stories that simply haven't happened yet. We didn't get a story about how Octavio turned from kidnapping and mind controlling a main character for fighting what is essentially a race war, to hero that saves the player last second. Instead he just kinda disappears for the majority of the story and then randomly returns at the end. The resolution to Deep Cut's "rivalry" is barely a footnote too, because they've been our rivals for a grand total of 4 encounters (2 per member) before the finale, in which we fought them for explicit random junk they wanted while looting the giant hole in the floor they decided to follow us, after conveniently being present while the crater opened up, for the very compelling reason of... treasure? Again: three random pieces of junk that in the best interpretation form a giant lawnmower. Iirc the manga had a story arc about an ultimate weapon hidden by Sheldon's grandfather; that seems like a cool premise for a treasure hunt, but this? And lastly Mr Grizz, the main antagonist of the whole story that's supposed to cap off the trilogy, after a heavy amount of story relevance and foreshadowing: One stage in S2 Salmon Run and a twitter post from 2020... Feels kinda undercooked in my opinion. The worst part about the last one in particular is that they had the perfect opportunity to make him the antagonist of the next game, after Splatoon 3 ended with the Grand Fest, that only happened because we fought off 7 Big Runs, events where we get a LOT of Golden Eggs for Grizzco. Imagine that the huge quota was more than random math, but instead the last step to the whole scheme. For a story that was advertised as a finale, it introduced way too many plot points, focused on barely any one in particular, and to top it all off, it's kinda irrelevant when looking at the themes of the last two games (that had a perfect finale in OE to begin with). I'm glad they went back a bit with Side Order, because while a bit barebones, it feels like the perfect epilogue that addresses what actually happened in the past and sees the characters (if only a few of them) working through it. Ultimately I'm not mad or anything, since Alterna itself was a treat and gameplay wise it was okay, but I sincerely don't understand why they wanted to add to the previous story instead of forming a new one. Especially since it's been a while since OE, and the Switch 2 is right around the corner for a potential sequel that could follow up after around 3 years. I just hope they try to improve their approach for S4. (also Agent 4 should have been there instead of 3/Captain who already was in OE)
Honestly I'm not as disappointed with grizz as some other people. Like the whole thing about "It was so obvious he was a bear" was the point imo, it was (admittedly, a little too obvious) foreshadowing. Like similarly to how they hinted it was Callie talking to you in the radio at the end of the s2 boss fights, iirc. As for why he can do rocket science n stuff, they could somewhat easily use a similar explanation as why squids evolved so quickly. Something something the human ideas and consciousness made him smarter, something something. Why would Mr Grizz need a red herring anyway, most inklings probably don't know what a grizzly bear is, for all they care it's just a cool name inspired by a dead animal. Overall good video though, I agree with most of what you said! I do wish the characters were fleshed out more, and that octavio did more than show up, die, and help save the world at the end.
the only reason people en masse have a problem with grizz being a bear is because a small handful of the largest splatoon content creators on the english speaking side of the internet said they didn’t like it. 100%.
while there are some aspects of this video i definitely agree with, mainly in the fields of orca and lack of explanation on some things, this campaign has come to just barely follow behind octo expansion as my 2nd favorite. splatoon 3's release time is a time i will never forget and grinding this out over a week will always stick out to me. the vibe of the story itself is what draws me to it so much, and the atmosphere alone is enough to elevate that vibe even higher for me. i LOVE the mystery and lack of explanation on some things, because it makes it even more eerie and honestly the slow progression of uncovering the history of alterna added to that eeireness. the music and ambience solidifies this so much for me and i feel that the conflict with deep cut was great in its own right because they're just inklings/octolings looting a place they have no knowledge on, expecting there to be remnants for them (and sort of introducing you to this game's theme of chaos/anarchy). idk the vibe/atmosphere of this campaign is just unbeat for me (aside from octo expansion) and so much of the loose bits of the story helped to add to that fee imo.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on side order after seeing this. It would be interesting to see the contrast between how the base game and DLC tell their stories.
As a long term player since Splatoon 1 as a kid I’ve felt like Splatoon 3 was like a filler episode vibe in the series. All of splatoon’s settings have been mostly colorful and eye catching- while the splatlands looks like a buncha CONCRETE all over. It really does feel like a barren wasteland, story AND atmosphere wise
Inklings build Societies, Octolings only consume them then complain the Inklings did it. There is a reason why only Inkopolis is so far advanced in terms of modernity compared to everywhere else in the lore.
This video really made me realize just how flawed the story of s3's singleplayer really is, I enjoyed it on my first playthrough and I'd still say I enjoyed the story beats but I couldn't help but feel something was missing
the biggest ??? I've got with the motivations of Mr. Grizz is... We've got 2* Cats? & those Cats are very Public? He's not the last Mammal at all; There might already be a bunch of characters involved, but even just a 'they are not enough' would have helped;
We got baited so hard by them showing the Judd scroll in the ROTM trailer only for it to not matter at all. It really does feel like they should have at least been acknowledged
I would've loved if, when grizz first awoke on earth, he actively seeked out Judd to try and find solace in someone, but Judds nonchalantless about the extinction of mammals made grizz furious and spurred his quest to resurrect them. A sort of duality between the two, where grizz cares too much about mammals, and Judd cares too little.
I feel that plays into it hoenstly. Mr Grizz was SO obsessed with bringing back the status quo he couldn't be content with sharing the title of "last mammal" with two cats, because that's still not enough for him. Its all part of how he's glorifying a past he barely knows anything about and how he's denying the present day.
@@sarafontanini7051 The issue is that, like most things in ROTM, that’s an interesting idea on paper, but nothing in the game actually suggests that is how Grizz feels. It would have been a cool idea to include, and it works as a headcanon, but it is not something expressed by the game itself
Maaaan I really loved PLAYING return of the mammalians, because personally, I am not amazing at the game, so Octo Expansion was very frustrating to me. All of that amazing story telling and chatacter development for my absolute favorite characters in the series, locked behind really torturous grindy levels. I get that lore-wise, the levels being hard makes sense lol, but it sucks that I had to basically just watch other people beat it while I was forced to skip past most of the levels because they were too hard for me. ROTM gameplay felt way more accessible with its currency being easier to obtain and having a good amount of levels that were fun, while also having more challenging levels that I was allowed to skip over after giving it a good college try lol. And I thought the story was fun and had some interesting pieces to it, but I also left feeling confused! I think if they were gonna make Grizz the main antagonist, and give us a salmonid friend, then the story absolutely should have been about the salmonids! But it wasn't, and it had basically no impact on the relationship between the salmonids and inkfish, which seemed like the obvious next step that they would take with the story. And this video pointed out even more details that I did not even think about, like why the tests are even there, and the weirdly lacking character motivations :') So thank you for pointing this out! At least now I have more of an idea as to why the story did not feel satisfying, other than the obvious fact that it featured salmon run characters and was not really much about the lore of salmon run at all. Side Order was definitely the most fun i have ever had with a single player campaign in the series though! I think gameplay-wise, they are improving, which makes me sad that the story suffered in exchange. Though I did like Side Order's story much more than ROTM, so there is a lot of potential moving forward!
This video was able to explain a lot of my issues with the story and characters of Splatoon 3 in a way that I never really could on my own, but I feel like a lot of these issues stem from the fact that Return of the Mammalians has the responsibility of being a finale to this first saga in the Splatoon series. Like you said, the story is at its best when focused on fleshing out its original content, namely Alterna and Mr. Grizz-- but because this is the bow that's tying the whole trilogy together it feels like it NEEDS to include more. It needs to have every character from the past two story modes (plus Agent 3) because they've always been here, and Deep Cut needs to be here for... reasons? Because every idol has a part in a story mode, and the DLC is about Off the Hook? In any case, it pulls attention away from the new stuff, and can end up making it feel unfinished. Part of why I'm personally already excited for Splatoon 4 is because, assuming it is in fact the start of a new saga, I'm interested to see what the writers can do with fresh ideas, and a fresh batch of characters
Absolutely. Like I mentioned in the video, Octo Expansion felt like the "true" end of the saga to me, so I really wish ROTM wasn't held back by trying to fill that role. I'm super excited to see what they do next now that they have the opportunity for a fresh start!
The reason why you're excited for Splatoon 4 is why I dread it. It's supposed to be the beginning of a new saga, and discard all the previous characters. But I just can't stomach that, because the supposed grand send-off to this saga was so severely botched that it can't end here in any satisfying manner.
@@WretchedRedoran I don't think they're going to completely discard the old characters; in fact, I don't want them to either, since that would go against Splatoon's great sense of continuity. I'd love for old characters to still come back as side characters and cameos, but I'd also like the next game to have a story mode that uses newer, or even entirely original characters, and doesn't feel the need to shoehorn in all of the same characters we've been seeing since Splatoon 1 like Rise of the Mammalians did
I remember finishing the Splatoon 3 campaign and immediately searching online to see if anyone else was disappointed, but it was so soon after release that those conversations hadn't started yet. I'm glad I found this video. I actually like that Mr. Grizz is a real bear, as it makes him stand out so much more in the world of Splatoon and connects back to the history of how the world evolved. There was so much potential in what his character could be, but he was presented as a one-note marketable plushy who only says corporate cliches. It seemed like a completely different character from the one who talks over the radio in Salmon Run. I feel like some executives made the devs simplify the story and turn the final boss into a silly spectacle because "Splatoon's main demographic is children and teenagers" instead of letting them lean into the lore they were building. I think the Grizz backstory we got after the fact, with a realistic bear in the artwork, was their attempt to salvage their original intentions for the character. Obviously I don't know what the campaign's development actually looked like, but the impression I got was a lot of corporate meddling. All that to say I'm coping and hope they bring him back as a cool scary bear with ongoing plot significance and a real personality because that's what I was hoping he'd be from the beginning.
I have never understood why anyone thought there was actually a "mystery" around Grizz's identity intended at all. From the moment he was introduced in Splatoon 2, I always assumed that it was very obviously a joke that while he seems mysterious to the (slightly stupid) marine life inhabitants of Splatoon's world who have no idea what a bear is, to us (the human audience) he's obviously a bear in a very bad disguise. Like, it was a joke, not a mystery. It's exactly like how Grizzco is clearly an illegal operation exploiting cephalopods, but because it's a corporate sponsor that gives money and gear away as rewards, nobody realizes this and famous musicians openly advertise it on TV. The only mystery was, "how is a bear alive," and they explained that with Ark Polaris and then Splatoon 3. It was really strange to me when S3 came out, and it turned out that a vocal portion of the audience had apparently misinterpreted this joke as some kind of puzzle to solve, and then got mad at a punchline for not being the serious "answer" to a question that they tricked themselves into making up.
Ok as I understand it to grossly oversimplify the big issue with Splatoon 3 story is that many, if not all of, the BIG questions don't receive answers including but not limited to Mr. Grizz. So I propose to you this hypothetical lore based on what we were given out of curiosity to see if this had been what they had done if you would still feel so disappointed. Bear 03# aka Mr. Grizz is a bear that among other test subjects were created as one of many of humanity's last hopes to carry on their knowledge should they go extinct. The experiment aimed to see if, given enough time in an altered cryosleep where the body does not age, but the brain remains active, other species of animals could develop the same level of consciousness as humans. The experiment proved successful, however, what was unknown to the humans at the time was that the longer the subject was placed in cryosleep the more their consciousness would develop. So Bear 03# and the rest of the subjects were put on a rocket to find another planet to replace the Earth. No such planet was ever found and eventually, the ship was damaged causing it to return to Earth, however, due to the damage the ship was unable to land. Inevitably the vessel found itself in the inescapable pull of the Earth's gravity. Reentry was not kind to its inhabitants-all perished, save one. Bear #03 had survived. For 12,000 years his consciousness had developed, his intellect now rivaling geniuses. Fully awakened, Bear #03 came to a terrible realization. He had not landed on a new planet at all. He was back on Earth. And yet, it was not an Earth he knew. This Earth, it seemed, was dominated by sea creatures. Not a single mammal to be found. In the course of his search for a single fellow mammal, Bear #03 used navigational equipment from the wreckage of the Ark Polaris to discover Alterna. It was a wasteland, but it served as a facility by which he could watch and observe Earth's new inhabitants. In his observations, he had seen the ongoing conflict between the Octarians and the Inklings, but he had also witnessed the experiments performed deep underground by Commander Tartar. Bear 03# theorized that he could very well use this sanitized ink for his purposes if it were to be modified. With knowledge built during his thousands of years of development, he repaired some of Alterna's facilities and began researching the ink...This research bore fruit when Bear #03 compounded some of the ink with his own fur. The experiment created an entirely new substance with one terrifying property-it could transform any living creature into a mammal. But there was a problem, the octarians Bear 03# used the substance became mindless drones whose sole purpose seemed to be to create test chambers. All was not lost though, as with more experimentation Bear 03# realized that this effect could be neutralized if he could only procure the essence of a being with enough experiences to remind the subjects who they are instantly. Having observed the inklings for some time Bear 03# had an inkling in mind. Bear #03 realized the implications immediately. He could restore the planet to a mammalian paradise! He began stockpiling Fuzzy Ooze, as he called it, within Alterna's still-intact rocket...For such a venture, he would require the acquisition of thousands of Golden Eggs. These were used in the creation of the Fuzzy Ooze, although the exact details have never been recorded in my memory banks. But Bear #03 had a plan. He founded a corporation that would go on to employ locals to collect his Golden Eggs under the name Grizzco Industries. Mr. Grizz, as he was now known, would pay handsomely for them...With Fuzzy Ooze production peaking thanks to the assistance of unsuspecting Inklings and Octolings, Mr. Grizz took the final steps to set his plan in motion. The rocket was loaded...It wouldn't be long now. If you have log.exe committed to memory you'll notice that much of this was from that log, but that was the goal as I wanted to keep it as close to the original story as possible. You'll also notice that I changed the liquid crystals to sanitization ink. I admit it's a little on the nose however, I think it would tie in nicely to what the second game built, as it would give a reason for the mamalized octarians to obey, or at the very least not be hostile towards, Mr. Grizz and more importantly it gives A reason, albeit a stretch of one, for the test chambers to exist the way they are in Alterna. If nothing else I agree that they should not have used test chambers I really could not think of a good reason why Mr. Grizz would need or benefit from them, or how the humans would have had them. I admit that this does not fix all of your problems Deep Cut would still have no reason to be an enemy and the player would still have no reason to obtain the thangs other than "because they fought for them", but I do think that this helps fix many of the core issues.
great video, i was not expecting to come away from this video enjoying it, but you make your points well and its all very understandable. I do hope we get some more story in Splatoon 4 if it happens (please) and learnign more about Grizz and Grizzco has to be on the menu please please please
Here's what i saw about splatoon places on story mode Splatoon 1: in Octo valley areas look like skateboard 🛹 area. And half of the areas are floating. All of them are floating in one location. Not anywhere on ground or even on undergrounds. Plus the ufo that is floating on final level sends you up in space like space station place. Or somewhere. This place is literally confusing as we're floating in middle of areas. Splatoon 2: not as big as first one on octo canyon. Small places around to walk. But on cephalon HQ you're on like a sea of murky paint that looks polluted and poisoning. Then we go underground for real on final boss that is different from the crater. Could've added a legit fortress or underground base like. But nope. Stickers and new deco didn't spice anything up for octarians. Splatoon 3: Finally some place to explore on crater where we go down and such. But sadly we can't go anywhere else on crater but down and deep down. Alterna is good and all but half of the areas are sunken and some are still lingering. None of the places have any purpose to explore or understand 😕 what will happen next. Cuz most of the area is covered in cold ice and cold water far away. And we can see the broken tv like cieling. Worst of all? No sign of "Mammalians" to exist at all or even being called. I won't even add mr grizz since he's one of the only mammal. If anything rabbits should've been Mammalians army. Just like how kirby and forgotten land made their own Mammalians for real The Beast Pack. Splatoon has been focusing on parties and events yet they didn't add anything more adventurous and world wide exploration. Its like you're in one whole region and that's it. Nowhere else. No other regions to explore. Plus they only add 4 bosses every game. I want more bosses and tougher ones and i want us to pick our own weapons/subs/specials that isn't DLC like or cost worth.
I think why it was a bit underwelming is because they are going to build on it, cuz i rember being a kd in splatoon 1 and the lore building was AMAZING but we didn't have enough for the full picture. Maybe thats what is goin on with the mammalians. And i do agree, anythin can be improved on, but overall imo and im sure u agree but the splatoon games and lore and charatcers r pretyy GREAAATTT, unique, and r a breath of freash air with personality and charm!
18:23 i agree with everything previously stated, but Calamari Inkantation is, in a way, a magical song. If I remember correctly, the Inkantation is what cured Octoling brainwashing, and it's music which is etched into Octoling's and Inkling's DNA. Which makes the Calamari Inkantation a very important part of the lore, and what it does to lil' buddy is showing some sort of extent of the song's power. However, this is only significant if and only if this is explained futher in the next game
Well, the Octarians weren’t brainwashed, they were just led by Octavio and influenced by his music. It’s implied to be closer to propaganda than mind control. The Calamari Inkantation counteracted Octavio’s music and showed the Octarians a glimpse of life outside the domes. It does appear to have a somewhat supernatural effect on them, but it’s not explicitly magical. Smallfry physically transforming into a giant monster through the power of some unexplained “marine life energy” has no real base in existing lore and feels like a different thing entirely
OOOOHHHH MY GOD SOMEONE GETS IT ABOUT THE GRIZZ REVEAL. People kept going, “It was so obvious he was a bear, why did you expect anything different?” BECAUSE THE BEAR HINTS WERE LAYERED ON SO THICK THAT I THOUGHT HE *COULDN’T* BE A BEAR. Me five years ago in 2019 thought, “Surely he isn’t a bear, right? They wouldn’t just, spoil Splatoon 3 like that, right?” Yes, past me, yes they would. It feels like genuinely incompetent writing for Mr. Grizz to be a real ass mammalian bear, and nothing will ever change my mind.
Biggest issue is that the main war between Inks & Octs was mostly wrapped up by the end of Splatoon 2's side story. They couldn't use any of that material again, without backpedalling alot of the first two games. Meaning they had to introduce new elements for Splatoon 3 to work. A new villain, with new motives but keeping all the formula of levels, bosses, etc. Two choices: 1.) Introduce a new party which was never mentioned before now and try to shoehorn them into the established lore and plot. 2.) Take from the lore of humanity's extinction to build into a threat, which was lying in wait for Splatoon 3 to strike. Grizz is the best case scenario, outside of having actual humans show up. He's atleast thematically tied to the lore and themes of the series but you're right in that none of the other characters have any motivation beyond protect the status quo. There's no meaningful connection because Grizz's character is based entirely in lore and secrets, which nobody else as reason to interact with.
I feel like a lot of the problems are things that the developers did think about but failed to mention (the next things will juat my ideas and not necessarily what they were actually thinking Why are the Squid Sisters there? They found about the fuzzy ooze in Alterna and decided to go see it Why is Mr. Grizz intelligent? Because the experiments made on him did that, but it took time for it to actully happen (something done by the humans maybe in case noone was coming back, maybe also they were who the telephone was for) What are the test chambers? Maybe the humans used them to test their experiments and made them change depending on what animal arrived in the chamber, or maybe Mr. Grizz made modifications to them Why are the octarians there? I believe that Alterna is one of the domes used by the octarians as homes, maybe he arrived there and changed the biology of the octarians already luving inside the dome to collect fuzzy ooze Those are some speculations that I made on the spot (I haven't played the mode in two years and have never read the log.exe so I don’t have all the specific details in mind) But if they were what the developers had in mind, only a few lines of dialogue could have made it more clear It wouldn’t have made the entire story better, but some of it Stories where you still have questions at the end are not bad, on the contrary But this one specifically needed to adress those questions
My theory is that he has psychic abilities, this would explain why he can talk without moving his mouth, his glowing eyes, increased intelligence, the significance of dreams (which I assume to be partial premonitions) in the Alterna logs mentioning him and his seeming ability to take the wisdom of ages from Cuttlefish's mind, alternatively he could've taken whatever faculty allows Cuttlefish, Squids and Octopus to change colors, something scientists assume to be a conscious ability connected to their brain, this "essence" was likely related to the substance humans took from the Inkfish's unevolved forebears in order to produce the crystals used in Alterna's dome. Assuming my theory is the case, some weirder parts of the story start to make more sense. Additionally, I think there are already some pretty overt references to other properties featuring prominent psychics. (Semi Spoilers for Akira Ahead) In the movie a psychic is able to protect themselves from the vacuum of space, leave the atmosphere and land on something in orbit, an iconic moment which seems to be referenced in the final boss fight, I'd also argue that Fuzzy Ooze has design similarities to Giygas from the videogame Earthbound, which is another game franchise with powerful psychics, though this was more likely a coincidence. If he does have psychic abilities I hope to see these fully developed and utilized, a particular focus on brainwaves could be very interesting and fitting thematically due to Splatoon's nautical elements. Picture if psychic ability somehow allows one to see or interact with brainwaves, then image that there aren't only brainwaves but a whole ocean of thought which is the totality of experience, image if through interfacing with this ocean Grizz is able to perform incredible acts previously thought impossible. Assuming they go all out with this idea, and assuming brainwaves never truly fade away but rather return to the ocean of consciousness after death, Grizz would not only be able to experience but display and instill the thoughts of those currently living and long gone, those who are and were. This, on top of already established abilities, would not only allow Grizz to restore the earth by mentally rebuilding it but to fully return all humans that previously inhabited it, including the player. With these Grizz would become a unique villain, one who must be fought against despite fighting for our existence and legacy, one we fight inspite of ourselves, a villain that many wouldn't want to beat but who must be defeated for the sake of the game itself. (Note that this is purely hypothetical and solely for exploring the absolute ends of his potential narrative importance. If such a thing were to be explored It would require massive downsides and ultimately not be the right solution. My thought is that the Fuzzy Ooze would eventually be revealed as an enemy which starts to display humans limbs and faces as he trys to forcefully wrench them from the Ocean, this potential Ocean of Am or Being would have to do with creativity and reference Giygas, Shakespeare's line "To be or not to be" as well as the Sci-fi book "I have no mouth and I must scream".) Side note, if you're reading this, I think your argument about an apparent lack of mystery and the bluntness in which the lore is conveyed is wrong for various reasons. No offense.
The bluntness of the logs was only a minor nitpick--I frankly just don't love the writing style they chose to use for ORCA. Either way, it's not a big deal. My problem is not so much that there is a lack of mystery, but that there is so little information with which to answer the story's biggest questions. I don't think everything should be answered, but I especially dislike that a major inciting event for the story, Cuttlefish's capture, cannot be explained without delving into dubious headcanon territory. It is deeply unsatisfying to me that we never learn what Grizz was even doing with Cuttlefish as we were working to save him. I am yet to hear a counterpoint that convinces me it was anything other than poor writing.
@@TheCosmicCloudMy biggest problem is that you seem to like the mystery of Splatoon but when you are actually given the chance to think about what Grizz took from Cuttlefish, or even why another villain would do something as odd as going to the trouble of creating fake bear prints, you seem to gravitate to arguably more "dubious" theories which require levels of scheming we've never seen before or refuse to theorize at all and suggest it's bad writing. You seem puzzled but at the same time totally uninterested in solving the puzzle. Again, I understand being uninterested or annoyed about speculation of varying quality or wanting the whole story to be explored but it seems they actually wanted us to think about these things and purposely teased at the interesting directions the story is going to head. Some people you recommend even seemed really skilled at breaking these down. That being said I guess I was hoping you'd also dive a bit deeper into the teasers, even if you didn't make any concrete statements or form any concrete thoughts until we get the next game, I'd still be nice to see you think about where the hints could lead. Clarification about my speculation: I know the long rant seems out there but my thoughts are more low-key. My most mundane theory is that Grizz took the same substance which Cephalopods use to change color, in real life they're called chromatophores, cells which hold pigments and are manipulated to change color, there's a small leap from the mysterious substance Alternans took from cephalopods and the substance Grizz took from Cuttlefish who is a descendant of those same cephalopods and who promptly lost all of his color after having it taken. And I'd also argue color changing cells and the pixels of the Alterna sky dome have other obvious parallels, apart from being cell-shaded. My theory about Grizz also shouldn't be mistaken with my hopes for him, fundamentally I think they were going to go with a more psychic bend to his character but decided against it with some of the remnants of that narrative shift being apparent, still, I think he is at the very least using the same method as the Alterna sky dome to communicate telepathically or through devices with his mind, mostly due to his distinctive voice and ability to speak in the vacuum of space. Even if all that's incorrect the focus on memories, dreams, desires, superhuman predictions and calculations, as well as the brain holding an important narrative role should make you at least curious about if the Splatoon team were or are thinking about that aspect, not to mention that almost any question asked leads to the greater narrative importance of the mind, like how exactly does the sky dome track and react to desire, how do inkfish change their hair color, what's with the focus with mind control, creativity and freewill, regardless of if the mental abilities are as vast as hope they'd be (which I don't expect) it's definitely a big part of the puzzle. Ps: I'm not trying to be antagonistic, I do agree about most of the criticisms, especially the overuse of some characters and them taking the focus away from Grizz, who likely would've worked better as the main presence along with Deep Cut, something which seemed to be them trying to cram most of the fan-favorite characters into a semi-final game, same with your point about them splitting the story into the next game, that said there are positives to that as well which I don't think you mention. I'm very tempted to go into the specific sci-fi tropes, properties, and moments I think they're referencing, something I think really supports my point, but this requires serious spoilers and would make this even longer so I'll let you off the hook, for now...
@@oldnosoul4183 My issue with the "puzzle" of ROTM is that its pieces do not feel intentionally constructed. It IS uninteresting to me, because no matter what theory I attempt to create, there is always something left feeling unsatisfying. In the theories you presented, both of them still fail to explain Grizz's actual motivations in the plot. Sure, maybe Grizz took Cuttlefish's chromatophores, or something similar related to the liquid crystals. But WHY would he do that? We hear him speak and see him control Fuzzy Ooze before that happens, so... what would be the point? It doesn't make sense to save that mystery for another game when we are meeting Grizz and experiencing his character arc right now. What I tend to see from people defending ROTM are headcanons that flesh out the plot and its events, but do not actually get at the root of its problems. I may be able to put together some obscure pieces of the lore to craft an idea of how seemingly disparate parts of the world fit together, but that would not solve the issue of poor character writing. It would not explain the things that simply do not belong in the same world as Splatoon 1 and 2. ROTM certainly involves minds, memories, dreams, and desires, and those are interesting to think about on their own, but it's difficult for me to become invested in analyzing the themes of a story whose basic narrative beats are barely coherent. ROTM only scratches the surface of its most interesting ideas, and while some people may be able to run with that and create their own stories, what I am talking about here is what Nintendo could have done themselves, and didn't.
@@TheCosmicCloud The faith one has in a story to answer the questions it raises is the difference between something feeling like a plot hole and something feeling like a mystery, it's the difference between weariness and anticipation. I fully understand that you feel unsatisfied, but, weirdly, I think that's a fundamental part of mystery, it's something which requires there not be full or immediate resolutions, especially in a long running franchise with a slowly unfolding story. That being said, I think it'll seem a lot less unsatisfying in comparison if you think about just how much they've left up for interpretation over the years. Take Dj Octavio for instance, we don't know how he got his scars, how his humanoid form looks in-game, his exact role in the great turf war, or his deeper relation to Cuttlefish and how that broke down, even something like his reasoning for stealing the great zap fish, which might seem to have been fully explored in the story of Splatoon 1, likely has deeper, unexplored motivations behind it that relates to other, yet given contextualization, these as well as many other things about him are still mostly unknown despite him having been around for three games and the main antagonist of the first. All of that mystery is what makes him my second favorite character next to Grizz, with Grizz winning out only slightly due to his backstory and potential. In my opinion, and to use your words, Splatoon 1 only scratched the surface of Dj Octavio's ark, same with the Octoling plight, that "Scratching of the surface" is one of my favorite aspects of Splatoon and something I think it does best. All of that is why I have trouble calling Cuttlefish's capture bad writing or unintentional, it seems more like something they purposely drew attention to, whereas bad writing is usually a plot hole at a random point in the story which has to be covered up or distracted from. If they were looking to do something simpler they could've just made Grizz capture him and threaten to cover him in Fuzzy Ooze, them deciding against this and leaving him in a state which must be addressed in the next game leads me to think they have something bigger in mind. So, while I'd agree with you on almost every other criticism of the story, I don't think Cuttlefish's capture in particular is an egregious oversight. As for what he stole from Cuttlefish and why, I'm not sure, but I could easily come up with useful information an experienced war veteran might have floating around in his mind, the founders and founding of certain important locations, the other members of the SBS, strategies used in the first great turf war, or maybe even the weapons of mass destruction we saw level previous Octoling cities leaving them as flaming ruins, it's impossible to know right now but he'd likely have some of the most important knowledge in the franchise, regardless of if that info was mentally drained or extracted the old fashioned way, knowledge like that would be comparable to Dj Octavio's and maybe second only to Judd. If he didn't steal anything from his mind and only stole his color changing or whatever It'd still be somewhat useful as Cuttlefish in the wild use that ability to communicate, camouflage, and most importantly, to "hypnosis" or daze their prey by rapidly flashing black and white (not my words, a National Geographic vid used the term). I think a better question might be how did Mr. Grizz know of Cuttlefish but not Judd, something like that seems more unanswerable and possibly due to bad writing, though I don't know where they'll take the story so it could have a good reason behind it. And to address the point of his overall motivations (which I made better under the recommended video), Mr. Grizz wants to revive humanity, not only mammals, but because the will of humanity leached into the Inkfish, he requires all of them to be covered in Fuzzy Ooze to achieve his goal of bringing us back, hence him covering the whole Earth and focusing on the Inkfish in specific. And as for how he is able to do what he does, that also seems pretty simple. Grizz can talk and do science because he's an experimental subject like Judd (something which has been established to give mammals human intelligence and supernatural abilities) and he's giant because of him absorbing Fuzzy Ooze (though The Great Zap Fish and Octo Samurai are also giants). Regardless of the exact nature of his mental enhancements, how he got them, what they do and what he uses them for seem clear to me, so questions like why Grizz chose to revert earth (his home) or why he didn't immediately dump Cuttlefish in Fuzzy Ooze (he was just about to ooze the whole planet) don't bother me and aren't things I think have to be spelled out further. Ps: I totally agree about Smallfry becoming a Kaiju, it goes against the more sci-fi aspects of the franchise and if that's what you mean by "Things that don't belong in the same worlds as Splatoon 1 and 2" then I have no argument there. That said, that's partly why I like thinking about Psychic abilities, it's usually how sci-fi chooses to rebrand magic into something more fitting, but for that reason I see why people are against it.
This video mentions a lot of the issues I had with ROTM, but I was one of those who weren't bothered at all by the Mr. Grizz reveal. In fact, it was maybe my favourite moment in the campaign. Personally, I had never even heard of the "not-actually-a-bear" theory (which I imagine is the case for most of the fandom), so there was no disappointment from that. The shock and amusement came from the fact that this 'deep voiced grizzly owner of a shady business', who had brutally kidnapped cuttlefish, who was the final enemy of the story mode, looked like a cute bear. I almost feel like such a diversion of expectations, Mr. Grizz actually being a marine creature, would've mostly just been confusing, and even disappointing, to most fans. I always wondered how a bear could still exist in this world, and the story gave me an satisfying yet sad answer to that. I had never considered how it would feel to be the only bear left in the world, yet it made perfect sense in retrospect, in the sense of his motivations. While I think the story had quite a few unsatisfying plotholes and unexplained things, I don't feel like Mr. Grizz was one of them. The possibility of a mammal surviving/existing was established with Judd (as rare as it was), and the intelligence aspect to me felt like the same case as with inklings and octolings, especially since that was clearly stated and explained in the story mode moments prior. In my understanding, Mr. Grizz inherited the will and dreams of the scientists, hence why he was so smart, and partially why he wanted to so desperately return mammalian life to earth (other than his extremely depressing circumstances). At least, that's how I understood it while playing. I feel like the end message was about unity and understanding of different beings. Of seeing past our differences? The human will and spirit? Something like that. I do feel like the story was originally maybe meant to be a little different, but ultimately it was then made to be mostly understandable to most casual and even newer players, which is what I think they prioritized. And I enjoyed it. It didn't break my immersion whatsoever, since the possibility of a bear existing was well established already in splatoon 2. ORCA was probably my biggest disappointment, but I quite enjoyed the Mr. Grizz storyline, from someone who played a lot of salmon run in splatoon 2, and wondered what was up with him. The ambiguity was fine to me too, but I understand how it could've been frustrating. I only wished all the different story aspects were more connected. -Opinion of a casual lore enthusiast.
I've seen a few comments defending Grizz that all have different explanations for how he became intelligent, which I think demonstrates the exact problem I have with his backstory. Grizz's intelligence is an integral part of his character; I don't think it should be something we should have to make guesses or theories about. I totally understand that it can be fun to fill in the details with your own ideas---it's a huge reason I love the other games so much. But with ROTM, I really feel like we needed more solid information than what we were given, especially in terms of Grizz. A bear *existing* is fine, but for that bear to be sapient and able to speak is a whole other story
@@TheCosmicCloud I suppose that's just ultimately a matter of different preference. The ambiguity in that aspect doesn't bother me, but I can understand why it could, especially since this was meant to be an ending to a trilogy. I would've liked a more conclusive information, but, again, it didn't negatively effect my gameplay experience. That being said, and I forgot to say this in my original comment, but I greatly enjoyed this video! It was very interesting and gave me an different view. I immediately went to check out your other videos, and it's good stuff. Excitedly await your side order video!
@@Starius65 It was definitely a mistake to not mention the Judds in the video, because I’ve gotten this question a lot. Basically, Judd also sticks out as something unexplained in Splatoon’s world, but his role in the games is so minor that I never felt like it mattered too much. I think the argument that Judd’s existence sets a precedent for Grizz is flawed because it’s comparing the tutorial mascot character to the main antagonist. If Judd were in Grizz’s position, it would be the same problem. From the original trailer, I expected ROTM to provide proper lore for both Grizz AND Judd, and it gave us neither
I’m going to be the singular freak of nature that I am and say that, after the ending of the story mode where Li’l Buddy turned into a big giant salmon creature, that somehow gave me hope that Salmonlings would be a thing in the near future. Which... Considering that’s likely never going to be on Nintendo’s docket, I really wish they didn’t casually explain that the inkfish absorbed humanity’s wishes through the water, because Salmonids canonically adapting their forms to their environment and Li’l Buddy being exposed to inkfish society at a pivotal moment in their life provides a PERFECT potential explanation for Salmonlings. As much as I’d love them to be real though, I understand just how much suspension of belief it would require to let them be real in the games. It’d have to be like... 7 different layers of explanation... Or just decide Grizz was developing Salmonlings for use in Salmon Run for one reason or another. I wish I knew where Splatoon is going next, because the newest Splatfest unironically gives me no clues and no answers. At least I’ll be able to enjoy the game’s cycling Splatfests!
Apologies for the long post but ROTM really leaves me with conflicting thoughts. And even if I do touch upon similar points as the video, i wanna share my thoughts. I'll admit, I may be the odd one out, but I was actually VERY HAPPY about the fact Mr. Grizz turned out to be a real bear. Splatoon lore always tries to go deeper than what the game shows at surface level, but I also sometimes feel us Splatoon fans get too caught up on it and forget that even in its darkest themes, the series still tries to add a layer of humor to it. The devs always try to make the world feel believable by adding small details but also, enjoy making something for the sake of a pun or for a feeling of wackiness. Splatoon 1 spoke of the wars between two sides from different perspectives...but also told us that one battle was won because the inklings literally were too lazy to wake up early. We were shown the skeleton remains of a human...that was stuck playing on their WiiU. Splatoon 2 gave us a crazed AI attempting to pull genocide on to an entire civilization...while still looking like a goofy old-timey pay phone. No matter how dark the lore gets, Splatoon always tries to inject a comedic side to it in the macro, so when Mr. Grizz was introduced in the second game, the idea of him being actually a bear always ring true to me. Yes, we got an explanation of what power eggs do in the splatoon society, but I feel people got too caught up on the micro of his mysterious nature specially after Octo Expansion, that forgot about the macro of the entire joke: that we are delivering salmon eggs to a BEAR. As such, I don't feel Grizz being a bear really breaks the established lore. And if if he would have been something like another cephalopod or marine creature obsessed with mammals, I feel it'd have been a disservice to that layer on humor that is always applied to the world while being another AI would have been too much of a retreat of TarTar....HOWEVER. That's where my defense of Mr. Grizz really ends, because while I understand why he is a mammal, I do believe in similar fashion to what's said in the video, the EXECUTION of it all failed short of what I'd have hoped for. first things first. We SHOULD have had more on-screen time with Mr. Grizz. His reveal comes relateviley early, but his dialogue really gets reserved to the very end of the game. It'd have worked way better, in my opinion, if he would have been a constant voice during our journey, allowing to flesh out his character as well as give us an understanding of his plans, the ooze, amongst other things. Personally, I feel the ooze is very self explanatory when it comes to the Octarians; The ooze twisted their minds and made them loyal to Mr. Grizz. That alone doesn't need a deep explanation, but rather what feels strange is how detached his plan is FROM the fact he has a bunch of brainwashed Octarians. Maybe if kidnapping octarians involved something related to obtaining that "essence" Grizz later took from Cuttlefish may have been more understanding, but since the main cast seems WAY too indifferent to the story unfolding around them, it makes it feel like none of the pieces are fitting together. Same goes to his backstory as well as ORCA, which tbh, i feel it could have EASILY been addressed. Imagine if you will, that Mr. Grizz after crashing back to the planet interacted with the very same liquid memory that turned squids and octos into what they are today and that was the reason he gained his intelligence? Not only it'd tie him with the origin of Inklings and Octarians, but also from a narrative perspective could have made him into some sort of dark reflection of them: Humanity's drive created our cephalopod friends while the very same essence injected him with the more negative traits of humanity. Hell, maybe if the essence that he needed from Cuttlefish was more explained to be the very thing that created the inklings, maybe that plot point wouldn't have come off as such half-assed! similarly, ORCA AND the Octarians could have been explained using the very same plotpoint! Mr. Grizz kidnapped Octavio's army for experimentation and to get this "essence" that is the "genetic starting key" for his ooze formula to create a new race of mammals, then modified ORCA to create chambers to test these octarians in order to drive out this "feeling of drive" which created them! I'll be honest, i find it so odd that the crystal liquid is ONLY reserved for the alterna logs when it could have easily been used to give an explanation of most of the main story. Which leads to my BIGGEST gripe: DJ Ocatvio SHOULD HAVE BEEN A BIGGER PART IN THE STORY. The trilogy of Splatoon feels like a story about community: the first game shows us two opposing sides, neither good nor evil; The second game shows us how these two factions can co-exist together. So the third game should have been, in a way, the ultimate test of this coexistence; A final challenge that both Octarians and Inklings had to face together. It is why I feel the beginning of ROTM is actually kinda brilliant. By giving us the fake sense of familiarity by calling upon Splatoon 1's story structure, making us think this will just be another "Inklings vs Octavio" story only to pull the wool 8or fuzz) from over our eyes. But then Octavio just disappears for the rest of the story until the very end. I feel it'd have been a much stronger narrative by having Octavio found and/or rescued earlier and the rest of the story'd involve an alliance with the Squid Sisters. This not only would have been great to show this narrative point of squids and octos coming together, but also would have given us a newfound interest in fighting these oozed up octarians, perhaps check on what Octavio feels about this and in doing so letting us learn of WHY Grizz needed them to begin with. I do however feel that the real reason why ROTM decided to be so bare bones is the devs desire to create a single player game mode that is gameplay-focused and approchable to both current fans AND new players of Splatoon. Similarly how Splatoon 2's story mode is also very simple while Octo Expansion acts as the extra champter for the long-time fans. this is only proven more right to me by Side Order, which also goes for a focus on the stuff long-running fans desire. So ROTM's problem is one of clashing intentions: they wanted this to be the grand finale to a trilogy of stories, while also trying to keep it simple for the new players who just stepped in and wanted to play in a bunch of single player levels. As much as it pains me, we sometimes forget that the story modes in Splatoon are always meant to be a sort of "introduction" to players to how to play, while the paid DLC tends to gravitate towards people who already have a grasp on the mechanics, and so are more challenging. Nintendo always has a philosophy of "any game can be someone's first" and the exploding popularity of Splatoon2 at its peak probably prompted them to still apply that with the notion that a non-splatoon fan may actually start with Splatoon 3 rather than the trilogy's beginnings.
It's just the fact there are so many other story elements that already existed that could have explained his intelligence better. We could have been told that the humans were scared about going extinct and began conducting strange experiments to implant human intelligence in animals. We could have been told that Mr. Grizz absorbed the liquid crystals and was guided by the passive desires of the Alternans. Instead, we're told he was awake while he was sleeping. Beyond the fact that it logistically just... doesn't make sense, even if I were to suspend my disbelief about that particular detail, it feels like there were so many better ways they could have gone about it
@@TheCosmicCloud I dunno, I think it made sense. Lucid dreaming is a thing, sleep paralysis is a thing, the line between dreaming and wakefulness are a lot blurrier than people think. 12,000 years trapped in your own head is bound to radically change a brain
@@Shinntoku But would it change it for the better? I struggle to see how a bear trapped in one room would be able to learn complex thought and *language* of all things. Obviously we aren’t meant to think about the specifics, but it just feels like a lame answer to what could have been a much more interesting and logically sound backstory
@@TheCosmicCloud I just think all the pieces add up without needing a more detailed explanation. Mr. Grizz was experimented on and then spent 12,000 years trapped in cryosleep while still being conscious and that's the exact scifi recipe I would expect to result in a hyper intellegent animal. Also I don't think it was necessarily a change for the better, Mr. Grizz was unable to accept the change in the world until the very end, and prior to that he was essentially just imitating the humans that raised him, performing experiments on himself and trying to return mammals to the globe
I feel the exact same way about Mr Grizz, after watching Sir Dame Sander's video on Grizz I feel like Mr Grizz might be my new favourite villain in the series. Although I too wish his backstory was altered a bit, I feel like the idea of Grizz as a character is tragic when you think about it. Also, I just want to say you did a good job on the video, there were a lot of good points you made.
In terms of the in-game crestor of the tests and experiments of Splatoon 3's "Return of the Mammalians", you do get lore after beating the postgame content that explains that Mr.Grizz experimented with the ooze from octo expansion to make the fuzzy ooze, and used Alterna's resources to do so. He also captured and used Octarians and Octolings in his experiments (hense the fuzzy enemies and why DJ Octario is miffed, and assumes the Inklings were responsible at first.) So it stands to reason that when Mr.Grizz captured the Octarians, he also took their tech, or had the fuzzified octarians build them, and incorporate updated programming and algorythms to O.R.C.A. to suit his plans. This easily explains the portals, and ink tech used in the levels.
@@TabbyWesa I showed the log you are speaking about in the video. It tells us about the Ark Polaris, Grizz’s discovery of Alterna, and his creation of the Fuzzy Ooze. It never mentions anything about the Sanitized Ink from Octo Expansion or that Mr. Grizz experimented on Octarians. Considering the tests are run by ORCA and referred to as the “Alterna Citizen Program,” it seems unlikely that they were first created by Grizz
Honestly, I still don't care much for the Return of the Mammalians plot, especially the ending, whereas my friend really liked it because of its sheer spectacle. Like, from a video game perspective, getting sent into space and having a giant space battle is wild and cool and stuff, but it stopped feeling like Splatoon for me at that point. Honestly, I liked the Splat 1 and 2 stories where we went deep underground, and while the bosses were silly and exaggerated, they still felt feasible in the context of the world. Going into space, running across a missile while our tiny salmonid friend (who is still unexplained how we are friends with him) suddenly transforms into a giant fish (also mostly unexplained how he did that), who then kaiju fights a giant bear (how is anyone breathing in space) while we get onto a flying mech with a giant vacuum, fight off missiles on its back, then finally using that vacuum to explode pustules on the giant bear and that's how we somehow defeat him... I know it takes a decent amount of suspension of disbelief to think of how the Splatoon world works, but that final battle was a bit too ridiculous for me... And while I like the characters of the story, the story they were part of felt almost rushed, like they had ideas for things they wanted to happen but no idea how to tie them together, so instead of taking a bit longer to get them to make sense together, they just slapped them together because it's a silly squid game where no one is going to think too hard about the story because the characters are too cute to care about the middle parts.
You know, this honestly explains why I sorta haven't thought of the singleplayer too much in this, you really nailed it in this and honestly the story, and lack or rather misguided lore that's aimless. It sorta reflects how the actual gameplay has been, this pertaining to like, maps, weapons, etc. Like idk I enjoy Splatoon 3 but they're just a lot of missed potential... and this just added to the list. Thank you though it was very nice to listen to this c:
I listened to the soundtrack a while before playing, and the story the soundtrack implies is way cooler than what we got. All the ingredients are there for the coolest Splatoon story ever, yet the execution falls flat.
the reason the mamalian octarians are following mr grizz is because of the fuzzy ooze that turned them mammalian, it acts exactly like commander tartars goo. also the "essence" in cuttlefish's mind is the same thing theyre talking about in this log 12:04
@@KyrenShat I believe there was a single tweet posted by Nintendo that said the Fuzzy Ooze causes a person to “lose their sense of self,” which is similar to how Sanitization has been described. But unlike Octo Expansion, no character ever acknowledges their strange behavior in-game. Grizz doesn’t speak about the Octarians at all, and he has no facility for turning Octarians Fuzzy like Tartar did for Sanitization. If it is supposed to work the same way, I do not think the game makes that nearly as clear as it should. It’s possible that “essence” is the bodily fluid with strange properties, but we don’t know that for sure, and again, why does Grizz need it?
i was prepared to be mad at this video, but you adressed everything adequatley and just. From mr grizzs body to the strange gameplay elements. the one thing i am usually mad about were people getting mad that grizz is an actual bear (coughrassicascough), because it WAS so obvious, because it wasnt a red herring, because everything else would have been weird actualy, and because it just seems just weird and hypocritical for the quasi elitist lore enjoyers getting mad that nintendo didnt confirm their headcannon correctly
The main reason I would say it wasn't obvious is because we had been explicitly told several times that all mammals besides the Judds were extinct. In retrospect though, yes, they were definitely trying to hint that Grizz was a bear. If he had been given better lore to explain why he was a *sapient, talking bear,* I wouldn't have nearly as much of an issue with his visual design
@@TheCosmicCloud agreed, edit: also, since we see the world from its inhabitants point of view, the judds being the only mammals THAT THEY KNOW OF is kind of the point why grizz existing isnt a contradiction
@@jowi_ It was explicit developer intent that there were no mammals aside from the Judds. Please don't try and play it off like anyone who disagrees is a spaz.
@@WretchedRedoran you know developers can...lie.. about future content, or come up with new ideas that, by all available information, doesnt break preestablished lore, or in the worst case, retcon, although i dont think this is the case here, since it was heaviliy implied previously Also i never "called people a spaz" whatever that means, i simply referred to a meme that says "did you really get upset at the story or just that your headcannon didnt get accepted" or something along these lines, you know what i mean criticism is one thing, but nearly getting a mental breakdown over it (coughrassicasseeinggrizzforthefirsttimecough) is maybe a sign that you take this all too seriously and shouldnt take the developers interviews as gospel only to then disregard their decisions once they made it into the game because it makes you upset specifically (and yes im gonna pull the "its just a silly squid game card" with this) (the "you" in this was to a metaphorical third person, a strawman if you will, i didnt mean -you- specifically, just clarifying this since people misinterpreted my words in the past, if they want to disagree with what i say then atleast with the right thing, sorry if this is unneccessary, but just in case)
@@jowi_ My comment regarding the explicit developer intent of there being no mammals aside from the Judds wasn't really directed at Grizz, but using Grizz to justify saying things like "actually, there's nothing that says there can't be marine mammals!!1!" and going on to spread misinfo about, say, marine mammals in Splatoon (the narwhal stuff from Pearl in Splat2 was a fabrication by the NOA localisation team). I'm fine with Grizz being a bear, I'm just really upset with how he was handled. What my real problem that I failed to convey was how I fear people will inevitably use Grizz to spread ideas about the state of mammals in Splatoon as fact when there's no evidence directly from the devs to support their statements like there was with the foreshadowing of Grizz being a bear in Splat2, and that those of us who object to that will be disregarded as fools. I feared that you were one such individual who would disregard me as a fool, simply because I care.
Hi, I'm the guy with the funny name "M. Grizz son" who was in Cosmic recents live and as you can imagine, Grizz is my favorite Splatoon antagonist as well as one of my obsessions and I too would like to give my opinion on it since I'm also a lore obsessed guy. So I'm going to try to be concise because when I develop too much I tend to get distracted. We'll start with something simple. Octo expansion have to the best story of Splatoon and I doubt that will ever change. The developers clearly went deep into the story for this DLC after all it's a DLC that made us play our "sworn enemies" And I'm also going to be honest but I consider that the main story of Splatoon is It's over with Octo expansion. I really had a hard time seeing what could be added. What ELSE could we tell with this story so obviously my personal expectation for the story mode of Splatoon 3 was that the story uses elements that relate more to the world before. After all, it's our world but after a 5th world war. I was also one of those who found it "too easy" that Inklings and Octolings were like that because "natural evolution" And following the announcement of the story mode which confirms to us that history will teach us about their origins. Translation:Scroll which will teach us more about their origins and I was excited because it also meant different things. Obviously I was expecting returning characters and I have absolutely no problem with that since that's not what I expected from the story mode. Let's talk about Alterna's logs and what I think of them. I'm not going to lie...It was really depressing and several times I felt sad and generally unwell. And that was what I wanted. I got the explanation I needed. Then there's Mr. Grizz. I much prefer Mr. Grizz to Tartar. And yes I know that they have similarities but there are huge nuances and these are nuances that are often ignored and that annoys me because it means that Mr. Grizz is very often mischaracterized. Tartar wanted to DESTROY EVERYTHING to rebuild everything with HIS vision of the world and the perfect species. Heck Tartar despises the Inklings because their way of having fun disgusts him even though they managed to transform something horrible (the "war") into something fun and harmless (turf war). Tartar couldn't stand that the Inklings were so different from humans and ended up getting it in his head that he had to recreate it better. Tartar is by far the character I hate the most in Splatoon (And it's not even to be mean, on the contrary hated an antagonist is almost normal for me it just means that the devs did a good job. And if people like him it's good too because they have their writing etc. Just I hope you don't validate his actions) Then there's Grizz. First of all, I absolutely loved the fact that Grizz was a bear for 2 reasons 1:It added a lot of realism to the end of humanity because let's be real,if we where about to disappeared we would have saved animal species to recreate our ecosystem also it makes things more believeable because I can accept everything in the present with the Inklings but for the backstory which is that this is OUR world,I'm more I'm a little more picky. Then the fact that just our fashion style and music is what was there would have been really ridiculous. Having Grizz be a Bear who is also a Bear from one of humanity last hope mission made the world much more credible and coherent 2:I was one of 4 people who doubted that Grizz was a bear since the begining Likewise I love Grizz's appearance. His grotesque appearance is once again consistent. I think we can all agree that being alive for 12,000 years is going to have some weird side effects (even more so for an animal) and an important detail is the fact that he didn't just create the Fuzzy ooze. HE IS Fuzzy ooze. And his appearance still has to do with that. We have seen that the Fuzzy ooze has particular effects on Octarians and Octoling/Inkling so knowing that and that Grizz created the Fuzzy ooze with his OWN FUR and that he is literally covered of it,so his appearance is once again logical. Even,honestly,more coherent than that of Tartar at the end of Octo Expansion (Which is just him but with weird ink on his head) And obviously his plan. On paper it seems identical to Tartar's plan but in reality they are totally different. Grizz wants to recreate the world he knew but doesn't want to destroy anything on the contrary he doesn't even hate Inklings and Octolings. They even seem to respect them a lot and even appreciate them as we can see from his dialogue in Grizz co in Splatoon 3 (Yes I know that these are pre-recorded voices but precisely. Who recorded them? Mr. Grizz) Fuzzy ooze actually only transforms cephalopods into mammals. And even its creation is less fucked up than Tartar's Sanitize ink thingy. And when you think about it, each antagonist of Splatoon has a connection with the past Octavio wants revenge for his defeat against the Inklings far too long ago and then against squidbick Splatoon in Splat 2 Tartar is so disgusted by the current world that he wants to recreate the past world but more "perfect" And finally Mr. Grizz, the last of his species who finds himself in a land completely different from what he had known. Then after more than 12,000 dreams and this deterioration he ended up having a better intelligence and wanting to recreate a world similar to another time. A world where these like were present. But he never showed any real hatred for the world, all Grizz wanted was just to feel like he belonged. And even contrary to Tartar, he finally realized and accepted that it was impossible and that the current world will have a much better future. I do not validate Grizz's actions clearly his plan was NOT a good idea and he is not really a good person but like Octavio he realized his mistake and accepted the future Obviously, as much as I like the story of Splatoon 3 and prefer it to Splatoon 2, I'm not going to pretend that it surpassed it. As I said at the very beginning Octo expansion has a better story and the story of Splat 3 has several gray areas but I am sure that we will end up having all the answers we need one day and that knows. Maybe this explanation will make me love Mr. Grizz even more I hope I managed to be clear and I apologize for any possible mistakes I use google translate
Context: Splatoon 3 IS my first game, but I’ve been following the lore of Splatoon since… 2021? I don’t remember when I discovered rassicas but I know it was between 2021 and 2022. So my experience as a newcomer to the series is what colours my opinion. That said, I also want to say that this video is very good, and I highly enjoyed it - even found myself agreeing to the many points made in the video. Essay up ahead so prepare yourselves: I love Return of the Mammalians. Do I think it’s the best story in the world? No. Yet, despite its flaws, and despite me WANTING to hate it (yes), I don’t. I love it to bits. So I was dreading to watch this video. I’m a person who cried WATCHING someone else play Octo Expansion - to me, that is Peak Splatoon Storytelling. Octo Expansion is a masterpiece and I’m very sad I didn’t get to experience it for myself (I didn’t get my Switch until 2020 and even then that was for Zelda - didn’t discover what Splatoon was until a few months later when I stumbled across rassicas’ channel). Splatoon’s lore got me into the series, after all. Yet for some reason, RotM didn’t make me disappointed. As an example, I’m going to beat a dead bear over and over again. I’m one of the people who believed Mr. Grizz couldn’t be a bear. I watched every video that attempted to prove this, and I believed in it. The devs made Octo Expansion, so making such an obvious point doesn’t feel like them. As an outsider looking in, it was a plausible theory. Better than some of the tin foil hat stuff other fandoms were doing for their fan theories. So when I played Return of the Mammalians for the first time and found Mr. Grizz was a bear, I expected to be mad. Very mad. To use an out of pocket example, I’m probably the only kid who got so mad at the Geronimo Stilton books for lacking continuity and attention to detail, flinging references to past stories and books without a care in the world to the point I vowed I will become a writer just to write a response to this series (and yes the rage of 10-year-old me is still here because I’m studying English Literature and Creative Writing in university right now 😂). But I wasn’t. I wasn’t mad over the obvious bear that was executed poorly in retrospect. I wasn’t mad at the fact that there’s a bloated cast who was only explored on a surface level. I wasn’t mad at the fact that fuzzy ooze made no sense to me. Despite its flaws I was able to enjoy RotM just fine. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to negativity clouding my own vision coming from the Star Wars and Legend of Zelda fan bases (Zelda is fine, I engage in it to this day. Star Wars on the other hand….) that I didn’t want to see the bad stuff anymore as it was affecting how I enjoyed things. But I don’t know - using the Geronimo Stilton example above I know I can get mad the second something feels sub par to me and maybe Splatoon, now my favourite series of all time, is a fluke. I actually agree with many points made in this video. The bloated cast meant no one was able to shine properly, the inconsistencies of fuzzy ooze (if it’s supposed to kill you, why do the fuzzy Octarians exist?), the fact that the plot feels quite aimless. I didn’t understand what made Hugefry… Hugefry and the fantasy elements were definitely lost on me (I signed up for a science fiction story so the “magic tear” or “sea creature energy” baffles me). Going back, RotM feels very unfinished and rushed - had they made their scope smaller or had more time, they can make another Octo Expansion, even better. Despite all the flaws, I can’t hate Return of the Mammalians, try as I might. I think it could be better, but I can’t help but love it. I thought Alterna’s lore was done beautifully, I thought the Deep Cut boss fights were fun - I especially liked their characterisation of being Robin Hood like figures running a secret charity in the background (I just want MORE from them), and I loved how silly and over the top the final boss fight is. Perhaps it could be because Splatoon 3 is my first Splatoon game and I’m seeing everything through rose tinted glasses. Same kinda goes for Side Order - the first teaser trailer made me expect more but I didn’t get that, but I can’t hate Side Order. Then again, Side Order is a more polished product than RotM anyways so I guess that’s warranted. Long story short, RotM’s issues doesn’t stop me from loving it. That being said, I am doing a small side project which is essentially a fan adaptation/rewrite with RotM partly as a challenge in adaptation from game to comic script and as a way to make RotM’s situation work despite its bloated cast and disconnected plot points, and unlike Geronimo Stilton, I’m doing this out of love. It’s a bit self indulgent since I’m essentially replacing Neo 3 with two Neo 3s - an Inkling and an Octoling that are also my OCs so… yeah. So far I’ve made Octavio more sympathetic, especially to the Octoling Neo 3, made Smallfry an actual character rather than a “pet” (Smallfry speaks with the characters, despite it being limited to salmonid chirps and warbles - the Inkling translates since they see Smallfry as a little sibling), made the Squid Sisters mentor characters and have my Neos have a history with Deep Cut - aka Deep Cut helped their families in the past during times of financial and domestic hardship. It’s not perfect - I have no idea what to do with Captain 3 or ORCA or Grizz when I finally reach him, but hopefully it will help reduce the little gripes I have with RotM, even if I love it to death. The TL;DR is: This video is a 100/10 - I found myself agreeing to almost every point, even if I love RotM despite all its flaws. I think RotM can be more polished, given more time and love, but to me it’s what we got, and I can accept that.
The single player campaigns of Splatoon are arguably my favourite things Nintendo has ever put out, just as a disclaimer. But it is frustrating how much they feel like they're dragging their feet, and I feel like a lot of that is related to how they compete for development resources with the rest of the game. Mammalians feels like a greatest hits compilation of Octo Expansion in the same way that I resented Canyon for its relation to Valley. It's better bc the source material is better, but it likewise doesn't compare to its inspiration. Having gone back to Octo Expansion since Side Order it's become apparent to me that the former is the actual culmination of the series thus far, taking everything they learned from the previous campaigns and polishing it until it shone as brightly as possible, and there was nothing left for Mammalians to do within the same framework. I'm iffy as to how I feel about Side Order but fwiw I do think it has bucked this trend. It's not the sequel to Octo Expansion that I wanted, but that's not due to lack of identity. And honestly it's probably good that they haven't committed to always saving the "real" campaign for the DLC (imo this only happened in 2 due to the pressure of having the game out for the Switch's launch year). So I'm more hopeful for whatever 4's campaign ends up being. But yeah, like, the emotional cathartis I was looking for in 3's campaigns ended up just being in Grand Fest, which I was super surprised by! It's like Octo Expansion had reached the maximum threshold of lore that they wanted to explore in this trilogy, but the culture had so much more to grow and that's what 3 ended up being all about.
having dj octavio working with the player to find cuttlefish could have been SUCH a great narrative to heal upon their strained relationship (and also between captain, the squid sisters, and dj octavio, as they were also enemies at some point too). it could have added SO MUCH into working with what octo expansion left us while also fighting mr grizz. @BlockyProductions116 also mentioned having deep cut fighting for mr grizz which also could add depth to their characters making their apology arc so much more satisfying! it just makes me wonder if there was something else they were originally planning for the story, and what happened during development that butchered it completely ToT
He coulda used his own tech to track craig to the rocket but have his mech caught in the sea of fuzzy ooze that blocks us from getting to the rocket in the first place. This requires Octavio and Neo squidbeack splatoon to track down the treasures to be turned into a tool to eradicate the ooze. Which actually does give deep cut just a bit more of a reason to fight us.
@codysataandagi I get it Nintendo, thinking to hard. But like we never get a answer for that. He just vanishes then shows up at the final boss friendly.
I think it's disappointing how dirty they did Deep Cut in their own game- like don't get me wrong, I love them, they're actually my fav idols, but they didn’t get any good development in the story. This is coming after the final fest, and of course team future had no chance- the squid sisters have been rubbed in our faces all three games (and are iconic anyway) even if they weren't necessary in the third (and we had the end of sploon 1 this year), and Off The Hook was already very much loved (rightfully) and had side order.... all the while Deep Cut was just... there. Doing things I guess ??? I wish they had had a deeper development, some more complicated motives. Oh well, rip team future, we fought hard o7
Honestly, I agree with a lot of what you say here. Mr Grizz being a bear, the lore being a bit too aimless and less pointed (probably because of new folks who don’t know the story of the previous two games), and overall… it kinda feels like it lost the touch of humanity, and held more focus around animals, which I think contrasts a lot from the other games, if that makes sense. While I do think that Mr. Grizz being a bear was too predictable, I did kind of like that he was a bear, cause I feel that opens more questions pertaining to the sentience of other animal species. Like, if he was the last bear and he became sentient, are there other sentient species out there? Birds with cities in the sky, super mutant sea pangolins in lava vents, etc? If they had made it less predictable, like using a salmon statue instead of a bear, I think it would’ve been better. Maybe I’m a bit too soft, but I feel like this game, in isolation and not compared to the other games, has a lot to it that makes it interesting, and especially offers a lot of ideas for sentience in this world. I just wish it wasn’t so open ended and aimless with lore, because I feel that would’ve made it better both for new players, and veteran players. Overall, I think it’s enjoyable, but I think it has so much missed potential that could’ve been touched on if they didn’t knock so much to the drafts.
With regards to the problem of Mr Grizz being able to talk despite not being a cephalopod, aren't there other species (albeit still sea creatures) that can talk in-game? Spyke/Sheldon/Marigold/Coco/etc all behave pretty similarly to the cephalopods, despite being very different species. I would have liked if Mr Grizz did less sciency stuff though - maybe if the rocket was still in perfect working order for example, or he discovered the information about the fuzzy ooze in some old human logs.
Admittedly it's a bit contrived, but the Alterna logs suggest that the liquid crystals were absorbed by a number of sea creatures, not just the cephalopods, and that the human impulses within the crystals guided the evolution of those creatures by driving them toward the surface. All of the humanoid sea creatures we see in the game look and act the way they do due to thousands of years of evolution. Grizz is a bear from 12,000 years ago and is never said to have absorbed the crystals
Seems like this is a controversial take to have here, but while I agree the non Alternan lore and characters are a bit shallower than I’d like, I think the story mode nailed concluding the theme of Splatoon. Grizz as a vestige of the past, a member of the supposedly superior mammalian species repeating humans own mistakes of elongating its life artificially rather than dealing with their real problems, much as Mr Grizz never reaches out to the inklings or even his fellow mammals still alive and chooses instead to embrace his loneliness and only recreate his own species as it was despite the very attempt to do so has caused him to abandon his natural self. He is essentially a living corporation, knowing only how to create for the sake of profit and doing so even at the cost of his own self destruction and everyone around him’s demise, thinking he’s doing a great good just like those scientists. This hedonistic desire to assimilate all to his artificial loneliness being destroyed by the new species of earth not willing to repeat the mistakes of the past but instead band together across species to fight for a better world, ultimately represented by Lil Buddy showing the future possibility of unity by absorbing the diverse strengths of different sea species and turning that strength into an ancient kaiju form. In the end the power of culture and mutual interest bests the selfish greed of artificial corporate hierarchy, the squids will not let humanity’s flaws repeat. Sure I think this would be stronger if it were communicated explicitly in the story or lore, but I’ll take the style over substance sometimes if it can create that beautiful and meaningful of a conclusion even without fleshing out its characters and story as much as its themes and backstory lore
I love the lore of Splatoon 3, but I will never forgive them for NOT explaining enough about the fuzzy ink. Like, WHY are the octarians fuzzy? HOW did they ended up like this? WHY do they work for Grizz? Why do they look like that, meanwhile the player becomes a fuzzy ball that can't move when they get into contact with the fuzzy ink? Octarians are one of my favorite parts about the lore. They obey DJ Octavio in Splatoon 1 because he's their leader and you, Agent 3, is trying to steal the Great Zapfish from them. In Splatoon 2 is almost the same. In Octo Expansion they are sanitized octolings that obey the commands of Tartar, and we are explained WHAT sanitization is, HOW does affect someone, WHY would someone end like that, and WHY do the sanitized octarians want to attack us. We even have Dedf1sh lore explained by the devs, wich adds even more depth as to WHY someone would CONSENT to be sanitized and being part of Kanabo Corporation. But all of that is NOT explained with the fuzzy ink and Mr Grizz, and that just dissapoints me SO much that you can't imagine.
To be honest, as someone who started off the Splatoon series with Splatoon 3, I absolutely loved the story mode. I think the attention to detail in the music is amazing, the climb up the rocket was extremely tense and each site was fun to discover. I’ll have to disagree on your point that finding Cuttlefish was a waste of time because the squid sisters were picking up mixed radio signals and it was logical to check the places where the signals were the most intense, not to mention each boss fight had a piece of treasure that actually helped build something to save Cuttlefish, so it wasn’t all for nothing. However, I do wish Deep Cut got more screen time overall as they are all such interesting characters with amazing designs yet it seems all we get is some information about them in the Alterna scrolls ):
I feel this storyline and the game is quite fun as a stand alone but as someone who started with the og wii u game it loses the charm of the idea of it being OUR world and also after octo expansion it rly fails in comparison as a “saga ender”
Definitely some very valid points. Though interesting to hear, as someone who did like ROTM a lot. It's not my favourite, with octo expansion definitely still being the best one out there. I did think it was incredibly interesting to read the alterna logs, especially the first half. Seeing that the game was truly gonna get into this human past was incredibly interesting to me. Also I am one of the people who did just have fun exploring the sites. My reaction to Mr Grizz was similar to yours, in the sense that I didn't expect him to be an actual bear. But besides that I agree it has some lore oddities, I really liked the moment of surprise that they did just straight up go with that. Another interesting point was DJ Octavio not getting much character building. Which is would've been nice any day, any story, but I think the game kinda wants you to forget about him. Then when all seems lost after the first boss phase, you suddenly hear his music beat come in. The significance of him of all people showing up feels more impactful like this. The fact that you don't even have much time to actually think about him, and just have to go with it, makes it an extra exciting moment for me. You suddenly fight alongside that character that was the big enemy all that time when he was relevant. The only thing you realise about him is, you share a goal. More than that shouldn't be relevant in the moment. Now I realise this favours gameplay more than lore, and I am definitely critical on some of the lore I care about as well (like points you make in your video). But I just don't think it that the things it does do wrong, bring it down to being worse than other story modes that aren't octo expansion. Another banger video though, and I do really understand your POV too
Nail on the head on what my personal feelings were like on it, esp the part where I think on paper the idea of Grizz (even though I was one of those space bears denyers) is actually really cool but man they really dud not push enough for it like you said Happy 2 years to the funniest fucking day I got to experience this for the first time
(This was my reply to someone in a comment thread, but I'm copying it here as it may help more people understand this perspective)
*"Why did people think that Mr. Grizz wasn't a bear when the only evidence about his identity suggested that he was a bear?*
A lot of people were hoping that Grizz would not be the antagonist of Splatoon 3 at all. I remember thinking it would be unfortunate to unveil his true identity just one game after his introduction, when he could have been built up across a longer period and given more time to develop BEFORE his big reveal. Of course, with the reveal of ROTM, many people believed Grizz was going to be involved. It was easily assumed that he might be the one attempting to bring back the mammals, but we didn't have any confirmation that HE was a mammal himself. Grizz likely knew of the Ark Polaris bear, but that didn't have to mean he WAS the bear. And the bear radio at Grizzco would make a lot more sense if he wasn't obscuring his appearance through a device that... shares his appearance. While there wasn't any solid evidence of him being something *other* than a bear, it was left vague enough that he could have been *anything.*
Some people wanted to see a sea creature scientist who was obsessed with the mammals of the past. Some people thought it could be an AI remnant of the humans like Commander Tartar. Others thought Grizzco could have connections to Lil'Judd, DJ Octavio, or the Professor. There was no reason to think any of these options *couldn't* happen, and it felt like the developers *wanted* us to speculate about Grizz's identity. The AI/ prerecorded voice idea is actually something that was hinted at in a dev interview, which is why many people now believe that is how Grizzco functions after the events of ROTM. These kinds of teases from the developers got people excited about all of the possibilities of what Grizz could be.
It's not so much that the evidence was already there, but the potential was. Grizz could have dropped hints throughout Splatoon 3's story itself to make the reveal less random (something I think they should have done even with him being a bear). While his true identity may have not been directly foreshadowed by previous games if he were something other than a bear, such a reveal would allow the Grizzco statue and the Ark Polaris bear to serve as red herrings. Casual fans of the story would assume Grizz to be a bear, while dedicated followers of Splatoon lore would know that there could be *anyone* behind that radio. Grizz being a literal bear was disappointing to a lot of people because it rendered all of this speculation pointless. It wasted one of Splatoon's biggest mysteries on the most obvious answer. And on top of that, his backstory didn't even make sense.
Everything you’ve said here is articulating my gripes with Mr. Grizz. May I add on that, the realized version of him we have in ROTMM is just a worse version of Commander Tartar? Both villains want to see their idealized world come to light, and have unfavorable opinions on inkfish society. However, Tartar ties directly into the overarching themes of the series, and has its own background explaining why it thinks this way. Mr. Grizz on the other hand, while having his own background, doesn’t have enough in it to explain why when he woke up, he decided he must destroy Inkfish society & bring back mammals. It vaguely implies that he might’ve been upset that the age of mammals was no more, but it’s never stated like Tartar.
In every way, Grizz is just a worse Tartar.
@@septic_cipher How is he Tartar at all? Both have connections to humans but that's it really. I mean...yeah all the villains do that, even with Octavia he wanted his idealized worrld too and didn't like Inklings. What themes ae those? Cuz with Grizz he connects with the theme of passing the torch and having the next generation carrry on and how he represents when someone not only doesn't want to do that or move on but also actively and forcefully tries to make things how they were in the past. I disagree his background does have enough in it to explain why when he woke up he decied to destroy inkfish society & bring back mammals being that he is all alone as a mammal and can't relate to Inkfish society so he wants others like him. I mean it's clearly shown while with Tartar he is a AI that went crazy, kinda like Order actually.
Nah he isn't Tartar at all if anything Order is more like Tartar really.
Honestly, with his company literally named "Mr Bear Company", it leaves very little to the imagination.
@@TheCosmicCloud I was impressed that they brought salmon run into the single player lore. The two things were very separate in my head.
Not gonna lie, being so far removed from the silly squid game for several years (the last splatfest I ever played was right before the toilet paper roll "drama" if that gives any real context, but i did play the Octo Expansion), and hearing that Mr Grizz, the mysterious force that wanted us to hunt Salmon in 2 was JUST a bear... is very disappointing.
Like... thematically, I can think of someone who would have fit the role better, had a more emotional tie into the world we have, AND no one would have seen it coming.
The cat. Forgive me for forgetting his name, but the cat was there since the Professor, he's seen EVERYTHING, from the fall to the rise and everything in between. He's watched generations of squidlings and octolings fight, and he could very well see that they were either a. Going to fall to the same hubris the humans did, or b. Not rise up to be what humans could have been. So he creates Grizzco, a red herring to throw everyone off of him. After all, a bear is an intimidating force that you can't predict, but a cat? "Virtually harmless." And using the power amassed from salmon eggs and finally cuttlefish, he could have been able to turn the world to his design, without the need for space kaiju battles, though have something just as spectacular with a more heartfilled ending that would give reason to Cali and Marie being there. They want to find cuttlefish, and only through them are we able to stop the cat and make him see that these creatures can be what he felt humankind wanted. They fight, they play, they perform, and they love.
In turn, he would show the dark sides of humanity, betrayal, anger, unable to cope with grief, but still be shown that there can be hope to move forward, and, in turn, reach for forgiveness himself.
It would also explain why he "retires" in 2, aside from having a mini me.
But just a regular random bear? That's just sad.
I think Return of the mamalians is the same as the first splatoon: Story with questions to answer in the next game. Splatoon 1 made you wanted to know about Octarians, Splatoon 3 wants you to know about the experiments and the "soul" or whatever he did to Cuttlefish. I THINK!!! The reason why the little fish turned into a giant salmon and grizz turning into some kind of goo will be answered with the story of the Salmonids; The megalodon salmon bosses made by music, human pollution (the reason why the arc failed and something the game has not touched, like toxic waste and such) IF THEY ARE PLANING TO MAKE SPLATOON 4 ( I HOPE) I bet they will answer that in the next game, the only thing left is the invation of salmonids, I think Octavio will be the "In my time" kind of characters now that is been "humanized" in the DLC and main game.... or I am just coping hard
SRPELO?? IN MY SPLATOON LORE COMMENT SECTION???
I think Splatoon 1 functioned very well as set-up for stories to come due to it being the first entry and very small in scope. Splatoon 3 was built up to be the "end of the Splatastic saga," which is why I was disappointed that it raised more questions than it answered. Some things really feel like they should have been explained then and there. But yes, I'm still holding out hope that all of these loose threads get tied up eventually. I definitely think the story will continue, and I'm still very excited to see where it goes next, especially after Side Order
plz make a splatoon short Señor Pelo 🥺🥺🥺🥺
didn't expect pelo to be here.
i hope splatoon for adds more of a story
also spooky mon is next month
I think it would've been better if Deep Cut were hired by Mr. Grizz to stop Neo Agent 3. If you think about it, the bear is loaded. He could offer to pay them handsomely if they dealt with us.
even in grand big run DEEP CUT are directly covering songs for grizzco??? like obviously retroactive but its such a missed opportunity.
Yesssss this is exactly what I was thinking and what he was touching base on about inklings and octolings representing humans this would’ve been a great opportunity to exemplify the exploitation of the poor and working class for wealthy people/ people with and agenda or motive. That way deep cut aren’t just some random bounty hunters that are in the way, they’re cohesive within the story.
doesn’t he sponsor deep cuts splatcast? there’s almost always a grizzco section in the news.
@@meptune0335 i mean OTH gave them too; i think it's an exception to the rule since stages need to be announced somewhere and it'd be distracting to have a seperate grizzco cast
That’s really smart!! Plus then once grizzco was defeated, the theee could’ve been all “well…we’re out of a job..” and Marie could’ve still stepped in and kept the dynamic we have now, but more depth to the trio :)
Whilst I don’t really have a problem with Return of the Mammalians at all. I just find it *EXTREMELY* hilarious, that for years there was a certain part of the Splatoon community was so confident and sure, that Mr. Grizz was 100% NOT a bear.
Only to be gob-smacked in the fucking face, with him not only being a bear, but also revealing how he made Grizzco. And having him be the big spectacular finale to the game. I’m sorry that shit is so funny to me LMAO
There was definitely a bit of delusion going around. We were coping with ROTM scraps for months lol
Even if Grizz being a bear does seem really obvious in hindsight, though, I still think it was fair to expect an explanation for him being an *intelligent, talking bear.*
@@TheCosmicCloud Here lies Rasscias, may the space bears be with em’
@@TheCosmicCloud I always assumed that being in a "waking dream" or whatever for 12 000 years, way longer than the average bear's lifespan, allowed him to learn more, become more intelligent than a bear normally should be
He's existed for a long time with nothing but his thoughts so I imagine over time those thoughts grew more complex
@@badopinionssquid1735 I think the idea of Grizz becoming intelligent over time could've been alright if it was explained in more detail, or if it explicitly involved whatever experiments the humans were conducting on him (or even the liquid crystals). The current explanation simply doesn't make sense. Obviously not everything in Splatoon is scientifically sound, but it feels like the developers used cyrosleep to explain Grizz surviving 12,000 years and then just tacked on the part about him dreaming to explain his intelligence. The fact that we don't even get this information until AFTER we defeat him just makes what should be a complex backstory feel like a last-minute, lazy explanation
@@TheCosmicCloudI think a big problem was that it kind of goes at odds with Judds lore being the only mammal left and the melancholy of that. The fact that the mystery of Grizz in splatoon 2 is so alluring that anyone could be behind that speaker. Do forgive people for thinking that McDonald’s is not actually literally owned by a clown. As funny as it would be
as someone who really enjoys return of the mammalians, i have to say that there were some things i did not like! i was very dissatisfied with the fact that deep cut were barely in the story mode and although i really like their boss fights, i wish we got to know more about them personally. i know we learn more about how they met in the different interviews and magazines but i wish it was explained more in the main story itself. i loooove splatoon lore very much however, deep cut is the one we know least about which makes me sad as they are probably my favorite group. i just wish they got more chances to shine in their own game!!!!
Deep Cut not getting their own storymode will always be the worst part about Splatoon 3. I get that they were probably planning on more than one DLC originally, but Deep Cut really should've been the priority over Off The Hook. Deep Cut has had their game taken away by the other idol groups time after time. And thanks to the newscast being skippable in this game, most people didn't even care to know anything about Deep Cut unlike the other two groups since those newscasts are the main way we learn anything about the characters and world in Splatoon
@@Freelancer837i agree a thousand percent they deserve the attention too! They are so much more uniqer interms of what they mean despite just being idols.. THEY ARE TREASURE HUNTERS AND HEADS OF CLANS!!! THATS CRAZY come on noooowwww and ontop of that now their agents more and such like 😭 GIVE THEM FIVE DLCS ILL BIY THEM ALL SPLATOON
the vast majority of lore we know about the other idols is from non in-game lore. why would you expect the opposite to be the case for S3 and deep cut? we didn’t even know really why callie and marie were separated in splatoon 2s story mode until we got more info outside of the game… i feel like i’m going crazy reading these comments
@@DANNY__JK true but we hoped the newest game would possibly change that? Guess improvement isnt a priority in new games huh
@@jestrel i mean look at the weapon kits in s3 compared to s2, improvement definitely was not something consistently applied to s3
Honestly, I think my biggest disappointment is that we got a story with Mr.Grizz as the main villain.......And it has absolutely nothing to do with the Salmonids. They and GrizzCo barely even get a single mention (outside of Grizz's "corporate speak" jokes).
Like, I love Little Buddy as much as everyone else, but he could have been replaced with a MacGuffin/plot item and nothing would change.
Yeah, whatever happened to that whole “save our salmons” thing?
Something that did always rub me the wrong way, aside from the very obvious character butchering-
Was that they told us ROTM would act as a finale for the SquidBeak Splatoon, yet the actual result we got didn’t feel like a satisfying payoff.
I wanna believe they had a much grander idea for the trilogy conclusion, especially with what we’ve seen in the Art Of Splatoon 3.
But a lot of those ideas had to be scrapped for something much simpler, so they could still ease in series newcomers.
Yeah, I keep hoping they don't try and pretend that Splatoon 3 was the great sendoff to the squidbeak saga like they tried to make it and they actually acknowledge "Yeah we fucked it up" and try again to give it a proper ending. But so much of what's going on is giving the impression that they are just going to pretend they succeeded at making that sendoff. Deep Cut didn't even get anything, and Agent 4 literally was completely left out despite getting their home address doxxed by Nintendo.
That art that showed all of the agents supposed to be returning for Splatoon 3 would've actually been the kind of thing expected from the ending of the current saga.
The weirdest part about this to me is that Octo Expansion already felt like the finale of Squidbeak. The Octarians were finally acknowledged as equals, Cuttlefish ends up learning and growing close to the people he used to fight against, Agent 3 returns (with a remix of Splattack), and we face off against a creation of the humans. Even Callie and Marie are referenced a number of times---they're revealed to be important to 2 of the story's major characters, and we hear the Calamari Inkantation. It was every idea introduced in the first game turned up to 11. I don't know why they decided to stretch out this supposed "Squidbeak Saga" when, in my mind, it had already ended
@@Freelancer837 I understand exactly what you mean, man. Like the words out of my own mouth.
I disagree I mean the plot isn't perfect buut the characters weren't full on butchered.
I mean...going into space to fight a built up villian of half a decade didn't feel like a satisfying payoff?
@@TheCosmicCloudbecause nostalgia sell very good
starting with this game is crazy cuz i had no idea who grizz was and i was like why the fuck is there suddenly a bear in a spaceship now ?
Don’t worry; everyone who has played the previous games was also confused about the bear.
if you couldnt tell from the video it was never explained even playing in order
@@idk01123 tbf we already knew him from splatoon 2's salmon run
I honestly don't know if it would be better or worse to have the 5 years of expectations LOL like it kinda comes out of nowhere either way
mr grizz: BECAUSE WE NEED THOSE SALMON EGGS GET TO WORK!
About the characters not having any purpose--something Octo Expansion does SO well.
Marina is actively hacking into Kamabo's system to keep track of 8, and Pearl uses her wealth to give 8 extra cash with the help of Marina. 3 saves 8 from the blender and gets to be a bossfight, Marina uses her tech and Pearl uses her voice to help you out during the final boss, in fact final boss is just you covering the statue so Pearl and Marina can have a chance to beat it.
There's never a moment you ask "why are they just standing there"
This is an issue in 2, but it's heavily exacerbated in 3 when the Squid Sisters, 3 and Deep Cut are standing around doing absolutely nothing for most of the story (until DC gives you a space suit out of nowhere and the Calamari Inkantion magically turns Smallfry into a Kaiju)
(Also it's funny you didn't even mention there's absolutely no discussion about how the player and the idols have been collecting eggs for Grizz and Smallfry gets no dialogue or backstory)
Yeah, the Smallfry thing especially bothers me. I understand them not having dialogue because they either can’t speak at all or seem to only speak salmonid (maybe they’re even physically incapable of speaking inkling due to not being able to articulate it) but it bothers me a lot that we never got any backstory as to why they’re even with us (aside from one sunken scroll that wasn’t even specifically about them and you can only infer it may be applicable to Lil’ Buddy). None of the characters ever question why we have a salmonid with us, none of them are weirded out by it, even though salmonid are definitely not considered people as no one ever seemed to have moral qualms with murdering them by the millions in salmon runs, not even the player character, who has a smallfry friend, and the game never bothers explaining how the friendship between neo agent 3 and Lil’ Buddy came to be. Hell, why was neo 3 even in the middle of the desert in the first place? The lack of backstory for probably the only Splatoon protagonist that should have had one is disappointing.
@@foxsoul6691 I agree so much, I forgot about smallfry even when I was using him... so annoying that they butchered smallfry so much
also I think Callie asks why we have a salmonid following us but that's it
That’s cool but what about Cuttlefish lel
11:46 “destroyed themselves in a desperate attempt to cling to the past” this will definitely age well with the splatfest results!!!!
😭
I think most of ROTM's flaws are a result that Splatoon campaigns are still limited to short, 6-hour campaigns where the vast majority of storytelling is done through lore dumps in dozens of text files. Many of ROTM's inconsistencies is that it's really the first campaign to try and do more than that, but was still limited to the few resources the Splatoon dev team is given to make these campaigns. That's why we don't learn more about Mr. Grizz, why the test chambers exist, or where DJ Octavio is for the majority of the story. There simply isn't enough room to include those things without making ROTM a more standard, traditionally sized campaign. Even the best Splatoon story, Octo Expansion, did quite a bit in terms of character development, but it's ultimately still done through layers and layers of text on a screen rather than a more meaningful story sequence, and Sanitization as a concept is barely explained in the actual game, left instead to developer interviews for players to seek out.
I think that's why I'm able to let a lot of ROTM's issues slide because it's having to do all of these things with more or less the same limitations as previous campaigns in terms of scope. Yes, all the issues you mention in this video are valid, but the highest highs in ROTM are still some of the coolest world-building and storytelling moments in a Splatoon game. The rocket ambience, for example, containing the last recorded messages of humanity is some of the coolest environmental storytelling in the series. The Crater sequence is also one of my favorite moments in a Splatoon game. Having Octavio show up as the first boss and making the player immediately question the true nature of what's going on might be the most memorable moment of the entire campaign for me. And even with Mr. Grizz's flaws as a predictable twist villain and lacking a proper backstory, he perfectly complements the story's themes about embracing change and how death can lead to life (the fall of humanity leading to the rise of the Inklings/Octolings).
So while the story has many, many inconsistencies, it's hard for me to not say that the story is still very memorable and effective in many areas. It simply deserved to a bigger campaign; therefore, I would argue that ROTM's biggest flaw isn't a lack of attention to detail like you claim, but that it's trying to bring far too many details into a story that simply doesn't have room for them. That's why I respect ROTM more than Octo Canyon in Splatoon 2, a story with next to zero ambition or interesting things to say. ROTM at least has some incredible imagery, atmosphere, and themes.
I also completely disagree with you that Side Order improves on any of these issues at all. I think nearly all of these flaws apply to Side Order as well, but in a greater amount while failing to make up for it with cool sequences and theming like ROTM did. Despite ROTM being flawed, the things about it that I mentioned that I loved gave me hope that ambition for Splatoon stories would continue to rise. Side Order pretends like it has a lot going on and wants to have an insightful, thought-provoking story but does none of the work to deserve that. While ROTM has many inconsistencies, it at least properly foreshadows many aspects of its conflict and themes, with the fuzzy ooze and Alterna logs. Side Order hypes you up in the beginning only for there to be literally zero story until the finale. How exactly is defeating Smollusk and working together with Pearl, Marina, and Acht supposed to be a satisfying conclusion to the story when none of these things are given a single moment to develop. If you beat Smollusk within your first few tower runs, chances are the only story you were given outside of the tutorial is 1 or 2 Marina Diaries and elevator text between floors. I can't describe how monumentally disappointed I was with how little thought and care was given to how this story is told. I think it squanders its potential far, far more than ROTM.
I absolutely agree that scope is a limiting factor for Splatoon's developers, and that ROTM could have fully realized its ideas given more resources and time. However, knowing that, I personally wish the developers would have not attempted to make the story so ambitious in the first place. It tries to explore a wide range of ideas, but without the space to do so, each of these ideas can only be examined at the surface level. The best example of this is Grizz; conceptually, his arc is compelling, but in practice, he only has a few meaningful lines of dialogue. If Nintendo did not intend to flesh out 11 characters in their story, I would criticize the decision to include 11 characters. On some level, I respect their ambition, but I would have preferred a story that was smaller in scope and deeper in meaning.
Walls of text and developer interviews are not ideal, but they are at least a way to give that information to the players. It's true that a lot of important parts of Octo Expansion are not in the game itself, but what those interviews and pieces of concept art show us is that the developers thought deeply about the story that was being told. It's been 2 years since the release of Splatoon 3, and we have almost no information about ROTM's development, concepts, or explanations for its plot holes. This is perhaps a different issue entirely, but I do not feel like Nintendo has communicated to the fans that they care about this story as much as they used to.
Side Order has plenty of its own flaws, and I'm not going to argue it's an amazing story, but for me it comes closer to what I just described. A story that is smaller in scope and grandiose, but with a more focused set of characters who are relevant to the setting and whose flaws and motivations tie them together. I completely understand if you find the storytelling structure of ROTM more compelling, and in many ways I agree. I think a GREAT Splatoon story is one that builds upon established lore while also carving it's own identity. Side Order feels a bit too much like an Octo Expansion 1.5, but I personally found it more satisfying than ROTM, which at times felt entirely disinterested in the existing canon
I will say, the lore we got in this game regarding humanity and discovering how it tragically fell legitimately gave me a sick feeling in my stomach. Like seriously, reading about how the pilots on the Arc were just left to drift aimlessly around earth and slowly die while the others eventually perished in the crash was really disturbing, like just imagining Grizz waking up to see the carnage of thousands of humans is really fricked up, and gives more believability to his motives, imo. Not to mention the way the logs describe how all humans in Alterna were either buried alive or just completely gave up is extremely sad, like legit I didn’t expect this lore to rock me to my core like that. Honestly I think part of the reason why I found it so disturbing is because the story feels a little too plausible. Like if there was no God, then a form of this carnage would most definitely be in our future.
So yeah, while I definitely agree with a lot of your points on how the game’s actual story wasn’t presented too well, I think the behind-the-scenes-lore made up for it, for me at least. I just have a big thing for games with a cutesy exterior but extremely messed up lore underneath, a big reason why Kirby and Splatoon are my 1st and 3rd favorite game series of all time. (2nd is FNAF for similarly obvious reasons)😅
The Alternan lore was definitely executed well, and I have a lot more positive things to say about it than I could get to in this video. I just wish the rest of the game actually integrated it into the narrative. Grizz speaking about the Alternans would have made the weight of their death more meaningful to the characters and story we see play out in the present day
What I'd like to know is how Lil' Judd and Judd all mix into this whole mess. Clearly, Grizz is not the only Mammal left, but seemingly has not ever met any of these other two Mammals, that could have almost any answer he needs. (One being a MAMMAL clone of the other)
Which makes it even more baffling to see that seemingly, Lil' Judd has taken over the Salmon Run Workstation as a sidehustle.
My question is if lil Judd took over or if he was already working with grizz before ROTM and is just picking up the slack after he was defeated. It’s still weird that his fur has become brown and unkempt despite being a clone of Judd who has black short fur which could have something to do with grizz’s fuzzy ooze. It’s already been established that lil Judd has been plotting to usurp Judd due to his resentment so maybe he wanted to help destroy the society of sea life that Judd shaped? Considering grizz seems fine floating around in space and lil Judd is now collecting golden eggs himself (even getting over a billion of them in the recent big run) Judd and lil Judd feel like a dangling plot thread to be adressed later, although that leads back to the problem that so much stuff in this campaign is left unexplained leaving it difficult to tell what’s left vague intentionally and what’s just been left unexplained because this campaign tried to do way too much
I think it's confirmed in either a book or magazine that lil judd failed to replace judd and took over after grizz @@nolangerrans6083
I think they forgot about judd and lil' judd for most of the story writing
@@nolangerrans6083Everyone knows that Judd was there during the whole war between Inklings and Octolings in the first place and been there since then. The concept of having clone of Judd is very interesting from the start but maybe it adds more to their background. It was a scientist (What I’ve read on the Wiki) that created both of them and very unknown and we only had a few scraps of information of him. If we take a small look of Lil’ Judd Currently, he looks a lot more different than what he looks now with him having a lot more unkept fur, in a lot more light brown lighting, and having him with a full on headset that he didn’t had earlier in Splatoon 2. I’m not gonna assume anything, but it might foreshadow that we might see him in Splatoon 4 (Hopefully they can take some time on the game and create it for the new system) that had a lot more malicious thoughts than we originally thought. Maybe it’s just me but every time we play a round of turf war (Any game if I’m being honest) we only see Judd being on the good guys side while Lil’ Judd siding with the bad guys side and didn’t like Judd in the first place.
I feel like this should have been more of a super science adventure plot. Grrizz Co hires The Octarian Millitary, The New Splatoon, and Deep Cut to explore Alterna with different pretenses and unkown to eachother. They would butt heads inherently, creating all the conflicts already in game and setting up Grizz better as a villian. It would also invite the introduction of greater emphasis on the idea of Grizz being a hyper intelligent bear turned villian. It could have been like an episode of Venture Bros.
I think something that isn’t addressed in general by the community is how underwhelming deep cut are. I feel like they were clearly supposed to be the “evil” “edgy” group to parallel with off the hook and the squid sisters. Like rough housing brothers and sisters. But I think they got nervous or didn’t want to commit to deep cut being “bad guys”. Working for Grizz for money straight or simply looting for there own gain would have been much better alternatives with potential for characther development and a more closer tie to the setting and themes of anarchy, with maybe even a bit of societal commentary but we didn’t get that and I feel there a lot more underwhelming compared to the other idols. It’s a shame cause their designs rock
Cosmic strikes again with another god-tier video.
a major reason I havent made a video on ROTM myself is for the very reason you said towards the end: I didn't want to make an overly negative video.
people have been treating me like an idiot for having been "so sure" Grizz wasn't gonna be a bear (I never claimed I was certain, I just didn't want it mainly because too-obvious bear imagery seemed like a perfect red herring, among other reasons). Or that they think "bear=bad" is my only opinion on Grizz, and that I am stupid for not seeing the potential in Grizz's story, based on my live reaction from a 13-hour-straight gaming session. I posted my reaction because I think it's funny (and it still is LOL), but the amount of genuine condescension and hate that I got from people who could not handle someone on the internet disliking ROTM really turned me off from the idea of wanting to talk about it further.
That coupled with it really being a big task to articulate in a digestible way all the issues there are with ROTM. Not just The Bear, but from the lack of explanation for things like the kettles and fuzzy octarians, to the unfocused nonsensical story, to how over the top the finale is, to how half of the characters serve practically no purpose, the sidelining of Octavio...yes there's good points to ROTM, but there's a lot of glaring issues! And my god you covered all of that. hit the nail on the head. Grand slammed. slam dunked. home runned. knocked out of the park. sports. what was I saying. right. 333/10 excellent video. 25:22 is especially SO GOOD. Splatoon's broader themes of its world being a reflection of our own, and by extension, inklings and octolings being a reflection of humanity, the sense of realism in that, and how Grizz's... goofiness... messes with the sense of believably that's been built up in Splatoon's lore. I don't think I'd ever been able to articulate that specific feeling without someone being like "um but this is the talking fish game why is this a problem lol" but again. you nailed it. genuinely thank you for making this video.
I have a question. He didn't want to touch on the tear of revival at 17:48, which is fair enough. The origin of [this] Hugefry being so strange compared to the other King Salmonids (because with Bonerattle Arena now, how can't he be the fifth, including Hizunamasu) is also something I'd rather just look past, because sometimes it's just the best course of action.
I don't care about the revival, just the tear (because it theoretically might have been covered before RotM). There's water inside Inklings? I figured where we have water, they'd have ink, no? Actually, to what extent does water dissolve them? Would light or heavy rain spell disaster?
also how the hell is furry ooze created?? why does he need the octarians?? if he's a genius or even more smarter than the octarians then he shouldn't need them, also they add nothing to the plot! So many more questions is not a good thing
@@xinpingdonohoe3978inklings have some ink in their bodies but they're not fully made up of it, that's why they have an ink sac. water only harms them if they get into water that's too deep and they can't get out from- you can see them drinking water in the plaza in 2, not to mention the baths and other drinks and so on. Normal quantities of water are fine, it's total immersion that's dangerous (some people theorise it's because of the weight of the tank but I'm not so sure )
@@xinpingdonohoe3978Water is harmless unless they get properly submerged it it. It's not directly harmful to them- you can see them drinking water in 2's plaza and they seem to have fluids in their body besides ink given the internal glands, and some of the extra material shows them washing and such
26:14 no… you’re skimming over established Splatoon lore. Judd and Lil Judd can talk. There was no millions of years of evolution that granted them that power. They just can do it after hyper sleep. Which Grizz also undergoes to a degree. There’s nothing wrong with Grizz being able to talk.
I've addressed the Judds in a number of other comments already. In short, I don't think cryosleep is a good explanation for ANY of those characters being able to talk. Judd is a minor character whose existence is a remnant from when the game was about rabbits, and while he has been worked into the canon of the game, he essentially serves as a tutorial and a UI element. Grizz is the main antagonist of the game, and as such I think it makes sense to hold his backstory to a higher standard. If anything, I think ROTM should have told us why Grizz can talk and ALSO why the Judds can talk, as their intelligence is one thing that has always been overlooked by the lore. I get that you're saying I'm holding a double standard, but that's because Grizz is a significantly more important character than Judd; in my opinion, his lore matters more.
@@TheCosmicCloud “minor character?” Judd judges the results of EVERY TURF GAME YOU PLAY. That’s not minor. He’s incredibly important to the overall gameplay narrative!
Now you’re just pick and choosing what you want to be important. Judd has been there since day 1. His backstory is the reason Turf battles even function in-universe of the game. He’s there for every match you play. Sunken scrolls talk about his significance in the great turf war. He’s no less significant than Sheldon is.
You can’t take all that and go “oh he’s a minor character.”
The problem isn’t the lore, the problem is you don’t want to engage with the lore.
@@jimlight5137 I guess it’s a matter of opinion? I would not say Judd is important to the narrative. He’s a part of the game’s multiplayer, and has some lore tying him to the humans and the professor, but he is largely unexplored as an actual character. Narrative is not the same thing as worldbuilding. He has not contributed to any particular Splatoon story at all
@@TheCosmicCloudI’m just flabbergasted by all this. I do not understand you. Because you’re supposed to be all about the lore, and then you’re just dismissive of anything that doesn’t interest you within said lore.
Like, Judd was part of the great turf wars. His whole ability to determine the outcome of a turf battle at a glance is not only the explanation for how the multiplayer campaigns work, but it’s also the reason the inkling society by and large isn’t KILLING each other anymore because now they can engage in friendly battles instead of waging wars! He is technically revered as a GOD by the inklings!
Lore-wise Judd is VERY important to the word building of Splatoon. Like I’m not trying to be facetious here… you don’t have to care much about Judd… but you should be able to recognize that he’s a big part of the history and lore that make up the games.
Every piece of detail about characters or events in the story is part of the world building. That’s why Splatoon has such a RICH world to explore! I do not understand why you seem to choose to ignore parts of the world build and dismiss it as not as important as others when it’s all contributing to the same overall tapestry.
this is kinda not true though, judd and lil judd are telepathic, and he's been established to have supernatural abilities, most likely from experimentation by the professor, same can be said for lil judd. mr. grizz hasn't had any established supernatural links in his lore to explain his gigantic size, ability to speak, or enhanced cognition other than "experiment" and "cryosleep", which are quite a bit less in depth.
I think it's telling that I've seen both squid sister fans and deep cut fans complain about how they were handled in rotm.
Real (am SS fan)
I don't really care for both yet I'm still upset... lol
I feel like one way to make Deep Cut fit better into the story is to maybe make them after Mr.Grizz tail as these sort of Robin Hood types. After all they steal to help the less fortunate and who would be better to steal from than one of the *biggest* Bussniessman of all time.
Of course that would mean Mr.Grizz would have to have a much more active role in the story as the antagonist, but thats not a bad thing. Imagine every now and again finding one of his radios dotted around the place, spouting proclamations or reminders to his employees. Maybe even begining to taunt the player as they begin to get closer to uncovering his plans.
if i could have changed anything about the alterna logs, i would have made the squid transformation thing happen BEFORE humanity was wiped out completely. not sure how, i would think maybe through toxicity in the water or something, but i think it would make more sense timeline-wise, and would explain the inkling/octoling specific tests in alterna. if the scientists saw this new life form growing right in front of their eyes, they would take them in and test them. which could also lead to why inkling society ended up being so similar to human society, because that’s technically where the first inklings grew up, etc etc. is this convoluted and a bit silly? yes. but i think it would be neat.
That does sound kinda neat 😮
If you get Salmonid power eggs for beating the tests… do you think Mr Grizz was the one who elaborated the tests? To keep us from getting to him? Grizz is heavily tied with Alterna, he does have what appears to be a level of technical skill, given the fact he jet starts a space ship and supposedly designed the Grizzco weapons. Maybe through using his fuzzy ink on octarians he was able to make them give octarian devices like the kettles…? I’m mostly hypothesizing here, cuz there’s still the question on why grizz would give you power eggs in the first place, and the treasure thing. Idk lol
It definitely seems like Grizz would be aware of the Alternan tests. I have no idea why the tests provide Power Eggs, though. The salmonids didn't exist during the time of the humans, so we don't know why ORCA has them, and we don't know if ORCA and Grizz have interacted with one another. I'd love to see a theory that finds a way to make sense of it all, but it really just doesn't add up
@@TheCosmicCloud i think what hes asking is what if grizz id the reason theyre there, along with all the other test elements. Orca knows who he is, meaning he likely entered that information willingly. While its not stated anywhere, maybe those tests were made to test fuzzy ooze test subjects?
The tests provide powers eggs as rewards. Said eggs are used to clear the ooze. The tests aren't keeping us from grizz, they're helping us get to him by making it easier to explore alterna
@@TheCosmicClouddude, use your imagination. Mr Grizz has been down here rebuilding the rocket for decades for his plan. He’s been experimenting with the ooze and on octoling life forms to perfect it. Why is it such a far leap of logic that he had a hand in the test chambers being altered in their parameters and designed off octarian tech when he’s USING Octarians in his experiments???
im pretty sure that the ooze is an extension of mister grizz himself, remember that that thing is alive and you can see at the start of the game how it grab cuttlefish in specific and how it would grab the main character whenever we get close to it
0:30 don’t forget the giant murder blender.
A year ago I also had an idea for a video about why Splatoon 3's story feels unearned and empty, but I couldn't put my finger on what was lacking in it. I did briefly talk about it in my who is the best idol group video, but still really didn't find answers. But this video did so I appreciate your effort into explaining it so clearly and doing it in an entertaining way. For me side order's story was the breaking point to the point of stop being so passionate about the franchise. Not that it's terrible, but it feels the most out of place in the series. It feels like poor man's version of Klonoa (at least to me). Great video and hopefully you call also explain why Side order's story is also lacking if you want to of course! Good luck with your channel and have a great day :)
Maybe Cuttlefish has a special bloodline from those psychic crystal things, and Mr. Grizz needed that essence.
Personally I think that the reason Mr. Grizz is suddenly very intelligient is for the same reasons JUDD is intelligient
They both went through nearly 12000 years of cryosleep each, Judd even more since he was there seemingly from the genesis of turf wars. Im guessing being asleep for such a long time simply develops the mind to unnatural standards due to how long a lifespan 12000 is, even if you weren't doing anything but sleeping during it.
They are similar in a bunch of ways to solidify this theory further, as both can communicate with inklings in a langnuage they understand while also not moving their mouths. Judd is a confirmed telepath so it wouldn't be too far-fetched to consider Grizz a telepath too.
Granted, none of this explains how Grizz understood rocket science so well, or why lil' judd is on the same level of intelligience as judd despite only being a couple of years old, but I think Grizz's intelligience does make sense in the confines of what has already been established
ROTM is still flawed im not saying this SAVES it, but I think its a neat observation that I haven't seen brought up elsewhere
yeah all these complaints about why Mr Grizz is a talking, cartoonish bear while Judd and Lil Judd are RIGHT THERE acting even MORE anthro and cartoony than Mr Grizz
@@sarafontanini7051 along with Splatoon just inherently being a silly series overall lol
NOT a reason to validate how ROTM was handled of course, but it was inevitable they were gonna get sillier with it
Thing is, Judd was always like that. In the comics anyway. He has telepathy. No seriously.
"There are no talking animals in Splatoon"
Judd and Lil Judd:
Though, I understand the critiques about Grizz's character and backstory since it's so vague
They never really *talked* though, they still act effectively as (Cartoony) cats in their dialogue and in the ways that other characters interact and talk about them without being too human.
Grizz, For the most part, Was treated like he was an Inkfish like the rest of the cast.
..Still, Trying to kill them, But an inkfish nonetheless.
yeah, but they canonically speak in meows (similar to how Big Man only speaks in Aye's), and the translation is provided in parentheses, and there's no evidence that it's really too much of a language outside of how it is with real animals. Grizz just... knows how to speak inkfish, for some reason.
it's possible he learned it, but it still doesn't explain why he has the intelligence to presumably form full sentences by just. dreaming.
I feel like the devs were like, “you know what, this would be funny” for like every part of this. One of the devs: “hear me out small fry becomes big fry.” Nogami: “YES give him a raise.”
I'm glad someone finally said it
said what? there’s more than one thing being said in the video. or did you just come here to post this to add to the negativity because that’s all you’re interested in.
@DANNY__JK I think they mean someone who finally articulated all their frustrations with the unfinished story and it's potential.
@@DANNY__JKokay calm down
As someone who absolutely loves RotM and everything that it brought (especially the human lore), this video feels like getting thrown into a pool of freezing water, but in a good way. I think it's a good thing to acknowledge all the plot holes and very bad decisions that the devs made. And it sucks that those decisions happened, because as you basically said in the video, we could've had something magnitudes better if a little more thought was put into it.
But also, I like that there are plot holes and inconsistent things thrown into the mix, it fits the theme of chaos that the game has, and it allows us, the players to make our own ideas and conclusions to tie everything together. That's where I thinnk the majority of the fun of RotM is, not in everything being told to us, forcing us to use our imagination and make a more coherent story.
All in all, great video! Always a blast when you upload! :D
this is the second video i’ve seen from your channel, the first being “what it means to be human” from splatoon, and i can confidently say your content routinely delivers!! your videos are amazing, keep it up!! ^^
Splatoon 3's story definitely dropped the ball a little, but I have to appreciate the "improvements" to Splatoon's general outline to stories is in this game, the extra lore from the Alterna logs(even if it was mid), more cutscenes, a more interesting hubworld, more interesting level design, the upgrade system for the gear, a flashy climactic boss(even if it was half baked) are all things I think they def have improved on, there's still a lot to work on, so hopefully in the next game they can write an even better story and maybe flesh out Mr.Grizz a bit more if they have the time, because I also equally went insane when I found out he literally looks like a bear from animal crossing.
This video put into perspective some feelings I had towards Return of the Mammalians.
For starters, I was happy with Return of the Mammalians. I fell in love with Splatoon for the great lore, yes, but also for the details regarding the small parts of the world, the overarching themes of identity and cooperation, the sense of community and belonging and, most importantly, because it's really fun, both in terms of gameplay, but also presentation! And Return of the Mammalians had enough of that, that I was happy with it. But in my head, I always kind of distanced it from the other story modes in the series and I think this video expresses well why.
Splatoon 3 has clearly shown that it's meant to be a celebration of Splatoon so far. Nearly all major characters return, we learn about life as one of the longest surviving humans, we learnt how the many creatures of the world actually came to be, we can play from all 3 hubs, the whole of GrandFest is just celebrating the series so far and, most relevant to this topic, Return of the Mammalians is the end of the saga.
But I don't think it was meant to be.
Return of the Mammalians felt like it was meant to be the start of a new story or a standalone story. But then, the idea of it being 'the climactic end of a saga' arose, and it lost a lot of its identity and story for references, call-backs and spectacle. I kind of always saw Return of the Mammalians as a new story with various vague ties back to the old stories, and I reckon that's the problem. A lot of Return of the Mammalians' issues, stem from its identity issue. It wanted to be a brand new story, but was forced to represent everything the series was meant to be up until it... So it kind of lacks in both.
It's the kind of story where I could see a Side Order-esque lore dump in the future expanding a lot on it, and giving it a lot of the identity it was meant to have.
I still really like Return of the Mammalians, except while I do love many aspects of it, I recognise where it falls flat and what the problems with it are.
A part of me thinks that Splatoon 3’s story was rushed so they could get another Splatoon game on switch before the next system came out..
i feel like i might be missing a part that has to do with your frustration with Grizz. sure, he has an uncharacteristically cartoony design compared to the game's style, and there's no explanation for why he's smart and can talk... but can't that all also be said for Judd? he's a cat. he was made immortal, but nothing i can recall was injected into him called "have human intelligence and also talk" juice.
The difference for me is that Judd is not a main character. I DO wish Judd had a better explanation for his intelligence, but it's easier to overlook when it's a minor tutorial character who has no relevance to the game's narrative. Mr. Grizz is the main antagonist of Splatoon 3, so I would expect his backstory to be more thought-out and clearly communicated. If anything, this would have been the perfect opportunity to explain Judd as well, but the game does neither
8:20 I also miss the loose ends splatoon 1 had too, and the theories they spawned. Like the relation between sheldon, his grandfather, and the squid beak splatoon. How callie and marie waved at you if you looked in the window cause they recognize you as agent 3.
I feel RotM needed one or two more rewrites and it would have been great. Just having small fixes like the test rooms were made by Mr. Grizz to see if Fuzzy Inkfish could survive and function, as there is no reason to waste all this time if everyone would die. Include some challenging fuzzy inklings to fight along side the fully formed octorians to show Mr. Grizz was a menace to all his potential workers. Maybe have a scroll stating after loss of leadership (Tartar) Kamabo Co was bought by Grizz Co to explain how he got access to this type of stuff. Because the stuff about humans being so desperate to see the sun, so much so their wishes bleed into the earth and live on in all sea life is amazing and I love it. I even like the over the top fight, showing all three sections of Splatoon, story mode with Octovio, Salmon Run with Little Buddy and PvP with Neo 3, working together to beat past sins to create a new future. (I also like the possible darker themes of predatory bosses with Mr. Grizz, although I know Nintendo would never look at fan ideas like "Bears do eat squids") Luckily though, I am a sucker for overal fun so I enjoyed the game play a lot
I loved the idea of relating Mr. Grizz with Kamabo Co
It mostly needed like.. double the run-time and some kind of substitutes for the chat logs
My biggest gripes were just how Deep Cut got shafted completely and how dissatisfying Mr Grizz was as an antagonist that had been built up from S2.
And while it was sorta cool to learn about the complete link between humanity and how ink-kind came to be, deep down, I think I would have preferred more focus on character-work for the actual living characters like in Octo Expansion - rather than meticulously trying to explain how and why ink-kind are so similar to humanity.
I feel the Squid Sisters should have been cut entirely. Their sole relevance was just to introduce new players to them, and to sing the Calamri Inkantation - which could easily have been brought back by Shiver, an octoling, for how and why she was freed and got to where she is.
For sweeping changes, Mr Grizz could have been the tutorial and guiding voice motivating/luring the player into Alterna to convert them into a mammalian, or rope them into his schemes. Deep Cut would appear in search of missing inklings and octolings reported in the area, and after witnessing you doing shady stuff in each area under Grizz's orders, take you on to bring you to justice or something.
For a singleplayer campaign which involves an antagonist who also serves as the talking guide in the PVE mode though, part of me wishes there was a bit more integration between these two things too - like Deep Cut trying to hijack a helicopter after a victory to see where golden eggs are taken to or something somehow.
Freed? Unless I am mistaken, from what I understand of the lore, the whole conflict of the Octarians and Inklings seems to be focused in the lands of Inkadia. The Splatlands seem to have no knowledge of the Great Turf War and there are indications that Inklings and Octolings of the Splatlands have been co-existing for centuries. What with the clans that Shiver, Frye, and Big Man hailed from.
@@AuraNova26Exactly. The Splatlands didn't take part in the war and so never had a divide between species. Instead, they had a flood that almost killed everyone. Which kinda explained that God exists?? But anyways, it's something that puts the Octo/Inkling conflict into perspective and makes it all the more realistic.
It's especially funny because Shiver is like in an important family in the Splatlands that also takes care of the Splatfests so she's the complete opposite of how we conceived Octolings!
@@ondiiinaremember that the flood also happened in inkadia but since they got more land they just decided to fight for it
@@ondiiina yeah the deep cut mistreatment was insane, they gave us a completely new place, three idols with IMPORTANT SPLATLAND CLAN history which has so much potential and gave us zero info about it
@@ondiiina hobestly, the fact that other fans don't know that the splatlands didn't participate in the turf war kind of just... shows how splatoon 3 dropped the ball.
i think they couldve just done: neo 3 is interested in octarians and wants to learn about them, sees a poster or whatever for the rock area, fights them, mini boss is deep cut instead of dj octavio, they fall, deep cut helps neo 3 instead of squid sisters, and deep cut wants to take mr grizz down because he is a capitalist or something idk
Don't ever work for a game studio.
one of the reasons i liked mr. grizz's reveal so much is because it was something that i had called so many years ago even before splatoon 3's announcement. it felt so satisfying to get a part of the story right.
I feel the last 5 minutes of the conflict section boils down your complains very well, and made me understand better how I feel about the disappointing parts of RotM.
I personally have never felt too weirded out by Grizz being a bear, even after being fully invested on the lore of the series, and I feel your issues with Grizz are ones I can understand better than the issues other people have (which is not to say they are wrong just because I have a harder time understanding btw).
I think the worst part for me is the characters being all over the place without much a purpose to them, I really, really enjoy when characters all have a clear role and significance to the story or plot, and is sad to see how this story could've worked better without a lot of them, especially when "essential" characters like cuttlefish really don't have any explanation as to why they are so essential, even though I can see why the New Squidbeak Splatoon is involved, since I find the need for the great zapfish believable.
Even though this is the case, I really enjoy this story mode for reasons, I really enjoy the overworld, and I had a lot of fun trying to paint whole areas, plus having very interesting level concepts, I really enjoy the gameplay of Splatoon, at an almost equal level than lore, story and art, each of them complimenting my love for the other, I just really love Splatoon as a whole, even in a campaign that felt so lacking for many veterans, it was something I enjoyed playing a lot, and I have a hard time thinking back to it's issues heheheh.
I really like it when people find the time to explain their issues with Splatoon in a way I struggle with! I still love the maps for the background details and setting, but there exist issues that you have expressed that I would have a hard time talking about in the same way simply because it doesn't bother me as much, but I'm also an artist, I also find value in the map itself cohesive stylistically, and the same goes for a lot of the issues for RotM, many of them don't bother me as much, but I still want to see this series be elevated to the heights I think it deserves, because Splatoon is really good and I want for it to be better, yipee! yeah! cool game.
I’m an avid Splatoon lore nut and competitive player; all my friends keep making fun of me for not having finished it, but I watched the ending and was not motivated in the slightest to save inkopolis. You articulate why well.
Absolutely nuts and off the wall things in games are the best when they are taken unexpectedly seriously, explained, fleshed out, and made into more than just a joke.
Then you can both laugh at the initial aburdity of it AND then later get invested in the thing's place in the world.
My favorite example of this is the King of all Cosmos from the Katamari series.
He's initially just the funny floating space chad with way too tight pants. But then you learn his backstory and it turns out to be unironically tearjerking.
I was skeptical when i clicked but I totally understand and even agree with you. Big Fry and Grizz and the lack of explanation of the levels bugged me but it took you putting it into words for me to finally get it.
RotM feels like a mixture of third acts of stories that simply haven't happened yet.
We didn't get a story about how Octavio turned from kidnapping and mind controlling a main character for fighting what is essentially a race war, to hero that saves the player last second. Instead he just kinda disappears for the majority of the story and then randomly returns at the end.
The resolution to Deep Cut's "rivalry" is barely a footnote too, because they've been our rivals for a grand total of 4 encounters (2 per member) before the finale, in which we fought them for explicit random junk they wanted while looting the giant hole in the floor they decided to follow us, after conveniently being present while the crater opened up, for the very compelling reason of... treasure? Again: three random pieces of junk that in the best interpretation form a giant lawnmower. Iirc the manga had a story arc about an ultimate weapon hidden by Sheldon's grandfather; that seems like a cool premise for a treasure hunt, but this?
And lastly Mr Grizz, the main antagonist of the whole story that's supposed to cap off the trilogy, after a heavy amount of story relevance and foreshadowing: One stage in S2 Salmon Run and a twitter post from 2020... Feels kinda undercooked in my opinion.
The worst part about the last one in particular is that they had the perfect opportunity to make him the antagonist of the next game, after Splatoon 3 ended with the Grand Fest, that only happened because we fought off 7 Big Runs, events where we get a LOT of Golden Eggs for Grizzco. Imagine that the huge quota was more than random math, but instead the last step to the whole scheme.
For a story that was advertised as a finale, it introduced way too many plot points, focused on barely any one in particular, and to top it all off, it's kinda irrelevant when looking at the themes of the last two games (that had a perfect finale in OE to begin with). I'm glad they went back a bit with Side Order, because while a bit barebones, it feels like the perfect epilogue that addresses what actually happened in the past and sees the characters (if only a few of them) working through it. Ultimately I'm not mad or anything, since Alterna itself was a treat and gameplay wise it was okay, but I sincerely don't understand why they wanted to add to the previous story instead of forming a new one. Especially since it's been a while since OE, and the Switch 2 is right around the corner for a potential sequel that could follow up after around 3 years.
I just hope they try to improve their approach for S4.
(also Agent 4 should have been there instead of 3/Captain who already was in OE)
Honestly I'm not as disappointed with grizz as some other people. Like the whole thing about "It was so obvious he was a bear" was the point imo, it was (admittedly, a little too obvious) foreshadowing. Like similarly to how they hinted it was Callie talking to you in the radio at the end of the s2 boss fights, iirc. As for why he can do rocket science n stuff, they could somewhat easily use a similar explanation as why squids evolved so quickly. Something something the human ideas and consciousness made him smarter, something something. Why would Mr Grizz need a red herring anyway, most inklings probably don't know what a grizzly bear is, for all they care it's just a cool name inspired by a dead animal. Overall good video though, I agree with most of what you said! I do wish the characters were fleshed out more, and that octavio did more than show up, die, and help save the world at the end.
the only reason people en masse have a problem with grizz being a bear is because a small handful of the largest splatoon content creators on the english speaking side of the internet said they didn’t like it. 100%.
so glad somebody made a video about this ive been starving for more splatoon lore-related content
while there are some aspects of this video i definitely agree with, mainly in the fields of orca and lack of explanation on some things, this campaign has come to just barely follow behind octo expansion as my 2nd favorite. splatoon 3's release time is a time i will never forget and grinding this out over a week will always stick out to me. the vibe of the story itself is what draws me to it so much, and the atmosphere alone is enough to elevate that vibe even higher for me. i LOVE the mystery and lack of explanation on some things, because it makes it even more eerie and honestly the slow progression of uncovering the history of alterna added to that eeireness. the music and ambience solidifies this so much for me and i feel that the conflict with deep cut was great in its own right because they're just inklings/octolings looting a place they have no knowledge on, expecting there to be remnants for them (and sort of introducing you to this game's theme of chaos/anarchy). idk the vibe/atmosphere of this campaign is just unbeat for me (aside from octo expansion) and so much of the loose bits of the story helped to add to that fee imo.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on side order after seeing this. It would be interesting to see the contrast between how the base game and DLC tell their stories.
As a long term player since Splatoon 1 as a kid I’ve felt like Splatoon 3 was like a filler episode vibe in the series. All of splatoon’s settings have been mostly colorful and eye catching- while the splatlands looks like a buncha CONCRETE all over. It really does feel like a barren wasteland, story AND atmosphere wise
Inklings build Societies, Octolings only consume them then complain the Inklings did it.
There is a reason why only Inkopolis is so far advanced in terms of modernity compared to everywhere else in the lore.
This video really made me realize just how flawed the story of s3's singleplayer really is, I enjoyed it on my first playthrough and I'd still say I enjoyed the story beats but I couldn't help but feel something was missing
the biggest ??? I've got with the motivations of Mr. Grizz is... We've got 2* Cats? & those Cats are very Public? He's not the last Mammal at all;
There might already be a bunch of characters involved, but even just a 'they are not enough' would have helped;
We got baited so hard by them showing the Judd scroll in the ROTM trailer only for it to not matter at all. It really does feel like they should have at least been acknowledged
I would've loved if, when grizz first awoke on earth, he actively seeked out Judd to try and find solace in someone, but Judds nonchalantless about the extinction of mammals made grizz furious and spurred his quest to resurrect them. A sort of duality between the two, where grizz cares too much about mammals, and Judd cares too little.
I feel that plays into it hoenstly. Mr Grizz was SO obsessed with bringing back the status quo he couldn't be content with sharing the title of "last mammal" with two cats, because that's still not enough for him. Its all part of how he's glorifying a past he barely knows anything about and how he's denying the present day.
@@sarafontanini7051 The issue is that, like most things in ROTM, that’s an interesting idea on paper, but nothing in the game actually suggests that is how Grizz feels. It would have been a cool idea to include, and it works as a headcanon, but it is not something expressed by the game itself
I was genuinely interested in the downfall of the humans so my fav part was just collecting the Alterna files
Maaaan I really loved PLAYING return of the mammalians, because personally, I am not amazing at the game, so Octo Expansion was very frustrating to me. All of that amazing story telling and chatacter development for my absolute favorite characters in the series, locked behind really torturous grindy levels. I get that lore-wise, the levels being hard makes sense lol, but it sucks that I had to basically just watch other people beat it while I was forced to skip past most of the levels because they were too hard for me.
ROTM gameplay felt way more accessible with its currency being easier to obtain and having a good amount of levels that were fun, while also having more challenging levels that I was allowed to skip over after giving it a good college try lol.
And I thought the story was fun and had some interesting pieces to it, but I also left feeling confused! I think if they were gonna make Grizz the main antagonist, and give us a salmonid friend, then the story absolutely should have been about the salmonids! But it wasn't, and it had basically no impact on the relationship between the salmonids and inkfish, which seemed like the obvious next step that they would take with the story.
And this video pointed out even more details that I did not even think about, like why the tests are even there, and the weirdly lacking character motivations :') So thank you for pointing this out! At least now I have more of an idea as to why the story did not feel satisfying, other than the obvious fact that it featured salmon run characters and was not really much about the lore of salmon run at all.
Side Order was definitely the most fun i have ever had with a single player campaign in the series though! I think gameplay-wise, they are improving, which makes me sad that the story suffered in exchange. Though I did like Side Order's story much more than ROTM, so there is a lot of potential moving forward!
This video was able to explain a lot of my issues with the story and characters of Splatoon 3 in a way that I never really could on my own, but I feel like a lot of these issues stem from the fact that Return of the Mammalians has the responsibility of being a finale to this first saga in the Splatoon series. Like you said, the story is at its best when focused on fleshing out its original content, namely Alterna and Mr. Grizz-- but because this is the bow that's tying the whole trilogy together it feels like it NEEDS to include more. It needs to have every character from the past two story modes (plus Agent 3) because they've always been here, and Deep Cut needs to be here for... reasons? Because every idol has a part in a story mode, and the DLC is about Off the Hook?
In any case, it pulls attention away from the new stuff, and can end up making it feel unfinished. Part of why I'm personally already excited for Splatoon 4 is because, assuming it is in fact the start of a new saga, I'm interested to see what the writers can do with fresh ideas, and a fresh batch of characters
Absolutely. Like I mentioned in the video, Octo Expansion felt like the "true" end of the saga to me, so I really wish ROTM wasn't held back by trying to fill that role. I'm super excited to see what they do next now that they have the opportunity for a fresh start!
The reason why you're excited for Splatoon 4 is why I dread it. It's supposed to be the beginning of a new saga, and discard all the previous characters. But I just can't stomach that, because the supposed grand send-off to this saga was so severely botched that it can't end here in any satisfying manner.
@@WretchedRedoran I don't think they're going to completely discard the old characters; in fact, I don't want them to either, since that would go against Splatoon's great sense of continuity. I'd love for old characters to still come back as side characters and cameos, but I'd also like the next game to have a story mode that uses newer, or even entirely original characters, and doesn't feel the need to shoehorn in all of the same characters we've been seeing since Splatoon 1 like Rise of the Mammalians did
omg i had never noticed how insane splatoon 3s story is lol
Your script writing was really great for this video btw i loved it :3
I remember finishing the Splatoon 3 campaign and immediately searching online to see if anyone else was disappointed, but it was so soon after release that those conversations hadn't started yet. I'm glad I found this video.
I actually like that Mr. Grizz is a real bear, as it makes him stand out so much more in the world of Splatoon and connects back to the history of how the world evolved. There was so much potential in what his character could be, but he was presented as a one-note marketable plushy who only says corporate cliches. It seemed like a completely different character from the one who talks over the radio in Salmon Run. I feel like some executives made the devs simplify the story and turn the final boss into a silly spectacle because "Splatoon's main demographic is children and teenagers" instead of letting them lean into the lore they were building. I think the Grizz backstory we got after the fact, with a realistic bear in the artwork, was their attempt to salvage their original intentions for the character. Obviously I don't know what the campaign's development actually looked like, but the impression I got was a lot of corporate meddling.
All that to say I'm coping and hope they bring him back as a cool scary bear with ongoing plot significance and a real personality because that's what I was hoping he'd be from the beginning.
I have never understood why anyone thought there was actually a "mystery" around Grizz's identity intended at all.
From the moment he was introduced in Splatoon 2, I always assumed that it was very obviously a joke that while he seems mysterious to the (slightly stupid) marine life inhabitants of Splatoon's world who have no idea what a bear is, to us (the human audience) he's obviously a bear in a very bad disguise. Like, it was a joke, not a mystery. It's exactly like how Grizzco is clearly an illegal operation exploiting cephalopods, but because it's a corporate sponsor that gives money and gear away as rewards, nobody realizes this and famous musicians openly advertise it on TV. The only mystery was, "how is a bear alive," and they explained that with Ark Polaris and then Splatoon 3.
It was really strange to me when S3 came out, and it turned out that a vocal portion of the audience had apparently misinterpreted this joke as some kind of puzzle to solve, and then got mad at a punchline for not being the serious "answer" to a question that they tricked themselves into making up.
Ok as I understand it to grossly oversimplify the big issue with Splatoon 3 story is that many, if not all of, the BIG questions don't receive answers including but not limited to Mr. Grizz. So I propose to you this hypothetical lore based on what we were given out of curiosity to see if this had been what they had done if you would still feel so disappointed.
Bear 03# aka Mr. Grizz is a bear that among other test subjects were created as one of many of humanity's last hopes to carry on their knowledge should they go extinct. The experiment aimed to see if, given enough time in an altered cryosleep where the body does not age, but the brain remains active, other species of animals could develop the same level of consciousness as humans. The experiment proved successful, however, what was unknown to the humans at the time was that the longer the subject was placed in cryosleep the more their consciousness would develop. So Bear 03# and the rest of the subjects were put on a rocket to find another planet to replace the Earth. No such planet was ever found and eventually, the ship was damaged causing it to return to Earth, however, due to the damage the ship was unable to land. Inevitably the vessel found itself in the inescapable pull of the Earth's gravity. Reentry was not kind to its inhabitants-all perished, save one. Bear #03 had survived. For 12,000 years his consciousness had developed, his intellect now rivaling geniuses. Fully awakened, Bear #03 came to a terrible realization. He had not landed on a new planet at all. He was back on Earth. And yet, it was not an Earth he knew. This Earth, it seemed, was dominated by sea creatures. Not a single mammal to be found. In the course of his search for a single fellow mammal, Bear #03 used navigational equipment from the wreckage of the Ark Polaris to discover Alterna. It was a wasteland, but it served as a facility by which he could watch and observe Earth's new inhabitants. In his observations, he had seen the ongoing conflict between the Octarians and the Inklings, but he had also witnessed the experiments performed deep underground by Commander Tartar. Bear 03# theorized that he could very well use this sanitized ink for his purposes if it were to be modified. With knowledge built during his thousands of years of development, he repaired some of Alterna's facilities and began researching the ink...This research bore fruit when Bear #03 compounded some of the ink with his own fur. The experiment created an entirely new substance with one terrifying property-it could transform any living creature into a mammal. But there was a problem, the octarians Bear 03# used the substance became mindless drones whose sole purpose seemed to be to create test chambers. All was not lost though, as with more experimentation Bear 03# realized that this effect could be neutralized if he could only procure the essence of a being with enough experiences to remind the subjects who they are instantly. Having observed the inklings for some time Bear 03# had an inkling in mind. Bear #03 realized the implications immediately. He could restore the planet to a mammalian paradise! He began stockpiling Fuzzy Ooze, as he called it, within Alterna's still-intact rocket...For such a venture, he would require the acquisition of thousands of Golden Eggs. These were used in the creation of the Fuzzy Ooze, although the exact details have never been recorded in my memory banks. But Bear #03 had a plan. He founded a corporation that would go on to employ locals to collect his Golden Eggs under the name Grizzco Industries. Mr. Grizz, as he was now known, would pay handsomely for them...With Fuzzy Ooze production peaking thanks to the assistance of unsuspecting Inklings and Octolings, Mr. Grizz took the final steps to set his plan in motion. The rocket was loaded...It wouldn't be long now.
If you have log.exe committed to memory you'll notice that much of this was from that log, but that was the goal as I wanted to keep it as close to the original story as possible. You'll also notice that I changed the liquid crystals to sanitization ink. I admit it's a little on the nose however, I think it would tie in nicely to what the second game built, as it would give a reason for the mamalized octarians to obey, or at the very least not be hostile towards, Mr. Grizz and more importantly it gives A reason, albeit a stretch of one, for the test chambers to exist the way they are in Alterna. If nothing else I agree that they should not have used test chambers I really could not think of a good reason why Mr. Grizz would need or benefit from them, or how the humans would have had them. I admit that this does not fix all of your problems Deep Cut would still have no reason to be an enemy and the player would still have no reason to obtain the thangs other than "because they fought for them", but I do think that this helps fix many of the core issues.
great video, i was not expecting to come away from this video enjoying it, but you make your points well and its all very understandable.
I do hope we get some more story in Splatoon 4 if it happens (please) and learnign more about Grizz and Grizzco has to be on the menu please please please
Here's what i saw about splatoon places on story mode
Splatoon 1: in Octo valley areas look like skateboard 🛹 area. And half of the areas are floating. All of them are floating in one location. Not anywhere on ground or even on undergrounds. Plus the ufo that is floating on final level sends you up in space like space station place. Or somewhere. This place is literally confusing as we're floating in middle of areas.
Splatoon 2: not as big as first one on octo canyon. Small places around to walk. But on cephalon HQ you're on like a sea of murky paint that looks polluted and poisoning. Then we go underground for real on final boss that is different from the crater. Could've added a legit fortress or underground base like. But nope. Stickers and new deco didn't spice anything up for octarians.
Splatoon 3: Finally some place to explore on crater where we go down and such. But sadly we can't go anywhere else on crater but down and deep down. Alterna is good and all but half of the areas are sunken and some are still lingering. None of the places have any purpose to explore or understand 😕 what will happen next. Cuz most of the area is covered in cold ice and cold water far away. And we can see the broken tv like cieling.
Worst of all? No sign of "Mammalians" to exist at all or even being called. I won't even add mr grizz since he's one of the only mammal. If anything rabbits should've been Mammalians army. Just like how kirby and forgotten land made their own Mammalians for real The Beast Pack.
Splatoon has been focusing on parties and events yet they didn't add anything more adventurous and world wide exploration. Its like you're in one whole region and that's it. Nowhere else. No other regions to explore.
Plus they only add 4 bosses every game. I want more bosses and tougher ones and i want us to pick our own weapons/subs/specials that isn't DLC like or cost worth.
I think why it was a bit underwelming is because they are going to build on it, cuz i rember being a kd in splatoon 1 and the lore building was AMAZING but we didn't have enough for the full picture. Maybe thats what is goin on with the mammalians. And i do agree, anythin can be improved on, but overall imo and im sure u agree but the splatoon games and lore and charatcers r pretyy GREAAATTT, unique, and r a breath of freash air with personality and charm!
18:23 i agree with everything previously stated, but Calamari Inkantation is, in a way, a magical song. If I remember correctly, the Inkantation is what cured Octoling brainwashing, and it's music which is etched into Octoling's and Inkling's DNA. Which makes the Calamari Inkantation a very important part of the lore, and what it does to lil' buddy is showing some sort of extent of the song's power. However, this is only significant if and only if this is explained futher in the next game
Well, the Octarians weren’t brainwashed, they were just led by Octavio and influenced by his music. It’s implied to be closer to propaganda than mind control. The Calamari Inkantation counteracted Octavio’s music and showed the Octarians a glimpse of life outside the domes. It does appear to have a somewhat supernatural effect on them, but it’s not explicitly magical.
Smallfry physically transforming into a giant monster through the power of some unexplained “marine life energy” has no real base in existing lore and feels like a different thing entirely
OOOOHHHH MY GOD SOMEONE GETS IT ABOUT THE GRIZZ REVEAL. People kept going, “It was so obvious he was a bear, why did you expect anything different?” BECAUSE THE BEAR HINTS WERE LAYERED ON SO THICK THAT I THOUGHT HE *COULDN’T* BE A BEAR. Me five years ago in 2019 thought, “Surely he isn’t a bear, right? They wouldn’t just, spoil Splatoon 3 like that, right?”
Yes, past me, yes they would. It feels like genuinely incompetent writing for Mr. Grizz to be a real ass mammalian bear, and nothing will ever change my mind.
ローカライズでクマサン(Mr.Grizz)の性格が本来のものと真逆になったせいで、英語版のGrizzはキャラクターがぶれていると思いました。優しくて親切だけど底知れないクマサンが、実は海産物とは相容れない存在というのが気に入ってます。たしかにすりみ連合の存在を持て余していたり、もっと色んなシーケンスが見たかったです。
Biggest issue is that the main war between Inks & Octs was mostly wrapped up by the end of Splatoon 2's side story. They couldn't use any of that material again, without backpedalling alot of the first two games. Meaning they had to introduce new elements for Splatoon 3 to work. A new villain, with new motives but keeping all the formula of levels, bosses, etc.
Two choices:
1.) Introduce a new party which was never mentioned before now and try to shoehorn them into the established lore and plot.
2.) Take from the lore of humanity's extinction to build into a threat, which was lying in wait for Splatoon 3 to strike.
Grizz is the best case scenario, outside of having actual humans show up. He's atleast thematically tied to the lore and themes of the series but you're right in that none of the other characters have any motivation beyond protect the status quo. There's no meaningful connection because Grizz's character is based entirely in lore and secrets, which nobody else as reason to interact with.
I feel like a lot of the problems are things that the developers did think about but failed to mention (the next things will juat my ideas and not necessarily what they were actually thinking
Why are the Squid Sisters there? They found about the fuzzy ooze in Alterna and decided to go see it
Why is Mr. Grizz intelligent? Because the experiments made on him did that, but it took time for it to actully happen (something done by the humans maybe in case noone was coming back, maybe also they were who the telephone was for)
What are the test chambers? Maybe the humans used them to test their experiments and made them change depending on what animal arrived in the chamber, or maybe Mr. Grizz made modifications to them
Why are the octarians there? I believe that Alterna is one of the domes used by the octarians as homes, maybe he arrived there and changed the biology of the octarians already luving inside the dome to collect fuzzy ooze
Those are some speculations that I made on the spot (I haven't played the mode in two years and have never read the log.exe so I don’t have all the specific details in mind)
But if they were what the developers had in mind, only a few lines of dialogue could have made it more clear
It wouldn’t have made the entire story better, but some of it
Stories where you still have questions at the end are not bad, on the contrary
But this one specifically needed to adress those questions
My theory is that he has psychic abilities, this would explain why he can talk without moving his mouth, his glowing eyes, increased intelligence, the significance of dreams (which I assume to be partial premonitions) in the Alterna logs mentioning him and his seeming ability to take the wisdom of ages from Cuttlefish's mind, alternatively he could've taken whatever faculty allows Cuttlefish, Squids and Octopus to change colors, something scientists assume to be a conscious ability connected to their brain, this "essence" was likely related to the substance humans took from the Inkfish's unevolved forebears in order to produce the crystals used in Alterna's dome. Assuming my theory is the case, some weirder parts of the story start to make more sense. Additionally, I think there are already some pretty overt references to other properties featuring prominent psychics. (Semi Spoilers for Akira Ahead) In the movie a psychic is able to protect themselves from the vacuum of space, leave the atmosphere and land on something in orbit, an iconic moment which seems to be referenced in the final boss fight, I'd also argue that Fuzzy Ooze has design similarities to Giygas from the videogame Earthbound, which is another game franchise with powerful psychics, though this was more likely a coincidence.
If he does have psychic abilities I hope to see these fully developed and utilized, a particular focus on brainwaves could be very interesting and fitting thematically due to Splatoon's nautical elements. Picture if psychic ability somehow allows one to see or interact with brainwaves, then image that there aren't only brainwaves but a whole ocean of thought which is the totality of experience, image if through interfacing with this ocean Grizz is able to perform incredible acts previously thought impossible. Assuming they go all out with this idea, and assuming brainwaves never truly fade away but rather return to the ocean of consciousness after death, Grizz would not only be able to experience but display and instill the thoughts of those currently living and long gone, those who are and were. This, on top of already established abilities, would not only allow Grizz to restore the earth by mentally rebuilding it but to fully return all humans that previously inhabited it, including the player. With these Grizz would become a unique villain, one who must be fought against despite fighting for our existence and legacy, one we fight inspite of ourselves, a villain that many wouldn't want to beat but who must be defeated for the sake of the game itself. (Note that this is purely hypothetical and solely for exploring the absolute ends of his potential narrative importance. If such a thing were to be explored It would require massive downsides and ultimately not be the right solution. My thought is that the Fuzzy Ooze would eventually be revealed as an enemy which starts to display humans limbs and faces as he trys to forcefully wrench them from the Ocean, this potential Ocean of Am or Being would have to do with creativity and reference Giygas, Shakespeare's line "To be or not to be" as well as the Sci-fi book "I have no mouth and I must scream".)
Side note, if you're reading this, I think your argument about an apparent lack of mystery and the bluntness in which the lore is conveyed is wrong for various reasons. No offense.
The bluntness of the logs was only a minor nitpick--I frankly just don't love the writing style they chose to use for ORCA. Either way, it's not a big deal.
My problem is not so much that there is a lack of mystery, but that there is so little information with which to answer the story's biggest questions. I don't think everything should be answered, but I especially dislike that a major inciting event for the story, Cuttlefish's capture, cannot be explained without delving into dubious headcanon territory. It is deeply unsatisfying to me that we never learn what Grizz was even doing with Cuttlefish as we were working to save him. I am yet to hear a counterpoint that convinces me it was anything other than poor writing.
@@TheCosmicCloudMy biggest problem is that you seem to like the mystery of Splatoon but when you are actually given the chance to think about what Grizz took from Cuttlefish, or even why another villain would do something as odd as going to the trouble of creating fake bear prints, you seem to gravitate to arguably more "dubious" theories which require levels of scheming we've never seen before or refuse to theorize at all and suggest it's bad writing. You seem puzzled but at the same time totally uninterested in solving the puzzle.
Again, I understand being uninterested or annoyed about speculation of varying quality or wanting the whole story to be explored but it seems they actually wanted us to think about these things and purposely teased at the interesting directions the story is going to head. Some people you recommend even seemed really skilled at breaking these down. That being said I guess I was hoping you'd also dive a bit deeper into the teasers, even if you didn't make any concrete statements or form any concrete thoughts until we get the next game, I'd still be nice to see you think about where the hints could lead.
Clarification about my speculation:
I know the long rant seems out there but my thoughts are more low-key.
My most mundane theory is that Grizz took the same substance which Cephalopods use to change color, in real life they're called chromatophores, cells which hold pigments and are manipulated to change color, there's a small leap from the mysterious substance Alternans took from cephalopods and the substance Grizz took from Cuttlefish who is a descendant of those same cephalopods and who promptly lost all of his color after having it taken. And I'd also argue color changing cells and the pixels of the Alterna sky dome have other obvious parallels, apart from being cell-shaded. My theory about Grizz also shouldn't be mistaken with my hopes for him, fundamentally I think they were going to go with a more psychic bend to his character but decided against it with some of the remnants of that narrative shift being apparent, still, I think he is at the very least using the same method as the Alterna sky dome to communicate telepathically or through devices with his mind, mostly due to his distinctive voice and ability to speak in the vacuum of space. Even if all that's incorrect the focus on memories, dreams, desires, superhuman predictions and calculations, as well as the brain holding an important narrative role should make you at least curious about if the Splatoon team were or are thinking about that aspect, not to mention that almost any question asked leads to the greater narrative importance of the mind, like how exactly does the sky dome track and react to desire, how do inkfish change their hair color, what's with the focus with mind control, creativity and freewill, regardless of if the mental abilities are as vast as hope they'd be (which I don't expect) it's definitely a big part of the puzzle.
Ps: I'm not trying to be antagonistic, I do agree about most of the criticisms, especially the overuse of some characters and them taking the focus away from Grizz, who likely would've worked better as the main presence along with Deep Cut, something which seemed to be them trying to cram most of the fan-favorite characters into a semi-final game, same with your point about them splitting the story into the next game, that said there are positives to that as well which I don't think you mention. I'm very tempted to go into the specific sci-fi tropes, properties, and moments I think they're referencing, something I think really supports my point, but this requires serious spoilers and would make this even longer so I'll let you off the hook, for now...
@@oldnosoul4183 My issue with the "puzzle" of ROTM is that its pieces do not feel intentionally constructed. It IS uninteresting to me, because no matter what theory I attempt to create, there is always something left feeling unsatisfying.
In the theories you presented, both of them still fail to explain Grizz's actual motivations in the plot. Sure, maybe Grizz took Cuttlefish's chromatophores, or something similar related to the liquid crystals. But WHY would he do that? We hear him speak and see him control Fuzzy Ooze before that happens, so... what would be the point? It doesn't make sense to save that mystery for another game when we are meeting Grizz and experiencing his character arc right now.
What I tend to see from people defending ROTM are headcanons that flesh out the plot and its events, but do not actually get at the root of its problems. I may be able to put together some obscure pieces of the lore to craft an idea of how seemingly disparate parts of the world fit together, but that would not solve the issue of poor character writing. It would not explain the things that simply do not belong in the same world as Splatoon 1 and 2.
ROTM certainly involves minds, memories, dreams, and desires, and those are interesting to think about on their own, but it's difficult for me to become invested in analyzing the themes of a story whose basic narrative beats are barely coherent. ROTM only scratches the surface of its most interesting ideas, and while some people may be able to run with that and create their own stories, what I am talking about here is what Nintendo could have done themselves, and didn't.
@@TheCosmicCloud The faith one has in a story to answer the questions it raises is the difference between something feeling like a plot hole and something feeling like a mystery, it's the difference between weariness and anticipation. I fully understand that you feel unsatisfied, but, weirdly, I think that's a fundamental part of mystery, it's something which requires there not be full or immediate resolutions, especially in a long running franchise with a slowly unfolding story.
That being said, I think it'll seem a lot less unsatisfying in comparison if you think about just how much they've left up for interpretation over the years. Take Dj Octavio for instance, we don't know how he got his scars, how his humanoid form looks in-game, his exact role in the great turf war, or his deeper relation to Cuttlefish and how that broke down, even something like his reasoning for stealing the great zap fish, which might seem to have been fully explored in the story of Splatoon 1, likely has deeper, unexplored motivations behind it that relates to other, yet given contextualization, these as well as many other things about him are still mostly unknown despite him having been around for three games and the main antagonist of the first. All of that mystery is what makes him my second favorite character next to Grizz, with Grizz winning out only slightly due to his backstory and potential. In my opinion, and to use your words, Splatoon 1 only scratched the surface of Dj Octavio's ark, same with the Octoling plight, that "Scratching of the surface" is one of my favorite aspects of Splatoon and something I think it does best.
All of that is why I have trouble calling Cuttlefish's capture bad writing or unintentional, it seems more like something they purposely drew attention to, whereas bad writing is usually a plot hole at a random point in the story which has to be covered up or distracted from. If they were looking to do something simpler they could've just made Grizz capture him and threaten to cover him in Fuzzy Ooze, them deciding against this and leaving him in a state which must be addressed in the next game leads me to think they have something bigger in mind. So, while I'd agree with you on almost every other criticism of the story, I don't think Cuttlefish's capture in particular is an egregious oversight.
As for what he stole from Cuttlefish and why, I'm not sure, but I could easily come up with useful information an experienced war veteran might have floating around in his mind, the founders and founding of certain important locations, the other members of the SBS, strategies used in the first great turf war, or maybe even the weapons of mass destruction we saw level previous Octoling cities leaving them as flaming ruins, it's impossible to know right now but he'd likely have some of the most important knowledge in the franchise, regardless of if that info was mentally drained or extracted the old fashioned way, knowledge like that would be comparable to Dj Octavio's and maybe second only to Judd. If he didn't steal anything from his mind and only stole his color changing or whatever It'd still be somewhat useful as Cuttlefish in the wild use that ability to communicate, camouflage, and most importantly, to "hypnosis" or daze their prey by rapidly flashing black and white (not my words, a National Geographic vid used the term). I think a better question might be how did Mr. Grizz know of Cuttlefish but not Judd, something like that seems more unanswerable and possibly due to bad writing, though I don't know where they'll take the story so it could have a good reason behind it.
And to address the point of his overall motivations (which I made better under the recommended video), Mr. Grizz wants to revive humanity, not only mammals, but because the will of humanity leached into the Inkfish, he requires all of them to be covered in Fuzzy Ooze to achieve his goal of bringing us back, hence him covering the whole Earth and focusing on the Inkfish in specific.
And as for how he is able to do what he does, that also seems pretty simple. Grizz can talk and do science because he's an experimental subject like Judd (something which has been established to give mammals human intelligence and supernatural abilities) and he's giant because of him absorbing Fuzzy Ooze (though The Great Zap Fish and Octo Samurai are also giants). Regardless of the exact nature of his mental enhancements, how he got them, what they do and what he uses them for seem clear to me, so questions like why Grizz chose to revert earth (his home) or why he didn't immediately dump Cuttlefish in Fuzzy Ooze (he was just about to ooze the whole planet) don't bother me and aren't things I think have to be spelled out further.
Ps: I totally agree about Smallfry becoming a Kaiju, it goes against the more sci-fi aspects of the franchise and if that's what you mean by "Things that don't belong in the same worlds as Splatoon 1 and 2" then I have no argument there. That said, that's partly why I like thinking about Psychic abilities, it's usually how sci-fi chooses to rebrand magic into something more fitting, but for that reason I see why people are against it.
This video mentions a lot of the issues I had with ROTM, but I was one of those who weren't bothered at all by the Mr. Grizz reveal. In fact, it was maybe my favourite moment in the campaign. Personally, I had never even heard of the "not-actually-a-bear" theory (which I imagine is the case for most of the fandom), so there was no disappointment from that. The shock and amusement came from the fact that this 'deep voiced grizzly owner of a shady business', who had brutally kidnapped cuttlefish, who was the final enemy of the story mode, looked like a cute bear.
I almost feel like such a diversion of expectations, Mr. Grizz actually being a marine creature, would've mostly just been confusing, and even disappointing, to most fans. I always wondered how a bear could still exist in this world, and the story gave me an satisfying yet sad answer to that. I had never considered how it would feel to be the only bear left in the world, yet it made perfect sense in retrospect, in the sense of his motivations.
While I think the story had quite a few unsatisfying plotholes and unexplained things, I don't feel like Mr. Grizz was one of them. The possibility of a mammal surviving/existing was established with Judd (as rare as it was), and the intelligence aspect to me felt like the same case as with inklings and octolings, especially since that was clearly stated and explained in the story mode moments prior. In my understanding, Mr. Grizz inherited the will and dreams of the scientists, hence why he was so smart, and partially why he wanted to so desperately return mammalian life to earth (other than his extremely depressing circumstances). At least, that's how I understood it while playing. I feel like the end message was about unity and understanding of different beings. Of seeing past our differences? The human will and spirit? Something like that.
I do feel like the story was originally maybe meant to be a little different, but ultimately it was then made to be mostly understandable to most casual and even newer players, which is what I think they prioritized. And I enjoyed it. It didn't break my immersion whatsoever, since the possibility of a bear existing was well established already in splatoon 2.
ORCA was probably my biggest disappointment, but I quite enjoyed the Mr. Grizz storyline, from someone who played a lot of salmon run in splatoon 2, and wondered what was up with him. The ambiguity was fine to me too, but I understand how it could've been frustrating. I only wished all the different story aspects were more connected.
-Opinion of a casual lore enthusiast.
I've seen a few comments defending Grizz that all have different explanations for how he became intelligent, which I think demonstrates the exact problem I have with his backstory. Grizz's intelligence is an integral part of his character; I don't think it should be something we should have to make guesses or theories about. I totally understand that it can be fun to fill in the details with your own ideas---it's a huge reason I love the other games so much. But with ROTM, I really feel like we needed more solid information than what we were given, especially in terms of Grizz. A bear *existing* is fine, but for that bear to be sapient and able to speak is a whole other story
@@TheCosmicCloud I suppose that's just ultimately a matter of different preference. The ambiguity in that aspect doesn't bother me, but I can understand why it could, especially since this was meant to be an ending to a trilogy. I would've liked a more conclusive information, but, again, it didn't negatively effect my gameplay experience.
That being said, and I forgot to say this in my original comment, but I greatly enjoyed this video! It was very interesting and gave me an different view. I immediately went to check out your other videos, and it's good stuff. Excitedly await your side order video!
So if Grizz is a problem because he's "just a bear from the human world", what is Judd?
@@Starius65 It was definitely a mistake to not mention the Judds in the video, because I’ve gotten this question a lot. Basically, Judd also sticks out as something unexplained in Splatoon’s world, but his role in the games is so minor that I never felt like it mattered too much.
I think the argument that Judd’s existence sets a precedent for Grizz is flawed because it’s comparing the tutorial mascot character to the main antagonist. If Judd were in Grizz’s position, it would be the same problem.
From the original trailer, I expected ROTM to provide proper lore for both Grizz AND Judd, and it gave us neither
I’m going to be the singular freak of nature that I am and say that, after the ending of the story mode where Li’l Buddy turned into a big giant salmon creature, that somehow gave me hope that Salmonlings would be a thing in the near future. Which... Considering that’s likely never going to be on Nintendo’s docket, I really wish they didn’t casually explain that the inkfish absorbed humanity’s wishes through the water, because Salmonids canonically adapting their forms to their environment and Li’l Buddy being exposed to inkfish society at a pivotal moment in their life provides a PERFECT potential explanation for Salmonlings.
As much as I’d love them to be real though, I understand just how much suspension of belief it would require to let them be real in the games. It’d have to be like... 7 different layers of explanation... Or just decide Grizz was developing Salmonlings for use in Salmon Run for one reason or another.
I wish I knew where Splatoon is going next, because the newest Splatfest unironically gives me no clues and no answers. At least I’ll be able to enjoy the game’s cycling Splatfests!
Apologies for the long post but ROTM really leaves me with conflicting thoughts. And even if I do touch upon similar points as the video, i wanna share my thoughts.
I'll admit, I may be the odd one out, but I was actually VERY HAPPY about the fact Mr. Grizz turned out to be a real bear. Splatoon lore always tries to go deeper than what the game shows at surface level, but I also sometimes feel us Splatoon fans get too caught up on it and forget that even in its darkest themes, the series still tries to add a layer of humor to it. The devs always try to make the world feel believable by adding small details but also, enjoy making something for the sake of a pun or for a feeling of wackiness.
Splatoon 1 spoke of the wars between two sides from different perspectives...but also told us that one battle was won because the inklings literally were too lazy to wake up early. We were shown the skeleton remains of a human...that was stuck playing on their WiiU. Splatoon 2 gave us a crazed AI attempting to pull genocide on to an entire civilization...while still looking like a goofy old-timey pay phone. No matter how dark the lore gets, Splatoon always tries to inject a comedic side to it in the macro, so when Mr. Grizz was introduced in the second game, the idea of him being actually a bear always ring true to me. Yes, we got an explanation of what power eggs do in the splatoon society, but I feel people got too caught up on the micro of his mysterious nature specially after Octo Expansion, that forgot about the macro of the entire joke: that we are delivering salmon eggs to a BEAR.
As such, I don't feel Grizz being a bear really breaks the established lore. And if if he would have been something like another cephalopod or marine creature obsessed with mammals, I feel it'd have been a disservice to that layer on humor that is always applied to the world while being another AI would have been too much of a retreat of TarTar....HOWEVER. That's where my defense of Mr. Grizz really ends, because while I understand why he is a mammal, I do believe in similar fashion to what's said in the video, the EXECUTION of it all failed short of what I'd have hoped for.
first things first. We SHOULD have had more on-screen time with Mr. Grizz. His reveal comes relateviley early, but his dialogue really gets reserved to the very end of the game. It'd have worked way better, in my opinion, if he would have been a constant voice during our journey, allowing to flesh out his character as well as give us an understanding of his plans, the ooze, amongst other things. Personally, I feel the ooze is very self explanatory when it comes to the Octarians; The ooze twisted their minds and made them loyal to Mr. Grizz. That alone doesn't need a deep explanation, but rather what feels strange is how detached his plan is FROM the fact he has a bunch of brainwashed Octarians. Maybe if kidnapping octarians involved something related to obtaining that "essence" Grizz later took from Cuttlefish may have been more understanding, but since the main cast seems WAY too indifferent to the story unfolding around them, it makes it feel like none of the pieces are fitting together. Same goes to his backstory as well as ORCA, which tbh, i feel it could have EASILY been addressed. Imagine if you will, that Mr. Grizz after crashing back to the planet interacted with the very same liquid memory that turned squids and octos into what they are today and that was the reason he gained his intelligence? Not only it'd tie him with the origin of Inklings and Octarians, but also from a narrative perspective could have made him into some sort of dark reflection of them: Humanity's drive created our cephalopod friends while the very same essence injected him with the more negative traits of humanity.
Hell, maybe if the essence that he needed from Cuttlefish was more explained to be the very thing that created the inklings, maybe that plot point wouldn't have come off as such half-assed! similarly, ORCA AND the Octarians could have been explained using the very same plotpoint! Mr. Grizz kidnapped Octavio's army for experimentation and to get this "essence" that is the "genetic starting key" for his ooze formula to create a new race of mammals, then modified ORCA to create chambers to test these octarians in order to drive out this "feeling of drive" which created them! I'll be honest, i find it so odd that the crystal liquid is ONLY reserved for the alterna logs when it could have easily been used to give an explanation of most of the main story.
Which leads to my BIGGEST gripe: DJ Ocatvio SHOULD HAVE BEEN A BIGGER PART IN THE STORY. The trilogy of Splatoon feels like a story about community: the first game shows us two opposing sides, neither good nor evil; The second game shows us how these two factions can co-exist together. So the third game should have been, in a way, the ultimate test of this coexistence; A final challenge that both Octarians and Inklings had to face together.
It is why I feel the beginning of ROTM is actually kinda brilliant. By giving us the fake sense of familiarity by calling upon Splatoon 1's story structure, making us think this will just be another "Inklings vs Octavio" story only to pull the wool 8or fuzz) from over our eyes. But then Octavio just disappears for the rest of the story until the very end. I feel it'd have been a much stronger narrative by having Octavio found and/or rescued earlier and the rest of the story'd involve an alliance with the Squid Sisters. This not only would have been great to show this narrative point of squids and octos coming together, but also would have given us a newfound interest in fighting these oozed up octarians, perhaps check on what Octavio feels about this and in doing so letting us learn of WHY Grizz needed them to begin with.
I do however feel that the real reason why ROTM decided to be so bare bones is the devs desire to create a single player game mode that is gameplay-focused and approchable to both current fans AND new players of Splatoon. Similarly how Splatoon 2's story mode is also very simple while Octo Expansion acts as the extra champter for the long-time fans. this is only proven more right to me by Side Order, which also goes for a focus on the stuff long-running fans desire. So ROTM's problem is one of clashing intentions: they wanted this to be the grand finale to a trilogy of stories, while also trying to keep it simple for the new players who just stepped in and wanted to play in a bunch of single player levels.
As much as it pains me, we sometimes forget that the story modes in Splatoon are always meant to be a sort of "introduction" to players to how to play, while the paid DLC tends to gravitate towards people who already have a grasp on the mechanics, and so are more challenging. Nintendo always has a philosophy of "any game can be someone's first" and the exploding popularity of Splatoon2 at its peak probably prompted them to still apply that with the notion that a non-splatoon fan may actually start with Splatoon 3 rather than the trilogy's beginnings.
I dont think unreasonable to believe that a character who did nothing but think for 12000 years would become super intelligent
It's just the fact there are so many other story elements that already existed that could have explained his intelligence better. We could have been told that the humans were scared about going extinct and began conducting strange experiments to implant human intelligence in animals. We could have been told that Mr. Grizz absorbed the liquid crystals and was guided by the passive desires of the Alternans.
Instead, we're told he was awake while he was sleeping. Beyond the fact that it logistically just... doesn't make sense, even if I were to suspend my disbelief about that particular detail, it feels like there were so many better ways they could have gone about it
@@TheCosmicCloud that is understandable, great video by the way I hadn't finished it before I commented lol
@@TheCosmicCloud I dunno, I think it made sense. Lucid dreaming is a thing, sleep paralysis is a thing, the line between dreaming and wakefulness are a lot blurrier than people think. 12,000 years trapped in your own head is bound to radically change a brain
@@Shinntoku But would it change it for the better? I struggle to see how a bear trapped in one room would be able to learn complex thought and *language* of all things. Obviously we aren’t meant to think about the specifics, but it just feels like a lame answer to what could have been a much more interesting and logically sound backstory
@@TheCosmicCloud I just think all the pieces add up without needing a more detailed explanation. Mr. Grizz was experimented on and then spent 12,000 years trapped in cryosleep while still being conscious and that's the exact scifi recipe I would expect to result in a hyper intellegent animal. Also I don't think it was necessarily a change for the better, Mr. Grizz was unable to accept the change in the world until the very end, and prior to that he was essentially just imitating the humans that raised him, performing experiments on himself and trying to return mammals to the globe
I feel the exact same way about Mr Grizz, after watching Sir Dame Sander's video on Grizz I feel like Mr Grizz might be my new favourite villain in the series. Although I too wish his backstory was altered a bit, I feel like the idea of Grizz as a character is tragic when you think about it.
Also, I just want to say you did a good job on the video, there were a lot of good points you made.
In terms of the in-game crestor of the tests and experiments of Splatoon 3's "Return of the Mammalians", you do get lore after beating the postgame content that explains that Mr.Grizz experimented with the ooze from octo expansion to make the fuzzy ooze, and used Alterna's resources to do so. He also captured and used Octarians and Octolings in his experiments (hense the fuzzy enemies and why DJ Octario is miffed, and assumes the Inklings were responsible at first.)
So it stands to reason that when Mr.Grizz captured the Octarians, he also took their tech, or had the fuzzified octarians build them, and incorporate updated programming and algorythms to O.R.C.A. to suit his plans. This easily explains the portals, and ink tech used in the levels.
@@TabbyWesa I showed the log you are speaking about in the video. It tells us about the Ark Polaris, Grizz’s discovery of Alterna, and his creation of the Fuzzy Ooze. It never mentions anything about the Sanitized Ink from Octo Expansion or that Mr. Grizz experimented on Octarians.
Considering the tests are run by ORCA and referred to as the “Alterna Citizen Program,” it seems unlikely that they were first created by Grizz
Did he forget about Judd the talking cat?
Honestly, I still don't care much for the Return of the Mammalians plot, especially the ending, whereas my friend really liked it because of its sheer spectacle. Like, from a video game perspective, getting sent into space and having a giant space battle is wild and cool and stuff, but it stopped feeling like Splatoon for me at that point. Honestly, I liked the Splat 1 and 2 stories where we went deep underground, and while the bosses were silly and exaggerated, they still felt feasible in the context of the world. Going into space, running across a missile while our tiny salmonid friend (who is still unexplained how we are friends with him) suddenly transforms into a giant fish (also mostly unexplained how he did that), who then kaiju fights a giant bear (how is anyone breathing in space) while we get onto a flying mech with a giant vacuum, fight off missiles on its back, then finally using that vacuum to explode pustules on the giant bear and that's how we somehow defeat him... I know it takes a decent amount of suspension of disbelief to think of how the Splatoon world works, but that final battle was a bit too ridiculous for me... And while I like the characters of the story, the story they were part of felt almost rushed, like they had ideas for things they wanted to happen but no idea how to tie them together, so instead of taking a bit longer to get them to make sense together, they just slapped them together because it's a silly squid game where no one is going to think too hard about the story because the characters are too cute to care about the middle parts.
You know, this honestly explains why I sorta haven't thought of the singleplayer too much in this, you really nailed it in this and honestly the story, and lack or rather misguided lore that's aimless. It sorta reflects how the actual gameplay has been, this pertaining to like, maps, weapons, etc.
Like idk I enjoy Splatoon 3 but they're just a lot of missed potential... and this just added to the list. Thank you though it was very nice to listen to this c:
Man i was hoping you would love it but cheer up since we getting a 4 we going to the past! So hopefully that will make you happy!
I listened to the soundtrack a while before playing, and the story the soundtrack implies is way cooler than what we got. All the ingredients are there for the coolest Splatoon story ever, yet the execution falls flat.
the reason the mamalian octarians are following mr grizz is because of the fuzzy ooze that turned them mammalian, it acts exactly like commander tartars goo. also the "essence" in cuttlefish's mind is the same thing theyre talking about in this log 12:04
@@KyrenShat I believe there was a single tweet posted by Nintendo that said the Fuzzy Ooze causes a person to “lose their sense of self,” which is similar to how Sanitization has been described. But unlike Octo Expansion, no character ever acknowledges their strange behavior in-game. Grizz doesn’t speak about the Octarians at all, and he has no facility for turning Octarians Fuzzy like Tartar did for Sanitization. If it is supposed to work the same way, I do not think the game makes that nearly as clear as it should.
It’s possible that “essence” is the bodily fluid with strange properties, but we don’t know that for sure, and again, why does Grizz need it?
i was prepared to be mad at this video, but you adressed everything adequatley and just. From mr grizzs body to the strange gameplay elements.
the one thing i am usually mad about were people getting mad that grizz is an actual bear (coughrassicascough), because it WAS so obvious, because it wasnt a red herring, because everything else would have been weird actualy, and because it just seems just weird and hypocritical for the quasi elitist lore enjoyers getting mad that nintendo didnt confirm their headcannon correctly
The main reason I would say it wasn't obvious is because we had been explicitly told several times that all mammals besides the Judds were extinct. In retrospect though, yes, they were definitely trying to hint that Grizz was a bear. If he had been given better lore to explain why he was a *sapient, talking bear,* I wouldn't have nearly as much of an issue with his visual design
@@TheCosmicCloud agreed,
edit: also, since we see the world from its inhabitants point of view, the judds being the only mammals THAT THEY KNOW OF is kind of the point why grizz existing isnt a contradiction
@@jowi_ It was explicit developer intent that there were no mammals aside from the Judds. Please don't try and play it off like anyone who disagrees is a spaz.
@@WretchedRedoran you know developers can...lie.. about future content, or come up with new ideas that, by all available information, doesnt break preestablished lore, or in the worst case, retcon, although i dont think this is the case here, since it was heaviliy implied previously
Also i never "called people a spaz" whatever that means, i simply referred to a meme that says "did you really get upset at the story or just that your headcannon didnt get accepted" or something along these lines, you know what i mean
criticism is one thing, but nearly getting a mental breakdown over it (coughrassicasseeinggrizzforthefirsttimecough) is maybe a sign that you take this all too seriously and shouldnt take the developers interviews as gospel only to then disregard their decisions once they made it into the game because it makes you upset specifically (and yes im gonna pull the "its just a silly squid game card" with this)
(the "you" in this was to a metaphorical third person, a strawman if you will, i didnt mean -you- specifically, just clarifying this since people misinterpreted my words in the past, if they want to disagree with what i say then atleast with the right thing, sorry if this is unneccessary, but just in case)
@@jowi_ My comment regarding the explicit developer intent of there being no mammals aside from the Judds wasn't really directed at Grizz, but using Grizz to justify saying things like "actually, there's nothing that says there can't be marine mammals!!1!" and going on to spread misinfo about, say, marine mammals in Splatoon (the narwhal stuff from Pearl in Splat2 was a fabrication by the NOA localisation team). I'm fine with Grizz being a bear, I'm just really upset with how he was handled. What my real problem that I failed to convey was how I fear people will inevitably use Grizz to spread ideas about the state of mammals in Splatoon as fact when there's no evidence directly from the devs to support their statements like there was with the foreshadowing of Grizz being a bear in Splat2, and that those of us who object to that will be disregarded as fools.
I feared that you were one such individual who would disregard me as a fool, simply because I care.
The dialogue from Frye being given to Glen Fiddler at 21:16 made me laugh uncontrollably.
Hi, I'm the guy with the funny name "M. Grizz son" who was in Cosmic recents live and as you can imagine, Grizz is my favorite Splatoon antagonist as well as one of my obsessions and I too would like to give my opinion on it since I'm also a lore obsessed guy. So I'm going to try to be concise because when I develop too much I tend to get distracted. We'll start with something simple. Octo expansion have to the best story of Splatoon and I doubt that will ever change. The developers clearly went deep into the story for this DLC after all it's a DLC that made us play our "sworn enemies" And I'm also going to be honest but I consider that the main story of Splatoon is It's over with Octo expansion. I really had a hard time seeing what could be added. What ELSE could we tell with this story so obviously my personal expectation for the story mode of Splatoon 3 was that the story uses elements that relate more to the world before. After all, it's our world but after a 5th world war. I was also one of those who found it "too easy" that Inklings and Octolings were like that because "natural evolution"
And following the announcement of the story mode which confirms to us that history will teach us about their origins. Translation:Scroll which will teach us more about their origins and I was excited because it also meant different things. Obviously I was expecting returning characters and I have absolutely no problem with that since that's not what I expected from the story mode. Let's talk about Alterna's logs and what I think of them. I'm not going to lie...It was really depressing and several times I felt sad and generally unwell. And that was what I wanted.
I got the explanation I needed. Then there's Mr. Grizz. I much prefer Mr. Grizz to Tartar. And yes I know that they have similarities but there are huge nuances and these are nuances that are often ignored and that annoys me because it means that Mr. Grizz is very often mischaracterized. Tartar wanted to DESTROY EVERYTHING to rebuild everything with HIS vision of the world and the perfect species. Heck Tartar despises the Inklings because their way of having fun disgusts him even though they managed to transform something horrible (the "war") into something fun and harmless (turf war). Tartar couldn't stand that the Inklings were so different from humans and ended up getting it in his head that he had to recreate it better. Tartar is by far the character I hate the most in Splatoon (And it's not even to be mean, on the contrary hated an antagonist is almost normal for me it just means that the devs did a good job. And if people like him it's good too because they have their writing etc. Just I hope you don't validate his actions) Then there's Grizz. First of all, I absolutely loved the fact that Grizz was a bear for 2 reasons
1:It added a lot of realism to the end of humanity because let's be real,if we where about to disappeared we would have saved animal species to recreate our ecosystem also it makes things more believeable because I can accept everything in the present with the Inklings but for the backstory which is that this is OUR world,I'm more I'm a little more picky. Then the fact that just our fashion style and music is what was there would have been really ridiculous. Having Grizz be a Bear who is also a Bear from one of humanity last hope mission made the world much more credible and coherent
2:I was one of 4 people who doubted that Grizz was a bear since the begining
Likewise I love Grizz's appearance. His grotesque appearance is once again consistent. I think we can all agree that being alive for 12,000 years is going to have some weird side effects (even more so for an animal) and an important detail is the fact that he didn't just create the Fuzzy ooze. HE IS Fuzzy ooze. And his appearance still has to do with that. We have seen that the Fuzzy ooze has particular effects on Octarians and Octoling/Inkling so knowing that and that Grizz created the Fuzzy ooze with his OWN FUR and that he is literally covered of it,so his appearance is once again logical. Even,honestly,more coherent than that of Tartar at the end of Octo Expansion (Which is just him but with weird ink on his head)
And obviously his plan. On paper it seems identical to Tartar's plan but in reality they are totally different. Grizz wants to recreate the world he knew but doesn't want to destroy anything on the contrary he doesn't even hate Inklings and Octolings. They even seem to respect them a lot and even appreciate them as we can see from his dialogue in Grizz co in Splatoon 3 (Yes I know that these are pre-recorded voices but precisely. Who recorded them? Mr. Grizz) Fuzzy ooze actually only transforms cephalopods into mammals. And even its creation is less fucked up than Tartar's Sanitize ink thingy. And when you think about it, each antagonist of Splatoon has a connection with the past
Octavio wants revenge for his defeat against the Inklings far too long ago and then against squidbick Splatoon in Splat 2
Tartar is so disgusted by the current world that he wants to recreate the past world but more "perfect"
And finally Mr. Grizz, the last of his species who finds himself in a land completely different from what he had known. Then after more than 12,000 dreams and this deterioration he ended up having a better intelligence and wanting to recreate a world similar to another time. A world where these like were present. But he never showed any real hatred for the world, all Grizz wanted was just to feel like he belonged. And even contrary to Tartar, he finally realized and accepted that it was impossible and that the current world will have a much better future. I do not validate Grizz's actions clearly his plan was NOT a good idea and he is not really a good person but like Octavio he realized his mistake and accepted the future
Obviously, as much as I like the story of Splatoon 3 and prefer it to Splatoon 2, I'm not going to pretend that it surpassed it. As I said at the very beginning Octo expansion has a better story and the story of Splat 3 has several gray areas but I am sure that we will end up having all the answers we need one day and that knows. Maybe this explanation will make me love Mr. Grizz even more
I hope I managed to be clear and I apologize for any possible mistakes I use google translate
Context: Splatoon 3 IS my first game, but I’ve been following the lore of Splatoon since… 2021? I don’t remember when I discovered rassicas but I know it was between 2021 and 2022. So my experience as a newcomer to the series is what colours my opinion. That said, I also want to say that this video is very good, and I highly enjoyed it - even found myself agreeing to the many points made in the video. Essay up ahead so prepare yourselves:
I love Return of the Mammalians. Do I think it’s the best story in the world? No. Yet, despite its flaws, and despite me WANTING to hate it (yes), I don’t. I love it to bits. So I was dreading to watch this video.
I’m a person who cried WATCHING someone else play Octo Expansion - to me, that is Peak Splatoon Storytelling. Octo Expansion is a masterpiece and I’m very sad I didn’t get to experience it for myself (I didn’t get my Switch until 2020 and even then that was for Zelda - didn’t discover what Splatoon was until a few months later when I stumbled across rassicas’ channel). Splatoon’s lore got me into the series, after all. Yet for some reason, RotM didn’t make me disappointed.
As an example, I’m going to beat a dead bear over and over again. I’m one of the people who believed Mr. Grizz couldn’t be a bear. I watched every video that attempted to prove this, and I believed in it. The devs made Octo Expansion, so making such an obvious point doesn’t feel like them. As an outsider looking in, it was a plausible theory. Better than some of the tin foil hat stuff other fandoms were doing for their fan theories. So when I played Return of the Mammalians for the first time and found Mr. Grizz was a bear, I expected to be mad. Very mad. To use an out of pocket example, I’m probably the only kid who got so mad at the Geronimo Stilton books for lacking continuity and attention to detail, flinging references to past stories and books without a care in the world to the point I vowed I will become a writer just to write a response to this series (and yes the rage of 10-year-old me is still here because I’m studying English Literature and Creative Writing in university right now 😂).
But I wasn’t.
I wasn’t mad over the obvious bear that was executed poorly in retrospect. I wasn’t mad at the fact that there’s a bloated cast who was only explored on a surface level. I wasn’t mad at the fact that fuzzy ooze made no sense to me. Despite its flaws I was able to enjoy RotM just fine. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to negativity clouding my own vision coming from the Star Wars and Legend of Zelda fan bases (Zelda is fine, I engage in it to this day. Star Wars on the other hand….) that I didn’t want to see the bad stuff anymore as it was affecting how I enjoyed things. But I don’t know - using the Geronimo Stilton example above I know I can get mad the second something feels sub par to me and maybe Splatoon, now my favourite series of all time, is a fluke.
I actually agree with many points made in this video. The bloated cast meant no one was able to shine properly, the inconsistencies of fuzzy ooze (if it’s supposed to kill you, why do the fuzzy Octarians exist?), the fact that the plot feels quite aimless. I didn’t understand what made Hugefry… Hugefry and the fantasy elements were definitely lost on me (I signed up for a science fiction story so the “magic tear” or “sea creature energy” baffles me). Going back, RotM feels very unfinished and rushed - had they made their scope smaller or had more time, they can make another Octo Expansion, even better.
Despite all the flaws, I can’t hate Return of the Mammalians, try as I might. I think it could be better, but I can’t help but love it. I thought Alterna’s lore was done beautifully, I thought the Deep Cut boss fights were fun - I especially liked their characterisation of being Robin Hood like figures running a secret charity in the background (I just want MORE from them), and I loved how silly and over the top the final boss fight is. Perhaps it could be because Splatoon 3 is my first Splatoon game and I’m seeing everything through rose tinted glasses. Same kinda goes for Side Order - the first teaser trailer made me expect more but I didn’t get that, but I can’t hate Side Order. Then again, Side Order is a more polished product than RotM anyways so I guess that’s warranted.
Long story short, RotM’s issues doesn’t stop me from loving it.
That being said, I am doing a small side project which is essentially a fan adaptation/rewrite with RotM partly as a challenge in adaptation from game to comic script and as a way to make RotM’s situation work despite its bloated cast and disconnected plot points, and unlike Geronimo Stilton, I’m doing this out of love. It’s a bit self indulgent since I’m essentially replacing Neo 3 with two Neo 3s - an Inkling and an Octoling that are also my OCs so… yeah. So far I’ve made Octavio more sympathetic, especially to the Octoling Neo 3, made Smallfry an actual character rather than a “pet” (Smallfry speaks with the characters, despite it being limited to salmonid chirps and warbles - the Inkling translates since they see Smallfry as a little sibling), made the Squid Sisters mentor characters and have my Neos have a history with Deep Cut - aka Deep Cut helped their families in the past during times of financial and domestic hardship. It’s not perfect - I have no idea what to do with Captain 3 or ORCA or Grizz when I finally reach him, but hopefully it will help reduce the little gripes I have with RotM, even if I love it to death.
The TL;DR is: This video is a 100/10 - I found myself agreeing to almost every point, even if I love RotM despite all its flaws. I think RotM can be more polished, given more time and love, but to me it’s what we got, and I can accept that.
The single player campaigns of Splatoon are arguably my favourite things Nintendo has ever put out, just as a disclaimer. But it is frustrating how much they feel like they're dragging their feet, and I feel like a lot of that is related to how they compete for development resources with the rest of the game.
Mammalians feels like a greatest hits compilation of Octo Expansion in the same way that I resented Canyon for its relation to Valley. It's better bc the source material is better, but it likewise doesn't compare to its inspiration.
Having gone back to Octo Expansion since Side Order it's become apparent to me that the former is the actual culmination of the series thus far, taking everything they learned from the previous campaigns and polishing it until it shone as brightly as possible, and there was nothing left for Mammalians to do within the same framework.
I'm iffy as to how I feel about Side Order but fwiw I do think it has bucked this trend. It's not the sequel to Octo Expansion that I wanted, but that's not due to lack of identity. And honestly it's probably good that they haven't committed to always saving the "real" campaign for the DLC (imo this only happened in 2 due to the pressure of having the game out for the Switch's launch year). So I'm more hopeful for whatever 4's campaign ends up being.
But yeah, like, the emotional cathartis I was looking for in 3's campaigns ended up just being in Grand Fest, which I was super surprised by! It's like Octo Expansion had reached the maximum threshold of lore that they wanted to explore in this trilogy, but the culture had so much more to grow and that's what 3 ended up being all about.
having dj octavio working with the player to find cuttlefish could have been SUCH a great narrative to heal upon their strained relationship (and also between captain, the squid sisters, and dj octavio, as they were also enemies at some point too). it could have added SO MUCH into working with what octo expansion left us while also fighting mr grizz.
@BlockyProductions116 also mentioned having deep cut fighting for mr grizz which also could add depth to their characters making their apology arc so much more satisfying!
it just makes me wonder if there was something else they were originally planning for the story, and what happened during development that butchered it completely ToT
He coulda used his own tech to track craig to the rocket but have his mech caught in the sea of fuzzy ooze that blocks us from getting to the rocket in the first place. This requires Octavio and Neo squidbeack splatoon to track down the treasures to be turned into a tool to eradicate the ooze. Which actually does give deep cut just a bit more of a reason to fight us.
My issue is that. Where the hell did octavio go after entering alterna.
For a while I thought he was dead until the end of the story mode
@codysataandagi
I get it Nintendo, thinking to hard.
But like we never get a answer for that.
He just vanishes then shows up at the final boss friendly.
I think it's disappointing how dirty they did Deep Cut in their own game- like don't get me wrong, I love them, they're actually my fav idols, but they didn’t get any good development in the story.
This is coming after the final fest, and of course team future had no chance- the squid sisters have been rubbed in our faces all three games (and are iconic anyway) even if they weren't necessary in the third (and we had the end of sploon 1 this year), and Off The Hook was already very much loved (rightfully) and had side order.... all the while Deep Cut was just... there. Doing things I guess ???
I wish they had had a deeper development, some more complicated motives.
Oh well, rip team future, we fought hard o7
The Return of the Mammalians bad ending though sends chills down my spine though, just the music and the imagery, and that laugh..
Honestly, I agree with a lot of what you say here. Mr Grizz being a bear, the lore being a bit too aimless and less pointed (probably because of new folks who don’t know the story of the previous two games), and overall… it kinda feels like it lost the touch of humanity, and held more focus around animals, which I think contrasts a lot from the other games, if that makes sense. While I do think that Mr. Grizz being a bear was too predictable, I did kind of like that he was a bear, cause I feel that opens more questions pertaining to the sentience of other animal species. Like, if he was the last bear and he became sentient, are there other sentient species out there? Birds with cities in the sky, super mutant sea pangolins in lava vents, etc? If they had made it less predictable, like using a salmon statue instead of a bear, I think it would’ve been better. Maybe I’m a bit too soft, but I feel like this game, in isolation and not compared to the other games, has a lot to it that makes it interesting, and especially offers a lot of ideas for sentience in this world. I just wish it wasn’t so open ended and aimless with lore, because I feel that would’ve made it better both for new players, and veteran players. Overall, I think it’s enjoyable, but I think it has so much missed potential that could’ve been touched on if they didn’t knock so much to the drafts.
With regards to the problem of Mr Grizz being able to talk despite not being a cephalopod, aren't there other species (albeit still sea creatures) that can talk in-game? Spyke/Sheldon/Marigold/Coco/etc all behave pretty similarly to the cephalopods, despite being very different species.
I would have liked if Mr Grizz did less sciency stuff though - maybe if the rocket was still in perfect working order for example, or he discovered the information about the fuzzy ooze in some old human logs.
Admittedly it's a bit contrived, but the Alterna logs suggest that the liquid crystals were absorbed by a number of sea creatures, not just the cephalopods, and that the human impulses within the crystals guided the evolution of those creatures by driving them toward the surface. All of the humanoid sea creatures we see in the game look and act the way they do due to thousands of years of evolution. Grizz is a bear from 12,000 years ago and is never said to have absorbed the crystals
Everyone forgot the at the start the great zapfish disappeares,like come on thats a greater loophole
Awsome video, you earned a sub 🔥🔥
Seems like this is a controversial take to have here, but while I agree the non Alternan lore and characters are a bit shallower than I’d like, I think the story mode nailed concluding the theme of Splatoon.
Grizz as a vestige of the past, a member of the supposedly superior mammalian species repeating humans own mistakes of elongating its life artificially rather than dealing with their real problems, much as Mr Grizz never reaches out to the inklings or even his fellow mammals still alive and chooses instead to embrace his loneliness and only recreate his own species as it was despite the very attempt to do so has caused him to abandon his natural self. He is essentially a living corporation, knowing only how to create for the sake of profit and doing so even at the cost of his own self destruction and everyone around him’s demise, thinking he’s doing a great good just like those scientists. This hedonistic desire to assimilate all to his artificial loneliness being destroyed by the new species of earth not willing to repeat the mistakes of the past but instead band together across species to fight for a better world, ultimately represented by Lil Buddy showing the future possibility of unity by absorbing the diverse strengths of different sea species and turning that strength into an ancient kaiju form. In the end the power of culture and mutual interest bests the selfish greed of artificial corporate hierarchy, the squids will not let humanity’s flaws repeat.
Sure I think this would be stronger if it were communicated explicitly in the story or lore, but I’ll take the style over substance sometimes if it can create that beautiful and meaningful of a conclusion even without fleshing out its characters and story as much as its themes and backstory lore
FINALLY someone who can put into words what I’ve felt this entire time
I like how the thumbnail has Mr grizz covered in yellow ink which looks like honey 🍯
I love the lore of Splatoon 3, but I will never forgive them for NOT explaining enough about the fuzzy ink. Like, WHY are the octarians fuzzy? HOW did they ended up like this? WHY do they work for Grizz? Why do they look like that, meanwhile the player becomes a fuzzy ball that can't move when they get into contact with the fuzzy ink?
Octarians are one of my favorite parts about the lore. They obey DJ Octavio in Splatoon 1 because he's their leader and you, Agent 3, is trying to steal the Great Zapfish from them. In Splatoon 2 is almost the same. In Octo Expansion they are sanitized octolings that obey the commands of Tartar, and we are explained WHAT sanitization is, HOW does affect someone, WHY would someone end like that, and WHY do the sanitized octarians want to attack us. We even have Dedf1sh lore explained by the devs, wich adds even more depth as to WHY someone would CONSENT to be sanitized and being part of Kanabo Corporation.
But all of that is NOT explained with the fuzzy ink and Mr Grizz, and that just dissapoints me SO much that you can't imagine.
To be honest, as someone who started off the Splatoon series with Splatoon 3, I absolutely loved the story mode. I think the attention to detail in the music is amazing, the climb up the rocket was extremely tense and each site was fun to discover.
I’ll have to disagree on your point that finding Cuttlefish was a waste of time because the squid sisters were picking up mixed radio signals and it was logical to check the places where the signals were the most intense, not to mention each boss fight had a piece of treasure that actually helped build something to save Cuttlefish, so it wasn’t all for nothing.
However, I do wish Deep Cut got more screen time overall as they are all such interesting characters with amazing designs yet it seems all we get is some information about them in the Alterna scrolls ):
I feel this storyline and the game is quite fun as a stand alone but as someone who started with the og wii u game it loses the charm of the idea of it being OUR world and also after octo expansion it rly fails in comparison as a “saga ender”
Definitely some very valid points. Though interesting to hear, as someone who did like ROTM a lot. It's not my favourite, with octo expansion definitely still being the best one out there. I did think it was incredibly interesting to read the alterna logs, especially the first half. Seeing that the game was truly gonna get into this human past was incredibly interesting to me. Also I am one of the people who did just have fun exploring the sites. My reaction to Mr Grizz was similar to yours, in the sense that I didn't expect him to be an actual bear. But besides that I agree it has some lore oddities, I really liked the moment of surprise that they did just straight up go with that.
Another interesting point was DJ Octavio not getting much character building. Which is would've been nice any day, any story, but I think the game kinda wants you to forget about him. Then when all seems lost after the first boss phase, you suddenly hear his music beat come in. The significance of him of all people showing up feels more impactful like this. The fact that you don't even have much time to actually think about him, and just have to go with it, makes it an extra exciting moment for me. You suddenly fight alongside that character that was the big enemy all that time when he was relevant. The only thing you realise about him is, you share a goal. More than that shouldn't be relevant in the moment. Now I realise this favours gameplay more than lore, and I am definitely critical on some of the lore I care about as well (like points you make in your video). But I just don't think it that the things it does do wrong, bring it down to being worse than other story modes that aren't octo expansion.
Another banger video though, and I do really understand your POV too
Nail on the head on what my personal feelings were like on it, esp the part where I think on paper the idea of Grizz (even though I was one of those space bears denyers) is actually really cool but man they really dud not push enough for it like you said
Happy 2 years to the funniest fucking day I got to experience this for the first time