I agree, we saw with the octo expansion how dark splat lore could get and this is, i think, more friendly.

I was expecting an emotional story, instead we’re just fighting a toddler over and over again

oh my god YES the reveal trailer felt so much more creepy and id say biological, while the new side order feels like they had to keep the grey and colourless aspect of it bc they had already shown it off before. one way i think of it is that the old side order felt more like it used the colour red while the new side order uses the colour blue more

Literally they twitted: "What happens inside an octos head?" This wasnt suposse to be a digital world 😭

Something else worth mentioning is that the whole reason why this was created was because side order lost during the final splatfest, as said in a tweet. Therefore, if order was to win, we would have had a completely different story, possibly with marnia and pearl switching places, as well as having the main antagonist seeking for a world of chaos and mayhem

A more introspective story about 8s character wouldve been so good, theyre such a cool character and exploring how fucked up their mind couldve been really cool

When Acht appeared i was almost sure it would be about the octolings and the dark part of oe.

I was hoping side order was going to be some kind of psychological trauma or internal struggle from agent 8 and marina but I’m still happy with what we got

I am happy on what we got for the side order dlc but man imagine if Nintendo sticks to the original plan for the dlc...

Finally someone makes a video about this. Everything in the Side Order story feels like something was cut ,especially that Acht is just there without a real purpose. :c

Side Order's September teaser trailer had Agent 8 scrolling through the elevator floor selection screen and at 1:18 she selects a Run Speed Up upgrade that reads: Increases movement speed in Inkling or Octoling form. Inkling OR octoling form. At this point in development the developers intended for us to be able to play as an inkling in Side Order. I think this is where the Agent 4 theorizing began as Agent 8 cannot be an inkling, Captain 3 and Neo 3 are also probably still busy in Splatsville, So that only leaves Agent 4 as she still lives in Inkopolis where Side Order is taking place. Unfortunately she fell into the much smaller role as an occasional boss fight.

I love the visuals of the Side Order we got, but the story did not stick with me. Seeing the teaser really excited me for how dark it was going to be, but the lore that came out was really underwhelming. They didn’t add clones either, but oh well, it’s a kids game so they cant rlly make the dlc look too dark and creepy. Side Order is still amazing but I love the story of Octo Expansion way better. Honestly if they stuck to what was in the trailer it would probably be my favorite out of all the Splatoon story modes.

I think it was always meant to be a fake world but they still hadn't finalized the look of the square, hence why there were no digital effects and while it's possible that they had a different idea for the story at first, we also have to consider that some of the early concept art was just the devs tossing around ideas to see what sticks and then to develope it further which is usually the case with most videogames, movies, etc. I do agree that they could've explored Marina and Acht's past more and delved more into Octarian society. We spend so much time in the elevator, it would've been nice if they added more convos for these. Also, they wasted some serious character/story potential with Agent 4 and the Paralell Canon thing. They deserved better than what they got.

Agent 4 would have had great potential as a possessed boss, too sad they're just a robot copy

I hope that they are saving all of this for the next game like when data for playable octolings was found in splatoon 1 but we didn't see any of that until splatoon 2

I understand that the focus wasn’t as much in your face with octoling history, but they actually have that as the focus. In the Dev diaries Marina states that the purpose of the Memverse was created to merge memories for octolings so they could restore their memory. Smollisks dialogue also explains more about octoling mindsets. Marina and Achts dialogue also discuss the past. I feel like it’s supposed to feel more natural.

6:51 it started to sound a lot like octo expansion around here and I think that might have been why they changed it as they didn’t want 2 similar dlc’s

A coop adventure of 4 and 8 would have been huge tbh...

Having _thoroughly_ enjoyed Side Order, I do agree they could've (and perhaps "Should've") gone darker. The concept art in the teasers definitely left a lot to the imagination, And I like to think that they _wanted_ to go darker, given little details with the bosses we got. Like... Say... The Asynchronous Rondo. But, even in saying this, I am quite happy with Side Order personally. Would I have been _happier_ with a darker story? Oh, absolutely. Octo Expansion is and remains my favorite Splatoon story and has given me lots to have fun with as a closeted creative. But to give credit where credit is due, I was very happy with many of the elevator conversations, the diary entrees, the virtual world and the motivation for it's creation, and especially the character and lore they gave for Acht, formally just a name and a face for the bangin' tracks of OE. Though I do offer a sober salute to Agent 4 at the end of the day. Even the gameplay, for someone who's not always that fond of Roguelites or the like, I found clearing the spire to be a ton of fun with every palette! The music scratched all the right itches, many of the variations of levels offered a fair challenge, and it was always a good laugh to take any given weapon, and break it to a level of Grizzco weapons in terms of ridiculous power. Thinking back on it now, I don't think I would've had as much to say on the gameplay if it was too much like their previous games or iterations. *_TL;DR:_* While I do think I would've preferred a darker, character driven story, I am content, happy even with what we got to the point I can't offer a proper alternative.

I think the guys at Nintendo that were making side order was cooking up some super cool dark story/puzzle mode but then they got told “Mf chill out this game is directed towards kids under 12” and had to scrap it I wish they would make some like 13+ dlc that’s really dark and challenging for the people who want it

I’m gonna be honest, a lot of your comments here act as if the artworks shown in the original trailer were anything more than concept art. The concept art doesn’t necessarily have to reflect what the final product is gonna look like, it’s more to get ideas on paper visually, and get a feel for the tone and feel of everything. The differences between the concept art and what we got are TOTALLY normal. In fact you can observe these exact things in Octo Expansion concept art. Sure it’d be nice to get the original, more dark ideas in the concept art, but remember, they’re there to express IDEAS and FEELINGS, even if they aren’t going to translate 1:1 in the final.

honestly, i feel like it would of been a bit cool if cloning happened in side order. it would make the lore a bit darker. also im wondering if agent 4 WAS actually gonna show up, but got scrapped and just got sent to be a palette with tiny mentions here and there(forgot their also just a small boss now. dang, wish they were a secret boss tho)

The world of Splatoon lost its color.... it looks kinda like the Noods Era from Cartoon Network

A darker splatoon dlc would’ve been so cool to play

I like side order but I really wish it touched on darker and more emotional greater meanings

i fought we will get more colorful ink with each progresion trou levels, like levels in octo expansion but pilot and screen whould be elevator buttons with screan, and that the tower whould be a gigantic place, rebuild by marina so that she could protect everything that is dearest to her, it's kinda said in this dialog "Off the Hook means everything to me! It's all I have in this world...” and that she whould make robots like these fishes as defence for what is dearest to her

old side order was gonna be badass i'm so sad they changed it so much

First we lost The Tribe story mode and now this, MAN endless troves of wasted potential, although at least this new story feels like it fits better for this new gameplay style which is probably why they got rid of this. I prefer what we got a little bit more than octo expansion 3.

I personally think that Acht would have been the villain of the original story. Being the only one in eight’s vicinity could have made for some pretty dark manipulation, making eight not realise what’s really going on. Maybe eight would have even fighting Marina’s attempts to keep Acht from reaching the world of order. Just a thought though

i gotta say as much as i enjoyed side order it left a lot to be desired especially when it comes to story and bosses

One thing that leads me to believe it was going to be about agents 8s mental struggle is that the way to go back to splatsville- you select “imagine splatsville” nothing in the gameplay (as far as I’ve seen) suggests that if you just think of the real world you’re removed from the VR world. Idk how that would make sense esp when we know it’s accessed via sea cucumbers so surely it would just be an option?? But like if it’s a dark place in ur mind then yeah (in theory ofc internal struggles r much more complicated) if u think of somewhere else, you’re out of it. I think they tried to encoporate that into the VR world with only memories being real but yeah. Mental health is quite taboo in Japan so this might have been a reason they weren’t able to do this version of the story

Haven't seen anyone else talk about this, and yes I feel the exact same way. I went in completely spoiler free only having seen the concept art and was so confused once I started playing! I personally love roguelikes/roguelites (fav definitely hades and noita) but I definitely wanted the darker concept more. I get why it didn't happen, as splatoon is a game primarily for children and the concept art would have deviated towards being for adolescents and adults, but what I wanted most is closure. I think it's unlikely we'll get a splatoon 4, and even if they add it it will almost certainly be drastically different from the first 3 games... as this is a series ive delved over a thousand hours into, it honestly sucks to know that the only closure among the story we'll possibly get is an excerpt in splatoon 4's lore. That's just me though, I still really enjoyed side order (have beaten it with every palette + done a bunch of challenge runs and perfect palettes) and think it was well worth the money!

I personally think that maybe the previous concept would be too sensitive for certain players probably. Mainly because of the whole mentality aspect. (Okay I’m probably thinking too hard on this, do spare me the hate) I know it’s just a game, but the previous idea was probably gonna be kinda similar to certain mental struggles in real life. Again I I’m probably taking this out of context but it’s what this made me think.

i hate how the other agents like agent 8 and captain/agent 3 got major roles in different splatoon dlcs/splatoon games while agent 4 was forgotten and only appeared in splatoon 2 and got a very minor role in side order, justice for agent 4 especially since squidbeak is not going to be in another splatoon game ☹

I feel like one the larger shifts between the very first trailer and the later trailers was, simply, Eight being alone. In the first trailer Eight was implied to have been completely alone in this strange new world, but later on they showed Acht explaning how colour chips work and Pearl being there too. Just the simple fact of Eight not being alone and not having to figure everything out by themselves really took away from the darker tones in my opinion. Even if we got the exact same story but took out everyone else until the very end, it'd be much scarier because we, very simply, would only have ourselves. Similarly, if you had a super dark plot but made it so Eight had Pearl, Marina, and Acht, it wouldn't be nearly as scary. Having Pearl, Acht, and eventually Marina as that mentor character made it much less scary.

I think they are saving The past for Splatoon 4

Looks like everyone’s disappointed it ended up being less dark than originally shown. Look, I definitely love a dark story as much as anyone, but… Nintendo’s called the king of family friendly gaming for a reason, and because they’re such a big company, they can’t deviate from that trend as easily as, say, indie devs. They earned themselves that title and they have to stay with it, even if their fans are growing up. Would have been cool to have a dark story for Side Order, but I can understand why it didn’t happen.

I don't mind the Rouge-Like aspect of the game but it could have been incorporated in a way that works really well in terms of narrative. Look at "Hades". I would argue that it's better narrative game than Rouge-Like. There could be some random events that happen on some floors that could slowly reveal the dark past of Agent 8, Marina and Acht. It would give a better reason to play it through.

This! Personally, I'm disappointed with side order (I don't think it's bad, just mid) and I feel like very little stuff in that initial trailer got into the final game. That trailer implied it would be a lot more story and lore focused than what we actually ended up getting. And this has nothing to do with it being a rogelite, you can still have lots of lore and story and character interactions in a rougelite (see Hades and Transistor) but that just wasn't here for the DLC imo (and yes I've 100%ed it and seen everything).

a similar thing happened with tears of the kingdom trailer. i guess very dark plots are no longer a nintendo thing nowadays

I completely agree! I remember seeing lots of trailer analysis videos after the first trailer, abt how it was supposed to be 8’s inner struggle, and I remember after seeing the second trailer, noticing how much it changed. While I do think like side order is really cool as it is, I do think the original idea, of Agent 8’s inner struggle/trauma would have been very interesting also.

Side order trailer was actually a lot eery and offputting and I'm actually kind of disappointed how it turned out also I wonder how would splatoon 3 be if order won the last splatfest in splatoon 2. Maybe we would have had a not completely broken and isolated alterna with a different story (for exemple that the new scientist didn't destroy alterna with their reckleness maybe we could have had a still functioning society in alterna who knows?)

That's fucking absurd that Nintendo scrapped the idea like this for Side Order! Other than that, Side Order is still a awesome DLC for Splatoon 3. God, I hope Splatoon goes a different and darker direction for Splatoon 4 in the future.

Hopefully the scrapped elements of side order makes it in to splatoon 4

i had forgotten ab the very first trailer, and how hyped i was... the story definitely felt too simple and basic in comparison, the darker mood of the octo expansion was great so idk why they'd drop it this time

2:19 this was the exact image i hoped to see in the final release.

Oh yeah also I like the molded plastic aesthetic as opposed to an organic fossil one. I think it fits the order theme much better, and is probably the result of them revising their concepts and developing their assets later on in response to the splatfest themes, since development for most projects usually starts many years before launch, not quick enough to properly build things from the start in accordance with the final fest.

When I here the name side order it usually means appetizer, so somehow there is going to be another single player mode for Splatoon 3.

To me, it just looks like a bunch of concept art

The vr plot couldve still worked. Marina still couldve made the program to help sanitized octolings, but, it kinda fell flat. We couldve had more about memories, way more. But the best we got was the dev diarys. The thing i miss the most was th3 atmosphere, like walking through an abandoned mall at the crack at dawn, the sun bleaching the interior, blinding you. It feels too comfortable.

5:43 the thing in Pearl's hand is a compact or makeup mirror. Looks like she's checking her lipstick.

They completely evaded my expectations. The concept art and early trailer feels like a completely different game, I was expecting a fuller story. The story we got was lackluster and not what I was hoping for. The hype around the early trailer was so much more exciting than what we got.

I thought side order was going to have a scary boss, but I was so wrong. Salmon run has scarier bosses than side order...

In a lot of aspects I was happy and disappointed with side order. The story was mainly lacking. Keep in mind that this is our send off to all the splatoon characters we know. I wonder what the future holds for Splatoon. What will it be like in Splatoon 4 will they take their original ideas for side order and implement them in their campaign with the main character stuck in their own mind desperately fighting to save their memories after being one of the hundreds of victims of Tartar. Will we ever meet the aforementioned professor who was responsible for the majority of events in splatoon. Will we get another dlc maybe like a Metroidvania style game. Call it “Black Ink” or “Tidal zone” a story of a inkling trying to escape a abandoned city

While, I do agree with a lot of things you mentioned, at around 6:00 you discussed the picture of Marina and how it was a picture from her past. That's not entirely true, you can see that it's the outfit she's wearing in-game due to the headphones, darker blue hair / finger tips, black fingerless gloves, and the orange coat paired with the black top.

I bet you Nintendo said no since it may have went through racial injustice

I originally thought that it was just an emotional dlc more than gameplay.

I feel like side order (SO) could have potentially been better than octo expansion (OE), if they went with what the first trailer seemed like. It might not have been as child-friendly, but kids are more grown-up nowadays and I wish that they'd make the story a little more deep. When I fought the final boss for the first time (I won't spoil), it didn't feel as risky as OE and it didn't feel like the world counted on Eight. It just felt like a game, like the story takes place in. If they stressed people being stuck in the Memverse even a little bit more, it would have made the final boss feel more important. Also I know I'm not the only one who's a little angry/disappointed about both Agent 4 and Acht's roles. Why didn't they make Agent 4 like Agent 3 (Captain) and have them under mind control or something?? I feel like Nintendo missed an opportunity there. Although I can't think of a good role for Acht, I feel like they don't have a big enough role. Acht is kinda just there, not playing a major role or anything. A little off topic, but since Acht doesn't have a palette, does that mean she doesn't have a soul? Since palettes are part of people's soul. Anyways, even though I have some complaints, the gameplay is fun overall and I like playing it. It was pretty challenging, but I feel like it starts a little slow. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I kinda miss girl power station from OE. It was challenging, fun, make me quit for a few weeks, and I like how chaotic and fast-paced it was. There are a few floors in SO that are a little like it, but it prepares you for those floors. OE would never. It throws you straight into the battlefield with no preparation (if you progressed like I did), no upgrades, and only base versions of weapons. This is one of the reasons why I love OE so much, because it pushes you to win at a disadvantage, even more than SO does.

You can see the old splattershot concept (or one very similar) still in use on the main image for “power” color chips (look at 8’s palette) seems this concept was scrapped very late in development.

3:20 thats maries boot im telling you

So much missed Potentials. And no boys shown at all. Smh

I thought it would be about saving Inkopolis Square from coral bleaching. I also thought the boss fights would have Frye’s eels, Shiver’s shark, Big Man, and an actual fight with agent 4. Not a fight that has a bunch of random inklings with agent 4

This is what I commented on a video like what was all that art in the first trailer about

dude i was gen so disappointed. i wanted it to be more dark and gritty and filled with theming and imagery (akin to like salmon run stuff if you want an amount) but... we just got like beat up a baby 12 times

I am very disappointed with how side order turned out. Marinas boss fight is practically identical to the final boss and they basically revealed who the final boss is at the beginning unlike the twist we had in OE where commander tartar was behind it all. There was no secret boss fight or even a secret level at the end of it like how we got inner agent 3 at the end of the octo expansion. It was also a bit repetitive to fight the same 3 bosses over and over again, and I’m disappointed with what they did on the intensifying harmony floor. I wish they would have done more with agent four instead of just making a clone copy, porting our hairstyle from splatoon 2. All the other agents get cool cutscenes (even neo 3) and agent four doesn’t even have one. It would have been so cool to have more lore about agent 8 too. I don’t know, to me the story kind of felt dry, I was expecting more and it just never happened. Octo expansion was much better in my opinion.

i do like the whole thing with grayscaling and the digital world more than it being an alternate timeline where order won - another timeline would probably have lower stakes cause that’s not what happened, just a hypothetical. plus confusing timeline stuff. i just wish they had used the worldbuilding of the memverse and order a little more - the grayscaling and the memory theme are both really dark!!! but they only really scratched the surface. i think if order had been a little bit more active of an antagonist in the beginning, and if they had gone deeper into the lore of sanitization and actually had you help reverse it, this would be my favorite splatoon story mode of all time!!!

Wished agent 4 wasn't left out again 3 and 8 have fleshed out motives and characterization 4 is in that weird ground where yeah players from 2 see themselves as "fresh",she's going for her education,but when are we going to see that in action? It's tell don't show for her specifically which is strange

I agree I was a bit let down when that skeleton from the reviel never showed up was looking for that all game and nothing and all its nice but to be honest it's salmon run with objectives that's it theirs a bit of story but overall it's flat in terms of game play would of liked something a bit more than ow 30 floors next wepon I wanted to see why we were agent 8 and not our main charater what was the main reason for the world to look like the great barrier reef dieing like it is today like that is a major global emergency in the real life so to see that I thought (OMG THIS IS GONA BE SO HUGE ITS GONA BLOW THE STORY AND GAME OUT OF THE WATER AND BE THE BEST THING ABOUT SPLATOON 3!!!!!!).... but it never happened...... I wanted to know why the splatoon 2 lobby was in shambles even thoe it was the most recent game and what that potentially orca skeleton was and what it's intentions are like is this a inklings are being like humans and destroying the planet type of thing is that orca seeing this and through black corruption ink is the main boss with the orca skeleton from the museum being it's phicical body and it creating the jellytoids to fight back against the inklings to stop another world melt down and agent 8 has to defeat it to stop the major end of the world??? Nope we got salmon run in a tower floor objective... no phreostoric creature fossil bosses, no great barrier reef tie intos about the world out of order hint hint, nothing..... Dont get me wrong it's nice for a couple of hours but as a full dlc.... ya kinda a missed opportunity their I would of liked this to be a main story with it being more fleshed out a bit darker and just more urgent than what it was now were left with what was that orca skeleton and what the true game would of been and I hope they learn from this and some day we get to see that come out of that black ink to take its plan into action....

We are going to need ryscous the Splatoon lore researcher to dive deep into these concepts of side order.

No I think it was always going to be VR. Looking at some of these concept art you show there are spots that have glitchy like elements. If these are concept art then we should know that they are concept art and not story boards. They just give the idea of the tone or look of something and not necessarily what you are actually going to get. For EX: Imamura was the concept artist for starfox and you can tell by looking at his art to the final product that they were very much just give the general idea. Also concepts art has things that just never made it into the final product. If this this from the announcement then more then likely the hub area was mostly done (it just need that glich touch up) and they made an announcement using that hub area and the concept art they created at the time. Also splatoon isn't super narrative based, it has a narrative don't get me wrong but it has its up front narrative and the story hidden in the background or text. I instantly think of the Scrolls back in splatoon 1 that show captain cuddlefish and DJ back during the turf war hinting at their history. So this stuff being more in the background is expected if I'm being honest.

6:08 she is very clearly wearing the outfit she was wearing during her world tour with Pearl. You can see her in it on the damp socks album cover.

5:18 I'm pretty sure that's just Eight holding a fizzy bomb and the colorful thing next to it is the palette Also 6:05 does look very much like Marina is digitalized or something like that, I don't agree with your theory of the DLC not being this way from the start, the lobby details may just have been added later, but I do agree that it wasn't as obvious from the trailers

5:30 that looks to me like a filled pallette.

ive been thinking abt this for the last few days but ive been also thinking abt the game play and how would this turn out for a platformer shooter puzzle game

i really do hope they add more to the dlc honestly, i bought a new switch just to play it and ive been squeezing out as much as possible from it and it has so much more potential to be an even more amazing roguelike

Nintendo made it kid friendly

Maybe this was affected too. But who else got Sonic Colors vibes when it came to the first time you face Order atop the Spire? The second half with the sunnier sky and the fact you were recovering your powers before hitting him with a “rainbow blast” attack made me remember Sonic Colors

Tbh I kind of hope Splatoon 4 will be darker, I mean, we’ve got this which never happened and don’t get me wrong, I love my little phone box but TarTar’s concept art was wicked body horror and I would have loved to fight that

Hm, interesting, if you’re onto something, then yeah it’s really a shame we didn’t get something like this, It would’ve been fascinating to see a Splatoon Story go into a much more darker direction, i hope we still manage to get that.

I have a feeling they may be saving it for splatoon 4 but 😮

Honestly it’s better than our expectations

5:34 apart from this just looking random, we definitely got Marina wearing the order outfit and that just looks like a regular pearl outfit from Spla2n?

I hope that their shift for side order means Splatoon 4. I will not change my mind, I think side order sets a small stage of "here's something to tide people over till late 202X" As Splatoon 3 end days are disappointing (beside side order)

As cool as a more character driven story mode sounds, i dont think it would've meshed with the other stories the series has told. I dont think they were told no, but rather shifted towards a story and aesthetic that fits together better with the rest of the franchise.

I think Smollusk should've went with Bleaching everything to make sense for the coral and look of the Order Sector

Theory: the boss "order" is based on order, the winner of the last Splatoon 2 splatfest. So I have a theory they had this level planned to go either way based upon whether "order" won or "chaos" did. Maybe they had a lot planned for either scenario, but when it was "order" the wanted everything more... orderly? I know how much time they had to think about it, which is the weakest part of my theory, but maybe they altered it really late in development. But even if I'm totally wrong, I do wonder how this same content would have been different IF IT WAS CHAOS we were up against instead?

If they ever make another DLC. I hope they actually make it a lot darker, something like the Side Order Concept Art. That would be amazing

I can't say for sure but since how early side order was announced before release, it was too early for Nintendo to really know what their idea was. They definitely had a rough idea of what was going on but also they were open to experimentation. They later found an idea they liked long before the next trailer and focused on that, but before then they wanted to just get something on a trailer to hype up the expansion pass because no way inkopolis was going to do it.

Yeah, I have to say, the final boss (and several others) don't feel fleshed out at all because they're just enemy spam and barely have anything going on. Also the whole smollusk thing feels almost like a merch cop out because there's absolutely no reason to go "haha the slightly imposing villain? yeah he's not scary at all he's just a little guy awww." it just feels weird. im not saying this is a bad dlc at all but i do think that it's not above criticism, especially in the story department, where it just doesn't deliver compared to octo expansion. i agree that somber tones were most likely planned but i think just out of time constraints that's probably why they changed it. doesn't really have much gravity to the story imo. fun gameplay but it's slightly disappointing.

Dark and griddy beta moment

This happened before in Mario galaxy 2 where they lost focus in the story and were forced to cut it mid development to focus on the game only

Nintendo disappointing everyone, what a surprise

Day 11 of telling nin10doland to check his email.

Splatoon has always had a tendecy to leave the darkest elements for the player to look for in collectibles and the like. I think the original was going to be a very similar Side Order to what we got, except there would be more, and that the 'more' story was going to be darker, optional sidequests that would alter the story for every palette you tried to clear, giving a glimpse into the problems that plagued the palette's owner. Maybe along the way we would've gotten more glimpses into Pearl, Marina, and Acht through diary logs and the like. It's probable that the more alternate dimension look came from the developers trying not to spoil the intended game setting before they had decided that yes, this was it.

I just bought the dlc, it’s okay-ish if you want to do the same thing over again, but honestly I’m quite disappointed with what they came out with :/ I would have loved like something about marinas or agent 8s background maybe even pearls!! Just anything other than doing the same thing over and over again, but then again you kinda have to think about how they wanted the side order to revolve around order so idk 🤷‍♀️

Alternative title: Side Order could've been much better

I'd be happy with Side Order if they took another couple years to add about twice as much content and then updated it.

Nintendo: Okay so here's the plan Sonic Frontiers: Makes a lot of money Nintendo: Okay, new plan.

Who cares if it's a digital world or not I think regardless of the theming they could have focused more on octoling history if they wanted to. Nothing inherent to the setting prevents that at all. Also the way things work at nintendo, they practically never create story and art before gameplay. It's likely this was a rogue lite to begin with. I imagine the process probably went, "we made a new mode for splatoon 2 in salmon run, so splatoon 3 could be an opportunity to create another new mode" and they settled on a rogue lite, but it ballooned out of proportion to be included in the base game so they made it into a dlc. (My speculation at least)

This was just a Pearlina honeymoon and I'm all for it.