Splatoon Raiders

This blog post will contain spoilers.

Overview

I have a fairly long history with the Splatoon series. I have spent thousands of hours on the games; training, competing, spectating, and pointlessly throwing myself at a wall when I should have taken a break seven matches ago. I was on multiple competitive teams, got into the Salmon Run Overfishing community, briefly did some speedrunning, and 100%ed the breadth of single player content. When I burned out from competing, I tucked behind the scenes, and became a broadcaster for several tournament organizations. I wrote a document about observing matches. You can read it here. We are several years into the lifespan of Splatoon 3, and despite, or maybe even because of my history, I haven’t been enjoying my time with the game much anymore. In 2022, I left the last long-term roster I would ever be on, and I properly retired from competitive play in 2023. No longer a player and from a moderate distance, my outlook has only soured about the state of the game’s competitive scene since then. I still help out behind the scenes where I can, but that was the game’s extant influence on my life for the past few years.

When Raiders was announced, I didn’t really know what to think. If I remember correctly, my initial response was really positive. The single player Splatoon content has never been the main draw of the game, but it has been getting better over time. I was optimistic about the potential that a dedicated, non-PvP game could have. The game appeared to focus on Deep Cut, the trio at the center of Splatoon 3, but anyone who’s played the game can tell you how little the characters had been fleshed out. I was looking forward to learning more about that crew, and any additional story that lay ahead. Octo Expansion and Side Order taught us that Nintendo can make interesting and at least somewhat compelling single-player campaigns. What would a full game bring?

And then, the gameplay trailers began to come out. It’s not that the trailers made the game look bad, but they gave such little information on the type of game that Raiders was going to be that it sort of snuffed out my hype. With all the shown enemies being Salmonids, everything shown resembled a repackaging of Salmon Run. It was hard to discern what new elements were being brought in. I was still interested to play it, but I was no longer daydreaming about when it would come out, nor planning to take any time off work for it. It was a distant release on my calendar that I would try out without many expectations. Some friends expressed similar sentiments, but we all continued to look forward to the game.

Raiders came out this Summer, right after weeks of heat waves, intense storms, and other bad weather. Honestly, I was pretty pissed off, because the game’s release weekend was some of the most gorgeous weather we’d seen in at least a month. Couldn’t this game have come out a month ago? Or, maybe, a month later? I am extremely protective of my summertime weekends, and I knew this game would be taking a few of them from me at the very least. As much as my pre-release hype had cooled, the reality of the game’s release pulled me back. I downloaded it right away.

In Raiders, You assume the role of the Mechanic, the technical mind supporting the idol-group-slash-thieve-troupe Deep Cut, who are also the idol characters of Splatoon 3. You are exploring some islands for treasure. After some cutscenes and story building, you are introduced to the overworld: a the Treasure Map. There is nothing particularly exciting or innovative about this level select screen, but I think it sets the stage well. A mysterious fog conceals where you will be headed, and you get to pick your first mission. You can see that each stage has a “Salmonid Level,” indicating that the opponents will get stronger in the later missions. Some light bread crumbs to whet your appetite for challenge while the game is still in its easy stages. Your only option at the beginning is, of course, the tutorial.

The nice thing about playing a new installment of a series you’ve spent thousands of hours with is the fact that you don’t need all that much onboarding. Splatoon still handles like it always has, and that’s a good thing. The gunplay and movement mechanics are as enjoyable as ever, even if there are some minor issues (Seriously, why do chargers still have difficulties painting an uphill?). The tutorial was a breeze, like a familiar friend greeting me. Tearing through a simple world with a simple weapon and getting to take in the scenery is a pleasant feeling.

The gameplay loop revealed itself soon enough. Pick your best gear, play the stage, get newer, better gear. If you don’t like your gear, keep clearing until you get something you like. This loop ended up being pretty novel to me. I have not spent too much time on games in this looter-shooter genre before. The closest would likely be Warframe, which I put a few hundred hours into. The early stage of Raiders is forgiving enough that you are able to pick a weapon that you actually like and cling to it for at least a few levels, before it starts to lag behind.

In a way, every weapon in this game is new. Seasoned players will know there is a massive asterisk here, and I will not push back against that at all. Most all of the weapons are heavily based on weapons in the mainline games. There are a handful of Shooters, Sloshers, Blasters, Rollers, Brushes, Chargers, Splatlings, Dualies, Brellas, Splatanas, and Bows. The Shooters, even with multiple weapons based on the same main series weapon, have enough stat differences to feel distinct. Some classes feel like they got more attention than others. Shooters, as expected, have the most breadth. Shooters span a variety of ranges and fire rates. Some classes, like Brushes and Chargers, seem to lack the same variety in my opinion. Depending on which classes you were looking forward to play, you may leave the weapon pool a bit disappointed. That said, a new single player game is the perfect opportunity to pick up a variety of weapons and spend more time with them. Personally, despite being a Splatling main, I spent most of the game on the Slosher class.

Battling in Raiders is going to be very familiar to anyone who’s played a Splatoon game, especially if they have spent time on Salmon Run. The main task at hand is taking out hoards of Salmonids of various kinds. There are the tiny, lesser Salmonids, absorbing your fire before you can focus down the big, threatening Boss Salmonids. Almost all enemies from previous iterations of Salmon Run are back, and there are a few new ones. The only ones not returning are the King class of Salmonids, which surprised me. On top of that, bosses got new, bulkier, stronger, “Salted” forms. These things have much more health and deal a more significant threat to you. Something less familiar to series regulars is the presence of an actual health bar at all times. It makes sense here because your health capacity will be growing as you gain experience and level up. Some Gadget abilities or Tank powers can mitigate damage. It’s important to see the feedback of how well your build changes are working. Like other Splatoon single player adventures, your health bar represents a sort of “armor.”. When your healthbar reaches zero, you do not lose a life. Instead, your armor breaks, and you are “in danger.” Your movement is slashed and you cannot tank any damage until you recover. The visible healthbar is very helpful here, as you can tell exactly when it is safe to get back into battle.

The Tanks and Gadgets are foundational pieces of how you navigate fights. These are, in my opinion, the biggest source of novelty in Raiders. In lieu of sub weapons like bombs, the player is given a variety of abilities to equip, that deliver different advantages during battle. All of them have cooldowns and serve different purposes – area of effect, movement, or bursts of damage. There is more nuance than that, but it’s probably the easiest way to boil everything down into once sentence. There is a very satisfying amount of depth in navigating these mechanics. I found myself swapping out Gadgets often, trying to determine the combination that gave me a satisfying combination of damage and maneuverability. Personally, I settled on the Tactical Tank for most of the game. I got a kick out of placing faraway objects that would soften the crowd as I made my way through them. The player decides which Tanks to use, though switching is encouraged. Certain stages provide different rewards depending on the selected Tank, and Tank upgrades can be blocked by progression on other Tanks. It’s good to try different things, anyway. While playing through stages, you will unlock Relics, which can be equipped to Tanks to give specific abilities. Some examples include increased damage to nearby Salmonids, improved movement speed, or a double jump. Relics add another layer of gameplay customization that encourages the player to solve combat stages like puzzles to be thought through.

Another new mechanic that I almost forgot to mention is the Bot Buddy. Early in the story, your crew (though, mostly the Mechanic) find the blueprints for, and assemble a mini mech robot type thing. Unfortunately, the player never gets to pilot this creation, but you get to bring one of your shipmates with you. At the press of a button, you can summon your Bot Buddy to assist you in a level. Uses include firing at enemies, providing a launch pad to reach high places, and performing a special move, known as the “Showstopper.” Big Man’s showstopper turns him into your mount, and the two of you cut through enemies, blasting projectiles and inflicting damage without taking any. Frye deploys a team of eels to, essentially, carpet bomb the enemies. Shiver summons a massive shark, cutting through a straight line that pierces armor and deals intense damage. It is up to the player to choose which Bot Buddy will join them, save for a few boss fights that force a specific idol. There are incentives to mixing it up, though: you can bond with each one, which powers them up in specific ways.

Another new battle mechanic are the three statuses: Ferment, Freeze, and Scorch. Fermenting an enemy increases the damage that it takes, Freeze understandably stops the enemy from attacking or moving, and Scorching them will inflict damage on a fixed interval over time. Statuses can be inflicted by weapons, Gadgets, Tank/Relic abilities, and Showstoppers. Learning to make proper use of these will be tantamount to success down the line.

There are a few types of levels, the precise names of which I do not know, so I will just describe them. There are straightforward “beat the enemies and get to the goal” levels, very structurally similar to most of what the franchise has thrown at players to this date. These are fine, a couple of them feel longer than they need to be, with some pointlessly big stretches between fights, but it wasn’t too grueling. There are crystal stages, which are the main place players will be spending time when they are gathering materials and scrapping for new weapons. My opinion on these stages bounced around a lot over time, because they take the longest to complete. I have a tendency to get impatient when things take disproportionately long, and these stages tested me from time to time. It felt especially frustrating if you happened to fail pretty far in. But, as the game progressed, I came to appreciate them as a reliable source of things that I needed, not providing any unexpected challenges. The dungeons are sets of typically three floors, called sublevels, where the challenge is to defeat many enemies and collect their dropped “power eggs” within a fixed time limit. The final sublevel pits the player against a supercharged boss Salmonid known as a Seasoned Salmonid, beefed up in size, health, and attack power. Clear sublevel three and dig up the treasure. The time limit here is an appreciated limitation, as compared to the crystal stages, where it felt very possible to “cheese” the enemies by running away and shooting until you defeated them. You can’t afford to waste that kind of time on these stages. This also applies to the gem stages, which have the same format but are a single sublevel, and primarily consist of a hoard of one specific type of enemy. These are the quickest stages, which excited me at first, but their rewards tend to be lackluster and not worth repeating often. Last of the main types of stages are the boss fights. These are, of course, uncommon, but pretty hard to miss.

There are also hidden stages that the player finds on the treasure map as they collect compasses from other stages. These “Samplers” are challenges crafted to test the player’s abilities with various combinations of Gadgets, weapons, or other skills. I was happy to see these. They’re fun and creative, and force the player to learn a thing or two about the capabilities of their own equipment. If you don’t wait until the end of your game to try these, I think they’re going to teach you quite a lot.

What do you do between stages? You live and develop your team’s ship. As you gather materials on your raids, you will be able to perform a few tasks on your ship. You can view records of your progress, such as blurbs about the enemies and weapons you have encountered so far. There is a fishing-like minigame where you operate a crane to pluck wooden crates out of the water, yielding meager treasures. Most of your ship time will be spent upgrading things. Initially, you do not have much to work with, a simple work bench, if it can even be called that. This bench enables you to modify your Tanks and develop other improvements to the ship. Gather enough resources and you will be able to build benches to upgrade your Tanks, Gadgets, and even weapons. There are also upgrades available for your training area, like adding additional dummies and platforms, even an arcade game to kill more time! I find the new benches to be spread out enough that the unlocking of each one feels satisfying, and you get to spend some time with each one before you get distracted by the newer, shinier thing.

Despite this being a “single-player focused” game as per Nintendo’s own promotional materials, you do not have to go it alone in this game. At all. Raiders supports multiplayer at any point past the introductory stage of the game. Up to 4 players can band together and tackle stages. Your stage selection will be limited to stages that all 4 players can access, so you can’t skip a player to later-game content. My initial worry was that playing in a group would transform the experience significantly, putting an asterisk on anything I’d experienced in the game while playing this way. Thankfully, my worries were dispelled after giving multiplayer a try. While the game can be easier as a group, it wasn’t the cakewalk I was expecting. The game does a pretty solid job of scaling everyone’s damage output (or enemy health, I am personally not sure which pieces actually change) to everyone’s respective levels. This leaves it a pretty comparable challenge for everyone in the group. This was a great thing, because I have tons of friends playing this game at the same time, and being able to share the experience elevated everything.

One notable departure from the trusted Splatoon formula is this game’s approach to clothes. Players expect to be able to express themselves through vast swatches of shirts, hats, shoes, hairstyles, and occasionally pant styles. This game has a more limited approach. There are outfits to select, though they are fixed—no customizations are available. You have a grid of outfits where each column represents a general style, and then the three rows are all slight variations within that style. There are no shops from which to purchase clothes. Access to clothing in this game is through in-game achievements. The outfits resemble a classic achievements system. Almost all of them are fairly straightforward to unlock, and will be accomplished by playing the game regularly, so there isn’t too much to worry about. However, when you’re just picking up the game, it can be a bit of a shock.

That is my attempt at explaining the bones of the game, now I would like to discuss my own experience with it.

Personal Experience

Gameplay

From a gameplay perspective, I found the overall experience fun and worth it. Not much of a surprise given my positive memories of the series, but it has to be said. I looked forward to returning to it each day, figuring out how best to spend my time progressing through the story, occasionally hunting for a good location to farm specific resources, and rushing to upgrade my favorite weapons. There were just enough mechanics for me to bounce my attention between the lot of them and figure out the utility of them. Usually I was neglecting one thing or another, not making the most of my Tank, or my Gadgets, or my abilities, or using an underpowered weapon. I liked how often I had to change my approach to clear stages.

Clearing stages was another unique part of the experience for me. Most single-player Splatoon is, to put it simply, not particularly hard to clear if you’re playing for hundreds or thousands of hours in competitive scenarios. Side Order probably posed the biggest challenge of all single-player content in the series to date, but Raiders made me really learn to accept failing a stage as just part of the experience. I tried my best to put off my first failure for as long as possible, but when I hit a wall, I hit it hard. There were some stages I had to play for an hour, stubbornly trying to “play better” when I could have blasted right through it by using my tools more effectively. That’s a lesson I have to learn in most games I play. I found a few friends going through some of the same mini-crises that I had experienced. Sometimes, we have to remember that there is nothing to prove, and we are playing this game for the first time, and we have every right to make mistakes and learn and accept that it is part of the intended experience. My patience grew while playing. I can appreciate that.

I made sure to play through every stage I could find for most of my initial playthrough of the game. I must admit, when I got close to the center of the map, knowing there was a final boss, or at least major transition imminent, I skipped a few resource farming stages. I didn’t take too long to go back to them, but I wanted to make sure I was keeping up with my friends. A little bit of that toxic competitive nature kicked in.

When I got to the center of the map, I learned that it was indeed a transition, and not quite a final boss. It was pretty clear that we were close, though. This is where we enter some sort of deep, underground “Mess Hall” as the group soldiers onto the final fight. The upper tier was a familiar, three-sublevel structure. Next up is the middle tier, which is… six sublevels. This is new, and genuinely threw me for a bit of a loop despite its difficulty not really changing. The slight tweak to the extremely reliable structure up to this point piqued my interest and put me on alert. The lower tier steps it up yet again with ten sublevels. I think this play on the format is really affective at whetting the player’s appetite for whatever is coming up next. More successful tension-release work, here.

The final boss fight was all right. My experience with Splatoon final bosses is that they’re never particularly difficult, but they do a good job at feeling like epic battles. This one is no different, to me. There’s a lot of dodging and running around. The fun departure, to me, was the surfing section. The surfboard segments in the game have felt quite throwaway to this point, I regularly forgot the mechanic was even a part of the game. It was nice to come back to it in a somewhat meaningful way. It didn’t really add much challenge, but it was a fun throwback to something that could have been much more of a presence throughout. After the surfing, there is a cycle of careful platforming followed by battle waves. I found the platforming a little surprisingly picky, and I fell off the platforms a few times. Almost to my disappointment, there were not any consequences for my mistake. I came to understand there were time limits that could cause the player to fail the fight, but I also expected that sort of stake in a platforming section. I didn’t have much to say about the battle waves, as they were pretty identical to the Mess Hall stages I’d trudged through prior to this boss fight.

After clearing the final boss, I unlocked something called the “Bottomless Buffet.” The Salmonid Mess Hall appeared to continue, and based on the “Bottomless” in the name, I presumed it was some endless mode. That felt very much like “when you’re done with everything else” content, so I ignored it for the time being. I had some cleanup to do.

I had missed a few of the Sunken Scrolls and Compasses that I needed to fill out my lore collection and Sampler stages, respectively. The Treasure Map is kind enough to show you which stages you have and have not yet collected these items on, so going back to get them all wasn’t so bad. The worst ones were on the crystal stages, because it felt like those could be anywhere on a massive stage. In all honesty, nothing in this game was hidden in a particularly sadistic spot. Everything is pretty obvious where it is going to come from. Sometimes, I was even a little disappointed by how obvious it was, but in this moment, I was usually grateful just to have another item checked off the list.

After getting all the Compasses, I had to complete all the Sampler stages. They were hiding important skill points that I needed to finish leveling up my Tanks. Here is where I regretted putting these off, because a lot of them were a genuinely neat test of skill with some of the Gadgets. I have to admit that quite a few Gadgets I had spent little, if not zero, time with at all despite having played through the main storyline. If I had done the Samplers sooner, I would have recognized the capabilities of some of them a bit sooner. The side dungeons were fun, and a handful of them gave me some trouble. I emerged from that side quest feeling like a better rounded player. Sure would have been helpful if I did that sooner!

As you play through the game, you will unlock “Spicy” versions of every stage upon your initial clear. These are the same stage, but with a higher enemy level, so that there is more of a challenge: more experience to be gained, and better rewards to reap. The first clear of every stage gives a reward, and the first clear of a Spicy stage gives a new reward as well. There is an incentive to go back and replay all the stages. I played a few of them out of curiosity during my run through the game, but I was far from clearing all of them. After I completed the main story, a new difficulty unlocked: Super Spicy. These were yet another difficulty that was unlocked for each stage, with a much higher Salmonid level than the original stage. On top of this, there was yet another, nicer reward for clearing all the stages on Super Spicy for the first time. Even more incentive. Thankfully, I learned quickly that clearing on Super Spicy also gave you the clear and reward for clearing on Spicy. So, I was able to make somewhat quick work of grinding most of them out. I distinctly remember a stage with one singular, tanky Smallfry requiring a few attempts from me. It pushed me to rethink my approach to damage output. I couldn’t rely on the long-distance trappings of my Tactical Tank configuration. I had to think of new approaches. The boss fights gave me quite a tough time as well. The bosses in this game are, in my opinion, extremely tanky as it is, so giving all the Lesser Salmonids even more bullet sponge abilities was quite the headache. I felt pretty accomplished when I actually got all the Super Spicys (Spicies?) done.

Once I got the Treasure Map cleaned up with Super Spicy clears and Samplers taken care of, I got my Tank upgrades all squared away and figured it was time to dive into the Bottomless Buffet. My initial impression was that this was some endless post-game thing that wouldn’t provide any new substantial content with regard to the world and story. Then, a thought crossed my mind: There are outfits for clearing Buffet Floors 30, 60, and 100. If that’s the case, then there may be something waiting for me there.

Every step of Bottomless Buffet is grouped in sets of 3 Floors. Most of the way through the it was not too bad for my build. It was a cycle that feels familiar to RPG players: cruise for a while, encounter a slowly rising tide of resistance to your gear until you hit a wall, be forced into upgrading/changing something, smashing the barrier, repeat. That was my experience through just about all of the Buffet, but the walls were not in any sort of regular intervals. Once I hammered out a consistent approach to using my Tactical Tank, fully leveled up my Primo Slosher, and developed good muscle memory for making the most of my Tank Ability and Gadget cooldowns, success was mostly a matter of keeping my cool and not making foolish decisions. Still, I made many foolish decisions. I remember feeling like I was getting really sweaty as I approached the 80-100 range. It took me a few failures, near-misses, and frustration before I developed new priorities and patience. If you haven’t played much Salmon Run before getting into Raiders, just know: you need to focus down the static enemies. The Stingers, the Flyfish and the Smokers will slash your movement, chip your healthbar down, and cut your runs short if you don’t deal with them decisively. Another tip is to stay moving. Most Boss Salmonid attacks won’t land very well if you stay in motion. The last hurdle I encountered on my path to 100 was an increased presence of Strong-Arms. This multifunctional baddie has different, strong attacks based on your distance from it. I underestimated its capabilities for far too long, until the stage layouts of the late 90s did not permit me to do so any longer. After scrapping about for quite a few tries, I made my way past Floor 99. Which made me realize: 30 is a mutliple of three, 60 is a multiple of three… 100 is not. Surely, something will be different.

Floor 100 is a single stage, with a unique name. The Throne Room. That’s when I got really excited. I figured there was more to the story because of the outfit locked behind 100, and the confirmation was satisfying. A big, empty, dark room greets you. I took my time to savor the experience of my bioluminsecent ink illuminating the room. I was combing over the details, making sure I didn’t miss anything permanent. There wasn’t anything. Onto the launch pad that takes you to the fight.

Thus begins your fight with Lord Saltimatum, a massive Salmonid floating upside down in the air. Before you have much time to react, Saltimatum will initiate one of its three attack sequences. My first encounter was the beam attack. Within the first ten seconds of the battle, I lost one of my three lives. I figured this was going to be a tough fight. I will say, I have learned that my experience with “boss fight” style video games may be less than average, despite my large overall video game play hours. I don’t have quite an eye for recognizing the tells and patterns extremely quickly. I was able to deduce that Saltimatum has three attacks, two of which are threatening. The easy one is the drill-like projectiles. There’s an obvious cue that gives you plenty of time to react, and the projectiles do very little damage. Then there are the tornadoes that typically fire off if you are too close to the Boss. These three tornadoes will instantly shred your armor if you touch them, thrusting you into a vulnerable recovery position which is not always easy to manage in the middle of a boss fight. Third is the beam, the one that took my life before I could process it. Your two hopes for surviving this attack are to recognize the cue, call your Bot Buddy over and perform a Bot Hop to jump over the beam’s height, or to rush down Saltimatum and hide beneath its head, where the beam cannot hurt you. Be careful with the latter, as you will almost always be met with a tornado attack shortly after.

After surveying the range of attacks, I was able to focus on enduring the rest of the fight. Your job is to dodge the main attacks, keep Lessers at bay, and find any opportunity to lay damage on Saltimatum. When you chip down enough health, a battle wave will begin, where you must collect Power Eggs by defeating a pile of standard Boss Salmonids. These portions were honestly a reprieve, because your loadout is most likely equipped to take on these Salmonids pretty comfortably. I personally found surviving the main attacks while finding opportunities to land damage to be the easier portion to mess up.

After the second battle wave, you return to fighting Saltimatum as you would expect. And then, a new cue begins. Your foe floats in the center of the platform, and the cacophony of music, gunfire, and Salmonid sounds are all silenced abruptly. I knew something was coming, but without any clue what it would be. Shortly after, you’re greeted with a screeching, glowing ball of energy, shredding your armor and taking a life. My first encounter with this attack was my last life, so that killed my most promising run to date.

I don’t know why this mechanic took me such a long time to wrap my head around. I will save you some time: it is a huge area of effect that you can dodge by running to the edge of the stage. That is not the path that I took. I tried several things, including rushing Saltimatum down and trying to interrupt its attack by damaging it and saving my Showstopper ability to withstand the attack. Eventually, I had convinced myself that this was an unavoidable mechanic and was deployed as a punishment for taking too long to defeat the Boss. I mean, the name is a play on Ultimatum, right? You have to deliver, or it’s all over. Upon this “realization,” I changed my approach to focusing on every opportunity to attack the massive Salmonid between attack phases. Turns out, all I needed was a proper kick in the ass. On the attempt after determining that it was not survivable, I defeated the thing. My focus and aggression managed to preserve my three lives to the first big energy ball again. This time, I tossed away a life, and kept attacking. It was on the second attack that I decided to try actually hiding from it at the edge of the stage. The tell, to me, was seeing one of Deep Cut yell “RUN!” in a dialog box. I can’t lie, I had not been reading those very closely during most of my time in this fight. If the game was telling me to run, I should probably try it. I felt ridiculous when I realized that’s all it was. I had burned hours trying to figure this thing out.

Anyway, after that, I was able to clear the fight, and that was the real real ending. More fun cutscenes, a score summary screen, and another “Thank you for playing,” something that always gets me a little choked up. The game rewards you with a Relic ability that makes farming for new Gadget abilities a little easier, and then leaves you to your own devices.

Turns out you can continue in Bottomless Buffet. I decided to put that off for now.

Writing

So, my original expectation for Raiders was that I wanted “a good story,” whatever that was. To be honest, I don’t think that expectation was really met. You’re accompanying a group of thieves out in a collection of abandoned islands, raiding the area for treasures that you can sell to save your city. The initial notion is sort of unique, but then the way the rest of it plays out is predictable. The plot was structurally very safe. Encounter boss, defeat boss, celebrate, go to next boss, repeat until big boss, epic fight, save the day. In that way, it felt pretty similar to the structure of Octo Valley and Octo Canyon from Splatoon 1 and 2, respectively. Reflecting on this, though, has me wondering what else I would expect. Stage-stage-boss just feels very “canned video game plot.” Plots can only have so many structures, but I can’t escape the gnawing feeling that something was seriously missing. It may have been the stakes. They felt pretty impersonal for most of the story. “Saving the city” sounds cool, but the means of achieving it (looting and selling relics) made it feel a bit abstracted and less tangible. A lot of the time, it just felt like I was helping Deep Cut line their pockets. Sure, they were going to put it to good use, but I found myself wondering “would I actually care about this?” a couple times. That said, the Mechanic is getting a cut, too, so I’m sure they had reasons to stick around.

A useful tool may be to compare it to other games that I feel achieved this more effectively. Side Order, the most recent piece of single player content, had a looping structure that made it unique (if not a little annoying sometimes). Instead of defeating different bosses to progress to the big, bad guy, you are fighting the same boss over and over, prying more information from your opponents and surroundings. It was memorable and unique. Side Order is fairly well liked from everyone I’ve discussed it with. Octo Expansion is, in my experience, revered as a bit of a gold standard for Splatoon plot. Comparing Expansion to my points above, the stakes felt much more personal. Agent 8, the main character, had a serious personal interest in getting out of their situation. Inkling-Octoling harmony was resting on their shoulders as well. These were motivating stakes! There was still a big, epic fight at the end, but preceded by a movement-and-stealth heavy portion that felt intimate and focused. The contrast amplified the impact of both scenarios, I think. For Raiders, I think there was less of that tension-release tuning. You’re plowing through fairly regular stages until the very end. The ending was pretty awesome, to be certain. I took a lot of screenshots because I was excited by what was happening, but I don’t think it’s going to leave as big of an impact as Expansion. It may be an unfair fight–a big part of its appeal was how small of shoes it had to fill. Valley and Canyon were milquetoast. The stakes, characterization, and intimacy of Expansion shattered expectations. Now, we know what the writers are capable of. Even if Raiders met the bar, nothing was going to raise the bar in that way ever again.

If plot structure was all that mattered, Raiders would have bored me a bit.

As we know, this is not the case. A boring plot doesn’t mean that all the writing was boring as well. I had quite a bit of fun playing the game. Splatoon campaigns have always had solid dialogue and generally interesting characters. Raiders is no exception. I was thrilled to get to spend some more time with Deep Cut, and we absolutely got more characterization out of this game. Each of the idols had their own unique personalities and I liked to see them react to various situations in their own way. A lot of subtle things made me appreciate each idol over time, as they got closer to the Mechanic. The scripted cutscenes were even more vibrant. I genuinely did not expect the level of closeness that the writers cast upon Deep Cut and the Mechanic. I could confidently say a handful of scenes were outright flirty. It was jarring, but also pretty fun. It made me think about how long this series has been around, and how most media grows up with its target audience in a way. Don’t get me wrong, this is far flung from any adult media, but it was definitely uncharted waters for this kids’ shooter game. Most of the earlier stages of the game felt like a blur to me, personally, but by the final fight, I was taking screenshots of my Mechanic interacting with Deep Cut like I was taking vacation photos for the family album. I grew to love my greedy, goofy cohorts.

Another consistent strength of the Splatoon series is the worldbuilding. The team kept their pace in this department, scraps of lore strewn about every stage and behind various challenges, just interesting enough to encourage you to hunt down the next clue to make sense of the world around you. There are the Sunken Scrolls, of course, which are outright documents from the world. Then, there are the other bits of supplementary text. The stage names are all fun puns derived from food names. I am not entirely sure why, but it’s cute and fun. I’m not questioning it. There have been food themes throughout Salmon Run in the past, so it wasn’t particularly out of place. The weapons’ designs and descriptions, the Salmonid facts, and the progression of the relics all paint a fairly vivid picture of the world you are existing in. Touching back on the plot thing, I really wish that these interesting lore tidbits actually tied into the plot more than they actually do. I needed to nudge myself to go read them sometimes, because I knew they weren’t going to assist me on my journey in any way. Missed opportunity, in my opinion.

I don’t think I’ll be excitedly retelling the plot of Raiders to my friends, but I will have a few laughs about specific interactions between characters. The game’s writing is not without charm, and that’s what will stick with me.

Music

Splatoon’s music is core to its identity. Consistently, the team has delivered music with a lot of personality. I don’t think Raiders is the peak example of this, but the musical experience was without a doubt very enjoyable. The nautical themes of the series manifest with a summer flavor, especially in the overworld scenes. One of my particular favorites is the ship music. A carefree guitar is accompanied by breakbeats. It has a nostalgic vibe, almost reminding me of the intro to “MMMBop,” if I dare go that far. The map view music has a noisy rock guitar with a crunchy bass groove supporting it. Very effective at hyping me up to dive into some action. One song I heard a lot, and never got tired of, is the stage clear song. It showcases a surf rock flair, with rock guitars, ample harmonies, and a carefree whimsy that made me smile. I hummed along to the tune almost every time I cleared a stage. This is all super effective on me, as summertime is my favorite part of the year, but I think I am far from the only one who found the energy of the music pretty fun. One thing I must admit is that a lot of the in-stage music took a long time to stick with me. As I reflected on it further, it’s much grittier and serious than the rest of the music. In retrospect, it is a compliment to the game that the music didn’t stick out to me while playing. If a showstopper rolled out in the middle of a battle, that would be distracting.

The ambient music played its role effectively. There are many different islands in the world, and they all had their own personalities. The beach biome brings a traditional island vibe, the lava and volcano spaces are more upbeat and percussive, and the icy areas are subdued and contemplative. Listening to a lot of these tracks in isolation, there is actually a lot of subtle detail that I appreciate. So many shapely synths adding a sense of mystique and chaos to the soundscape. Perfect at setting the scene of being in an unfamiliar place, and in enemy territory. Never frightening, but pleasantly unsettling. I don’t know if others feel the same way, but the lava lake music felt like something I’d hear in a 3D Mario installment. Despite Nintendo referencing Nintendo being a completely unsurprising thing, it still brought me unexpected joy.

The music for the battle stages is delightfully frantic. The orchestral sounds that defined Salmon Run’s identity are appropriately present in a few, but not all, tracks. Choppy stings and distorted timpani hammer that happy nostalgia into my brain while I continue to battle Salmonids all these years later. The tracks without these instruments are not left wanting, however. The scale of the instrument arsenal used to produce these tracks is impressive. Each island has distinct instrumentation, often very unique percussion and personalized, noisy, wacky synthesizers to tug the tunes along. They all repeat cleanly, you can be stuck farming materials for a while and not notice that you’ve been listening to mostly the same couple of tracks for the past half hour.

The first endgame music deserves special attention. Of course, the music dips into the collective influences of all three idols, mixing with the high-octane boss fight composition that drives you to take the big boss down. The idol influence plays a huge role in crafting the payoff from winning the fight, in my opinion. It squeezes out every drop of affection you built up for your ragtag squad on your adventure through these islands. Each one of their solos tugged at my heart strings, despite the fact that I will never have a clue what they’re saying. The fight music is your cheerleader bringing you to the game’s finish line.

And then there’s the ending credit music. Your cooldown lap after the emotional rollercoaster of the battles and the conclusion of the story. Nintendo concludes the game’s story very well as usual, with little references to tunes you’d heard throughout the game peppered in from start to finish. When you’re in that vulnerable post-game state, it hits even harder. Those tracks always leave a big impression on me the first time I hear them.

What I said about the in-game tracks taking a longer time to leave an impression on me holds true for post-game content. Mostly. I want to give a specific shoutout to the sublevel 76-90 music in Bottomless Buffet. Entering the last leg my Bottomless level grinding, I couldn’t help but notice the tone-induced whiplash brought on by this track. I’d been tearing through stage after stage to the tune of some moderately gritty battle music. Suddenly, I’m transported to a dreamy space carnival, or something like that. I was confused, and enamored. The plucky glockenspiel (or what I presumed was one) and the loudest crash cymbal I’d heard in the game tossed me back and forth with such glaringly different, whimsical visions. I honestly loved it. I will always respect Splatoon for being unafraid of quirky, unashamed music, and I think Raiders brought its own unique take on the respected formula.

Conclusion

I had fun with Raiders, and I encourage you to try it. If you’re a fan of the series, and have a Switch 2, and have the expendable income, I recommend it. Is it worth buying a new console over? Probably not, but in this economy I’m not sure what single game could possibly justify that. I see myself picking this game up in the future and being able to plug away at trying new weapons, Tanks, Gadgets, and finding ways to mix up Splatoon that I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying in a competitive setting.

Good job, Nintendo.