Splatoon Raiders: Part 1: Pantree Beach

In the last 11 years up to this point, Splatoon has proven very fast to be a phenomenal and profitable franchise for Nintendo. Incredible for a series that debuted on the “necessary failure” called the Wii U! Now, after two sequels, DLC campaigns for each of them, and other interesting things, such as being fully represented in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Splatoon finally gets a spinoff game. One that focuses more on single-player! Co-op, even! No competitive multiplayer matches, this time! The story of this game takes place sometime after not only all of Splatoon 3’s major events (Return of the Mammalians, Side Order, Grand Festival), but also sometime after a Splatfest that Deep Cut hosted in Splatsville themed after fighting styles. Following that, Shiver, Frye, & Big Man decided they wanted to take a break from the news reporting and festival singing and dancing. They had gathered with a professional helicopter pilot to continue their side work as treasure hunters far away from Splatsville. ---------- Deep Cut, along with their Pilot, flew off to the Spirhalite Islands, which was rumored to be an excellent source of valuable treasure... or at least that's what information they've been able to gather. The island were said to have appeared through a tetonic shift. They managed to find the Spirhalite Islands, but noticed a golden glow within the middle of them causing a force to spiral around it. Suddenly, the light exploded to the sky, causing a massive typhoon. Everyone in the helicopter was caught in the turbulence... ---- They crash-landed... And it almost seemed like their Pilot didn't make it. Frye was especially terrified when she found them motionless on the ground. The golden light then faded away... No doubt about. The four were now stranded on the Spirhalite Islands... ---------- In a whole month, Deep Cut and their Pilot made the best of what they could. The Pilot put serious work into building them a Hideout Ship... because they are also an excellent Mechanic. This Mechanic is your protagonist, so you get the usual fixings of customizing how they look and sound. Inkling or Octoling? Hairstyles? Eyebrows? Eye color? Skin tone? This time you can even give them freckles! Get all of that done, and you cute Mechanic is ready to regroup with Deep Cut, who have some new looks of their own! They needed to figure out other things that they wanted to deck their ship out with, but there was some concern about returning to Splatsville. Deep Cut decided that Mechanic needs to head out through the islands to find some more materials. ---------- So of course, with the first island, you go through a Tutorial. If you've played Splatoon 3 before this game, then everything you can do with your Woomy or Veemo in that game can also be done here. (Also I'm still gonna have motion controls off.) One of the new things you can do here is surf with a plank. Switch to Swim Form and you'll always be able to refill your Ink when you need to. You main pickup in this game will be Mysterious Shards. Or at least that's what they'll be called, at first. ---- Soon afterwards, it turns out that there are Salmonids in these islands! Yes, those same smelly fish that you take down in Salmon Run! This game even has new boss Salmonids beyond what Splatoon 3 had, such as the Salty Tongue, those silly fat goobers! Beating Salmonids will sometimes give you new weapons to pick up. ---------- Eventually, the team discovers and old machine in the sand, and decides to take it back to their Hideout Ship. They were planning to scrap it for parts and material. But then Shiver released it was some kind of vehicle and allowed Mechanic to fix it up. Lo and behold. It turned out to be some kind of Exploration Bot! Deep Cut wanted to take it for a spin, but it only had enough room to fit one of them in it at a time... --------- Weapons you pick up during a raid will be kept when you finish that raid. Even if you don't pick it up before finishing, it will automatically get picked up, anyway. Weapons in this game come in several Ranks. The higher the rank, the better they are, and the more they may be able to do beyond just damage. More on that later! ---- For the Hideout Ship itself, for now, all you can do is check with Big Man, who looks over the crew's Hoard. For now within the Hoard, you can check up on Salmonid Research, or check the Briny Scrolls you collected, which may or may not relate to the Spirhalite Islands. For some of the first, it looks like Splatsville is in critical debt, again, thanks to the expensive aftermath of that INCREDIBLE Grand Festival that featured Deep Cut together with the Squid Sisters & Off the Hook as the Now or Never Seven! That helped Splatsville's economy, at first, but too many pushed their luck (and their pennies) too far and now their bubble had popped. Hmmmm... all the more for Deep Cut to do some more treasure hunting to turn this all around. Wouldn't be the first time...