I have to make a splatoon "Rant" sometime ive had this in my mind for a while (Positive rant)
I think about Splatoon a lot from an artistic perspective bc its one of the most successful Newer video game franchises - if not the only one from nintendo -- while also being genuinely "singular". With video games as an established genre with a lot of conventions new series are pretty recursive at this point. But its crazy how much splatoon takes from real life locations, history, music history, fashion, subcultures of many kinds that are barely touched in other games and creates a cohesive vision from them, its maybe the most strongly taste-driven and heavily researched video game setting i can think of. I believe thats really key to what even made it stand out in the first place and its continued success. As a game artist of course im biased in my prioritization of that kind of artistry but i do believe even from a financial perspective you cannot go wrong with it. Despite differing tastes theres almost an objective quality to iconic originality that most people actually can recognize even if just subconsciously, and that quality can allow media to push through boundaries that may seem impossible otherwise.
The thing that really got me thinking about this is really noticing the influence of reggae/dub in Splatoon's soundtrack, then ALSO reading about hirokazu tanaka's (composer for metroid, mother 1/2, mario land, etc etc etc) inspiration from dub music
Like, yeah, chiptune and VGM period have strong roots in dub. People love vgm. Lot of people who dont even touch dub make chiptune music nowadays. Lots of ppl who love splatoon music dont know about dub either. I definitely didnt when i was a teenager playing splatoon and loving the music. But its a direct source that is integral these VGM pieces' existence and what makes them so good
I think because were so used to the artistic lineage of video games we forget that their staples didnt come out of a fountain in the ground like 2 million years ago. All ideas in the first arcade games originate from something in the person's surroundings, such as dub music. And if video game pioneers had slightly different inspirations, video game staples would literally be completely different. Just think about just how many tropes people use all the time only exist because of the Legend of Zelda. What if it had never existed? It very easily just couldve never come to form, and nobody would be using anything from it. The laws of the universe dont dictate going into dungeons and breaking pots with swords is an inherent quality of video games. But lots of people emulate that gameplay without it having much purpose or really thinking about why, just as a matter of course
Of course taking inspiration from other video games especially the "game" part of it is important because like. Yeah you need somewhere to start. Yeah a bunch of people spent a lot of trial and error over the years figuring out what generally works and what doesnt in gameplay. Yeah people have their own preferred game genres so demographic wise it makes sense to appeal to those. Artistically of course take inspiration too, its good, you dont need to reinvent the wheel every time you make something, and if you really love zelda you by all means you should let that influence you and make some dope shit. But other video games shouldnt be the only source of inspiration, and games very often perform worse and are quickly forgotten if the experience does not stand on its own two feet. Think about the difference between game trailers that have actually "sold" you vs ones that make you say "well, I'd have to give it a try". Lots of recent games that verge on the latter. Obviously a video game can be popular if its not particularly artistically original, and can definitely be very good too, and different types of game have different demands in that department. But when "everything has already been done before" could not be any less true in a medium literally less than 70 years old, Damn idk why not try something nuts? Just take a look at the world around u and find something amazing
And #RespectDub
