So, you just started reading Ebb & Flow and you have no idea what the fuck Splatoon 2 is? Well, you’re in luck, because here is a handy rundown of basic Splatoon 2 knowledge!
Thank you for reading Ebb & Flow! Enjoy!
What is Splatoon 2?
Splatoon 2 is the sequel to the Wii U game Splatoon. Yes, a creative title, but we can forgive Nintendo for it, since the quality of the game makes up for it. The game got released on July 21st 2017 for the Nintendo Switch family (as in Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite and Nintendo Switch OLED). It’s Nintendo’s version of a 3rd person post-apocalyptic shooter game, but without the gruesomeness of a usual post-apocalyptic shooter. After all, Nintendo needs to retain its family friendly brand!
So instead of a war-like shooting game, this game is all about ink! Squid ink, to be more specific. You play as a squid-like character (called Inklings) and you use several weapons to shoot/distribute colourful ink. You are bound to the colour of the ink. You can shoot and store your colour and also swim in it to make speed or to refill your ink tank. If you are in the enemy’s colour ink, you get hurt and if an enemy shoots you with the other colour, you get “splatted” and you need to respawn.
(Fun fact, the initial concept was tofu characters instead of sea creatures!)
Basically, there are different ways to play it. Most of them get mentioned in the fic, but you don’t actually need to know a lot about it. I do namedrop things, hence this glossary, but I don’t go super in-depth about the gameplay. (Or so I think.)
There is a single player story mode. This is a classic RPG where you traverse through levels and beat bosses. This one does not get mentioned in the fic, since it’s a solo thing.
Salmon Run. Here you pair up with 3 other people to defeat a bunch of rouge Salmon-like enemies (Salmonids) who want to steal Golden Eggs. It’s basically Splatoon 2′s version of an shoot out where you have to defeat zombies or something. This doesn’t get mentioned either, which is a shame, since this is my favourite mode.
Turf Wars. Two teams of 4 vs. 4 have to cover as much ink of a stage as possible. The team that inks the most, wins. Kurt and Blaine play this for Splatfests (we’ll get to those).
Tower Control / Clam Blitz / Rainmaker / Splat Zones. These are four game modes where two teams of 4 vs. 4 have to fight against each other in a certain mini game. Tower Control needs you to ride a tower to the enemy’s base. Clam Blitz is, I suppose, some sort of basketball. Rainmaker needs you to transport a weapon to the enemy’s base. Splat Zones need you to cover a specific zone with ink for the longest time. You can play these as Ranked Battles and League Battles. Kurt and Blaine play a lot of League Battles, since you can choose your team or duo. These game modes alternate each other. There’s always one in Ranked and one in League and it changes every 2 hours.
Octo Expansion. Another extra single player mode. Only gets mentioned once in passing.
What is Splatoon 2 even about?
I redirect you to this nice video.
You don’t really need the storyline of the game for the fic, since that’s in the single player story mode and Kurt and Blaine don’t play that in the fic, but if you’re interested, you should give it a watch. Beware of spoilers, though!
Splatfests
A Splatfest is a special event that happened every month. Players can choose between two choices in a category (Chicken vs. Egg, Ketchup vs. Mayo, Dog vs. Cat etc.) and then those two groups battle in Turf Wars to see which side has won. A special stage is made for each Splatfest and you get extra gear. The two Off the Hook hosts (we’ll get there) represent a side. It is always seen as a big in-game party with the Off the Hook hosts giving a concert wearing specific outfits. Player characters dance around and wave banners with player-made art etc. It’s honestly pretty fun.
The Splatfests mentioned in Ebb & Flow were real, and I used them to keep track of the timeline. You can see an overview of all Splatfests here.
Weapons, gear, stages
Don’t worry about these! I name dropped them for fun. I did put some thought in what weapons they’d use for each game mode (i.e. Kurt’s Carbon Roller is definitely for Turf Wars only), but it doesn’t really impact the story.
Each weapon has a main weapon, a sub weapon and a special weapon. The main weapon is what it says on the tin, a sub weapon is an extra thing like bombs, and a special is a big game changer that needs to be charged during the game. So when the fic mentions things like the Baller or Tenta Missles etc., those are special weapons. That’s all you gotta know, I guess.
I put zero (0) thought in what gear Kurt and Blaine wear. Gear is, in gamer language, the armour. It brings extra stats and abilities, but I stopped myself from losing myself into the world of Splatoon 2 gear, especially since I am like Kurt and I use the gear for aesthetics only. I have no clue what abilities etc. are out there. I did a bit of research for this fic, but that’s it and I didn’t really put it in the story anyway. All you need to know is that in the Splatoon series, there are a lot of in-universe brands and Kurt, as a fashion lover, likes this extra layer to gear.
Stages are where the games take place. I often picked the stages that were actually happening at the time of writing. All you need to know is that stages change periodically, which is why Kurt and Blaine sometimes wait for a certain stage. Current stages with its accompanying game mode always get announced when you start the game, which leads to...
Off the Hook
An unskippable intro! It happens every time you start the game. It’s a TV show format and the two hosts Pearl and Marina announce the stages, whether Grizzco is open for Salmon Run, and extra news like patches or upcoming Splatfests. Kurt loves reading the news every time (as do I). Blaine wishes he could do without. Boo, Blaine, boo!
Competitive Splatoon 2
It is quite funny that so much about this fic is about Competitive Splatoon 2, since it is actually quite difficult to learn about it if you’re not part of this world. And I am not part of this world. Kurt’s probably a better player than I am.
Basically, like other Nintendo games, it is possible to play Splatoon 2 as an eSport. You create a team and start to train. Like I said, I don’t know enough on how you can get to a competition, but there are big and small tournaments, with the biggest one being hosted by Nintendo itself: the World Championship. There, teams from Asia, Europe, North-America and Oceania are fighting for the title of World Champion.
If you are reading this right at the beginning of Ebb & Flow, then here is a small spoiler for you. I know I said it was going to be spoiler-free, but alas, have this. Blaine has tickets for the World Championship of 2018. This too was a real event. The semi-finale and finale are on YouTube. The finale is here:
You can watch this if you want to know what a game looks like. When you do, skip to 29:09 to see one of the best plays ever!!! I did actually write some plays from competitions into the fic.
The music
Yeah, so, the music of this game is amazing on its own and one of the reasons it works so well is because there is an in-universe explanation for why the music is like this. There are multiple styles, because there are multiple in-universe bands. Ink Theory does experimental jazz, Diss-Pair loves adding EDM and metal elements to their songs, Chirpy Chips live up to their name with chiptune music, Bottom Feeders mix pop rock with sea shanties, ω-3 does whatever the fuck they’re doing, and so on, and so on.
And yes, I will point this out in the actual fic, because I don’t even know much about music, but Blaine does, and I assume he has an absolute field day with all this information.
Anyway, my favourite band is Wet Floor. Stan Wet Floor.
Oh and remember Off the Hook? They are also a girl group. One of their songs, Ebb and Flow, is the inspiration behind the title.
I listened a lot to the soundtrack while writing it. It’s really upbeat and if there’s some singing, it’s in a made-up squid language. Nintendo is aware of the music’s popularity. As a result it even hosts hologram concerts for Off the Hook and the Squid Sisters (the hosts from the first Splatoon game).
This particular concert even has K.K. Slider from Animal Crossing as an opening act!
Why Splatoon 2?
Why indeed. All I can say is that I love this game a lot and I saw reasons for Kurt and Blaine to like it. It’s a fun game and I think a lot of people will enjoy it. The music and gear felt like an added bonus. And to be honest, should there be a reason? I just thought to myself “what if Kurt and Blaine meet through Splatoon 2?” and here we are.
I didn’t pick the first Splatoon since I never played it, and Splatoon 3 only got announced last year and it’ll be released in September 2022. Oh, and like I mentioned, all the events mentioned are real, so Splatoon 2 also made the most sense for a fic set in 2018. Splatoon 2 got updated a lot in its 5 year lifespan, so I did have to let go of some game things that weren’t out yet in the time the fic takes place (one day, Kurt will get a Kensa Splatterscope), but again, you don’t need to know that for the fic.
ok my friends are angry that i’m order over chaos and here’s why
Pearl said that she’d risk the chance of losing Marina if it meant living in a world of chaos for the rest of her career, and never really gave any other valid, solid reason other than she thinks everyday life is boring and she’d like to change that so it’s different every single day.
while that is a good reason for an anarchy-based society, it also brings up Marina’s reason as to why she’s order - she will do anything, anything to keep her hard earned redemptive life in Inkopolis with her best friends and her family. even if it means sacrificing her unique identity and the individuality of Inkopolis’ denizens. i would do anything to keep the friends and ones i consider close to me, and so i sympathize with Marina and the commonly used trope of a Utopian ‘Order’ based society you’d see in sci-fi media like 1984 and Dune.
and while i’m aware that they never seem to work out in the end or seem socialist/communist in comparison to a ‘Chaos’ based society, take a look at dystopian post-apocalypse based media like Mad Max or even the Fallout game series: people do get by, but they do it harming one another. and the endless cycle of fratricidal tendencies due to greed in a nearly fractured society, with greed being fueled by a lack of restouces.
i know not all wlw art is/has to be like kissy or affectionate but in the year and more i've been active in the splatoon fandom i have not seen any pearlina art of them kissing. artists wyd
