so last night i was talking about splatoon 3's story issues and why I feel like it's not as strong as splatoon 2.
Generally my biggest issue with splatoon 3's stories were the missed opportunities- and he's absolutely right side order was the biggest disappointment for missed story opportunities. But, anyway.
Revisiting the topic reminded me what I hoped for in splatoon 3's plotline with Mr Grizz and why it disappointed me so much- I think it's because they never acknowledged the story elements I found most intriguing about Salmon Run's ties to the lore.
The idea of having you, the player, participating in what you think is a silly minigame, and what your inkling views as just a job to make ends meet, results in you unknowingly participating in invading the territory of the Salmonoids, stealing their resources and having your primary objective being to steal their eggs- their children- All the harm you're causing by participating in this silly game mode-
It's such an intriguing idea to me. And, forgive me for mentioning politics here, but I think you can see how this story element could very easily be tied into or used as an analogy for the current state of the world..
And Splatoon 3 didn't address it at all. It acts as if the problem is the way Mr Grizz chooses to use these resources, and ignores how fucked up it is he's invading their territory and stealing their resources in the first place.
And my friend did make a good argument, I can see why they wouldn't know how to address it post-story mode. It'd be dumb and insane to just completely remove salmon run, it is a fun game-mode. But to be honest- They should've thought of that before making it so lore-important.
And there are solutions to this problem. The lazy route my friend mentioned- Just going "Remember salmon run" to allow you to play it post-story mode. I had an idea that could be very interesting as either what they should've done in Splatoon 3, or what they could do for future games like the inevitable Splatoon 4-
Just change Salmon Run so Big Run is the default. As sad as it would be to lose the stages that take place in the Salmonoid territory, I think story-wise for morality, the best way to keep Salmon Run while acknowledging the harm it does, is to make it so that Salmon Run is only played when Salmonoids are invading the inklings territory, so it's more a form of self defense instead of actively invading their territory. This isn't a perfect solution, I admit. And I'm not saying they should remove Salmon Run and only ever use Big Run, what I'm saying is Salmon Run should only take place on Big Run stages, OR, they could make new stages for areas that are near-constantly under threat from Salmonoid invasion, perhaps stages that have been removed from multiplayer and didn't make it into Splatoon 3, that could be a story explanation as to why.
I dunno. I prefer the creativity of Big Run stages to normal Salmon Run stages personally, I think it'd be a lot better both story-wise and gameplay-wise. But yeah. In my opinion I think that's one of the biggest missed opportunities with Splatoon 3's involvement of Salmon Run and Mr Grizz into the story mode. I really wish they actually addressed it.
