Splatoon co-director Tsubasa Sakaguchi has explained why his team decided to use squids instead of Mii characters for the upcoming third-person shooter. The developer was initially unsure of what type of character should be at the center of the game, but as the concept solidified, Nintendo opted for squids due to their unique characteristics. Similarly, the firm recently revealed why Splatoon wasn’t built around an established property.
“So as we started adding different elements, like the ability to swim through the ink very quick, or the idea that you would get stuck in another player’s ink, or you would be able to climb the walls and stuff. After we added all of those abilities, it became a really fun game, then we realized: ‘Oh, and they should just be squids,’” Sakaguchi said.
Splatoon Mii edition confirmed
DERp
I don’t care. I usually find Mii’s annoying. They get the lowest of just about anything in any game they’re in and they are pretty much useless outside of games. I wish I could customize my person a little more with clothes and stuff and have their own hub world in the main menu or whatever. Kind of like PS Home. That’d be cool. Anyways, I’m glad the generic Mii isn’t there. :/
according to devs ur going to be able to to customize the squid characters, already more interesting then the miis…can these replace miis?
Are you sure you’re not talking about Animal Crossing?
I think this teaches us something that often goes unmentioned; that as long as the concept of the game is different, the imagery is unimportant.
Take Super Mario for example, main series games are platformers that obey certain parameters, but spin-offs like Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario & Luigi or Paper Mario are entirely different concepts glossed over with characters and items from the Mario franchise.
It wouldn’t be hard to make up characters and items for each of these franchises and just have them be their own thing, which brings me to the accusation that Nintendo overuses franchises.
Even if the brand recognition is indeed abused, the games often end up being very different in concept, and thus it becomes moot to bitch about the imagery, you’re still getting a fresh experience, it just happens to have the same face as another game.
Thus, as long as Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, StarFox, Pokemon, etc. continue evolving there’s no need to create several new IPs, that would just be a cosmetic makeover, in the end all games fall into genres and categories, many of which Nintendo already has covered.
Splatoon shows us that the only time Nintendo needs new IPs is when they’re entering an entirely new realm, and even then, they could have just used characters from an existing franchise and it wouldn’t diminish the uniqueness of the concept.
Well said. Sometimes games would be better off as new ip’s though. Take starfox adventures. I feel like that would’ve been a more accepted game if it hadn’t been starfox.
You are right it would probably be legend of zelda lol
Starfox adventures was so underrated, it could have been a really unique Zelda game.
I HATED Star Fox Adventures. Everything in it was SO boring! The only cool part was that final battle with Andross.
Agreed, it’s probably tied with Lylat Wars to me…
I just loved going around discovering the Dinosaur World and the soundtrack was just epic…
They really should have switched the roles with Fox being the “damsel-in-distress” with Krystal being the knight in shining armor coming to the rescue. This way the game would still have a big name tied to it, but it would also set itself as a spin off of Star Fox since you won’t be controlling Fox himself but Krystal. Which in turn would mean everything about the game could still remain the same.
But in the end, I’m happy with what Star Fox Adventures tried to do. Sure it wasn’t a big hit with the more hardcore Star Fox fans but it was a good enough game for me. So that’s all that really matters to me. If we get GCN VC for Wii U, I hope Star Fox Adventures is one of the games. Who knows, maybe people that hated the game back when it first came out will actually enjoy it for what it was if & when they give it a 2nd chance.
Starfox Adventures was my first game in the series. I thought it was great. The game’s story was actually pretty long for me and that was awesome! Although, I found it near impossible for me to beat it without a walkthrough. XD Too much stuff to do. Lol.
You are lucky then. I didn’t have access to the internet during the Gamecube era, so I had to rely solely on my own skill.
Oh & the soundtrack was indeed very epic. Just like The Legend of Zelda & Donkey Kong Country soundtracks.
I prefer mature games. Games that are designed for mature audiences with themes and content UN-suitable for children. The Zelda games could be played by children.
Yes because games like Battlefield and Call of Duty are soooooo mature….. even though almost all of their audience is actually kids…. oh the irony
nope again you lying to yourself. most people play mature games and also kids may also play those games because they sick of playing nintendo rehashes. you do know not everyone is manchild like you?
Again the fucking ape has EVERYTHING backwards.
OH RALLY??? :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhpXYjmYbrI
Quit lying to yourself.
anything could be played by children (and in many cases often is.. seen lots of 14 year olds play COD) also usually they’re the only ones setting mature only games on their “must have” list because it’s forbidden to them
the question is whether you let them
I don’t mean that it LOOKS kiddy. Like I said I meant the themes of the game, the themes that kids will never understand. The closest Zelda game that even slightly touches that is TP, and it really did so badly
If there is one game that is mature theme wise it’s Majora’s Mask…
That game has such an original story it makes everything else just expose itselves as generetic garbage…
Generetic?
Generic, excuse my bad typing…
Well mature like TLOU (maybe), BioShock 1-Infinite.
incidentally that’s exactly how nintendo EADs work.. it’s intentional
they make up new gameplay ideas and then they try to find a character they already have with which they can make it fit… if they can’t find one they collect those snippets until eventually they may open up a whole new IP with it
personally i like that approach.. it means that good and unique gameplay is far more important to them than anything else
we have enough publishers already who would take the same basic gameplay concept and just slap a new name, story and protagonist on it
sometimes those games turn out to be just interactive movies where the gameplay feels painted on.. nintendo makes actual games.. every time
Are they saying they couldn’t make Miis turn into squids? Because that doesn’t make sense.
Maybe it was more of, that squid turning in to a Mii wouldn’t had made much sense.
Now those kids kinda looks like they turned from squid to human.
They’re using Squids instead of Miis. Learn how to read.
The human-like characters turn into squids when they enter the ink asshole. They can easily just make a Mii turn into a squid.
Why won’t Nintendo remake Baby Park… :(
Off topic, but man this really needs to come to Wii U. It’s freaking gorgeous man! Why is there no port? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggpBtOnq_AA
A game many says takes only 4-5 hours to complete, I don’t want such lackluster games on our sacred machine…
This is the Phantom Pain. The one you are referring to is Ground Zeroes. This takes way longer…
I never thought about the Miis, I would love to play as my Mii and have it turn into a squid and shoot ink
That would be kind of weird. Lol.
The only thing you need to worry about is me shooting ink at your base…
For a $5 indie title this game looks alright
You can say that about most of the games in the PS4 Exclusive library….
don’t buy it then
Never said I would. The character models are boring, uninteresting, dull, and bland. It doesn’t look like much effort was put into creating them. Nothing sets these characters apart at all.
Like 100% of all the Sonyan characters…
Our empire actually has variety, dear sir. Platformers, shooters, action adventure, etc.
You were talking about character models, not genres…
The characters too
Yes but you replied with neither of those, instead you resorted to genres for some reason…
So now I’m saying the characters have variety too. Get it?
Variety yes, having an impact on people just like Link, Samus, Mario or Pikachu they aren’t even close…
Are characters over 25 years old comparable to ones that debuted only last generation?
funny .. nintendo serves the same genres
Sony makes the definitive versions of those genres
sure ;)
that’s why nintendo’s games continuously get the higher scores on metacritic i suppose
Like how LittleBigPlanet scored higher than 3D World, Uncharted 2 scored higher than both Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess, and Killzone 2 scored higher than Metroid Prime 3?
hey i’m all for new characters, there’s enough games that exclusively use miis already
they could have made them a bit more distinct though
give them a personality sort of like team fortress.. makes them less replaceable
There is customization options, but not sure to what extent.
i’m not talking about customization i’m talking about personality
the miis obviously don’t have one but these characters could
Would that really add anything to the game?
not necessarily to the game but to a new franchise in general
do you think mario or link having a personality adds something to the game?
they could then reuse these characters for future games.. not necessarily a shooter
Well, this way you can decide the personality of the character that you create.
I never thought Mario as a personality.
Fat Italian plumber who jumps on my commands.
Though I haven’t played Mario since NES.
And best you could get on Wii U games has been few cheerful words out of him when you win.
As for Link, pretty much the same story, I’ve only played it on handhelds, and now WW HD. The games haven’t forced any personalities to me, left it more up to a players imagination..
you don’t need characters to speak in order for them to have a personality
Mario, Link, & Samus are examples of characters with something of a personality even when they don’t speak in most, if not all, of their games.
I’m tired of Miis to be honest…
im upset that mii’s are playable in smash bros instead of different characters with their moves but miis have had hit games and fans so it makes sense. im glad they went with new characters in this game though. putting miis in so many games just doesnt make it fun at all for me
miis allow you to play as yourself. Honestly, how can you complain about that?
This game is already annoying to begin with. You’re like shooting the ground instead of shooting other people most of the time. It doesn’t take skill and talent like halo to be good at this game. They better make a mode where we are shooting at each other or else this will be another Nintendo failure.
You don’t have to shoot the ground if you don’t want to. You can always just hunt down people & shoot them. But have fun getting killed by people that are being strategic by placing ink about & hiding in it then ambushing you as you come strolling by in plain view because you didn’t want to spray the ground to make sure it’s safe to come into the perimeter.
This game is definitely not on my “BUY” list. It don’t look like my cup of tea.
at lest it looks colourful
You know this was a major segment of the Splatoon e3 presentation weeks ago…?