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Splatoon 2 dev team talks about the series' music, origins of ideas, Octolings, and much more
Famitsu recently featured an interview with some members of the Splatoon 2 dev team. They shared all sorts of interesting tidbits about the game's development, which have been detailed below.
- Splatoon 2 was in development alongside updates for Splatoon on Wii U
- the Octo Expansion was in development alongside Splatoon 2 update
- the Chirpy Chips song “Blitz It” is the band trying to reach for new horizons with their music
- the band took a hiatus between Splatoon and Splatoon 2, explaining their absence until the 3.00 update
- Wet Floor and Bottom Feeders debuted in Splatoon 2 in order to offer different styles of music compared to the first game
- by Ver. 3.00, they decided to strike a balance by bringing back a band from the first game
- Squid Squad, the band who created “Now or Never!,” disbanded between Splatoon and Splatoon 2
- each member wanted to pursue solo careers and work with other artists
- there is a possibility of the Squid Squad reforming at some point
- the bands of the previous game have left a mark on inkling culture of today
- Wet Floor’s guitarist girl was influenced by Squid Squad, while Ink Theory’s jazz tunes were influenced by Hightide Era
- the dev team discussed playing as Octolings at the start of Splatoon 2 development
- they decided against it, as they thought it would be confusing to players if Octolings were to suddenly appear
- the Octo Expansion was developed as a way to make players sympathize with the Octolings
- Octo Expansion’s stages were not created with practice for Ranked Matches in mind
- Octo Expansion also contains a lot of leftover ideas from Splatoon’s Hero Mode campaign
- C.Q. Cumber isn’t a bad person, he’s just doing his duty
- Agent 8 doesn’t die from the explosion, as they just respawn like Inklings do in Turf War and other battle modes
- in the final few stages, if Agent 8 dies there, they really die
- restarting those stages is actually something like rewinding time
- the CQ Point system was developed as a check-and-balance for the mainly trial-and-error gameplay in the Deepsea Metro
- it was implemented to add tension to the experience, not difficulty
- it also creates a choice on which route to take for the player and also some interaction with Off the Hook
- there were originally around 150 ideas submitted by the staff, which ended up being narrowed down to 80 stages
- Ink & Watch Station was one that was quite popular among the staff
- Girl Power Station was found to be quite challenging within the staff
- the director wanted the Octoling Boy’s default hairstyle to be an afro, but the afro doesn’t change the Octoling’s hitbox
- amiibos were decided for the Octolings quite early in Octo Expansion’s development
- the staff thought that the Octolings were cute, which is why they were picked for amiibo
- the Octolings in Octo Canyon are confirmed to be a little bit older than Agent 8, which is why they look a bit different
- only elite Octoling Girls become the troops that Agent 4 fights in Hero Mode
- Octotroopers are different from regular Octolings, though they are still Octarians
- there is only one Agent 8
- the other Octolings you see in Inkopolis Square found another route to come up to above-ground
- Agent 8 is also a different character from Agent 4.
- the poems in the Mem Cakes received underground are from Agent 8’s perspective
- the ones based on things they couldn’t have seen before are actually their imaginations
- these are based on the magazine at the back of the Deepsea Metro
- Octarian-related Mem Cakes are their own memories
- the four Thangs are replaced at their respective spots every time a test subject enters The Promised Land
- the Sanitized enemies in Octo Expansion are something like zombies, having lost their will in the process
- Inoue drew a short 30-page manga regarding the events in the final sequence of Octo Expansion
- the idea for Octo Expansion’s final boss is something that Amano had wanted to do since the first Splatoon
- Nogami also confirms that Octo Expansion and Hero Mode occur around the same time
- Inoue and Nogami discussed how any plot sequences going forward will take into account the Octolings
- all online-related functionality will require Nintendo Switch Online
- software and gear updates will still be free, as well as single player and local multiplayer
- Inkling plays and moves in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has been left up to the Smash development team and director