Splatoon 2 - Massive Famitsu interview talks development, balancing, character designs, music, and much more

Famitsu recently hosted an interview with some of the Splatoon 2 dev team. The team members included in the interview are listed below.

– Producer Hisashi Nogami
– Director Yusuke Amano
– Director / art director Seita Inoue
– Director and lead programmer Shintaro Sato
– Sound director Toru Minegishi

The devs discussed all sorts of topics about Splatoon 2, which we've been broken into bulletpoints below. The translation comes courtesy of NintendoEverything.

- the team has been adding weapons one by one because they want the same amount of attention for each weapon
- the team learned that when they added two new weapons at once, one would end up getting overshadowed by the other
- there were more new stages than returning stages because bringing back old stages would have little surprise
- since they want to satisfy both new and returning players, they changed the order of stage additions
- there weren't any major direction changes in balancing from Splatoon 1
- there have been more pattern combinations between weapons and stages, so there was more involved to balance them all
- matchmaking is handled by getting 8 players with similar rank points, and then they're split by weapons
- the rank point gap between S+ players is bigger than ordinary players
- only about one in 1,000 active players are in the S+40 to S+50 region in Ranked Battles
- there's even less than one in 10 players that reach S+, while 80% of the overall player base are in A or less
- about 90% of S+ ranked players are within a +/-150 hidden ranked power range
- rock was the popular genre in Splatoon, so they tried changing it for the sequel
- they prioritized making good background music first before forming the band to play that music
- the design team would make the CD jacket-like artwork afterwards
- due to this, the band members would often change; some getting added while some others removed
- Off the Hook is an exception, as they first decided they would be a DJ and rapper along with their visuals first
- Off the Hook's song came afterwards
- In Splatoon street fashion was the trend, but in Splatoon 2 they tried adding more uniqueness
- the aim was to add Flow with ethnic clothing and Jelfonzo with high fashion
- all Jellyfish in this world are born by splitting, which means Jelfonzo was born by splitting from Jelonzo
- Jellyfish are like a hive mind
- when they hold a wedding ceremony, they’re just simply holding the ceremony
- Jelonzo and Jelfonzo start gaining their own consciences so they can speak
- Flow used her working holiday to go on a trip before reaching Inkopolis Square
- during the trip, she met the owner of Headspace
- the owner liked her, so she got hired to work there
- Bisk has a unique way of speaking: anastrophe
- the team tried to express him as an adult man
- they made him into a giant spider crab because they wanted someone with high posture
- he came from a cold country and broke up with his girlfriend to join a band
- just like Flow, he became attracted to squids
- Crusty Sean finally has his own shop, but he opened it because he’s someone who follows the current trends
- one of the trends happens to be people opening their own shops
- drink tickets aren't stacked, but the probability is higher than a single brand
- the music in Inkopolis Square changes depending on the player’s location
- sounds contribute to creating atmosphere in the location
- the song at front of Grizzco Industries had an atmosphere that feels like some smell can radiate from the game screen
- as for Salmon Run, they imagined it as a Japanese restaurant outside Japan that is not run by a Japanese person
- each time the player moves between the shops, the game uses an arrange shift that shows the personality of each inhabitant
- the arrangement in Shella Fresh is related to Bisk’s guitar and mystery files that describe his past
- with the Squid Sisters moved to Hero Mode, Off the Hook was put in charge in guiding battles and festivals
- Bomb Rush Blush has an orchestra “because it would sound like the final boss”
- the team wanted to express the feel of the story’s real culprit with this music
- the probability of each event occurring in Salmon Run is different
- there are no specific requirements, meaning they're picked randomly
- this means it's possible for fog to appear three times in a row
- the Salmon have different appearances based on the environment they’re raised in
- if the environment is harsher, they would become large salmon
- Steelheads and Maws have big bodies, while Scrappers and Steel Eels have high intelligence
- Salmons basically wield kitchenware, but everybody else has a virtue in fighting to actually cook the Salmons
- Grill is the ultimate form of this
- when Salmons are fighting to the death, they can feel the same sense of unity
- they would be one with the world if they were eaten by other creatures, and they also fight for the pride of their race
- MakoMart is based on a large supermarket in America
- the update also took place on Black Friday in America, which was why Squids are buying a lot of things in the trailer
- Arowana Mall looks like it has more passages because there are changes in tenants and also renovation work
- Walleye Warehouse has no changes at all, because the team wanted to have at least one map that stayed intact
- the only thing different in this map is the graffiti, which is based on the winner of Famitsu’s Squid Fashion Contest
- all members in the band Ink Theory graduated from music university
- they are well-educated girls who also do aggressive things
- the band members wearing neckties are respecting the Hightide Era from the prequel
- the team will continue adding weapons and stages for a year, and Splatfests for two years
- the team will also continue to make more updates including balancing