Dear Reader:
Nintendo explains the darker tone/vibe of Splatoon 2's upcoming Octo Expansion DLC
The world of Splatoon seems to be a rather bright and cheery one, but the trailer for the upcoming Octo Expansion certainly seems to have a bit of a darker tone. In an interview with GameSpot, Splatoon 2 producer Hisashi Nogami discussed Nintendo's approach with this darker content.
This might be just sort of one of our particular traits as developers, but we start by creating this well-built exterior to our games. But I think that, in the worlds we create, we strive to also have interesting inner content. For example we started with the gameplay necessity of a character that could transform, and we wound up with these humanoid characters that can transform into squids and vice versa.
But then we had to answer the question: "Why would they do that? What type of world would they live in?" That's where imagination comes in. So maybe it would be that these squids lived in some sort of far-future world, where humanity doesn't exist anymore, where it's met some sort of end. This was their world that they had evolved into. You think of things like that as you go along.
That ability to give this thing we've created an interesting inner world comes from the amount of energy we spend trying to answer that question: "What would their world look like?" And after creating the characters: "How will they live?" Focusing on answering those questions, it's not that we necessarily set out to create something with darkness inside of it or with those darker sides you were mentioning, but with depth. We wanted to make this world feel alive, like it has purpose, and to make it feel convincing.
Just like real life, you don't live every single day with the same attitude. You're not smiling and laughing every day of your life. In the same sort of way, we give that feeling to our world; it's not simply bright colors and fun times. There are variations in the emotions in this world that it feel more convincing and draw people in further.
We actually have a phrase in Japan: "dark Nintendo" or "the dark side of Nintendo." It's something the players have said, but I remember Mr. Iwata saying it as well. It's not something that we're spending too much time trying to make sure our games are edgy and dark, but that we want them to be believable. We want them to feel like they have heft and weight to them.
It's something that hovers in the background in order to give characters that three-dimensional feeling.