Splatoon 2 dev team shares more on Rank X, Salmon Run, Octolings, music, and much more

The amount of active players in Rank X is a bit more than the initial players who were S+ 10 and above. Though this number is stabilized as Rank X power is reset every month and people with low power ratings get demoted. They explain the reason for why more people are in rank X is because more S+'s are trying to aim for it.

Compared to the first Splatoon, the percentage of the active playerbase who are Rank X is lower than the ratio in Splatoon 1's S+. (This could still mean that there're more people in S2's Rank X than S1's S+, as it's percentages.)

The amount of people in Rank X is around the same for each mode except Clam Blitz with the lowest percentage, probably as it was introduced later in the game.

Music

When designing the music they thought that time has moved on and the trends and style of music have changed. This is expressed by having different bands appear, but when version 3.0.0 came along they wanted to balance that with a band from the previous game appear with Chirpy Chips.

Squid Squad has appearently disbanded since then, with each member pursuing ther own career. The developers didn't rule out them reforming the band again, though.

Squids/Inklings easily lose interest and forget about old stuff; they quickly turn their attention and interest to new trends instead.

In-universe, Ink Theory was inspired by Hightide Era.

Salmon Run?

They still wish to do something with Salmon Run and ask us to wait around. (Spoilers: Datamines might suggest that there is another stage in the works based on the names of some objects and parameters, and might have ride rails as gimmicks?)

Octolings and Agent 8

They planned Octolings since the start of Splatoon 2's development. However they didn't want to have Octolings suddenly be playable without an explanation, and wanted to find a way that could both explain that, get the player to empathize with the Octos and Off the Hook, which became the result of Octo Expansion.

(A previous interview with the developers suggests that playable Octolings were even considered back in Splatoon 1, even before people modded the game to have playable Octolings.)

Inklings and Octolings are also contrasted with their different personalities, with Octoling being more serious and diligent while squids are more carefree and pleasure-seeking.

The Inklings are more boyish/tomboyish, while Octolings are more sexy. (Refering to how their movements are different, e.g. even Octoboys swing their hips when walking compared to Inkboys who don't.)

Art director Inoue wanted the afro to be the default hairstyle for the Octoling boy. He would even personally be fine if it was the only hairstyle for the boy.

(This is futher evidenced by all of the concept art of the Octoling boy, recently shown in the Splatoon Exhition, only has him with the afro. Here are some concept art of it and what even appears as the female 8 having an afro.)

The afro doesn't change the hitbox.

The specific Octoling troops fought in Octo Canyon are slightly older than Agent 8, and only elite Octoling girls become the specific Octoling troops encountered in single-player.

Confirms that the player characters are around 14 years old. (In an interview a month prior to this one, the developers state that it's between 14-16 years old.)

Confirms that other Octolings, who aren't Agent 8, came to Inkopolis through different route than 8, such as Marina not having been through the Deepsea Metro when coming to Inkopolis.

The events of Octo Canyon and Octo Expansion happen around the same time.

As squids are easy-going/inattentive they don't notice that the Octos are coming.

Confirms that Agent 4 and 8 are two different people, if anyone were having doubts.

Development

The people who worked on Octo Canyon also worked for the level design of Octo Expansion. Since they didn't want to overcomplicate Octo Canyon with too many different objectives they had to scrap some ideas, which were later used in the Expansion.

Splatoon 2's director Amano has never failed Girl Power Station.

The Octoling amiibo were planned early in development, compared to how other amiibo are made as the company usually likes to gauge popularity before deciding to make amiibo.

Octo Expansion spoilers

Agent 8 and test subjects

Confirms that Agent 8 doesn't respawn/dies if the player gets splatted during the Escape Phases. During multiplayer battles and the test stations you get resurrected at the respawn points, but failing during the Escape and choosing to continue playing just has the player "go back in time" to when Agent 8 still was alive.

Says that C.Q. Cumber isn't a bad guy but just does his duty. (This is a responce to a question about C.Q. Cumber judging the player's actions and explodes Agent 8 for failing tests.)

The mem cakes are Agent 8's thoughts; Some of them are based on experience/memory while others are thoughts about how Agent 8 imagines Inkopolis looks like, inspired by the Inkopolis magazine seen in the metro. So the things that Agent 8 hasn't experienced yet, but still have a mem cake for, are inspired by the magazine.

Agent 8's mem cake for Marina are memories, but they don't personally know each other; It's because Marina was a famous elite Octarian engineer.

There was a question that asked whether the mem cakes are kamaboko (Japanese fish cake made from pureed fish) or erasers. The developers said it was ok to think of it as an eraser.

The reason that test subjects such as Agent 8 get mem cakes from the facility is because it's supposed to give the them proof that the "promised land" is real and that they existed in it before.

The little bit of Calamari Inkantation that you can hear in the metro reflects Agent 8's mind as their memory is gradually coming back during the game (e.g. you can't hear at the start of the game, but as you progress through the missions, the background music changes and begins to include Calamri Inkantation in the mix. You can hear it here how it changes.).

When a test subject successfully collected all of the thangs and "reached the promised land", the thangs were put back to their original places for the next test subject every time.

The sanitized Octarians are created from the goo you see in the facility. It's a being/creature that lost it's sense of mind and self (identity).

Tartar and the facility

Confirms that Commander Tartar was created by the same person, who was Judd's owner.

The dog statue in Matchmaker Station is based on Judd's fur pattern.

Confirms that squids evolved naturally and not man-made by the science experiments.

The professor that made Commander Tartar wanted the next intelligent lifeforms not to repeat the same mistakes that humans did. But the AI spent 10000 years alone, which caused it to change its reasoning.

The tentacle sticking out of Commander Tarter, when its covered in goo, is the reminants of a blended octopus. The same (goo) is attached to Agent 3.

The other sea creatures on the train (the denizens of the deep) aren't necessarily test subjects. Iso Padre said that he tried it out. The Deepsea Metro is like a whole university town created by Kamabo Co. and people live there.

There is an entire society built there. Different passengers are riding different routes, such as there being a school students and a business area.

Kamabo Co. manages both the infrastructure around as well as doing the experiments.

Other

Since Pearl's voice can be quite strong and destructive, so she practiced in a remote area (likely Mount Nantai), which is where Pearl first met Marina.

Art director Inoue has a draft of the Octo Expansion story illustrated as a manga spanning about 30 pages. Here is a small image of it.