Nintendo explains why Splatoon's Octolings are hurt by water, New York City inspiration in Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion

Nintendo has put together another internal interview, this time discussing the world of Splatoon 2 with producer Hisashi Nogami. In the snippets below, translated by NintendoEverything, we learned about why Octolings are hurt by water, as well as how New York City inspired the world of the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion.

Why Octolings are hurt by water

The concept behind these creatures is that they evolved to be able to transform, and at one point in that evolutionary process they lost the ability to live in the water. The Octolings evolved in the same way that the Inklings did, like their skin is a little too thin for the water now – that’s why they can transform – but just like the Inklings they can’t swim in water anymore.

Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion inspirations

We were inspired by a lot of things, but we tend to start with thinking about the gameplay. Online battles are really the basis for Splatoon gameplay, and they take place out in mostly open areas, under the sun, in a bright and colorful world, right? We want to differentiate game modes by art style, so when we were designing Salmon Run we decided to make it a little creepier, so that’s why it’s always on the verge of twilight.

When we started thinking about Octo Expansion, we wanted to take the art in another new direction. You’ll find that it’s usually a little darker and quieter in the new mode – those are the elements we started with, which led us to think of the subway setting. Down deep underground there isn’t as much happening as there is up and above ground – things move slower down there – so in a certain way it’s like time has stopped. The objects are dated and nostalgic – they’re from another time. The characters also speak with antiquated slang. We thought a lot about the New York subway system and we referenced that particular mood it has when we were designing the world.