So instead of talking about a game that is just an improved version of it's predecessor, we're reviewing Splatoon 2: The Octo Expansion, which has enough "new" stuff to talk about without just copy-pasting my review of the first game. And before anyone asks just what the deal with Splatoon as a franchise is, it's Nintendo's first original IP since 2000's Pikmin. It's a bright, colorful, and lighthearted take on the shooter genre, but it isn't afraid to get surprisingly creepy and dark. The general premise of Splatoon is that it takes place 12,000 years after the destruction of humanity, in which a society of anthropomorphic squids called the Inklings take their place as the dominant creature on the planet. The Inklings are a culture that are perpetually trapped in the 90's and as such their fashion and mannerisms reflect that time period, presumably because Yusuke Amamo and Tsubasa Sakaguchi (the co-directors of the franchise) are 90's kids. They also fight using ink-themed weapons. Which kind of makes sense, since the Inklings can swim in any ink they shoot out.
Anyway, Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion is a DLC pack that, despite being designed for a multiplayer shooter, is almost entirely a single-player experience. But one of my favorite things about Splatoon is the amount of effort put into lore and world-building, and because of that Inkopolis is one of three fictional worlds I would gladly live in (the others being the Harry Potter universe and the world of Pokemon). And Octo Expansion does a great job fleshing out the lore, and even bringing in minor elements from the first game's backstory into the spotlight.
The story begins with the most terrifying close-up of Captain Cuttlefish you will ever see. Like, seriously, it made me jump a little because I was not expecting Cuttlefish's face to take up the entire screen. Anyway, he stumbles across an unconscious Octoling (the Inklings' evil counterparts). And as the name of the DLC implies, this Octoling is your character (and yes, you can customize their appearance). They has both amnesia and a newfound moral compass, thanks to The Squid Sisters concert during the final battle of the first game's story (the song the Squid Sisters sung is implied to have magical properties). So they and Cuttlefish agree to work together until they can find a way out of an abandoned subway station that is eerily similar to Aperture Labs from Portal.
After wandering around a bit they encounter a telephone. By itself. In the middle of a decrepit, wasting subway station. If this DOESN'T set off alarms in your brain, you are a very trusting person. Anyway the telephone tells the Octoling (given the moniker Agent 8 by Cuttlefish) that not only are they located in Kamabo Corporation, which is thousands of miles below the surface, but also by passing some tests for Kamabo Corp. they will reach "The Promised Land". Oh, and the telephone speaks almost exclusively in outdated slang. Which creates this feeling of unease, as the telephone is using comical speech patterns to preach about an unreachable paradise, not unlike a cultist. But from what I gather, I was one of the few that felt unsettled by the telephone, most people just brushed it off as a quirky gag (thanks to the previous campaigns doing something similar) on their first playthrough.
Completely oblivious to the sketchiness of the Telephone, Agent 8 and Cuttlefish set out to collect The Four Thangs, which are apparently the key to "The Promised Land". And yes, you did read that correctly. The main collectibles of this game are literally called Thangs. And anyone with five brain cells (or more) will be able to tell what they are by the time they've gotten half of them. But they are not the only collectibles you got to round up. You also have to collect Mem Cakes, small plushies that contain a fragment of Agent 8's memories, albeit in the form of a haiku. For those of you who don't know what haiku is, it's a kind of poetry originating from Japan. The general idea of haiku poetry is that it has to be seventeen syllables long, with three lines. Usually haiku invokes the artistic beauty of the natural world, but here, it's a fun little thing that gives insight to Agent 8's life prior to The Squid Sisters concert. But what happens if you get all the Mem Cakes? You unlock some neat outfits to customize your character in multiplayer matches. Well that, and an optional boss battle against a familiar face from the very first game, but that would head into spoiler territory, and I'm trying to keep this review spoiler-free. All you need to know is that this boss is so difficult compared to the rest of the game that it has earned comparisons to Sans the Skeleton from UNDERTALE, the Lingering Will from Kingdom Hearts, and Nightmare King Grimm from Hollow Knight, all of whom are video game characters famous for their optional, but still very brutal boss battles.
To get both the Thangs and the Mem Cakes, Agent 8 will need to pass tests as s/he explores the Kamabo Corp. Subway System. And this is how Octo Expansion handles it's level progression. Each level is a test (of which they are 80), all of which are connected by a subway line. The tests often have wildly varied objectives that can range from "Get to the Goal" to "survive for three minutes without weapons, armor, cover, or any chance to heal" to "play some pinball". There's a lot of variety here, and they are, for the most part, well designed and fun to play. There are some tests that I feel are needlessly difficult, such as the aforementioned "don't get hit" test, but they are all very much doable.
And even if you fail a particular test repeatedly, you can always ask Marina the I.T. girl/news reporter/Pop Idol (she has a lot of jobs) to hack the test chamber's systems to basically let you skip that specific test. Perfect for little kids who never played a platformer or a shooter before, people who are handicapped and as such struggle with reaction speeds and hand-eye coordination, inexperienced casual gamers who only recently picked up the hobby, and mainstream video game journalists (Type F in the comments to pay respects to Cuphead). Doing this will "reward" you with a faded Mem Cake, monochrome versions of the regular Mem Cakes that hold almost no value. While they do count towards the outfit unlocks, not only do you miss out on some great Octoling haiku/lore but you also can't access the bonus boss without getting every Mem Cake legitimately. All that said, I do like this mechanic, because Hollow Knight, although a fantastic game, taught me a valuable lesson; Some games simply can't be enjoyed by everyone by the nature of the game's design. There are plenty of gamers out there that mock casuals who only play on lower difficulty settings and then complain about easy video games not have a hard mode (RIP Kingdom Hearts III). Those same players also never want an "easy" mode in games that are intended to be more challenging. And while I do understand that having multiple difficulty settings is a whole lot more, well, difficult than many would assume (you essentially have to remake the entire game for every difficulty setting you have in your game), I am of the opinion that video games should take less-skilled, handicapped, or inexperienced gamers into consideration. And no, Cuphead literally blocking off the final area from easy mode players was not okay.
One criticism I have of The Octo Expansion is it's C.Q. Points system. Once Agent 8 begins the adventure fully, you have to pay a toll using C.Q. Points (rewarding by completing tests, destroying enemies, and grabbing salmon eggs) to attempt a test. You have to repay that toll if you get a Game Over on it as well. If you can't afford to retake that specific test, you have to grind C.Q. Points until you can do so. I really don't like this system, because it forces unnecessary grinding that brings overall progression to a screeching halt. It's especially bad on the later tests, which cost anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 C.Q. Points per attempt, which eats away at your Point total surprisingly quickly. But aside from a mechanic that artificially inflates playtime for an experience that's longer than both of the story campaigns for Splatoon and Splatoon 2 combined, the gameplay is solid, the controls are tight (though I did have to tone down my camera sensitivity. And no, didn't play with motion controls. Because I hate motion controls with a burning passion), and the level design is top-notch.
As for presentation, Splatoon 2 was always a little darker in aesthetic compared to the first game. And while Octo Expansion keeps the exaggerated cartoony character designs with over-the-top facial expressions and vibrant inky colors, it somehow manages to be even darker in style to vanilla Splatoon 2. Agent 8's design is customizable, and as such your opinion will vary on this, but the male model's hair style options (of which there are only two) don't look good, at all. The first is a mohawk (made of tentacles), and the other is an afro (made of... whatever the big bulby thing octopodes have on their heads). I personally dislike the way both of these looks, though I will admit that the afro is at the very least amusing to look at the first time around. But I played as a female Octoling precisely because the female hairstyles actually look decent while the male hair styles look kind of bad. A petty complaint, yes, but this whole blog exists for me to share my heavily biased opinions on video games, films and (assuming I can get my review of Wings of Fire published in the near future) books.
The music in Octo Expansion is fantastic. But then again, I love the overall style of music this franchise uses of mixing techno with pop and wrapping it up in lyrics sung in a fictional language that at the end of the day is just random gibberish. That's not a bad thing though, because Splatoon's soundtrack has always had a unique identity that stands out almost as much as the ink we battle with. The standout songs being the track that plays during stealth-focused tests, and of course the song that was teased during the reveal, Nasty Majesty. Now, Nasty Majesty became my favorite Splatoon song the moment I heard it in the trailer, and now having listened to the full version (which plays during the final test) I really want it in Smash Bros. Like seriously, why Nasty Majesty isn't in the Smash Bros OST is a mystery to me. But why do I like this song? It's jazzy, spunky, has those sweet gibberish lyrics that I love, best exemplifies what the whole franchise is about, but most importantly, it. HAS. A. RAP VERSE. Yes, there's a rap verse in a Splatoon song. to be fair, one of the main characters (Pearl) is literally a professional rapper, so it was only a matter of time before rap became incorporated into the soundtrack. But in all seriousness, Nasty Majesty is a song that everyone deserves to be listened to, even if you have no intention of playing Octo Expansion. It is that good.
Overall, The Octo Expansion is a worthy investment of $20. It offers a fair challenge for veteran gamers, provides options so casuals and handicapped gamers can still enjoy it, fleshes out the lore, and has some awesome music and level design. The only thing holding it back are the C.Q. Points system being unnecessary and arguably the less impressive hairstyles for male Octolings. With that being said I give 8 hyperactive squid-kids out of 10. And not just because the whole DLC pack has a bizarre obsession with the number eight, I'm legitimately ranking it 8/10.
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