What team do you think is gonna come out on top in this new era? And I hope you enjoyed this type of video topic and style, I might do another similar to this on if competitive Splatoon is fun. Let me know if you want to see that.
Moonlight On Top RAHH I believe!! (No I'm not just saying that because you coach them now, I've always rooted for them alongside LR but since LR is gone (o7) they are now The team I'll always be rooting for) Also as a casual player who has slightly entered the comp scene I really enjoy hearing top players thoughts on the scene so I'm all for these types of video topics :D
I would love to see a video on if competitive Splatoon is fun, and if it has a noticeable impact on the casual scene based on what I've seen other comments saying.
Ironically, I feel like the terrible stage design actually contributed in raising the difficulty. With the streamlined stages and lack of flank routes, there's rarely a moment in S3 where you aren't having to win a fight or interact with an enemy in some capacity. Even playing as a backline feels more intense and you have to be more aware. Players are having to do more in their S3 matches to win than in S1 or S2. And by constantly doing more, they're having to learn more.
ACTUAL FACTS, I play both frontline and midline. I usually like fast kill weapons and used to be pretty decent at it, with the lack of well flanking and diverse terrain its harder for me to have fun finding weird routes to catch the enemy off guard…especially with the lack of paintable walls. 🧍 I also feel I’m terrible at using snipers now even though I did squiffy on stuff like Arowana mall. Like I go practice shooting feel good but when I enter a match I miss like all my shots. But thats probs me losing my fast response or something.💀
backline usualy feels less intense and u have to be less aware seen as theres usually only 1 route through mid, but i agree for most weapons it is very stressful and theres not much leniancy, it feels like u constantly in the thick of it
I think the higher skill ceiling has definitely been hitting the feel of the game just as hard as mechanics such as map design, kits, etc. It's not uncommon to see a returning player trying out splat3 and being completely taken aback by the fiercer competition. Even in turf war, the ceiling has gotten a lot higher from what I remember in the previous games.
Slightly wrong wording, that would be the skill floor rising where you're required to be at that level to be getting any results. Ceiling is rising up for sure but the issue we feel is the floor.
I definitely get caught off guard whenever I play turf war. It's insane how good the players are now compared to Splatoon 2, heck even early Splatoon 3.
This is something I’m experiencing right now. Played 2 competitively, played 3 at launch for a few months but just started playing again a few weeks ago after like a year of hiatus. I have just been doing turf war solo queue and I feel like I’m terrible all of the sudden and like i know nothing 😭
Splatoon 2 players have an edge here because they know how to fight without safe specials, meanwhile I'm still missing the Splatoon 1 levels of power that made 1v1s fun@@ShadowSkyX
It was one of the reasons why I took a break from Splatoon. Too many people being competitive in low levels of rank. Just getting to S+0 instantly means you get paired with X-level players. I decided it was best to take a break.
i havent played at all recently because theres just too much grinding thats required to be at a reasonable level of skill to feel like youre not just throwing every game you join, still interested in side order though
@@thehumanflintfun9666 bro its worse because i be hard carrying my team and still lose because my teammates dont even know wtf they are doing or are just bad at the game, if anything higher power lobbies are better
It’s not just top-level players that experience this, being stuck in low S+ and/or under 2100 X Power is brutal. I was never very competitive, but I still feel like I’ve fallen off somewhat, and it really sucks. I notice other players are experiencing the same thing, but whenever they ask for help or vent about it, they get told they’re shit, “skill issue”, etc. by higher level people. Overall, I’ve had to take a bit of a step back from Splatoon and play much more casually. I tried so hard to improve, but ultimately, all the work just burnt me out. I’ve even been enjoying turf war and salmon run as of late, it’s nice not to be stressed about it anymore
I feel it's also people being more openly toxic. I am a casual player that plays solo since Splatoon 1 and on a rank Match someone from My team recognized on a Splatoon server only to call me a sh*t player and to block them so they didn't have to see my horrible play style again. Soon found out most of the mods on that server had the same views...
Yeah, seriously, I'm 1600-1800 X (basically as low as you can get afaik) and fighting for my life out here 😭 I can't even get past S+0 this season, while I used to be S+4 and maybe could've gotten to 5 or 6 if I had committed to it I never played Splatoon 2, only 1. The contrast between 1 and 3 was so jarring in the beginning. I've gotten used to it now... except for Splatfests, which I swear were way more chill in 1 omg
I know it's not, in that same server I also found some sweet players. But for some reason the mods were just overall mean to anyone that dare make them lose, especially if they found them in there, they would name the player for everyone to see. So currently I mostly just play with friends and left that server.
@@user-my9ob9cd7q I understand that too well, I also didn't play 2 TvT so i went from 1 to 3. I always struggle the first month of the season to get pass S+1
Yeah with a game like splatoon, the skill ceiling is bound to be raised over time and I think that's just bound to happen with all the changes to the game that happen.
as a bad splatoon player i complete agree. I play since Splatoon 1 and was (still is) a casual player while still following from afar the meta qnd i was doing really decent actually. But since the start of Splatoon 3 i'm noticing my average win lowering more and more to a point where i can't even get my daily win in turf war (for the catalog) and in splatfest it's even more noticable i'm happy if i can win at least one x10 battle compared to before where i could almost reach a x100 match... In the current state I can't even play as casually as before now i only play at splatoon when i wanna (try) to get serious, before i just played for fun.(i still kinda do !) It's getting frustrating because the general lvl is uncatchable for me now so i'm stuck in a loop where i get worse and worse than other players. (that kinda apply to salmon runs and big run but ik it's not the topic of this video) ik it's mostly because i'm bad at the game but i find it sad because i still love splatoon so much but it's getting harder to enjoy...
This is what happened to me too! Because I can't play as much as I'd like, I can't improve at the game as much as I'd like to; and with the difficulty spike, even turf war has become so freaking hard to get a win to the point where its become frustrating to play sometimes. It sucks to feel that way about a game that I love so much.
Dont worry, youre not the only one. I swear the game was way less sweaty in 2. The only time I truly enjoy 3 is big run, even the splatfests feel too stressful now. Props to them for removing the % based prizing, it seems like theyre slowly starting to recognize there is a problem and that the casual audience cant keep up anymore.
It’s a huge problem. The ranks are just so hard to grind. I went through the B ranks fairly quickly and ranked up and I immediately lost a series because the people are just so good and it doesn’t make any sense. It hurts casual players the most because we will continue to struggle and it’s hard to use new weapons because of the skill requirement. Your not the only one who struggles.
I mainly play Salmon Run and thought I was going crazy whenever I went to turfwar and ranked modes. I'm glad others are talking about it, it feels like it changed so much so quickly. I was X Ranked the first two seasons but now S+ eats me alive.
I think this, coupled with the grind of the Catalog, is why I've been straying off from playing Splatoon 3 and going back to the games I usually play. I can't play multiple games with battle passes. At that point I have to pick one, because working multiple battle passes and grinds feels like working multiple jobs you don't even get paid minimum wage for all the time you invest.
@@chaosflash912 My hot take is that, if Nintendo insists of this semi battle pass we don't have to pay for (thankfully), they should let us work on whatever catalogue we want. Did we miss last season? Save the level we got to and give us the option to toggle the one we want to work on, whether it's the current season or any of the 5 we didn't quite complete months ago. That way, it builds a big completion goal that encourages replayability that players can chip at at their leisure, or just get the emotes/gear/whatever they specifically want. + it would allow new interesting final rewards tiers instead of just rehashing the gear players might've missed last year.
I agree, although the game I chose not to take a break from was Splatoon. Seriously though, developers need to keep in mind that some players have a life
With the Soloque rank decay, you have to remember that everyone else is moved down alongside you, which means to get to the same spot you were in before, you will be put up against people who were higher up than you. As was mentioned at the start of this video, that means you have to work and push harder to reach the same level you had before. I've seen firsthand how demoralizing this can be from a more casual level, and that's a big reason I dislike the rank decay. (I'm also not a fan of the more grindy nature that S3 has for rewards compaired to S2, especially the Salmon Run Treasure Scale shop)
i went to salmon run to escape the increasingly hair-pulling ranked and turf games and now i’m pulling my hair wondering why my entire team is dead 20 seconds into the king salmonid fight
Tbh, I really like the idea of the salmon run shop, in that it's cool to have some very long-term goals to keep me motivated to play. However alongside them, you need some short-term goals too 😭
Been playing nearly since the beginning with S1 in late 2015 casually up to 6 months ago and I used to consider myself to be within a margin of the top level of skill for casual players, so this is a perspective from that aspect... I dropped S3 fully after the ice cream splatfest because playing in turf war became a nigh-masochistic task. The skill floor has definitely raised up over time certainly and it really showed when I played on launch day where it felt like I faced people whom were perfectly equal to or above my skill level. Even now, nearly 6 months later, a return for a single match out of curiosity sake proved to be 3 minutes of torture for a barely 1% coverage victory. In contrast to how it used to be, I sometimes could walk across the entire map without once getting shot at in S2 and especially S1, but now that's impossible. People GENUINELY hunt you down even if you're purposefully avoiding them and it's maddening. I just wanna color the ground and sometimes splat someone if they really wanna challenge me since it is satisfying, but when attempting to walk one foot forward means a free ticket back to spawn every 10 seconds or I have to start SWEATING behind the screen physically just to barely beat someone in 1v1 by the skin of my teeth, it's frustrating, annoying, and completely kills any enjoyment that I could possibly get out of it. I have a job to worry about and trying to get better on the daily isn't something that tickles my fancy and many others who casually play this game have obligations to fulfill in priorities as well; more time than it's worth just to barely catch up, only to be outclassed maybe a couple weeks later in the hopes of MINIMAL enjoyment isn't how it should be. The maps have also been many steps down in S3 compared to the past, and though recent ones did improve a fair bit, it's still not where it needs to be and every map's center is a suffocation point until someone finds a way to slowly push through into enemy territory. This last bit may be false, but in S1 and 2, I could've sworn turf war had proper matchmaking in some form with teams typically being balanced skill-wise. In S3, it almost always felt like I was up against the best players in the world and the game prioritized just lobby making to get you in-game asap. This, I felt, made a huge disparity between both teams and I swear on my life that it is always making sure to match you with weaker players against splat-gods. Now, I know nothing about the comp side outside of it being way beyond anything I currently possess skill-wise, but with casual being bad enough to make pretty decent players such as myself quit entirely from frustrating matches, I can only imagine how it is for those in the comp scene dealing with the kind of heat it brings. Lots of respect to players like yourself, though I hope as you say, it eventually cools down. Splatoon should be a game everyone can enjoy- casual and competitive alike, and it would be nice to experience those chill turf war matches again in the likeness of S1 and 2.
I hate fighting people in turf that obviously are new to the game. And I hate fighting top 500 players. I’m desperate for a chill and fair fight. I always get giggly during fair fights and it’s so much fun. But those fights are super rare. I either demolish poor little kids or get demolished by a dude with 3000 hours.
@@13_cmithat is good that more new people are coming to the game and the patch and not being sarcastic and not spreading misinformation has seen a lot of positive feedback and the game is growing at a positive rate
I'm not a competitive player, but I'm definitely not a casual either. But I feel casual players have suffered a lot because of this. I've noticed these past few months that terf has gotten really bad. It's not a mode you can just go and do for fun. I'd much rather play anarchy or X over terf. At least with ranked, you are disinsentivised and actively punished for being too aggressive and pushing too far (unless the skill discrepancy is that wide between the two teams). Basically, you wanna avoid dying if possible. While in terf, the only part of the match that matters is the last 20-30 seconds. So you can be as aggressive, pushy and dying as much as you want, and so long as you get a good push/wipe in the last little bit, it really doesn't matter how good you play. That and because there are no rannks in terf, it's just everyone in one pool, it just accentuates S3's bad matchmaking even further.
Yeah, as someone who’s been playing since launch, I’ve noticed its much harder to get to where I was in previous seasons, especially with my main weapon being flingza and it not having a… great kit for what it wants to do (aside from missile spam which I dont do despite being a flingza main) I really think its a mix of bad maps (which are improving somewhat), higher skill ceilings, poor matchmaking, more people and new weapons and kits.
This is essentially why good speedrunners usually have the mindset of pushing the game to its limits rather than being the absolute best at it. Because that's the motivation to continue competing as it gets harder. That is a big reason why speedrunning doesn't feel pointless to them. And it is a part of the reason why speedrunning forms communities.
As a Div 3 player, this hits pretty close to home. I used to be able to preform adequately by practicing 3-4 times a week for about 2-3 hours. Now, it feels like a lot more effort has to be put into the game to learn all of the matchups and refining your mechanics alongside it
Just want to shout out The Ancient Vessel music at the beginning, definitely one of my favourite and also one of the most under-appreciated tracks in XC2. Kudos to the editor.
Actually, funny thing: The AverageTrey clip used that song as background footage and I thought it would just be easier to edit the rest of the intro section around the song. Saved me the trouble of thinking through which game to pull songs from :P
Realistically though that's another aspect that imo feels way too grindey. I think Nintendo really needs to overhaul how to get ability chunks, especially specific ones, and probably the cost of changing gear abilities. I have like 10+ outfits I'd in theory love to swap between, but only one that's pretty much completed atm, and I don't know if I'll ever customize any of the other outfits I'd ideally like to. I think Nintendo supposes you'll play more if you have to grind 100s of hours to fully customize gear, but actually that's one of the things that burns me out from Splat3, and I think I'd play more if I could get specifically the chunks I want and a reasonable timeframe to be able to customize gear. I mean hell even if they didn't change the prices of adding gear chunks, main or sub, which imo are a bit steep, just the ability to consistently grind the 45 chunks I need for mains or the 10-25-35 or whatever it is for subs (although you can cheese the sub abilities by dispersing chunks across your gear.) without RNG would be a godsend. Maybe have the ability drinks always give you the chunks you want, or have a higher star power on gear drastically increase the odds of getting chunks correlated the the gear brand, with 3 stars being over 50% and 4-5 being like 75-90 to 100% or something.
I’m finding Splatoon to be less fun because of this. I feel like I’m encountering way more X rank players in my games. I’m S, and I know we play together, but there’s so many more. I find myself losing more games and having less fun. Maybe it’s a skill issue, but I feel like it’s just how hard it’s gotten to be good at this game.
As one of the big scary X players, I feel bad at times about playing in regular ranked modes. The matchmaking doesn't really work at all except in mid-high x battles, so sometimes it feels like I'm forced to punch down. It isn't y'all's fault at all, the game just doesn't really try to put people of similar skill levels together until you get into X battles
@@odiepotes Thank you, I’m not even mad at the players. I’m mad at the matchmaking. I’m tired of going up against a team of silver X badges when on my team only I have the S+ badge.
I love Splatoon! It's one of my favorite franchises but I haven't played a game in the Splatoon series in months! I haven't gotten to X Battles, but Ranked and Turf War (especially in Splatfest) have become so difficult and hard to will myself to play the game. Even Salmon Run is difficult for me in S3! I feel like I've been getting curb stomped much more frequently than I did in S2 and S1. I'm just waiting for Side Order 'cause that seems like a game of its own that I have a chance of doing well and having fun in. EDIT: I finally played Splatoon 3 again, and I'm having fun!
The percentage thing is so true,in S2, even when going against a super strong team, no matter how snowballed the game was, if you team could coordinate at least once with armor and missiles, it always felt like you could turn the tables around
I picked up the game a week ago and it has been lowkey miserable - but I think a lot of that has to do with the player base containing very few casuals this long after release. I don’t think it was this bad in 2 a year out? But there are some real sweaty players in turf war. Playing casually with my SO, we routinely get matched with teams of players with 1.5 to 3k hours of collective experience and full builds. In 2 I feel like it was a lot more rare to see that. Also the specials just seem way stronger. Still fun to be had, but I miss 1 and 2. At least, I miss their player base and matchmaking
2 kicked my ass as a new player and i was shown no mercy. Thing is, "sweaty" players can't assume low level/default tags/badges equals children, or inexperienced players. You're inevitably going to lose and many players aren't going to coddle you; you could be any age or experience. Also its very likely no one coddled them either. The _only_ thing low levels/default tags/badges tell you is that they just started the game. That's it. Playing online is effectively entering boot camp when you're a brand new player in splatoon.
I know this is more of a competitive thing, but in terms of more casual levels, I'd say general kit things are also a big thing. In S2 for example, the first weapons you get are Jr with armour, a crutch, and Splattershot with burst splashdown, simple to understand. In S3, those same weapons have EXTREMELY skill based kits that are tricky to use. I feel like the skill floor in general has gone up a lot and there's not really easy mode “missile spam free low rank wins” weapons in the same way there were in Splatoon 2, because a lot of the specials now have more depth and skill requirements.
Bubbler is an awful first special to put on the starting weapon. It doesn't feel like it contributes anything, has a lot of weaknesses, there's no downside if the enemy team walks through it, and it _only_ protects you from basic bullets and a tiny handful of specials. There's no ink put down either so it felt like I didn't have a special at all. I was glad to switch to another weapon with a better special.
I was remind myself about super smash bros melee’s competitive scene. The stuff they do at top level play I couldn’t even begin to comprehend and that scene has been marinating for YEARS.
I feel that another reason engagement has kept up in Splatoon 3 is that the quality of content creation has gone up a whole lot in the past 2 years. I feel like a lot more people are putting content out, and those that already were like yourself have greatly stepped up their game. I think that sets a good feedback loop where more people want to keep up with all the competitive stuff people are talking about or try it themselves. Also, a lot of that content is good information, making it that much faster and easier for new players to get better With that said, thank you for all you do.
I understand this is about comp but I really wish there was some more casual mode, even in turf war im fighting top 10 players and its just not super fun as someone whos not great at the game
When Splatoon 3 first came out, my match win percentage was around 65% (good enough to comfortably maintain S+ and an X power of 2000+). Not incredible by any means, but I was doing well enough that it felt good. By December 2023, my wins had dried up to only 35%. After failing to maintain my S+ ranking, I'm taking a break from the game. BTW, I'm a Splatoon 1 veteran. I never had this problem holding my top rank with Splatoon 1&2.
Hollow Knight community is a great display of this in action. The top level players for that game are insane. You've got people doing speedruns with multiplayer mods enabled so that they have to fight off multiple other players at the same time as doing the run. You've got bosses being made deliberately unbeatable only for some lunatic to beat it anyway. Its bonkers.
(Long, Ranty Comment Incoming. Nothing bad, just long) The Fighting Game Community is also having a similar situation, where access to information and experience is making the competitive scene stronger as it grows larger. However, since there are so many different games people can play I feel like low levels in individual fighting games (with a big enough playerbase) are still low enough for a new player to enter. Even if that skill floor isn't AS low as when each game first launched. Splatoon 3 is basically THE game of the community, so it's either take your lumps here or try your luck in Splat 2. Competitive Street Fighter 6 is probably the closest comparison I can make with Splatoon 3's scene, at the moment. Where even the top players in the world were calling Street Fighter 6 one of the hardest games they've ever competied in. Cause, that game has a variety of universal mechanics that are all REALLY strong that allows players to have more options for more "Player Expression". I think this is similar to how Splat 3's current meta allows for more diverse comps that allows players to play to their strengths. But also, makes it harder for them to read/know their opponents. All this variety is adding to what some people call "The Mental Stack", which is the amount of variables that a player has to keep in mind for every interaction they have in every different situation. Sure, every player on your own team can make plays and be self sufficient. But, so can every player on the OTHER team. So, not only do you have to think about how both teams are going to approach the match, but also how you're going to deal with every individual/pair of players in every possible position. With a lot less guarenteed solutions to each of these situations, it makes prioitizing the most important variables of these Mental Stacks more difficult. Especially, when so many of the variables of the stack are so important that your team could lose, if somebody doesn't properly keep them in check.
I've been playing Splatoon 3 online for almost 4 months and honestly, even though i plan to get into full competitive later on, even friendlies sometimes get weirdly difficult
I just bought Splatoon 3 today after playing Splatoon 2 for a couple of days again for the first time in about a year and thinking “yeah, it’s time to upgrade” Gotta admit as a really casual player who just enjoys playing for fun, Splatoon 3 feels more like my skill level on FPS’s back in the day. Which js to say I have none and I want to report other players because how are they THAT accurate. So from a causal aspect, S3 is sooo much harder to get into; because it’s not just the “git good” mentality. It’s the fact even from playing S2 earlier today I can comfortably win some games, lose others and make a decent go of it on the map. Whereas on S3 I might as well not spawn because as soon as you get back into trying to make a difference you get one shorted. I’ll preserve and update after a month maybe, but I feel like the joy of Splatoon is it’s easy to pick up and isn’t an FSS. So far everyone in S3 seems to treat it more as a shooter and less of a territory game
I agree that for top players who want to be right at the top are going to have a rough time in splat 3 vs other games, but as a spectator splat 3 is very interesting
Splatoon 3 has gotten really mentally draining for me lately, And this might be part of why. I just don't play competitively enough for a COMPETITIVE game. I'm perfectly happy juggling both Octobrushes and making it to the end of every season, but I can acknowledge that that's much harder when I'm far from competitive skill level. So... Skill Issue I guess
My experience as a ~d9 player who started with splatoon 3: I don’t really feel like it’s gotten much harder for me over the past year. Maybe it’s because I am so young and I have a lot of free time to learn and practice. Maybe it’s because I am generally quick to pick the things up. I have noticed on my team however that they are feeling like it’s too hard to progress in comp/X rank. I think there are just more competitive players in 3 than in past versions
I live in Ecuador and I consider myself the best Undercover Brella player in my country. There's a fair chance that it's true, since there is definitely less than 3% of the playerbase in my country.
@@Aego384 same, I've gotta be one of the best players in Spain, since the most advanced player I've seen did some outrageous stuff that had nothing to do with the meta
Every weapon has a niche, many weapons are strong enough to be reasonably run on a serious team, and practice is easier than ever to find. If you've wanted to start playing competitively or break through to mid/high level, now is probably the best time to grind for that.
As a midlvl player i find thus to be amazing. I like the fact that the grind to the top is diffivlcult and tgat its not goingnto be free since when i get there tge reward will be so worth
One thing worth to be mentioned: match making machine is much worse in s3 than in s2, talking about A/S ranks. They don't even show ranks of your team/enemies to hide that flaws! Mix that with rank cleanup every new season and you'll understand why more and more casual players are making longer breaks in their s3 journey.
What's odd to me is, during the first season of Splatoon 3, I noticed I had almost no bad teammates and no lose streaks like I often did with Splatoon 2. I even managed to get to S+ 35. Once the second season showed up, I started noticing a lot more bad players. I would struggle to get to S+10 and get X Rank. Not with every season, but I did notice more players doing questionable things such as never using squid beacons, super jumping to teammates when it clearly wasn't safe, getting splatted too much, never using their Special to help, doing their own thing away from the action for some reason and other such things. Often times this was worse when a new season was just starting. I get many players are practicing the new weapons, but it's hard to believe so many people have that much of a hard time adjusting. I also noticed, it seems harder to get a high rank in Splatoon 3's X rank compared to Splatoon 2. Much harder to get over 2000. At least you're not punished for it like in Splatoon 2. Still overall, I do think the matchmaking is somewhat better than Splatoon 2.
The remark about Splatoon 1 C rank being higher skilled now than at launch reminded of how high rank Splatoon 2 actually got easier for me at the launch of Splatoon 3. I think it was because a bunch of hardcore top players immediately went to Splatoon 3 making high rank Splatoon 2 easier for me at least.
Unrelated but i'm starting to think you should make a "Splatoon esport/comp guide" for newcomers explaining how the scene works, the required skills for players, and mostly where to watch tournaments. We need more entryways into watching competitive Splatoon, this game could geniuenly be a big esport game, but the scene can't grow if people don't really know it exists (I personally don't watch any tournaments/sets because I don't really know were to look for them + if there isn't any that I don't know about, somewhere to find vods and broadcasts sets for the whole community would make such a huge difference!) Maybe it's just me, i dunno Great content as always!
Another factor you touched on tangentially is that there’s a lot more weapon classes and weapons overall now. Splatoon 1 players weren’t dealing with dualies or Stringers or Swords, and that’s more play types one must learn the matchups against and understand the weaknesses/strengths in order to be competitive.
oh my god i can’t agree more. played splat 1 and 2 off and on, probably around 300 hours total so like not AMAZING but not rock bottom. picked up 3 at launch and had a great time but dropped it for pokemon when that came out. now i’ve been trying to get back into it this month and JESUS CHRIST it’s difficult. used to sit around A/S and now I’m fending for my life in low B. it’s hell and it sucks because i feel like, FINE at this game
So, to sum it up, Splatoon just got to the point of being a sweaty game rather than a fun game. I remember back at the launch of Splatoon 3, the multiplayer gameplay was enjoyable until unbalanced metas came in. I've known this series since the first game, and I gotta say that this game lost its charm after some of its updates. Many people would chop it up to 'skill issue' rather than looking at the real problems of game. Skill is important, but balancing a game to make it enjoyable to the player base is high priority than skill. You put in unhealthy metas, problems are bound to rise.
The game still has its charm in fact it hasn't lost its charm at all its only getting better with positive feedback with each update and the meta and balancing is top notch
The title just made think of when at Splatoon 3’s launch some people were having a bad and difficult time because excellent players were still working there way out of the lower ranks.
Where I noticed this more is in rainmaker, I literally can't win a match anymore and it's sad because it's my favorite mode of all. Honestly I play ranked but I never wanted to be a really competitive player, so as today i'm literally trying to get S+, and it's practically impossible.
scene size feels really significant, but also in terms of WHO is still playing, not how many. like how many mid casuals are still playing anymore? at least in the west, it feels like a game mostly comprised of people in x rank.
Back when I started getting on a massive lose streak I checked the profiles of people I played with/against and I swear it was all kids with like 3000h play times. That’s when I realized I need to put this game down indefinitely
My recent switch to learning chargers/bow is probably the only thing keeping me playing rn. Every lost doesn't matter as much because I can still feel myself improving the more I play. But tbh the moment I get bored with chargers I'm probably taking a long break from the game too lol
I feel like a huge part of the increased difficulty in S3 is how ruthlessly fast the meta is. Cooler and Zooka speed things up so much that it's hard to keep up, especially for old bones with a preference for slow weapons -like me- . Relentless, explosive pushes and equally fast but always volatile (to the threat of getting zooked) defense, you never get to slowly build an advantage over time with cooler around, you grab it in big chunks and always with a fight. And would you look at that, Tent, the universal meta speed indicator as its sole purpose is to slow games down, is very much meta.
its pretty ironic that making better kits and making better maps and making better metas means the meta is overall harder to get into. the better the game, the higher the highest skill ceiling is. im not a super competitive player (aka im not interested in playing on a team and competing against other teams, but i do enjoy the competitive aspect of splatoon in a casual sense) so this isn't a concern for me directly, but the overall player count and attention splatoon gets is still important to me. sadly casual players get terrified of playing bc "tryhards" (ppl who know how the game works thru experience) are everywhere you go, they can't put in the time to learn *everything* to keep up. so i guess this aspect of the game being better increasing the skill ceiling does affect me as a not super competitive player. i personally always believe that a better game with far more options for players will ALWAYS make a better experience, even if at top level that creates this dilemma. it'll be neat to see how things change from here
I might just have gotten worse at the game but i swear it wasn't that hard for me to get to X rank in all of splat 2s modes but in splat3 I'm barely able to hold S+0 ._.
Easy, two things. 1) gaming as a whole has became more competitive even in casual setting. Content creation (meta discussions) and viral clips have influenced even semi casual players to study a game more than ever before. 2) the longer a series is alive the more dedicated fans. If you played splatoon 1 and 2, you’ll notice in 3 you’re skill level is higher than those who 3 is their first game. The more fans that join now, will be better in 4, and so on. It’s a series problem, not a game problem.
The difference between S+ in early Splatoon 2 where I used to be VERY good and S+ in Splatoon 3 now is just crazy. I don't play as consistently as I did back then, but it's crazy how good these players are now. I struggle to do well now and I used to be able to hang with anyone back in the day.
One thing you pointed out is the lack of lower skill midigation that is allowed to happen. If someone is good there really isnt anything that can stop players, and if you do manage to get them, cooler removes all reward you get from doing that. Blaster has good aim? Roll d20 for how many times you are getting one shot in good positions. Shooter moves well? Good luck hitting them. Entire other team has cooler? Well sorry but every splat you get is completely worthless for a while. Getting zooka spammed? Just react I guess. The ability to hold lines is basically nonexistant with how explosive games are now.
Yes! I got to S+0, a couple days before the season changed playing casually. I’m S rank now, and I still haven’t been able to get to S+0, even though I’ve played over 6 rank up series.
I'm in low level competitive splatoon, but this video proves one thing, competitive splatoon is very difficult even at a low level but especially at a high level. I've had people say "oh competitive spaltoon is easy" no it's not...this video explains that in a perfect way
i just played again after not playing for a year and a half and i just feel overwhelmed in this splatfest. i dont care about competitive i just wanna play turf war, but i just feel entirely exhausted from it. salmon run is a bit more fun but still. i am still honestly of the opinion they should've waited to put splatoon 3 on the switch 2, i just feel like i've missed out on this way more than with splatoon 2. to be fair to splatoon 3, splatoon 2 came out around the launch of the switch so i played the small amount of switch games i had a lot more. but i really just think splatoon should've been a once per console thing like smash bros and mario kart, it just feels weird having 2 different splatoon games on the same system idk
I’ve been wondering why I’ve been struggling so hard to enjoy Splatoon as I used to, as I’m a veteran from the first game! I think I’m pretty good at the game but not quite competitive level, so going into anarchy is really difficult to do for long periods because of how hard and frustrating it can be. Now I just mainly focus on turf and salmon run, and little sessions of ranked if I wanna work closer to getting badges for my favorite weapons. But I try not to burn myself out
The competitive side of splatoon grew way faster than I could keep up with. Early Splatoon 3 I was winning game after game I was great but I feel like fresh season is when I realized that I kind of hit my peak in skill level and I couldn’t keep up. I want to be good at the game, well I am, it’s just most people are better…
I feel like this is a positive thing, honestly. More depth is usually a good thing, since it means that theres a reason to keep playing. It always feels like theres something significant you can improve on, and every second of practice feels meaningful.
I'm currently trying to get into Splatoon 3. I am getting demolished and I have no idea what I am doing wrong. I have gone ten games in a row without a single kill.
Reading recent comments give me brain damage. Thinking that what is told by Chara is objectively observable in any side of the playerbase even casuals to justify opinions and be relieved of your skill is crazy to me.
this is the big reason why ive decided to "move on" from Splatoon Inkbrush would DEFINITELY be fun if I didnt get killed at a temporal location I was at 1 second ago
I’ve never played any of the other Splatoon games, but been trying to get to get to S+ since the game launched. My scores almost never tell me that I’m bad a player, and yet, I feel as though I’m matched with an awful curve that constantly pushes me down. It’s super frustrating, and even with all of the hours I’ve put in, it feels as though the game punishes any player trying to take a crack at it
-Hop on Anarchy series just to finish 1 series for the day. -See player with golden crown for their amount of series streaks Gotta say this addition is scary for more casual S+ players like myself.
Splatoon 3 was ball breakingly hard for me from day 1 after importing the Splatoon 2 data. It incorrectly thought from my old data that I was 1) ever good at the game and 2) would still be good at the game having not played it for 3 years. Got smashed in trying to play turf war to get back in the groove. It was quite funny jumping into ranked because suddenly so, so easy compared to players I was getting put against Turf War. Dunno what happened there, but even now just messing around at S+ I find relaxing compared to Turf War of all things.
I join a little after splatoon 3 dropped but i have noticed that even over the course of me pkaying this single game, competition has gotten awfully fierce. I just play turf war because ranked mode scares me too much. People are already brutal in turf war, i cant count the amount of 70-20 or 60-30 losses ive had, ESPECIALLY during splatfests. Its gotten to a point where i have to go to sapmon run of all things just to destress from turf war T_T tbh the comoetition in ehats suppised to be a casual mode has sorta killed the enjoyment of the game for me overtime. I still enjoy splatoon a lot but :( its not as fun anymore bevause it feels like nobody's playing this game to have fun
What team do you think is gonna come out on top in this new era? And I hope you enjoyed this type of video topic and style, I might do another similar to this on if competitive Splatoon is fun. Let me know if you want to see that.
AR we need EU representatives
Moonlight 😮
Moonlight On Top RAHH I believe!!
(No I'm not just saying that because you coach them now, I've always rooted for them alongside LR but since LR is gone (o7) they are now The team I'll always be rooting for)
Also as a casual player who has slightly entered the comp scene I really enjoy hearing top players thoughts on the scene so I'm all for these types of video topics :D
Jackpot’s always a safe answer 😅. Also, I’d love to see that video. I always love your commentary on the state of competitive play
I would love to see a video on if competitive Splatoon is fun, and if it has a noticeable impact on the casual scene based on what I've seen other comments saying.
Big true.
Ironically, I feel like the terrible stage design actually contributed in raising the difficulty. With the streamlined stages and lack of flank routes, there's rarely a moment in S3 where you aren't having to win a fight or interact with an enemy in some capacity. Even playing as a backline feels more intense and you have to be more aware. Players are having to do more in their S3 matches to win than in S1 or S2. And by constantly doing more, they're having to learn more.
ACTUAL FACTS, I play both frontline and midline. I usually like fast kill weapons and used to be pretty decent at it, with the lack of well flanking and diverse terrain its harder for me to have fun finding weird routes to catch the enemy off guard…especially with the lack of paintable walls. 🧍
I also feel I’m terrible at using snipers now even though I did squiffy on stuff like Arowana mall. Like I go practice shooting feel good but when I enter a match I miss like all my shots. But thats probs me losing my fast response or something.💀
backline usualy feels less intense and u have to be less aware seen as theres usually only 1 route through mid, but i agree for most weapons it is very stressful and theres not much leniancy, it feels like u constantly in the thick of it
I think the higher skill ceiling has definitely been hitting the feel of the game just as hard as mechanics such as map design, kits, etc. It's not uncommon to see a returning player trying out splat3 and being completely taken aback by the fiercer competition. Even in turf war, the ceiling has gotten a lot higher from what I remember in the previous games.
Slightly wrong wording, that would be the skill floor rising where you're required to be at that level to be getting any results. Ceiling is rising up for sure but the issue we feel is the floor.
I definitely get caught off guard whenever I play turf war. It's insane how good the players are now compared to Splatoon 2, heck even early Splatoon 3.
@@PiercingSight most probably played 2 as their first game so there are more "veteran" players, barring brand new players to 3
This is something I’m experiencing right now. Played 2 competitively, played 3 at launch for a few months but just started playing again a few weeks ago after like a year of hiatus. I have just been doing turf war solo queue and I feel like I’m terrible all of the sudden and like i know nothing 😭
Splatoon 2 players have an edge here because they know how to fight without safe specials, meanwhile I'm still missing the Splatoon 1 levels of power that made 1v1s fun@@ShadowSkyX
It was one of the reasons why I took a break from Splatoon. Too many people being competitive in low levels of rank. Just getting to S+0 instantly means you get paired with X-level players. I decided it was best to take a break.
Same I played s2 near daily and now I haven’t played s3 in a month
i havent played at all recently because theres just too much grinding thats required to be at a reasonable level of skill to feel like youre not just throwing every game you join, still interested in side order though
Im sorry
Wait, is that the reason why S+ is hell and low-level X Rank is not?
@@thehumanflintfun9666 bro its worse because i be hard carrying my team and still lose because my teammates dont even know wtf they are doing or are just bad at the game, if anything higher power lobbies are better
It’s not just top-level players that experience this, being stuck in low S+ and/or under 2100 X Power is brutal. I was never very competitive, but I still feel like I’ve fallen off somewhat, and it really sucks. I notice other players are experiencing the same thing, but whenever they ask for help or vent about it, they get told they’re shit, “skill issue”, etc. by higher level people.
Overall, I’ve had to take a bit of a step back from Splatoon and play much more casually. I tried so hard to improve, but ultimately, all the work just burnt me out. I’ve even been enjoying turf war and salmon run as of late, it’s nice not to be stressed about it anymore
I feel it's also people being more openly toxic. I am a casual player that plays solo since Splatoon 1 and on a rank Match someone from My team recognized on a Splatoon server only to call me a sh*t player and to block them so they didn't have to see my horrible play style again.
Soon found out most of the mods on that server had the same views...
No idea where you hang out, but this is not the standard@@xnanobun
Yeah, seriously, I'm 1600-1800 X (basically as low as you can get afaik) and fighting for my life out here 😭 I can't even get past S+0 this season, while I used to be S+4 and maybe could've gotten to 5 or 6 if I had committed to it
I never played Splatoon 2, only 1. The contrast between 1 and 3 was so jarring in the beginning. I've gotten used to it now... except for Splatfests, which I swear were way more chill in 1 omg
I know it's not, in that same server I also found some sweet players. But for some reason the mods were just overall mean to anyone that dare make them lose, especially if they found them in there, they would name the player for everyone to see.
So currently I mostly just play with friends and left that server.
@@user-my9ob9cd7q I understand that too well, I also didn't play 2 TvT so i went from 1 to 3. I always struggle the first month of the season to get pass S+1
Yeah with a game like splatoon, the skill ceiling is bound to be raised over time and I think that's just bound to happen with all the changes to the game that happen.
as a bad splatoon player i complete agree.
I play since Splatoon 1 and was (still is) a casual player while still following from afar the meta qnd i was doing really decent actually.
But since the start of Splatoon 3 i'm noticing my average win lowering more and more to a point where i can't even get my daily win in turf war (for the catalog) and in splatfest it's even more noticable i'm happy if i can win at least one x10 battle compared to before where i could almost reach a x100 match...
In the current state I can't even play as casually as before now i only play at splatoon when i wanna (try) to get serious, before i just played for fun.(i still kinda do !)
It's getting frustrating because the general lvl is uncatchable for me now so i'm stuck in a loop where i get worse and worse than other players. (that kinda apply to salmon runs and big run but ik it's not the topic of this video)
ik it's mostly because i'm bad at the game but i find it sad because i still love splatoon so much but it's getting harder to enjoy...
This is what happened to me too! Because I can't play as much as I'd like, I can't improve at the game as much as I'd like to; and with the difficulty spike, even turf war has become so freaking hard to get a win to the point where its become frustrating to play sometimes.
It sucks to feel that way about a game that I love so much.
Dont worry, youre not the only one. I swear the game was way less sweaty in 2. The only time I truly enjoy 3 is big run, even the splatfests feel too stressful now. Props to them for removing the % based prizing, it seems like theyre slowly starting to recognize there is a problem and that the casual audience cant keep up anymore.
Salmon run really helps with the catalog
That's why I'm looking forward to Side-Order since it gives people like us a way to enjoy the game without having to interact with the community.
It’s a huge problem. The ranks are just so hard to grind. I went through the B ranks fairly quickly and ranked up and I immediately lost a series because the people are just so good and it doesn’t make any sense. It hurts casual players the most because we will continue to struggle and it’s hard to use new weapons because of the skill requirement. Your not the only one who struggles.
I mainly play Salmon Run and thought I was going crazy whenever I went to turfwar and ranked modes. I'm glad others are talking about it, it feels like it changed so much so quickly. I was X Ranked the first two seasons but now S+ eats me alive.
I think this, coupled with the grind of the Catalog, is why I've been straying off from playing Splatoon 3 and going back to the games I usually play. I can't play multiple games with battle passes. At that point I have to pick one, because working multiple battle passes and grinds feels like working multiple jobs you don't even get paid minimum wage for all the time you invest.
This is why I don't even bother finishing battle passes (the only one I ever fully completed anyway was Fortnite Chapter 1, Season 7).
@@batmanbud2 Don't blame you, some games don't need battle passes.
@@chaosflash912 My hot take is that, if Nintendo insists of this semi battle pass we don't have to pay for (thankfully), they should let us work on whatever catalogue we want. Did we miss last season? Save the level we got to and give us the option to toggle the one we want to work on, whether it's the current season or any of the 5 we didn't quite complete months ago. That way, it builds a big completion goal that encourages replayability that players can chip at at their leisure, or just get the emotes/gear/whatever they specifically want. + it would allow new interesting final rewards tiers instead of just rehashing the gear players might've missed last year.
I agree, although the game I chose not to take a break from was Splatoon. Seriously though, developers need to keep in mind that some players have a life
@@gregvs.theworld451 NGL I wanna go back to Sizzle 2023 for the N64 and GameCube locker decorations.
With the Soloque rank decay, you have to remember that everyone else is moved down alongside you, which means to get to the same spot you were in before, you will be put up against people who were higher up than you. As was mentioned at the start of this video, that means you have to work and push harder to reach the same level you had before. I've seen firsthand how demoralizing this can be from a more casual level, and that's a big reason I dislike the rank decay.
(I'm also not a fan of the more grindy nature that S3 has for rewards compaired to S2, especially the Salmon Run Treasure Scale shop)
i went to salmon run to escape the increasingly hair-pulling ranked and turf games and now i’m pulling my hair wondering why my entire team is dead 20 seconds into the king salmonid fight
Tbh, I really like the idea of the salmon run shop, in that it's cool to have some very long-term goals to keep me motivated to play. However alongside them, you need some short-term goals too 😭
I worry about new players getting into splat 3 because off how aggressive and fast paced the game is on top off all the strong players this game has.
Been playing nearly since the beginning with S1 in late 2015 casually up to 6 months ago and I used to consider myself to be within a margin of the top level of skill for casual players, so this is a perspective from that aspect...
I dropped S3 fully after the ice cream splatfest because playing in turf war became a nigh-masochistic task. The skill floor has definitely raised up over time certainly and it really showed when I played on launch day where it felt like I faced people whom were perfectly equal to or above my skill level. Even now, nearly 6 months later, a return for a single match out of curiosity sake proved to be 3 minutes of torture for a barely 1% coverage victory. In contrast to how it used to be, I sometimes could walk across the entire map without once getting shot at in S2 and especially S1, but now that's impossible. People GENUINELY hunt you down even if you're purposefully avoiding them and it's maddening. I just wanna color the ground and sometimes splat someone if they really wanna challenge me since it is satisfying, but when attempting to walk one foot forward means a free ticket back to spawn every 10 seconds or I have to start SWEATING behind the screen physically just to barely beat someone in 1v1 by the skin of my teeth, it's frustrating, annoying, and completely kills any enjoyment that I could possibly get out of it. I have a job to worry about and trying to get better on the daily isn't something that tickles my fancy and many others who casually play this game have obligations to fulfill in priorities as well; more time than it's worth just to barely catch up, only to be outclassed maybe a couple weeks later in the hopes of MINIMAL enjoyment isn't how it should be. The maps have also been many steps down in S3 compared to the past, and though recent ones did improve a fair bit, it's still not where it needs to be and every map's center is a suffocation point until someone finds a way to slowly push through into enemy territory. This last bit may be false, but in S1 and 2, I could've sworn turf war had proper matchmaking in some form with teams typically being balanced skill-wise. In S3, it almost always felt like I was up against the best players in the world and the game prioritized just lobby making to get you in-game asap. This, I felt, made a huge disparity between both teams and I swear on my life that it is always making sure to match you with weaker players against splat-gods.
Now, I know nothing about the comp side outside of it being way beyond anything I currently possess skill-wise, but with casual being bad enough to make pretty decent players such as myself quit entirely from frustrating matches, I can only imagine how it is for those in the comp scene dealing with the kind of heat it brings. Lots of respect to players like yourself, though I hope as you say, it eventually cools down. Splatoon should be a game everyone can enjoy- casual and competitive alike, and it would be nice to experience those chill turf war matches again in the likeness of S1 and 2.
You should jump back into splatoon 3 it's in a great current state and it keeps getting better
I hate fighting people in turf that obviously are new to the game. And I hate fighting top 500 players. I’m desperate for a chill and fair fight. I always get giggly during fair fights and it’s so much fun. But those fights are super rare. I either demolish poor little kids or get demolished by a dude with 3000 hours.
@@13_cmithat is good that more new people are coming to the game and the patch and not being sarcastic and not spreading misinformation has seen a lot of positive feedback and the game is growing at a positive rate
I'm not a competitive player, but I'm definitely not a casual either. But I feel casual players have suffered a lot because of this.
I've noticed these past few months that terf has gotten really bad. It's not a mode you can just go and do for fun. I'd much rather play anarchy or X over terf. At least with ranked, you are disinsentivised and actively punished for being too aggressive and pushing too far (unless the skill discrepancy is that wide between the two teams). Basically, you wanna avoid dying if possible. While in terf, the only part of the match that matters is the last 20-30 seconds. So you can be as aggressive, pushy and dying as much as you want, and so long as you get a good push/wipe in the last little bit, it really doesn't matter how good you play.
That and because there are no rannks in terf, it's just everyone in one pool, it just accentuates S3's bad matchmaking even further.
Yeah, as someone who’s been playing since launch, I’ve noticed its much harder to get to where I was in previous seasons, especially with my main weapon being flingza and it not having a… great kit for what it wants to do (aside from missile spam which I dont do despite being a flingza main) I really think its a mix of bad maps (which are improving somewhat), higher skill ceilings, poor matchmaking, more people and new weapons and kits.
This is essentially why good speedrunners usually have the mindset of pushing the game to its limits rather than being the absolute best at it. Because that's the motivation to continue competing as it gets harder. That is a big reason why speedrunning doesn't feel pointless to them. And it is a part of the reason why speedrunning forms communities.
I'm telling you I've got a real good shot at winning the next tournament as long as every other team disbands by the time I show up
As a Div 3 player, this hits pretty close to home. I used to be able to preform adequately by practicing 3-4 times a week for about 2-3 hours. Now, it feels like a lot more effort has to be put into the game to learn all of the matchups and refining your mechanics alongside it
Just want to shout out The Ancient Vessel music at the beginning, definitely one of my favourite and also one of the most under-appreciated tracks in XC2. Kudos to the editor.
Actually, funny thing: The AverageTrey clip used that song as background footage and I thought it would just be easier to edit the rest of the intro section around the song. Saved me the trouble of thinking through which game to pull songs from :P
7:26 Fashion sense too! Since you can now add whatever abilities you'd like to your gear, now you can show off your signature outfits too!
Realistically though that's another aspect that imo feels way too grindey. I think Nintendo really needs to overhaul how to get ability chunks, especially specific ones, and probably the cost of changing gear abilities. I have like 10+ outfits I'd in theory love to swap between, but only one that's pretty much completed atm, and I don't know if I'll ever customize any of the other outfits I'd ideally like to. I think Nintendo supposes you'll play more if you have to grind 100s of hours to fully customize gear, but actually that's one of the things that burns me out from Splat3, and I think I'd play more if I could get specifically the chunks I want and a reasonable timeframe to be able to customize gear. I mean hell even if they didn't change the prices of adding gear chunks, main or sub, which imo are a bit steep, just the ability to consistently grind the 45 chunks I need for mains or the 10-25-35 or whatever it is for subs (although you can cheese the sub abilities by dispersing chunks across your gear.) without RNG would be a godsend. Maybe have the ability drinks always give you the chunks you want, or have a higher star power on gear drastically increase the odds of getting chunks correlated the the gear brand, with 3 stars being over 50% and 4-5 being like 75-90 to 100% or something.
Disgusting
@@daveraschke Just like you.
I’m finding Splatoon to be less fun because of this. I feel like I’m encountering way more X rank players in my games. I’m S, and I know we play together, but there’s so many more. I find myself losing more games and having less fun. Maybe it’s a skill issue, but I feel like it’s just how hard it’s gotten to be good at this game.
Trust me it’s not a skull issue I’m in the same boat with you and it’s literally just matchmaking
@@JVSTG4L4XY Thanks!
As one of the big scary X players, I feel bad at times about playing in regular ranked modes. The matchmaking doesn't really work at all except in mid-high x battles, so sometimes it feels like I'm forced to punch down. It isn't y'all's fault at all, the game just doesn't really try to put people of similar skill levels together until you get into X battles
The same thing happens to me, it's defenitively the matchmaking and not the skill issue
@@odiepotes Thank you, I’m not even mad at the players. I’m mad at the matchmaking. I’m tired of going up against a team of silver X badges when on my team only I have the S+ badge.
I love Splatoon! It's one of my favorite franchises but I haven't played a game in the Splatoon series in months! I haven't gotten to X Battles, but Ranked and Turf War (especially in Splatfest) have become so difficult and hard to will myself to play the game. Even Salmon Run is difficult for me in S3! I feel like I've been getting curb stomped much more frequently than I did in S2 and S1. I'm just waiting for Side Order 'cause that seems like a game of its own that I have a chance of doing well and having fun in.
EDIT: I finally played Splatoon 3 again, and I'm having fun!
The percentage thing is so true,in S2, even when going against a super strong team, no matter how snowballed the game was, if you team could coordinate at least once with armor and missiles, it always felt like you could turn the tables around
I picked up the game a week ago and it has been lowkey miserable - but I think a lot of that has to do with the player base containing very few casuals this long after release. I don’t think it was this bad in 2 a year out? But there are some real sweaty players in turf war. Playing casually with my SO, we routinely get matched with teams of players with 1.5 to 3k hours of collective experience and full builds. In 2 I feel like it was a lot more rare to see that. Also the specials just seem way stronger.
Still fun to be had, but I miss 1 and 2. At least, I miss their player base and matchmaking
2 kicked my ass as a new player and i was shown no mercy. Thing is, "sweaty" players can't assume low level/default tags/badges equals children, or inexperienced players. You're inevitably going to lose and many players aren't going to coddle you; you could be any age or experience. Also its very likely no one coddled them either. The _only_ thing low levels/default tags/badges tell you is that they just started the game. That's it. Playing online is effectively entering boot camp when you're a brand new player in splatoon.
@@ShadowSkyX The best chance you have is to 100% Return of the Mammalians and use it as a tutorial.
I know this is more of a competitive thing, but in terms of more casual levels, I'd say general kit things are also a big thing. In S2 for example, the first weapons you get are Jr with armour, a crutch, and Splattershot with burst splashdown, simple to understand. In S3, those same weapons have EXTREMELY skill based kits that are tricky to use. I feel like the skill floor in general has gone up a lot and there's not really easy mode “missile spam free low rank wins” weapons in the same way there were in Splatoon 2, because a lot of the specials now have more depth and skill requirements.
Bubbler is an awful first special to put on the starting weapon. It doesn't feel like it contributes anything, has a lot of weaknesses, there's no downside if the enemy team walks through it, and it _only_ protects you from basic bullets and a tiny handful of specials. There's no ink put down either so it felt like I didn't have a special at all. I was glad to switch to another weapon with a better special.
@@ShadowSkyX It’s definitely a very tricky special to put on a starting weapon yeah
I was remind myself about super smash bros melee’s competitive scene. The stuff they do at top level play I couldn’t even begin to comprehend and that scene has been marinating for YEARS.
I feel that another reason engagement has kept up in Splatoon 3 is that the quality of content creation has gone up a whole lot in the past 2 years. I feel like a lot more people are putting content out, and those that already were like yourself have greatly stepped up their game. I think that sets a good feedback loop where more people want to keep up with all the competitive stuff people are talking about or try it themselves. Also, a lot of that content is good information, making it that much faster and easier for new players to get better
With that said, thank you for all you do.
I understand this is about comp but I really wish there was some more casual mode, even in turf war im fighting top 10 players and its just not super fun as someone whos not great at the game
When Splatoon 3 first came out, my match win percentage was around 65% (good enough to comfortably maintain S+ and an X power of 2000+). Not incredible by any means, but I was doing well enough that it felt good. By December 2023, my wins had dried up to only 35%. After failing to maintain my S+ ranking, I'm taking a break from the game. BTW, I'm a Splatoon 1 veteran. I never had this problem holding my top rank with Splatoon 1&2.
Hollow Knight community is a great display of this in action. The top level players for that game are insane. You've got people doing speedruns with multiplayer mods enabled so that they have to fight off multiple other players at the same time as doing the run. You've got bosses being made deliberately unbeatable only for some lunatic to beat it anyway. Its bonkers.
(Long, Ranty Comment Incoming. Nothing bad, just long) The Fighting Game Community is also having a similar situation, where access to information and experience is making the competitive scene stronger as it grows larger. However, since there are so many different games people can play I feel like low levels in individual fighting games (with a big enough playerbase) are still low enough for a new player to enter. Even if that skill floor isn't AS low as when each game first launched. Splatoon 3 is basically THE game of the community, so it's either take your lumps here or try your luck in Splat 2.
Competitive Street Fighter 6 is probably the closest comparison I can make with Splatoon 3's scene, at the moment. Where even the top players in the world were calling Street Fighter 6 one of the hardest games they've ever competied in. Cause, that game has a variety of universal mechanics that are all REALLY strong that allows players to have more options for more "Player Expression". I think this is similar to how Splat 3's current meta allows for more diverse comps that allows players to play to their strengths. But also, makes it harder for them to read/know their opponents.
All this variety is adding to what some people call "The Mental Stack", which is the amount of variables that a player has to keep in mind for every interaction they have in every different situation. Sure, every player on your own team can make plays and be self sufficient. But, so can every player on the OTHER team. So, not only do you have to think about how both teams are going to approach the match, but also how you're going to deal with every individual/pair of players in every possible position. With a lot less guarenteed solutions to each of these situations, it makes prioitizing the most important variables of these Mental Stacks more difficult. Especially, when so many of the variables of the stack are so important that your team could lose, if somebody doesn't properly keep them in check.
Yes totally agree here
as a top 200 x battle player taking a 6 month break to play TF2 was worth it, burnout is tough, don't be afraid to come back some time later
I main splatana wiper and I would go 13-6 in S, and when i was S+ i went 5-9, the skill ceiling jump's up a lot from S to S+.
Thank you for this Chara 😢 this is apparently the push I needed to take a loooong break ❤ I have other games to play and finish!
Theres a limit to how diverse this meta can be due to the maps, and that just makes me sad :(
dont
I've been playing Splatoon 3 online for almost 4 months and honestly, even though i plan to get into full competitive later on, even friendlies sometimes get weirdly difficult
I just bought Splatoon 3 today after playing Splatoon 2 for a couple of days again for the first time in about a year and thinking “yeah, it’s time to upgrade”
Gotta admit as a really casual player who just enjoys playing for fun, Splatoon 3 feels more like my skill level on FPS’s back in the day. Which js to say I have none and I want to report other players because how are they THAT accurate.
So from a causal aspect, S3 is sooo much harder to get into; because it’s not just the “git good” mentality. It’s the fact even from playing S2 earlier today I can comfortably win some games, lose others and make a decent go of it on the map.
Whereas on S3 I might as well not spawn because as soon as you get back into trying to make a difference you get one shorted.
I’ll preserve and update after a month maybe, but I feel like the joy of Splatoon is it’s easy to pick up and isn’t an FSS. So far everyone in S3 seems to treat it more as a shooter and less of a territory game
6:04 BOOGA SPOTTED
It was funny coming to this video immediately after watching the latest episode of AverageTrey's Kaizo Sunshine highlights.
Hey big shoutouts to AverageTrey and the rest of the SMS speedrunning community!
I agree that for top players who want to be right at the top are going to have a rough time in splat 3 vs other games, but as a spectator splat 3 is very interesting
Props to your editor. I think this may be your best video yet.
it's a mindset that has even bled into Salmon Run. See: Big Run and Eggstra Work top 5% "drama"
for a PvE mode, thats wild to me
Splatoon 3 has gotten really mentally draining for me lately, And this might be part of why. I just don't play competitively enough for a COMPETITIVE game. I'm perfectly happy juggling both Octobrushes and making it to the end of every season, but I can acknowledge that that's much harder when I'm far from competitive skill level. So... Skill Issue I guess
No it hasn't
My experience as a ~d9 player who started with splatoon 3:
I don’t really feel like it’s gotten much harder for me over the past year. Maybe it’s because I am so young and I have a lot of free time to learn and practice. Maybe it’s because I am generally quick to pick the things up. I have noticed on my team however that they are feeling like it’s too hard to progress in comp/X rank. I think there are just more competitive players in 3 than in past versions
“Mario sunshine is the best 3D Mario”. At first I thought you were crazy and then I remembered it’s the reason Splatoon exists.
Fuck
Luckily for me, I live in Spain, where 95% of the playerbase doesn't know anything about competitive, guaranteeing me getting to x rank every season
I live in Ecuador and I consider myself the best Undercover Brella player in my country. There's a fair chance that it's true, since there is definitely less than 3% of the playerbase in my country.
Germany for me, jesus are they sweaty here
@@TherionX2. Right but how good are the Splatoon 3 players?
bin S+0 -2000 wie ist es bei dir?
@@Aego384 same, I've gotta be one of the best players in Spain, since the most advanced player I've seen did some outrageous stuff that had nothing to do with the meta
Every weapon has a niche, many weapons are strong enough to be reasonably run on a serious team, and practice is easier than ever to find. If you've wanted to start playing competitively or break through to mid/high level, now is probably the best time to grind for that.
As a midlvl player i find thus to be amazing. I like the fact that the grind to the top is diffivlcult and tgat its not goingnto be free since when i get there tge reward will be so worth
One thing worth to be mentioned: match making machine is much worse in s3 than in s2, talking about A/S ranks. They don't even show ranks of your team/enemies to hide that flaws! Mix that with rank cleanup every new season and you'll understand why more and more casual players are making longer breaks in their s3 journey.
What's odd to me is, during the first season of Splatoon 3, I noticed I had almost no bad teammates and no lose streaks like I often did with Splatoon 2. I even managed to get to S+ 35. Once the second season showed up, I started noticing a lot more bad players. I would struggle to get to S+10 and get X Rank. Not with every season, but I did notice more players doing questionable things such as never using squid beacons, super jumping to teammates when it clearly wasn't safe, getting splatted too much, never using their Special to help, doing their own thing away from the action for some reason and other such things. Often times this was worse when a new season was just starting. I get many players are practicing the new weapons, but it's hard to believe so many people have that much of a hard time adjusting.
I also noticed, it seems harder to get a high rank in Splatoon 3's X rank compared to Splatoon 2. Much harder to get over 2000. At least you're not punished for it like in Splatoon 2.
Still overall, I do think the matchmaking is somewhat better than Splatoon 2.
The remark about Splatoon 1 C rank being higher skilled now than at launch reminded of how high rank Splatoon 2 actually got easier for me at the launch of Splatoon 3. I think it was because a bunch of hardcore top players immediately went to Splatoon 3 making high rank Splatoon 2 easier for me at least.
Video 24 of commenting on Chara videos till brella is good
I looked at my results on my last 100 game and I only won 34 😭
I'M ONLY PLAYING TURF WAR
Chara officially lives in Eeltail Alley
Unrelated but i'm starting to think you should make a "Splatoon esport/comp guide" for newcomers explaining how the scene works, the required skills for players, and mostly where to watch tournaments. We need more entryways into watching competitive Splatoon, this game could geniuenly be a big esport game, but the scene can't grow if people don't really know it exists (I personally don't watch any tournaments/sets because I don't really know were to look for them + if there isn't any that I don't know about, somewhere to find vods and broadcasts sets for the whole community would make such a huge difference!)
Maybe it's just me, i dunno
Great content as always!
Another factor you touched on tangentially is that there’s a lot more weapon classes and weapons overall now. Splatoon 1 players weren’t dealing with dualies or Stringers or Swords, and that’s more play types one must learn the matchups against and understand the weaknesses/strengths in order to be competitive.
I remember StarBurst because they spawncamped my Div 8 team in qualifiers
oh my god i can’t agree more. played splat 1 and 2 off and on, probably around 300 hours total so like not AMAZING but not rock bottom. picked up 3 at launch and had a great time but dropped it for pokemon when that came out. now i’ve been trying to get back into it this month and JESUS CHRIST it’s difficult. used to sit around A/S and now I’m fending for my life in low B. it’s hell and it sucks because i feel like, FINE at this game
Bro you don’t even know how hard I’ve been fighting for S
It’s nuts how hard it is
"Maybe people will stop playing the game"
**Shows squid committing su1cide**
So, to sum it up, Splatoon just got to the point of being a sweaty game rather than a fun game. I remember back at the launch of Splatoon 3, the multiplayer gameplay was enjoyable until unbalanced metas came in. I've known this series since the first game, and I gotta say that this game lost its charm after some of its updates.
Many people would chop it up to 'skill issue' rather than looking at the real problems of game. Skill is important, but balancing a game to make it enjoyable to the player base is high priority than skill. You put in unhealthy metas, problems are bound to rise.
The game still has its charm in fact it hasn't lost its charm at all its only getting better with positive feedback with each update and the meta and balancing is top notch
@@maplemiles3381 that’s not what they said
The title just made think of when at Splatoon 3’s launch some people were having a bad and difficult time because excellent players were still working there way out of the lower ranks.
Where I noticed this more is in rainmaker, I literally can't win a match anymore and it's sad because it's my favorite mode of all. Honestly I play ranked but I never wanted to be a really competitive player, so as today i'm literally trying to get S+, and it's practically impossible.
Spy's Rally (Meet the Spy's Original Monologue) by AltraNade
scene size feels really significant, but also in terms of WHO is still playing, not how many. like how many mid casuals are still playing anymore? at least in the west, it feels like a game mostly comprised of people in x rank.
Back when I started getting on a massive lose streak I checked the profiles of people I played with/against and I swear it was all kids with like 3000h play times. That’s when I realized I need to put this game down indefinitely
The playerbase is growing and its still a top 20-10 seller in Japan on a weekly basis and the Japanese love the updates
My recent switch to learning chargers/bow is probably the only thing keeping me playing rn. Every lost doesn't matter as much because I can still feel myself improving the more I play. But tbh the moment I get bored with chargers I'm probably taking a long break from the game too lol
I feel like a huge part of the increased difficulty in S3 is how ruthlessly fast the meta is. Cooler and Zooka speed things up so much that it's hard to keep up, especially for old bones with a preference for slow weapons -like me- . Relentless, explosive pushes and equally fast but always volatile (to the threat of getting zooked) defense, you never get to slowly build an advantage over time with cooler around, you grab it in big chunks and always with a fight. And would you look at that, Tent, the universal meta speed indicator as its sole purpose is to slow games down, is very much meta.
its pretty ironic that making better kits and making better maps and making better metas means the meta is overall harder to get into. the better the game, the higher the highest skill ceiling is. im not a super competitive player (aka im not interested in playing on a team and competing against other teams, but i do enjoy the competitive aspect of splatoon in a casual sense) so this isn't a concern for me directly, but the overall player count and attention splatoon gets is still important to me. sadly casual players get terrified of playing bc "tryhards" (ppl who know how the game works thru experience) are everywhere you go, they can't put in the time to learn *everything* to keep up. so i guess this aspect of the game being better increasing the skill ceiling does affect me as a not super competitive player.
i personally always believe that a better game with far more options for players will ALWAYS make a better experience, even if at top level that creates this dilemma. it'll be neat to see how things change from here
I might just have gotten worse at the game but i swear it wasn't that hard for me to get to X rank in all of splat 2s modes but in splat3 I'm barely able to hold S+0 ._.
Yep u got worse. Getting into x rank was pretty hard at the end of splatoon 2
great video chara and can we talk about the old manta hallway. how did we play on that for 5 years
Easy, two things.
1) gaming as a whole has became more competitive even in casual setting. Content creation (meta discussions) and viral clips have influenced even semi casual players to study a game more than ever before.
2) the longer a series is alive the more dedicated fans. If you played splatoon 1 and 2, you’ll notice in 3 you’re skill level is higher than those who 3 is their first game. The more fans that join now, will be better in 4, and so on. It’s a series problem, not a game problem.
whats weird is that last i played GW2, it didnt feel like this.
The difference between S+ in early Splatoon 2 where I used to be VERY good and S+ in Splatoon 3 now is just crazy. I don't play as consistently as I did back then, but it's crazy how good these players are now. I struggle to do well now and I used to be able to hang with anyone back in the day.
This is why I had to take a break. Even turf war isn't a place to relax anymore.
One thing you pointed out is the lack of lower skill midigation that is allowed to happen. If someone is good there really isnt anything that can stop players, and if you do manage to get them, cooler removes all reward you get from doing that.
Blaster has good aim? Roll d20 for how many times you are getting one shot in good positions.
Shooter moves well? Good luck hitting them.
Entire other team has cooler? Well sorry but every splat you get is completely worthless for a while.
Getting zooka spammed? Just react I guess.
The ability to hold lines is basically nonexistant with how explosive games are now.
Yes! I got to S+0, a couple days before the season changed playing casually. I’m S rank now, and I still haven’t been able to get to S+0, even though I’ve played over 6 rank up series.
I'm in low level competitive splatoon, but this video proves one thing, competitive splatoon is very difficult even at a low level but especially at a high level. I've had people say "oh competitive spaltoon is easy" no it's not...this video explains that in a perfect way
I took a break of just 2 months, and suddenly everyone is basically and entire rank better than they were before. It's absolutely wild.
For a company that wants to sell to its casual audience, they really made a game to cater to… none of that.
The game is already selling really well the the casuals
@@maplemiles3381
It’ll sell well regardless, but how many of them are sticking around after they’re done with story mode and side order?
Props to Oliy for putting booga in all the videos he edits
I don't put them in every video but I'll put them wherever they fit :)
i just played again after not playing for a year and a half and i just feel overwhelmed in this splatfest. i dont care about competitive i just wanna play turf war, but i just feel entirely exhausted from it. salmon run is a bit more fun but still. i am still honestly of the opinion they should've waited to put splatoon 3 on the switch 2, i just feel like i've missed out on this way more than with splatoon 2. to be fair to splatoon 3, splatoon 2 came out around the launch of the switch so i played the small amount of switch games i had a lot more. but i really just think splatoon should've been a once per console thing like smash bros and mario kart, it just feels weird having 2 different splatoon games on the same system idk
I’ve been wondering why I’ve been struggling so hard to enjoy Splatoon as I used to, as I’m a veteran from the first game! I think I’m pretty good at the game but not quite competitive level, so going into anarchy is really difficult to do for long periods because of how hard and frustrating it can be. Now I just mainly focus on turf and salmon run, and little sessions of ranked if I wanna work closer to getting badges for my favorite weapons. But I try not to burn myself out
The competitive side of splatoon grew way faster than I could keep up with. Early Splatoon 3 I was winning game after game I was great but I feel like fresh season is when I realized that I kind of hit my peak in skill level and I couldn’t keep up. I want to be good at the game, well I am, it’s just most people are better…
6:03
booga spotted, booyah bomb go!
I feel like this is a positive thing, honestly.
More depth is usually a good thing, since it means that theres a reason to keep playing.
It always feels like theres something significant you can improve on, and every second of practice feels meaningful.
I'm currently trying to get into Splatoon 3. I am getting demolished and I have no idea what I am doing wrong. I have gone ten games in a row without a single kill.
Could be anything. What weapons are you using? Have you played single player and side order first? Maybe salmon run. Try every weapon. Practice.
I tried all those modes, even practiced, and I'm still stuck in B
I personally think that this is amazing for the game.
Reading recent comments give me brain damage. Thinking that what is told by Chara is objectively observable in any side of the playerbase even casuals to justify opinions and be relieved of your skill is crazy to me.
Happens to all games, but Salmon Run is especially a challenge now.
this is the big reason why ive decided to "move on" from Splatoon
Inkbrush would DEFINITELY be fun if I didnt get killed at a temporal location I was at 1 second ago
I'm looking at YOU, E-Liters!
when chara says splatoon is really hard you know somethings up
You can't even play turf war nowadays without some X player practicing their spawn camping. Nowhere is casual anymore.
I’ve never played any of the other Splatoon games, but been trying to get to get to S+ since the game launched. My scores almost never tell me that I’m bad a player, and yet, I feel as though I’m matched with an awful curve that constantly pushes me down. It’s super frustrating, and even with all of the hours I’ve put in, it feels as though the game punishes any player trying to take a crack at it
Am I the only other player who wants competitive table turf? Come on there's gotta be at least 8 of us, lol. Represent ya'll!
When they allow online with randos, that is.
BOOGA MENTIONED ‼️‼️‼️
6:03😂
BOOGA SPOTTED YIPPAY!! 😼
-Hop on Anarchy series just to finish 1 series for the day.
-See player with golden crown for their amount of series streaks
Gotta say this addition is scary for more casual S+ players like myself.
Splatoon 3 was ball breakingly hard for me from day 1 after importing the Splatoon 2 data. It incorrectly thought from my old data that I was 1) ever good at the game and 2) would still be good at the game having not played it for 3 years. Got smashed in trying to play turf war to get back in the groove. It was quite funny jumping into ranked because suddenly so, so easy compared to players I was getting put against Turf War. Dunno what happened there, but even now just messing around at S+ I find relaxing compared to Turf War of all things.
Super Mario Galaxy is the best 3d mario game. Love Sunshine, but I Galaxy is just on another level
I join a little after splatoon 3 dropped but i have noticed that even over the course of me pkaying this single game, competition has gotten awfully fierce. I just play turf war because ranked mode scares me too much. People are already brutal in turf war, i cant count the amount of 70-20 or 60-30 losses ive had, ESPECIALLY during splatfests. Its gotten to a point where i have to go to sapmon run of all things just to destress from turf war T_T tbh the comoetition in ehats suppised to be a casual mode has sorta killed the enjoyment of the game for me overtime. I still enjoy splatoon a lot but :( its not as fun anymore bevause it feels like nobody's playing this game to have fun
Why am I suprised to hear Xenoblade music in my Splatoon channel
BASED CHARA SUNSHINE ENJOYER
Great vid, very interesting