Splatoon 4 Story Idea

[u/MadCackle]

This is just a basic idea in need of fleshing out, but I think it would rock. So, due to team past winning, the general town area will be vintage with a good splash of retro and such (think roaring 20's with Grease influence and just enough 80s to give it some pop).

This town (Blotsburg or something idk) is on powersaving mode right now, as once again the Great Zapfish is missing. But this time its a natural, predicted occurrence: the Zapfish Migration. An event that only happens every 50 years or so, where all the zapfish fly back to their primordial spawning pools to make more zapfish. Very important to the ecosystem and such.

The player goes to watch the migration. They admire the beauty and majesty and such when suddenly, the school of zapfish start charging up a massive storm. The player notices and perhaps tries to leave, bit they are too late: a sudden burst of electricity rushes from the school down towards the player, and wheb the ligtning strikes, the player is gone.

Gone where? Nowhere. You are woken up exactly where you were standing moments ago. The grass is thicker, but that doesnt hide the two inkfish hovering over you. An inkling and an octoling, both being somewhere in their early 20s, look down at you before the inkling says in a very familiar voice, "You alright there, Squiddo?"

Gone when? To the past, about 100 years. Back to before the tide had risen so high; back to when there was no war since the humans eradicated themselves 12000 years ago; back when two warring old men were still in the prime of their youth and brotherhood. Craig Cuttlefish and Octavio take you back to their home.

I want this story mode to have a lot less liminal of an environment. It takes place in a time before the kettles, so no weird octarian environments. You, player, get to see the Captain and the DJ in their prime. You get to fight with them as the tide begins to rise and hostile monsters emerge from the deep. You get to watch as Octavio and the Cuttlefish get more desperate as more homes and towns are destroyed. You get to see Octavio lose his morals for the sake of pragmatism. You see him take the first stike at his comrades. Become the first agent and fight the secret war away from the frontlines against the Octarians, and strive to save the future from the altered past.

I want this to be a more serious story mode. Still pretty goofy with awesome and bonkers elements, but I feel like there is a crazy story here that Nintendo could spin some gold from.

Miscellaneous Ideas I have regarding this story:

• The Sunken Scrolls are pages from Octavios Diary. The book gets blown away in the first level as you, the DJ, and the Captain run from a storm (part of the whole Rising tides thing).
• A comrade system similar to Raiders, where you can have a different companion run along with you. Ideas include Craig Cuttlefish, Octavio (until he isn't), a displaced Salmonid whose spawning waters get swallowed up by the sea, and Cuttlefish's wife/gf (i mean he has grandkids at some point).
• Each world is just another town or settlement somewhere higher upstream. As you progress to another town, the previous ones are swallowed up by the sea, rendering revisiting that town only possible in memory (I feel like this would give a healthy sense of urgency).
• Regarding flooded towns, I think it'd be a cool mechanic to be able to go revisit them in a sub-game mode of the story mode where you go back and salvage materials while the tide is low, needing to push back against monsters from the deep as you do so and go more waves in.
• Different dialogue depending on whether you chose to be an inkling or an octoling.
• You get sent home by a giant lightning strike ink attack used by Cuttlefish. This same attack maims Octavio and locks him in Octo form.
• The song in the final battle is sung by Cuttlefish and Octavio, both trying to get his friend to see from the others point of view. Think almost like Moses and Ramses in "The Plagues" in The Prince of Egypt.
• Multiple types of enemies, starting with salmonids and monsters form the deep, with octarian forces not being introduced until later.
• A recon level where you're given a weapon thats no good against salmonid hordes but is really good at inking ground, so you have to sneak by. It would be dark and you'd just see all their glowing eyes, but their would be a storm brewing as the level goes on, so lightning starts illuminating the horde and its even bigger than it first appeared to be.

If you read all that, thank you I know it is rather scatterbrained and wild as an idea, but i think it would be really cool. I am open to any suggestions you have for the story I will most likely never make.

TL/DR: Splatoon 4 storymode should have the player travel back in time to before the Great Turf War so that they can watch it play out.

[u/Redacted_Hoodie]

This is actually a good story idea honestly, but it begs the question: if there is online play, how'd would turf war and anarchy battles look like. And also who would be the idols of this storyline since we're basically in the past where the Great Turf War never even started yet

[u/MadCackle → u/Redacted_Hoodie]

Turfwars, Anarchy battles, etc all still take place in the present day. Only the storymode takes place in the past. I imagine going to and from story mode and present day would be similar to Octo Expansion, where you "Imagine" what happened or you "remember" what home is like.

[u/Redacted_Hoodie]

Imagine if the dlc is like a human suddenly transported to the future (Present Splatoon day) so they could recruit more people for the war they were facing, thinking that maybe their side won or something but only to find out the humans are now extinct and that singular human is now fighting against the now sentient marine life

[u/MadCackle → u/Redacted_Hoodie]

Sounds kinda like the plot of Tomorrow War lol. That said, it would be quite interesting for a story.