Splatoon 2 is Better Than Splatoon 3, IMO

Hi kids, today I wanted to find our which is harder, coming out as gay or thinking Splatoon 2 is better than Splatoon 3. Surely it will be the first one, right? Also, surely this video will publish in 1080p, right?

My socials:

[rizirone]

Corrections: S3 has more maps than 2 now (if you exclude shifty stations) and S3 is also now 2 maps more Splatoon 3 than it is Splatoon 1 and 2. Uhh, a win is a win I guess?

[ExplosiveGrape]

Splatoon 2: Better story dlc, better kits, better maps, better splatfests, better ideals
Splatoon 3: Better salmon, better mechanics, better graphics, better base story mode.

Personally permanent salmon run and better mechanics give me the edge to 3 but I can’t deny 2 was more hype.

[Dragwhite]

it's such a minor thing but splatoon 2's splatfests opening up with pearl and marina on the stage and not just on the news screen is something i really miss in three, it just doesn't have that same impact upon opening up the game on splatfests anymore

[landensplatoon]

Splatoon 2 handled updates, maps/kits, Splatfest theming, and DLC better, but Splatoon 3 made so many great changes that makes the other Splatoon games look a lot more bare

[raycraft]

As someone who disagrees with nearly every single point in this video, I 100% respect having this opinion

[BeeLy]

"It was a better time to be a Splatoon fan during the Splatoon 2 era"

THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING THANK YOU

A part of me was thinking it was mostly because I was a kid in middle/high school during that era and I had irl friends that I played regularly with, but genuinely I haven't felt the same magic that Splat2 had from Splat3. The only times I can distinctly remember feeling that was at launch, the story mode, and around the time Side Order came out. Other than that, I've either felt like it was "good but lacking" or just a sort of emptiness.

While I do think the game is mechanically an improvement over the previous two games with Squid Roll alone (and also Squid Surge when it works), between the seasonal model, mediocre stages and questionable kits, post launch support for the game has ranged from alright to frustrating. In terms of Splatfests, while I do find Tricolor fun even when the stage choices are questionable, Shifty Stations were MUCH more interesting of a gimmick and had some of the coolest stage mechanics in the franchise.

Maybe Finalfest will bring some of the magic back, but literally everyone expected it to be an Idol Showdown so I don't see it surprising us.

[ProChara]

As a firm s3 is better fan I can still appreciate a lot of the points in this video, there's a lot to like about the update period and choices. Stages and kits has me torn. I think the stages splatoon 3 is outputting recently dwarf most of 2s but were getting like 3 of them and the reworks aren't making old stages match that. Kit wise I think Splatoon 2s are much worse there are some truly awful choices but they did kind of have a direction with them and I do respect that.
Personally while I have my issues with both (esp endgame s2) im still overall happy with the product, there's just a lot to critique with these games.

[jordannelson]

I'll also say that s2 feels better to play casually. In s3, it feels like I have to play like a tryhard IN TURF WAR, instead of messing around with weapons or leveling up new gear

[kyubeyz_]

I think you’ve probably hit every nail on the head on why I prefer splatoon 2. It’s easy to say “it’s just nostalgia” but splatoon 3 just hasn’t given me the experience I gotten from 2 and I don’t think that’s nostalgias fault

[thatgreyhat_H]

bad motion controls and response time is the main reason splat 3 is better for me, also no stingray and armor

[ripmel]

I prefer 3 over 2 but 2 is better in the long term. Splatoon 2 has that addictive factor that keeps you coming back for more, where as 3 is good but only in bursts. 3 had better salmon run, main campaign, and mechanics. But 2 had better maps, DLC, kits, and splatfests. If only we could have tricolor in shifty stations…
It seems to me like Nintendo experimented with 3. While it worked in some ways, it didn’t in others. I hope splatoon 4’s updates are more like 2’s if it happens.

[hatsunemikuscloset]

appearance wise, the ink/octoling animations and models fit the "toon" part of "splatoon", the pre-animated hair physics, the silly winning emotes, the runs when in inkopolis square, theyre so cartoony and really fit in for a childrens game about squids shooting ink, while in splatoon 3 they look, , mature and bland.. the hair physics ruin everything imo, the way the tentacles fly everywhere, it looks stupid, the realistic animation and emotes, the stiff run in splatsville, i miss when they were all wobbly and fun to watch,

[grogg]

I've been feeling weirdly bitter about this series as of late. I've spent almost a year butting heads with S3 and just never got into it, at the same time everyone and their dog says that it's the best the series has ever been, literally prints diamonds as you play it. Meanwhile the netcode only lets you play on your 5th attempt, the supposedly best map in the game is Musselforge Fitness with fetal alcohol syndrome and special spam is just as bad as in S2 but with a different coat of paint. I regret not playing that game more than I did and not trying out more things. S3 is good for hyper-optimized matches (I guess?) in high-level play but it just doesn't hit that "Splatoon" feel. Yeah I'm old and bitter. It just could've been so much better than this, you know?

[Madchimpz]

I put a couple hundred hours into Splatoon 2. But when I played the Splatoon 3 demo and I was turned off by the gameplay changes and the style. It kind of made me lose my fondness of the series. I never bothered to buy the game. But even when it was first revealed I just thought "really, already?" I was still content with Splatoon 2, I thought they should have waited for the next generation.

[smugzuck]

thank you for speaking factual information. we all know after splatoon 3 came out the government forced everyone to speak well of splatoon 3

[samuelturner]

And they hated Rizone for he spoke the truth.
I'm tired of having to stay silent about 3's massive flaws because of the toxic positively of the community. You have basically summed up the whole argument in this and your previous videos and I hope they reach more people because it needs to be said.
I eagerly await the Side Order video because I also have controversial opinions about it that I hope you can shed light on. OE was perfection and SO was aggressively mid, not only in story but also gameplay considering there are several other rougelites that are far more repayable for the same cost or cheaper.

[Freelancer]

I'd honestly say aside from QOL changes that just come from being the newer game in any series, there's nothing Splatoon 3 does better than either of the other two games. The gameplay I'd say has gotten worse with every entry. Splatoon 2 still has the two best storymodes and 3 has the two worst ones. Splatoon 2's Salmon Run didn't feel as balll crushing as Splatoon 3's. Content was better distributed in the other two. Splatoon 1 has the best balancing with 2 being decent at it as well. Even some of the more arbitrary things like the idols, I think 3 still made good ones, but they've done them the worst with Deep Cut getting sidelined in their own game by the Squid Sisters in the base game and Off the Hook centering the whole DLC while Deep Cut got nothing in their own game. Even the localization of 3 has been the worst. 1, and 2 especially, the localization added a lot of flavor while not (most of the time) straying too far to mean something entirely different. Meanwhile with 3, it's closer to more direct translations which leads to stuff like Marina's character and dialogue being WAAAAY worse than it was in Splatoon 2.

Even besides all of this, Splatoon 3 was even the only game (so far) that had no purpose to exist. They did NOT need to end support of 2 as soon as they did, but they did because the team can only afford to work on Animal Crossing OR Splatoon. Splatoon 1 was a great first title, and Splatoon 2 may not have been the best at first, but it really came to form its own with updates and DLC, and was necessary to get Splatoon onto this new system of the Switch. Splatoon 3 is just the consequences of the team behind Splatoon and AC's bad work ethics that come from them being too understaffed to do what they should be doing. Splatoon 3 is still in desperate need of one real good DLC to make it a true sequel game and not some half-sequel, but we're not going to get that because of how bad the development of Splatoon 3 and Side Order has been. They're going to opt instead for getting a Splatoon 4 ready to release on their next console. Which, is a good reason for a new sequel compared to 3, but it just cements how completely unnecessary and badly handled both Splatoon 3 and the Splatoon series is being handled by NIntendo.

[estoucansado]

Honestly what kills my enjoyment of Splatoon 3 the most FOR ME, it's how this game has a severe lack of polish compared to Splatoon 2, there is more bugs visual issues and inconsistencies that simply didn't exist in that game... Trees not being paintable, the background jellies at 5 fps etc...

[Hippienolic]

From a casuals POV, Splatoon 3 is too combat based. Let me paint the stage

[juantendo]

One thing that I liked in Splatoon 2 where whenever you win or lose a match, depending on the gender and species of your player, they'd have some sort of unique animation depending on what weapon you chose.

I hated that Splatoon 3 didn’t bring back those unique animations, because even though gender doesn’t really exist anymore, it just feels... wrong.

I might sound a bit like a bitch based on the way I'm talking abiut it, but I just wanted to get it off my chest for goodness sake.