September 25th, 2024
September, September, September!
Two years have passed since Splatoon 3's launch, which means that the major updates are finally over. The Splatoon 3 Direct, which was streamed a month before release, stated that the game would recieve new content updates for two years. It was inevitable, but we're finally past that point and we can see that this final update is about.
For this update, it was focused on the last major Splatfest of the game rather than any new main content. The Grand Festival was hyped up well in advance with its own website, which promoted a temporary new hub with performances from all three major idol groups. Outside of the game, the Splatfest was advertised with many merchandise and public events. This Splatfest was touted as the biggest in the series and it could not look any better.
The theme for this Splatfest is: What is most important to you? Past, Present, or Future? All the idol groups come in to represent each team: Squid Sisters being on Past, Off the Hook being on Present, and Deep Cut being on Future. I wanted to pick Past, but all my friends were on Present so I chose Present.
New updates would come out before Grand Festival which added support for the new idol amiibo and Grand Festival data. The new season did start, but there was no new content of any kind released, with the catalog being a repeat of Drizzle Season 2023. The only thing to do this update is to wait until Grand Festival starts!
When you connect online, you get put into the Grand Festival Grounds, decorated with shops, attendees, lights, and signs. The Crater branches out to three different venues, each swapping between the three idol groups. During this time, you cannot access the normal hub worlds or summon amiibo, which was an odd choice as brand new amiibo released just a week before this event.
The left path leads to a small urchin venue with lights and sparklers being set off during the performance.
The right path leads to a tent venue with some projections across the wall.
The center path leads to the huge outdoor venue, bedazzled with hundreds of jellyfish attendees. The stage features the bright lights, large pyrotechnics, and multiple screens. It must've been fun trying to optimize it.
During the first two days, the Tri-color maps are randomized from the previous Splatfests in every match. All of the previous Tri-color maps haven't been in rotation since their debut Splatfests. The new Tri-color map wouldn't be in rotation yet until halftime.
Once halftime hit, it turns nighttime and the small venues close. All three groups combine to form the Now or Never Seven performing Three Wishes on the huge outdoor venue. This was so cool to look at as a longtime Splatoon fan, seeing all three groups representing all three generations of the series.
During the final day, the Tri-color map changes to the brand new Grand Splatlands Bowl. The map is setup similar to a stage venue, appropriate as each idol group also appears in the stage. There's not much to write home about regarding the layout, outside of the middle platform being able to rise up when a player stands on it. It was revealed and playable in Big Run a week prior, but I didn't play it.
One thing that's cool about the stage is the interactibility with the music. If a team gets the second Ultra Signal, the last minute music is joined by vocals from the team's respective idols. I like that touch a lot and it's a shame that it seems like that music isn't available in the jukebox.
After Splatfest finished, the sun starts to rise and the player remains in the dawn of a new day in the hub. The idols perform their respective post-Splatfest songs before results are calculated. The stores all look to be closed up and many of the jellyfish participants are at the venues or packing up. It's just a normal rotation except that you're still inside the Grand Festival Grounds.
Then next rotation, the results came out...
Team Past won! Team Present was a far second while Team Future was a zero winner. If I thought about going Past, does that mean I technically half-won?
After the results, Deep Cut have a small talk about putting Inkopolis and Splatlands differences aside. Their loyalty to Splatlands was a part of their character. It could also be taken as how the game itself is also technically over. There are moments similar to this in the other final Splatfests.
The newscast ends and we get our Super Sea Snails. Everyone gets kicked back to their hub.
By using any kind of idol amiibo, you're able to access the Grand Festival hub. When scanned, you're able to go to any of the hub's phases: the first 48 hours, the last 24 hours, or the pre-results phase. It's only a quick trip, you'll revert back to your old hub once you travel out of there. It's nice as, despite Splatoon 1 having the option, Splatoon 2 never included a way to go back to the plaza during Splatfest with the Off the Hook amiibo.
After the festival results, the Splatoon Twitter account posted about how they'll support the game onwards. They stated that they'll continue to host the seasonal Splatfests with new themes for the next year, rerun previous Big Runs, and continue to do challenges and Salmon Run contests as long as they can, as well as provide irregular patches. There've been rumors that third kits will happen, as that did happen during Splatoon 2's update cycle, but who knows?
Well, that's that. Splatoon 3 was a decent game. It had some high highs, but some low lows. The game included some great quality-of-life changes, a fun DLC campaign and the prettiest graphics the series has ever had... but I can't help but mention the problems that really held this game back, which I felt was brought on because I decided to enter the competitive scene.
I can't beat around the bush anymore but I feel like competitive play did sour my opinion of the game. I'm glad that my team tried to atleast seperate themselves from the average composition. Having team members be skilled with atleast every type of weapon did make for a packed roundtable discussion before matches. Our games were mostly of just fighting near identical compositions over and over again, which made tournaments repetitive. It got me bored of the game quicker.
The update schedule I thought was a neat concept, but it felt like a drag to follow over time. Weapons gradually getting second kits was something that always happened, but it's absurd when some weapons can take up to two years to get second kits. I guess the problem of making them all fair and balanced which is why they took so long, but I didn't make the game so I wouldn't know.
I hope for the next entry, they can set it apart from the previous entries. They should also take their time, as I'm extremely burnt out of this series. I do not want to see any Splatoon 4 footage for the next two years.
It's time for the Japanese imports for the month.
I bought this Panasonic SJ-MJ55, an untested player for $8. It came with a (dead) gumstick battery, which started to corrode itself and the terminals! The battery door and the area surrounding it was affected, so I had to clean it up to the best of my ability. Thankfully, the terminal damage wasn't too serious and I cleaned up some of the cosmetic damage.
Inserting discs into the machine is a bit weird. On my MJ15, you simply unlock the disc cover and put in the disc like a PSP. On this, you're supposed to push the disc into a little slope on the top, which makes the disc push the tray cover up and slide into position. It feels like I'm breaking the device, but the manual says to do just that!
Since the MJ55 comes from the same manufacturer as my main portable, I can use my preexisting sidecar battery terminal to power this unit! I plugged the sidecar in and I heard the lens move around a bit. I put in a disc and it read just fine! The motor inside is a little noisy compared to my MJ15. The player works just fine and doesn't seem to be having any skipping issues.
One thing I like about this portable is that the door that you slide the discs into is transparent, showing the disc's spine label. Not only does it allow for convenience, but I think it could be another avenue for personalization.
By the way, I got my first Sony Neige disc from 2005. The Neige series is extremely common, with the colorless, simple design making any music appropriate to record. While the name is no longer in use, the still-manufactured MDW80T discs are the modern-day Neige discs. I'm expecting to get way more Neige discs in the future since a lot of people seem to be uninterested in them.
This CD was only CD purchase this month. The self-titled album, Hajime Yoshizawa, got on my radar after hearing it in a Mt.RAINIER coffee ad. The artist name was barely legible in the 2 uploads I saw and I managed to track it down. Unfortunately, there was nothing outside of ugly YouTube uploads. Thankfully, a used copy was on Yahoo Auctions for little under a dollar. The album is on YouTube if you're interested, but it doesn't seem to be on Spotify.
I also recieved more pop'n music games. The collection is near completion!
This is pop'n music 12: Iroha!
The songs introduced in this version are all pretty great. I love Just you wait! and 流星☆ハニー. There's also some unlockable songs like エイプリルフールの唄, Into The Light, GRADUATION ~それぞれの明日~ for any DDR players, お仕置き忍のテーマ, and 白いとび羽根 being some highlights. The songlist is varied in this entry.
The original AC version is notable for introducing the NET Taisen mode, which lets players compete in online score competitions. The CS version brings the mode to the CS versions with computers instead. This game came out 2 decades ago, but Lively doesn't have this mode yet...
The mode is setup where each rank allows for charts up to a certain level to be picked. The first rank only allowing for charts up to level 15 to be picked. You'll have to play your current rank over and over to raise through the ranks, so you'll have to play the baby charts even if you already cleared a couple of EX charts.
This is my first time playing something similar to Taisen mode, as it's not in pop'n music Lively. Even though the battles are all played with CPUs, I think it's really fun.
This is pop'n music 13: Carnival, the second-to-last pop'n music game on PS2. This game has one of the best songlists, so I can't wait to play it as a subsitute for Lively.
It's surprising they put this song in pop'n music.
The game has a very strong base songlist. Not only does the game include the inital songlist hits like fffff or Pop Music Ron, it also includes some selections from Iroha and Iroha's respective CS songs. Being a new CS title, there's some new CS originals. One of the most popular CS songs, jewelry girl*, makes its debut here.
The unlock event is also easy compared to any other before it, with the songs unlocked being some of the best. The event is played out merely like a memory game, where you choose two cards in a pile. Their value will be added to the unlock meter to the next song. 麻雀格闘倶楽部特別接続曲, CHOCOLATE PHILOSOPHY, Violently Car are some of my favorite songs that can be unlocked from this event.
With these two additions, I'm only missing pop'n music 11 and 14 FEVER to complete the series on PS2. 11 doesn't cost that much, but 14 FEVER costs quite a bit due to being the final pop'n music game on PS2. It's not IIDX EMPRESS levels of expensive, but it's still a lot for a series that is usually pretty cheap.
I also got beatmania IIDX 13: DISTORTED! This is one of my favorite IIDX styles because the theme is just distortion. The game's theme color being black & white with the occasional splash of orange brings a modern aesthetic that's so of-the-time. I like it a lot.
The songlist in this game is probably the most unique in the series. This was right in the middle of a transitional period from the house music the late-numbered styles had to more techno music. There's music like waxing and wanding, MOON, and ay carumba!!!!, which feel so much like music of the upcoming era of IIDX. Not including returning songs, you've got new music like BOOM BOOM DISCO NIGHT, wish, and with you..., which all feel like they've been in a previous style before.
Which one is the one I just got? I don't know.
I bought another Wii U console for 10 yen, I believe. The seller confirmed that it turned on, but was protected by parental controls & a Nintendo Network login, so they weren't able to check any further. Wii U consoles are useless if you don't have any of the account passwords or keys. Nobody cares for Wii U systems, which would be further amplified by the presence of locks! Nobody fought my bid.
It's possible to bypass the Nintendo Network account password when it's impossible to create a new account, but it requires a code from Nintendo support staff. I'm not trying to waste time calling support when alternative methods exist. I have a couple of leftover Pi Zero boards that can execute the UDPIH exploit, which can show the parental controls passcode or disable them entirely.
After disabling parental controls, account creation was possible. I tried linking the NNID from my other Japanese Wii U, but NNIDs can only be used for one system at a time. I wasn't making yet another NNID for myself, so I just left it without one. It might be possible to use one Pretendo account for multiple Wii Us, but I haven't bothered with it.
I was looking through the system for any software and the internal storage chip manufacturer. The console came from the Super Mario Maker bundle with the game preinstalled. Parental controls blocked eShop access, so I don't think the previous owner bought anything. Thankfully, the system came with a Toshiba storage chip, so there shouldn't be any issues with the system memory.
This is Higurashi: Kizuna Tatari. I thought the game being on DS was really funny, so I got it. I shouldn't have been surprised though, you can press the A button on every console. The series was split up into four volumes on the DS, I probably won't get them all.
It's a little comforting playing a visual novel on DS. The game uses the appropriate vertical layout, with one screen containing the sprites and the other being the novel display. The music sounds pretty high-quality for a DS game, as the game uses streamed CRI ADX for music rather than the standard MIDI. If it was 2008 and I could read Japanese perfectly fine, I would probably play the series on DS.
The previous owner played through the game a bit, the save file showing 34% completion. The game keeps playtime with the save data, saying that the file has 10 hours of playtime last touched sometime in 2008. I accidentally saved so I can't remember when specifically, oops!
My second sales poster arrived. It's for Under the Skin, a game I got almost a year ago. I like the simple, flat design of the ad. It's very clean and doesn't have any pushpin holes. I'd happily hang this up in my room.
This is my first poster that's the full B2 size. That size is not a standard size here, which is a problem since I want to frame it. I might have to import or build one, since our closest standard here is a little bit too small. I'm not willing to cut the poster out to frame it!
The latest Dreamcast import is Atsumare! Guruguru Onsen. I've wrote about Dai Guruguru Onsen on PS2 before, which is a port of the second entry. This is the first entry to the Guruguru Onsen series, a series focused around online tabletop games.
One thing I think is funny is how heavy this game is due to the manual. The manual has to contain information on playing each of the games, online connection details, and online ettiquette. The manual ends up being 86 pages long. Future entries would increase the case size to that of a two-disc game or come with a seperate booklet.
Each type of game is seperated into it's own area.
The game, being the first, has a limited selection of games compared to the rest of the series. There's the trump card games (Sevens, President, Napoleon, Yukon, Freecell), Mahjong, Shogi, and an additional fortune telling aspect of the game. The games in this collection are geared towards Japanese audiences, so it's a little hard to play if you don't know how these games play.
The thing that drew me into the game was mostly the theme. I find tabletop compilation games to be relaxing to play and I like the customization options of the characters in this game. To coincide with the aesthetic of the hot springs, the music and sounds are very soothing.
The game recieved a couple of re-releases. There's the WebMoney version which includes a 500 yen WebMoney card to pay for 30 days of online subscription, though I believe the rest of the game remains unchanged. There's also the BB version, which replaces the modem connectivity with Broadband Adapter support. It's the most expensive Guruguru Onsen game, but it's for a feature that's been dead for years.
I bought more memory for my PC. I've been running 16GB since 2021 and I don't know how I only got 16GB then. That's like the minimum now. I installed it and it made a huge difference. I can actually play a game on my PC and browse the internet and go on Discord without any of them freezing. I'm finally in the year 2020.
I was planning on upgrading my video card recently, but many games haven't been struggling after the memory upgrade. Considering that the 50-series Nvidia cards are projected to be coming out next year, I might hold off until they come out. Maybe the current graphic card prices will go down or there will be a viable alternative.
Well, that's that for September. I haven't written about Splatoon in a while, mostly cause I haven't been active in it. Most people believe the Switch successor is to be revealed in the next few months, so I can't wait for that. I hope it's not a million dollars...