“...literally every single week is Fashion Week,”
May 12, 2018 9:09 PM Subscribe
'Splatoon 2 Is A Street Fashion Zine' [Kotaku] “Splatoon 2 might be the best demonstration of how good it feels to like how you look. The clothing you can buy all comes with special perks—some will make it easier to walk through enemy ink, others give you a boost to your special, and so on. Despite the tangible gameplay differences, I almost always make outfits based around what looks good. Sure, I try to put on an article of clothing with Ninja Squid, which allows me to swim in ink invisibly, but I won’t force it if it messes up my look. You hear that? I’m never going to wear that bike helmet. In Splatoon 2's main lobby, Inkopolis Square, you’ll see your fellow Inklings all decked out in their most recent outfits, and I just cringe at the thought of being seen in someone else’s game looking anything less than on point. When I see a particularly well-dressed squid I usually take a snap of them to remember later, and I suspect other people do so as well.”
• Splatoon, The Most Fashionable Game Of All [Kotaku]
• Splatoon, The Most Fashionable Game Of All [Kotaku]
“Leland Goodman is an artist at Titmouse (Metalocalypse, Avatar’s intro), but she also has a very special side-project: a fashion zine based on Splatoon. You can see some images from that book, along with some of her other work, below. And you can see more of Leland’s stuff at her personal site.”• A Fashion Guide: The Real-Life Styles Behind Splatoon 2 [US|Gamer]
“I could easily analyze the slightest real-life details that mirror the many, many attainable clothes of Splatoon 2 forever. In the meantime, I'll hault this right here, and direct you to elsewhere: the Twitter hashtag #SquidOfTheDay. #SquidOfTheDay is where a lot of Splatoon 1 and 2 players are sharing their ever-changing outfits every day. Sometimes their outfits are constructed depending on their mood. Sometimes on what they think looks cutest. Sometimes it's a mess too—a mish mash of gear just to grind out abilities for a particular high-tiered accessory. In the end, Splatoon 2's fashion cycles just as often as the clothes we wear daily. Unrestrained, unbridled, always extremely cool.”• Splatoon’s stylish world was inspired by skateboarding and hip hop [The Verge]
“But the extreme sports aesthetic wasn’t chosen randomly. “We start with thinking, ‘OK, what is the activity in this game?’ And the activity that the inklings do is shooting ink at each other in these wild battles, as an extreme sport of sorts,” Nogami explains. “Like skateboarding or snowboarding in our real world; in their world, they take on these ink battles. So what type of clothing would someone need to wear? What would they want to wear?” Fashion isn’t just a way to let players express themselves, it’s also a world-building and storytelling tool. It enforces the place these characters have in the world, and for the sequel, fashion was also used as a way to show the passing of time. Two years passed between the launch of the original Splatoon and its sequel, and that same amount of time passed in the game’s lore as well. One of the ways you can see this is through clothing. A pair of canvas sneakers featured in the first game might be available in Splatoon 2, but with some minor changes; they’re made of leather now or available in different colors. Nogami says this is a way of “telling the player ‘Look, time has passed in this world.’””
Yeah, the original Splatoon was really a hell of a thing, the first game Nintendo released in a while that had a really youthful feel to it, possibly because, yeah, it really did nail the contemporary Japan fashion look. The folks working on Splatoon almost certainly spend their fair share of time in Amerikamura or something, because the fashions are spot on.
So good.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:48 PM on May 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
So good.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:48 PM on May 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
This whole thing is very cool, it's an excellent example of game design.
posted by carter at 4:19 AM on May 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by carter at 4:19 AM on May 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
And here I am, still just trying to make the ugliest characters I can in video games...
In Splatoon 2's main lobby, Inkopolis Square, you’ll see your fellow Inklings all decked out in their most recent outfits, and I just cringe at the thought of being seen in someone else’s game looking anything less than on point.
Maybe it's the punk in me, but I can't even begin to wrap my mind around such a thought.
posted by deadaluspark at 7:06 AM on May 13, 2018 [4 favorites]
In Splatoon 2's main lobby, Inkopolis Square, you’ll see your fellow Inklings all decked out in their most recent outfits, and I just cringe at the thought of being seen in someone else’s game looking anything less than on point.
Maybe it's the punk in me, but I can't even begin to wrap my mind around such a thought.
posted by deadaluspark at 7:06 AM on May 13, 2018 [4 favorites]
it was actually made by a crew of Nintendo’s youngest game designers so that makes sense. (Also reassuring, if you are worried about the company losing its way if Miyamoto retires.)
posted by vogon_poet at 8:14 AM on May 13, 2018
posted by vogon_poet at 8:14 AM on May 13, 2018
also you can get excellent punk clothes and combine them in creatively horrifying ways and then put a big anarchy A for your message/drawing. in fact i may have to do this now
posted by vogon_poet at 8:56 AM on May 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by vogon_poet at 8:56 AM on May 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
Efficiently levelling gear while only ever wearing matching outfits is truly the core, puzzle gameplay of Splatoon.
posted by lucidium at 9:03 AM on May 13, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by lucidium at 9:03 AM on May 13, 2018 [5 favorites]
Dressing up Link in BOTW is really fun. Especially with the ink shop in Hateno, which lets you dye pants and shirts to match with a non-matching set chest piece. The *Souls series is also famous for this. Some entries, like Bloodborne, have nearly meaningless defense and resistance stats, so you can wear whatever you want with almost no consideration to gameplay, and they seem to have taken time in gear design to make everything fit together relatively well with a minimal amount of clipping. Clothing is also generally gender agnostic, with 95% of everything working the same on either male or female characters.
It's sort of interesting that Japanese devs do this so well, but American devs (in my experience, at least) are very tied to armor as an utilitarian thing. Skyrim is a good example, where there's a pretty limited selection of armor to begin with, and most of it is a straight linear upgrade from one piece to the next, without any real cosmetic options. Fallout 4 builds on that a bit (there are paint jobs and different weights of armor that have slightly different shape lines), but it's still depressingly utilitarian. Personally, if given a choice between looking cool and having a higher stat number, I'll always take looking cool.
I like the design philosophy expressed in the last linked article: that "cosmetic" elements of a game aren't separate from the more traditional 'gamey' parts of a game, but rather exist to support and build on the formal mechanics by creating senses of place and history within the game world.
posted by codacorolla at 1:39 PM on May 13, 2018 [4 favorites]
It's sort of interesting that Japanese devs do this so well, but American devs (in my experience, at least) are very tied to armor as an utilitarian thing. Skyrim is a good example, where there's a pretty limited selection of armor to begin with, and most of it is a straight linear upgrade from one piece to the next, without any real cosmetic options. Fallout 4 builds on that a bit (there are paint jobs and different weights of armor that have slightly different shape lines), but it's still depressingly utilitarian. Personally, if given a choice between looking cool and having a higher stat number, I'll always take looking cool.
I like the design philosophy expressed in the last linked article: that "cosmetic" elements of a game aren't separate from the more traditional 'gamey' parts of a game, but rather exist to support and build on the formal mechanics by creating senses of place and history within the game world.
posted by codacorolla at 1:39 PM on May 13, 2018 [4 favorites]
codacorolla, you raise some really interesting points. Thanks for sharing.
The author from the main linked article also addresses these issues:
The author from the main linked article also addresses these issues:
“Take Link in The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. While, like Splatoon 2, his clothing choices have in-game benefits, they are also outfits that define Link’s character as you play him. Link in his rock climbing outfits is sporty and tough; in his ninja outfit he is lithe and sneaky; and in his Gerudo outfit he is fey and delicate. Because these outfits are so specific, Link himself seems to change shape as he changes outfits. ”posted by Fizz at 1:46 PM on May 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
I also love that Link is very gender fluid in BotW. Once aspect of that game I love is how open and free it is with choice, and this is built into the wardrobe/gear/armor.
posted by Fizz at 1:47 PM on May 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 1:47 PM on May 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
Yeah, that part of the first article is what made me bring up BOTW. I think that in large part it works for a few reasons:
If you want raw DEF numbers, you can eat food to have more DEF (or more hearts to soak damage, or more resistance to counter raw damage, or more ATK to outpace your enemies).
The difference between most 2 or 3 level armor is a few hearts worth of damage, which doesn't matter too much for an end-game character anyhow.
Various armor piece benefits are better than raw DEF anyway.
All of that together lets you wear pretty much whatever you want to without having to sacrifice playability. Plus armors are weightless, and you can hold every armor piece in the game at once, so switching on the fly for a particular challenge is painless.
If you compare that to a Bethesda open world game: the armors are usually strict linear upgrades (there's no reason to wear leather if you have elven), potion making is more cumbersome than food crafting in, the damage reduction of leather to light dragonbone is massive, and you need to store spare armor in a persistent chest (likely your house) due to encumbrance.
Lots of design choices in BOTW contribute to giving the player more freedom - including the ability to dress for fashion or expression instead of utility. BOTW can be exceedingly easy without really cheesing the game - it gives you the option to make a 10 stack of +17 heart items, have a full supply of faeries, and of course Mipha's Grace. If you don't want to sweat combat too much, you can get around it in a number of ways, up to one-shotting anything with an Ancient Arrow.
posted by codacorolla at 2:25 PM on May 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
If you want raw DEF numbers, you can eat food to have more DEF (or more hearts to soak damage, or more resistance to counter raw damage, or more ATK to outpace your enemies).
The difference between most 2 or 3 level armor is a few hearts worth of damage, which doesn't matter too much for an end-game character anyhow.
Various armor piece benefits are better than raw DEF anyway.
All of that together lets you wear pretty much whatever you want to without having to sacrifice playability. Plus armors are weightless, and you can hold every armor piece in the game at once, so switching on the fly for a particular challenge is painless.
If you compare that to a Bethesda open world game: the armors are usually strict linear upgrades (there's no reason to wear leather if you have elven), potion making is more cumbersome than food crafting in, the damage reduction of leather to light dragonbone is massive, and you need to store spare armor in a persistent chest (likely your house) due to encumbrance.
Lots of design choices in BOTW contribute to giving the player more freedom - including the ability to dress for fashion or expression instead of utility. BOTW can be exceedingly easy without really cheesing the game - it gives you the option to make a 10 stack of +17 heart items, have a full supply of faeries, and of course Mipha's Grace. If you don't want to sweat combat too much, you can get around it in a number of ways, up to one-shotting anything with an Ancient Arrow.
posted by codacorolla at 2:25 PM on May 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
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posted by sleeping bear at 10:43 PM on May 12, 2018 [5 favorites]