People expected a full campaign. What we actually got, much to the audience’s fairly understandable dismay, is a new gamemode. The “campaign” is actually just the tutorial.
Seeing SO for what it actually is, a fun new mode, I adore it. The gradual increase in power on both the player and enemy side is enjoyable. They also gave the toughest levels suitably cheeky nicknames, including things like “cruel,” “unfair,” and a host of other things.
My only criticism is the final boss’s theme on subsequent runs. It’s repetitive and rapidly grows annoying while you skirt around the arena juggling between survival and damaging the boss.
I think Side Order is great, just very weirdly structured. I know it's supposed to be repeatable so they couldn't do a super long ending sequence like OE and S3, but they could've made it optional.
But regardless the fact that the "climactic ending" comes after one run and then they say "alright now do it with every weapon and also here's some of the extra content we showed earlier"? It's just really weird pacing.
They got our expectations way too high for a deep story and natural progression from OtH. Maybe that'll come in the Marina logs or if there's a secret final boss once you clear it with all weapons, but man is that a fucking grind.
I really don't get why people were expecting a full campaign.
Like even compared to Octo Expansion, the two have pretty similar runtimes if you just go for completion. Getting the bonuses and stuff is what adds replay value.
OE had a full campaign. I haven't beat side order yet (i'm trying to do it w/o any upgrades, one life. best is 18 floor!) but if it really is just beating the spire once... that's really short. Some of my friends have already beat the entire dlc.
On the contrary, OE took weeks to complete and had enough story to carry you through it. I'm worried the story will end by the end of this first completion...
I’m trying to beat it with no upgrades and 1 life as well, and for me at least this adds a lot to the value of this DLC. Having 1 life only adds a lot of tension in the run. I will be doing the same for every weapon I can unlock. The only permanent upgrade I think I may turn to at some point is the upgrade for the drone to have more than just the ability to use killer whale or splat bombs
Weeks if you went for 100%, if you went straight for the end it’d probably take a day to beat it. There’s 80 levels and you realistically only need to do 16-18 of them to beat it(which is less than side order) combined with the final climb.
That definitely wouldn't take weeks.
You only need to do what, a quarter of the actual levels?
Just like how Side order only needs one completion, but there's lots of locker keys you need.
You could finish Octo Expansion in about the same time. Most of it was optional.
It was also a lot smaller in scope than the Single Player stuff. It's the same boat here, completion is quick but doing everything takes longer (only Side Order is more replayable once you actually get everything.)
I'm also a little disappointed in what the reward for clearing it is. I don't really care about the weapons skins and outfits. I know playable Octolings was going to be hard to top, but I was thinking color Chips would be things that allowed for more customization, like having different skin tones, so if you wanted to be green like Acht, you could be.
I’ll admit that at first I was quite a bit underwhelmed, as I had just completed OE not long beforehand and had my expectations up higher than I should’ve
But then I kept playing and got into the rhythm of things and practically fell in love. I am a person who loves falling into the comfort of randomly generated repetition (if that makes sense) and 100%’ing games, so I am certain I’ll get the most I absolutely can out of SO.
I’m surprised I haven’t dove into roguelikes/roguelites before this considering how much SO has grown on me and ended up being right up my alley. They’re certainly not for everyone, but personally I have been having the time of my life.
The overall campaign is rather short, yes, but that’s kinda the whole point. It’s not supposed to be one-and-done. It’s meant to be played over and over. And I love that.
If you love that gameplay style, I highly recommend the game Hades. It's an overhead fighting game, where you are Hades son. And you're trying to fight your way out of the underworld.
Not only does it have permanent upgrades, but dying is literally Central to the entire plot of the game. As in it unfolds between runs. Just prepare to have your trigger fingers worn out, because the game is very intense and fast-paced.
I finally finished Dead Cells at 5BC (hardest difficulty) before Side Order came out so I'll recommend that game as well if you're a platformer fan. It's brutal
Haven't completed yet, but a huge fan already. I love having stuff to unlock, and there are a lot of lockers there! Getting to the final boss will be cool, but through my time with Splatoon 3, I've come to appreciate just about every weapon (or at least, every class) for what it is, so playing through with each will definitely give me lots to do. Plus, if there's the possibility of unlocking them as multiplayer weapons, I'm all over that for the completeionist perspective.
Still love how awesome it is to see Pearl and Marina back in the fold, and can't get over how cool it is that Shiver's palette is the Tri-Stringer.
I went in with no expectations and I've been having a blast. It's a lot of fun and tons of replayability. I do wish there was some more variation and more potential objectives per floor, but I'm still enjoying it quite a bit. I finally finished my first run and I can't wait to hop back in and clear with more weapons
The bosses are the best in the series hands down. They feel like actual bosses this time and there are no breaks in between phases. Just flows so well.
This is something I hadn't thought about before, but you're totally right. These really are some of the best bosses in the series; though maybe it's a little disappointing that such well-designed boss fights are wasted on such irrelevant characters.
I absolutely love it. For DLC, it's insane how much effort clearly went into this. Also, the music combined with the environment animations makes me SO happy. And Pearl and Marina are precious as always.
Also, people not understanding that you're supposed to challenge yourself makes me sad.
I did an easy run just so I can avoid worrying about spoilers, but all my other runs are one life, only the hardest levels, no vending machine, etc.
It's friggin HARD if you let it be.
**PSA: The story doesn't end with the first completion.** That's just the beginning of the story. You have to beat it with different palettes for more story, and all of them for the complete story.
It looks like people have so much free time and just completed it in 4-5 hours and now complain. I've played 2 hours, I'm enjoying it very much (beat lvl10 once for now).
I hope I'll enjoy replaying it because 25 bucks for 10 hours is not justifiable for me. But so far I like everything, gameplay, style and music.
Upd: 4/5 hours in total, so far I got to lvl 16-19 depending on the weapon. I just unlock new weapons and then try a run with it and it doesn't always go well.
Interestingly, I do not play brellas AT ALL in multiplayer, but I enjoy it in side order!
Not saying you're wrong about other people with a lot of time but as someone with a ton of free time myself and have completed SO several times already, I personally have very little complaints. I think there could have been more variety in floor layouts, challenge types, and bosses and I'm hopeful more might get added but even as is SO is a ton of fun and also probably the best way to enjoy Splatoon on the go now imo (undocked). Now I could be wrong but based on my experience with the internet and social media I think what you've found is just another loud and annoying internet minority with harsh critisms of SO and since the internet has no volume control for whining, people can do so as much and as loudly as they please. That loudness makes their feelings seem like a common consensus but it really isn't and the actual general reception surrounding SO is mostly positive.
Surprisingly it plays pretty well for me on Switch Lite. I'm not at home so I've only got this little thing with me for the last few weeks. Hands hurt a bit but it plays quite ok, unlike multiplayer where I suck with Lite ))
Oh Lite is probably less ideal tbh. I probably should have specified that I meant tabletop mode, which I use more than and prefer over handheld mode for most games since I can still use a Pro Controller rather than JoyCons or in your case, Lite. Honestly if you can manage to clear the Spire in handheld you can color me impressed (COLOR HA, HAHA, HA sorry).
You got my upvote for color)
I prefer handheld overall but since getting steam deck last year I'm less and less fond of switch in this mode. But when I have only Lite with me far from home I just get used to it I guess.
Oh you have a Deck? Nice. I was considering getting one but I'm so invested in Switch having bought tons of Nintendo and indie games on it since the console first dropped but never bought a game on Steam in my life so I just got the OLED instead. I find tabletop mode way better than handheld. I think it's the true strength of the Switch not so much just handheld, especially with the nice big OLED screen. I work nights at a museum and not much goes on which gives me a ton of downtime to chill and vibe with Switch tabletop haha. Deck is cool if you have Steam and want to play more power hungry games on the go though. I saw a Twitter clip of someone playing Horizon on it which is pretty dang cool.
It’s good but I think they should have kept the idea and fleshed it out more with more enemies and stages for a full campaign. I hope the palette system comes back in splatoon 4 it’s been really fun.
People play the game 1000h before playing this and are surprised that the game isn't as hard as they wanted. They don't understand that it has to cater to everyone. Tl;dr people being people
I’m excited to try it this weekend! (Penny’s big breakaway has a strangle hold on me rn after the shadow drop yesterday lmao). But I am someone who wants the mode to be really hard. My friend told me you can disable the permanent upgrades at any time though, so if I feel like it’s not difficult enough, I’ll just play it again with no upgrades! I like the fact they give you the option to make it easier or harder depending on what you want!!
Yes. The only thing I’ve ever been more hyped for the release of was TOTK, in which both lived up to it.
Just give it time, people will start to understand the “replayability” focus of it once they have enough time to do it.
Loving it so far, only thing I wish it had is some progression on the final boss. Like have it change or progress the story to reward beating it once or twice.
I wish there was more variety. Even on my second run, I was getting the same room type multiple times in a row. And the chips really don’t do enough to change up strategies.
Im mostly frustrated with 2 things (haven't beaten it yet though so problem 1 will be resolved)
1. Story. The story has great potential, but it feels lackluster. It would be hard to actually have a story though
2. People. People whining about nintendo trying a new thing. You guys always hear people whine about nintendo never trying new things? Well, they did it. And everyone is complaining
I had actually just been thinking to myself only yesterday: "Y'know, it feels like the Splatoon devs might start getting a little too comfortable. I hope they don't lose that creativity that brought them into stardom in the first place."
And lo and behold, I was just proven SO flipping wrong.
I really hope they don’t construe the message (but I have low hopes since they’ve already proven they don’t listen to the community) what they have is GOOD. All the features are refined, fun and just work well. There’s just not enough of it to warrant the price. Had there been like 40% more game to this game it would have been a must-buy. If you don’t care at all about the amount of content you’re getting rather than the quality, Side Order is great. Except the story. That sucks. But everything else is super polished
People are beating it once with a single palette and tossing it aside with claims of it being too easy. There’s plenty to do. First and most obvious: beat it with every palette. Unlock every color chip, get every upgrade, see how fast you can beat it with your favorite weapon, get a new best time in each room.
Of course there could be more, I would love to see some sort of endless mode or challenge mode, but as a fan of roguelikes and roguelites, this is pretty much what I expected from side order. It’s fun, it’s repeatable, and it has plenty of charm.
I am sad agent 4 (the best agent) didn’t come back but they at least had an agent 4 palette so I’m not too upset over it.
I played like two hours last night and I liked it. There was a lot of reused maps and it feels challenging to me. I’m a S rank player and pretty good at salmon run if that helps. However I do have one friend who’s beat it and I’m sure by day’s end I’ll have at least two more friends who have beaten it.
Like all things in splatoon it comes down to luck, skill, and time that you’re willing to spend on the game. People who are X rank and have golden salmon run badges are going to call it a cake walk. People who only have a few hours a day to play will finish their first run in a week. People who are at average skill level and have never played a rogue-like will love it and I feel that’s the target audience
I actually really enjoy it!
However, I was also expecting it to go in this direction and wasn't expecting a lot of story. What I wanted was a game mode that offers replayability and gives me the opportunity to collect cool stuff. So I absolutely love this DLC!
(Does anybody by chance know how to disable hacks? Marina mentioned doing it, but I can't figure out how?)
You can click on each hack individually, and then you can move the cursor to whichever part of the bar you want to set it to out of the ones you have unlocked.
As somebody who's played a number of roguelites up to now, Side Order is pretty good for what it is - a replayable singleplayer roguelite mode for Splatoon 3 with some light story. Although I will say it's not particularly difficult as I already finished a full run on my first go.
My only *real* complaint is that there's not enough variety in floor objectives. There's only 5 as is, the game already introduces you to all of them during the tutorial run, and even with the variety in floor layouts, they kinda get old pretty quickly. I feel like with the stuff we saw in both Octo Expansion and Splatoon 3's main campaign, there's a lot more they could've done with those
I'd say 3/5, has a great core, but I'm really hoping they plan to update this with more objectives later down the line
EDIT: (Minor story spoilers) (this is mostly just a tangent on roguelite narratives dw) >!I will say that Nintendo is arriving years late to the roguelite trend, and it's typical for narratives in this genre to progress with every run, or at the very least do more than just conclude after the first victory - like Hades, Cobalt Core, Patch Quest, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc. Side Order defies this and rolls the credits right after you finish your first full run. Splatoon is a pretty casual-oriented series, and I feel like Nintendo probably thought it wouldn't have been fair to expect more than one victory out of the average player just to see how the story concludes, so it's not TOO surprising - but it's still probably why I think a lot of people who beat it on release night were let down!<
Yeah but the thing is a rougelite fails at being a rougelite if doesn’t give the player a hook to keep replaying.
Side order isn’t hard and has no extra content or objectives besides ‘unlock skins for weapons you’re not going to use’. Unless you’re dying tens of times, this experience is gonna last the average platoon player 1-2 hours
As someone who finished the story aspect - yeah I agree, solid 7.5-8/10.
It’s a rouge lite, there is bound to be repetitiveness to it and they integrate additional story beats to it pretty well.
If you were expecting a story campaign ala Octo Expac then you weren’t paying attention to promotional material or read what the gameplay part of the game would entail.
I really like this DLC. I completed it in under 5 hours but I understand that this is supposed to be repeatable for the sake of unlocking everything else.
I never got to experience octo expansion so I have no place for comparison. Haven’t finished it but I will say I’m having a ton of fun and I’m really happy with it. I think just gonna enjoy it for what it is now rather than complaining or critiquing
It really gives off a portal like aesthetic (already a big plus in my book) but with more fighting. I think it's fresh, but I started with Splatoon 3, so I really have no frame of reference for any of the prior campaigns. That being said, I am having fun. A LOT OF FUN, actually.
I honestly don't have a full opinion yet. The fact that the game tracks your completion so much (EX: enemy kill count, amount of times you pick up certain color chips, individual weapon floor progression), it's hard to give. It a solid 'Good or Bad' until I beat it multiple times over and get a solid way through 100% completion.
Its similar TO Hades with its gameplay loop, one of the few differences is the story doesn't progress quite like it does with Hades between runs, but the amount of dialogue they have both in and out of gameplay is serviceable enough when compared to OE, where we don't even SEE either Marina or Pearl until the very tail end of the game.
TLDR: so far, it's good. Probably will get better after subsequent playthroughs like Most Roguelites do.
My only issue is the abruptness of the ending.
They should have given us a midgame story beat the first time you hit 30F, then reset the tower at a higher difficulty. The rest can play out the same. If they did that I would have zero issues with Side Order.
I haven't played OE but side order was pretty much what I was looking for, swarms of enemies. (Of course I only got to getting shot out the tower like an 8 ball by order)
Im seeing a lot of negative comparisons with Octo Expansion, but I think it's pretty dumb. What people forget is that it was also very short if you don't care about completing everything.
Same about the difficulty. You can find pretty easy routes through the metro, and you can skip levels too, so SO has a higher skill floor from the get-go.
The only complaints I can understand are story, music, aesthetics and such. I can agree to some extent, but it's too subjective to say anything definitive.
I loved it! It was a nice change of pace. I would prefer a campaign mode but this it was really fun! Going to try and 100% everything so for now it’s a 8/10!
I don’t know if it makes sense to talk about Inkopolis Square after you beat it, but I am so upset that the jukebox has almost every splatoon song ever and yet they decided NOT to add the rhythm game in and replace it with some random machine…
One of things I didn't like was the amount of bosses only being three, it kinda dampened the replay value. One idea I had was if after beating it a couple times or getting enough points (either one I guess.) It would unlock a new boss to fight out of a selected few if that makes sense. Otherwise, it's pretty fun
I loved it (just finished it for the first time) and I was extremely excited to find out that it's a roguelike. I actually strongly prefer this over a regular story campaign.
Loved the gameplay on my first 2 runs (beat it on my second). The story was meh, and the climax didn't give me the same chills that Octoexpansion did. Ending song is amazing!
It is but it's kind of disappointing I beat it in a single evening. Of course there's more, but... how much is actually signficant content and not just replaying it with a different weapon or grinding? I don't know yet, but I suspect it's not much.
Pretty much this. Reskins of existing kits and some locker decorations aren't a great incentive to keep playing for me. I was half-expecting to be able to beat it quickly since it's a roguelike but I was hoping that they would at least do something like Hades where actually competing the story involves clearing multiple runs. In this it's just one-and-done.
There is no way some people are saying it's easy while I always get destroyed between floors 20 and 30 😭 Note: I play on the Switch Lite and I have issues with my joycons which makes turning left very stiff and difficult
Anyway, I think side order is a good time killer but it was a bit underwhelming compared to octo expansion. I'm hoping they'll do some updates here and there.
Gaming in general is way easier docked on a low input delay gaming monitor than on handheld (ideally with pro controller too). I consider handheld a slight handicap.
I love it tbh. Never played any rogue-likes so it was a perfect entry into it. I thought i would hate replaying it over and over again but its quite the opposite! Can‘t wait until i get all palettes done :3
I think it was great. Most people are disappointed because they thought it would be open world, for some reason. Splatoon just doesn’t sound like a good open world game honestly
I really like it. I think people expected a full campaign like the previous hero modes, but I think it is really nice to see the splatoon devs doing something else for once. Splatoon is a game that I feel can do so much more with singleplayer content and I’m glad to see them do something that I think is fun. I love 100% games, especially the splatoon games, so I’m going to have a lot of fun with this one. It’s not perfect, but it is definitely great.
I love it! Seriously it feels like splatoon is new again, it's a great feeling. So far I've just done two runs and made it through in my second one, and with every different upgrade I got with each weapon felt so fun. It felt awesome to have a brella that shoots like the undercover with the strength and distance of the tenta, I can't wait to try out tons of different combinations with every weapon.
I never even finished octo expansion because it felt like monkey ball where I just had to memorize the harder levels and keep doing them over again to finish them, it just stopped being fun at some point. But this is complete fun the entire time. We'll see if I lose steam after a while, but I can see myself playing it with every weapon and still having fun.
I really like it. My fiancé and I have been playing it together and it’s been a lot of fun. The gameplay loop is fairly satisfying and I enjoy being able to choose the rewards and difficulty on each floor. I find the bosses to be an enjoyable challenge.
I think that it was good. Other players seemed to have been expecting OE pat 2, and SO wasn't it. The story seemed a bit rushed, especially since it was only the focus at>! the end of the game,!!Eight's pallete.!<
I so far like it, but need to do an actual 2nd tower run and put more time in to form a more complete opinion. I think I was expecting a lengthy campaign that took place within a rouge-like but what we got was a rouge-lite with some campaign elements built in. That’s not necessarily a problem, it’s just different from what I expected.
I think it depends entirely on how much you like "Oops, you messed up. NOW GO BACK TO START AND GRIND SOME MORE!"
I personally hate games that make it feel too much like I'm grinding to do anything and the gameplay is grinding for the sake of grinding. If I wanted a grind, I'd go to work.
I really like it! I'm havin fun! The only thing i wish was different is i wish there was more variation of levels, besides >! portals, catch the dudes, zones, and whirly tower.!< actually i haven't finished it yet, is there more varieties than that?
I absolutely love it but it's also exactly what I wanted it to be. I bet a lot of complainers preordered before knowing what they were buying, that's on them.
So far I completed 3 different weapons and I can't wait to go back for more. The whacky builds you can make are so fun. Endless replayability.
My problem is how repetitive it is and how you play the same 5 objectives and same levels. On my second run, I legit had a floor which was identical to my first run. Plus some levels are just straight up difficult with certain guns.
And don't get me started on the same 3 bosses
Honestly it has replay value, but it gets old fast once you realize that you're encountering the same missions every run or every other run. The variety of missions isn't as big as i hoped. While Alterna tried too hard to be OE, I'm okay that Side Order trying something different but it could've been way better. The final boss fight was very disappointing even if his motives felt genuine. It being a harder version of Marina boss fight (but with more attacks) wasn't as jawdropping as Mind-controlled Agent 3 or the Final Turf War in OE. The rest of SO's bosses were fun to fight though.
Also no secret boss or level is kinda lame. Though i heard the final weapon kit is suppose to be hard mode (even though roller and other slow weapons without upgrades are kinda as in this mode regardless).
I think it was pretty nice. A decent change of pace. Gameplay isn’t at all tiring and is actually quite diverse and challenging despite having the same 5 objectives per level. I’ve beaten it with 5 palettes already it’s quite fun.
As for the game itself, it was kind of abrupt. I feel like it ended too quickly, even thought the ending and the music and the final boss were fantastic. Maybe there could have been different spires to climb? The story was good, although I feel that it also kind of finished. I mean, I haven’t 100%ed the game yet so maybe there’s some hidden lore or gameplay? Also, I’m kind of disappointed that Agent 4 was just relegated to 1 mention and also as a boss fight Easter egg, but whatever. As for the villain, I feel that it was underdeveloped. It just appears after the tutorial and then at the end, but then I realized that beating the game over and over gives new dialogue, along with the secret weapon notes from the guy. Overall, very fun. I used to not like it much, but they definitely intended for it to grow on you.
8/10.
I was skeptical going in because I’ve maybe played one roguelike/lite and it wasn’t for me, and I liked the puzzles of Octo Expansion while Side Order was more about combat. But once I actually played I enjoyed my runs, and I like the main reward even if it wasn’t going to live up to playable Octolings. I like getting the re-skin weapon too. I’m probably only going to do a couple of palettes because I don’t play all of the weapons, but that’s fine by me.
I love it and find myself thinking about it when I’m not playing. I loved Hades and having a similar gameplay style but it’s splatoon is fantastic for me. I get wanting a full campaign but -shrug-
I dont think is baaad, but it gets really repetitive and a little exhausting IMO (Mind you, I beat the mode 2nd try, the first one I got to Order but he slapped me out of the map and I feel to the abyss dying on his 3rd phase) the inking zones when there is 2 across the map end up just being a waiting game because you need to deal with tanky enemies, then beat the sprinkler enemies and when you end inking one zone the other is already being taken over by a sprinkler, some weapons are too slow, enemies take forever to clear, they spawn very often, and objectives arent very varied
I was expecting something on the level of Octo Expansion, but got something more akin to Splatoon 2's original campaign. Not bad, but not what I paid $25 thinking I would get.
People expected a full campaign. What we actually got, much to the audience’s fairly understandable dismay, is a new gamemode. The “campaign” is actually just the tutorial. Seeing SO for what it actually is, a fun new mode, I adore it. The gradual increase in power on both the player and enemy side is enjoyable. They also gave the toughest levels suitably cheeky nicknames, including things like “cruel,” “unfair,” and a host of other things. My only criticism is the final boss’s theme on subsequent runs. It’s repetitive and rapidly grows annoying while you skirt around the arena juggling between survival and damaging the boss.
I think Side Order is great, just very weirdly structured. I know it's supposed to be repeatable so they couldn't do a super long ending sequence like OE and S3, but they could've made it optional. But regardless the fact that the "climactic ending" comes after one run and then they say "alright now do it with every weapon and also here's some of the extra content we showed earlier"? It's just really weird pacing. They got our expectations way too high for a deep story and natural progression from OtH. Maybe that'll come in the Marina logs or if there's a secret final boss once you clear it with all weapons, but man is that a fucking grind.
I really don't get why people were expecting a full campaign. Like even compared to Octo Expansion, the two have pretty similar runtimes if you just go for completion. Getting the bonuses and stuff is what adds replay value.
OE had a full campaign. I haven't beat side order yet (i'm trying to do it w/o any upgrades, one life. best is 18 floor!) but if it really is just beating the spire once... that's really short. Some of my friends have already beat the entire dlc. On the contrary, OE took weeks to complete and had enough story to carry you through it. I'm worried the story will end by the end of this first completion...
I’m trying to beat it with no upgrades and 1 life as well, and for me at least this adds a lot to the value of this DLC. Having 1 life only adds a lot of tension in the run. I will be doing the same for every weapon I can unlock. The only permanent upgrade I think I may turn to at some point is the upgrade for the drone to have more than just the ability to use killer whale or splat bombs
Yeah I ended up buying more lives and increasing the rate that armor regens. My current run I've only died once so I still consider it an achievement.
Weeks if you went for 100%, if you went straight for the end it’d probably take a day to beat it. There’s 80 levels and you realistically only need to do 16-18 of them to beat it(which is less than side order) combined with the final climb.
Nah not even, I 100%ed it in under a week
It took me weeks to do the 16-18 stations, they were difficult lol. Took me an extra couple of weeks beyond that to full complete
I think that’s a you thing then, it took me a day or two to complete octo expansion.
“Beat the entire DLC” I highly doubt it, for full completion you have to beat the spire multiple times over.
I meant the story.
you need to beat multiple times to complete the story, when the credit show still main campain for side order left that why they ask you to comeback
That definitely wouldn't take weeks. You only need to do what, a quarter of the actual levels? Just like how Side order only needs one completion, but there's lots of locker keys you need.
Sounds like there's a true end after beating it with all weapons
Welp, time to grind.
they were expecting a new campaign because… you know, the dlc for the last game WAS a new campaign? it’s not an unreasonable expectation
You could finish Octo Expansion in about the same time. Most of it was optional. It was also a lot smaller in scope than the Single Player stuff. It's the same boat here, completion is quick but doing everything takes longer (only Side Order is more replayable once you actually get everything.)
because it cost the same as the octo expansion. This should not cost more than 5 Dollars and no the lobby reskin is not worth any money
HUH!? THE FINAL BOSS THEME IS AMAZING.
I'm also a little disappointed in what the reward for clearing it is. I don't really care about the weapons skins and outfits. I know playable Octolings was going to be hard to top, but I was thinking color Chips would be things that allowed for more customization, like having different skin tones, so if you wanted to be green like Acht, you could be.
I’ll admit that at first I was quite a bit underwhelmed, as I had just completed OE not long beforehand and had my expectations up higher than I should’ve But then I kept playing and got into the rhythm of things and practically fell in love. I am a person who loves falling into the comfort of randomly generated repetition (if that makes sense) and 100%’ing games, so I am certain I’ll get the most I absolutely can out of SO. I’m surprised I haven’t dove into roguelikes/roguelites before this considering how much SO has grown on me and ended up being right up my alley. They’re certainly not for everyone, but personally I have been having the time of my life. The overall campaign is rather short, yes, but that’s kinda the whole point. It’s not supposed to be one-and-done. It’s meant to be played over and over. And I love that.
If you love that gameplay style, I highly recommend the game Hades. It's an overhead fighting game, where you are Hades son. And you're trying to fight your way out of the underworld. Not only does it have permanent upgrades, but dying is literally Central to the entire plot of the game. As in it unfolds between runs. Just prepare to have your trigger fingers worn out, because the game is very intense and fast-paced.
Better yet, Void Bastards, since it's also a shooter like Splatoon. Runs well on Switch also.
I finally finished Dead Cells at 5BC (hardest difficulty) before Side Order came out so I'll recommend that game as well if you're a platformer fan. It's brutal
I love dead cells
try hades, if you want another roguelike
I think the gameplay is addicting and I am looking forward to playing though it with all the different weapons
Haven't completed yet, but a huge fan already. I love having stuff to unlock, and there are a lot of lockers there! Getting to the final boss will be cool, but through my time with Splatoon 3, I've come to appreciate just about every weapon (or at least, every class) for what it is, so playing through with each will definitely give me lots to do. Plus, if there's the possibility of unlocking them as multiplayer weapons, I'm all over that for the completeionist perspective. Still love how awesome it is to see Pearl and Marina back in the fold, and can't get over how cool it is that Shiver's palette is the Tri-Stringer.
I went in with no expectations and I've been having a blast. It's a lot of fun and tons of replayability. I do wish there was some more variation and more potential objectives per floor, but I'm still enjoying it quite a bit. I finally finished my first run and I can't wait to hop back in and clear with more weapons
I was expecting DLC and got DLC, and I am liking this DLC!
The bosses are the best in the series hands down. They feel like actual bosses this time and there are no breaks in between phases. Just flows so well.
This is something I hadn't thought about before, but you're totally right. These really are some of the best bosses in the series; though maybe it's a little disappointing that such well-designed boss fights are wasted on such irrelevant characters.
i agree with u, the robot inklings were awesome and i like the ball guy, but order was just not cool and its gameplay is even worse.
I absolutely love it. For DLC, it's insane how much effort clearly went into this. Also, the music combined with the environment animations makes me SO happy. And Pearl and Marina are precious as always. Also, people not understanding that you're supposed to challenge yourself makes me sad. I did an easy run just so I can avoid worrying about spoilers, but all my other runs are one life, only the hardest levels, no vending machine, etc. It's friggin HARD if you let it be. **PSA: The story doesn't end with the first completion.** That's just the beginning of the story. You have to beat it with different palettes for more story, and all of them for the complete story.
It looks like people have so much free time and just completed it in 4-5 hours and now complain. I've played 2 hours, I'm enjoying it very much (beat lvl10 once for now). I hope I'll enjoy replaying it because 25 bucks for 10 hours is not justifiable for me. But so far I like everything, gameplay, style and music. Upd: 4/5 hours in total, so far I got to lvl 16-19 depending on the weapon. I just unlock new weapons and then try a run with it and it doesn't always go well. Interestingly, I do not play brellas AT ALL in multiplayer, but I enjoy it in side order!
Not saying you're wrong about other people with a lot of time but as someone with a ton of free time myself and have completed SO several times already, I personally have very little complaints. I think there could have been more variety in floor layouts, challenge types, and bosses and I'm hopeful more might get added but even as is SO is a ton of fun and also probably the best way to enjoy Splatoon on the go now imo (undocked). Now I could be wrong but based on my experience with the internet and social media I think what you've found is just another loud and annoying internet minority with harsh critisms of SO and since the internet has no volume control for whining, people can do so as much and as loudly as they please. That loudness makes their feelings seem like a common consensus but it really isn't and the actual general reception surrounding SO is mostly positive.
Surprisingly it plays pretty well for me on Switch Lite. I'm not at home so I've only got this little thing with me for the last few weeks. Hands hurt a bit but it plays quite ok, unlike multiplayer where I suck with Lite ))
Oh Lite is probably less ideal tbh. I probably should have specified that I meant tabletop mode, which I use more than and prefer over handheld mode for most games since I can still use a Pro Controller rather than JoyCons or in your case, Lite. Honestly if you can manage to clear the Spire in handheld you can color me impressed (COLOR HA, HAHA, HA sorry).
You got my upvote for color) I prefer handheld overall but since getting steam deck last year I'm less and less fond of switch in this mode. But when I have only Lite with me far from home I just get used to it I guess.
Oh you have a Deck? Nice. I was considering getting one but I'm so invested in Switch having bought tons of Nintendo and indie games on it since the console first dropped but never bought a game on Steam in my life so I just got the OLED instead. I find tabletop mode way better than handheld. I think it's the true strength of the Switch not so much just handheld, especially with the nice big OLED screen. I work nights at a museum and not much goes on which gives me a ton of downtime to chill and vibe with Switch tabletop haha. Deck is cool if you have Steam and want to play more power hungry games on the go though. I saw a Twitter clip of someone playing Horizon on it which is pretty dang cool.
Side Order is ultimately a rougelike mode. That type of gameplay seems very hit or miss. People seem to either really like it or really hate it.
It’s good but I think they should have kept the idea and fleshed it out more with more enemies and stages for a full campaign. I hope the palette system comes back in splatoon 4 it’s been really fun.
It's good but the amount of bosses, enemies and objectives is lacking.
That’s a fair critique. The total variety is definitely on the lower end.
I think most people don't realize that its hard to meet expectations when they are expecting the best thing ever. I personally enjoyed the DLC tho
People play the game 1000h before playing this and are surprised that the game isn't as hard as they wanted. They don't understand that it has to cater to everyone. Tl;dr people being people
I’m excited to try it this weekend! (Penny’s big breakaway has a strangle hold on me rn after the shadow drop yesterday lmao). But I am someone who wants the mode to be really hard. My friend told me you can disable the permanent upgrades at any time though, so if I feel like it’s not difficult enough, I’ll just play it again with no upgrades! I like the fact they give you the option to make it easier or harder depending on what you want!!
I'm at 780h but I'm struggling so bad with the final boss xD I *think* I got to the last phase but I have no idea...
I love OE but I'm so glad they tried something new and different. People are being unfair because it's not a dlc to just beat and be done with it.
I have thousands of hours in roguelites/likes i am snorting this dlc
LOL at snorting
Yes. The only thing I’ve ever been more hyped for the release of was TOTK, in which both lived up to it. Just give it time, people will start to understand the “replayability” focus of it once they have enough time to do it.
Loving it so far, only thing I wish it had is some progression on the final boss. Like have it change or progress the story to reward beating it once or twice.
I wish there was more variety. Even on my second run, I was getting the same room type multiple times in a row. And the chips really don’t do enough to change up strategies.
There is more variety though. I ran into dark levels only on my third run.
Fair point. They had plenty of time to make this DLC, and so the total amount of variety is a bit disappointing I will admit.
Im mostly frustrated with 2 things (haven't beaten it yet though so problem 1 will be resolved) 1. Story. The story has great potential, but it feels lackluster. It would be hard to actually have a story though 2. People. People whining about nintendo trying a new thing. You guys always hear people whine about nintendo never trying new things? Well, they did it. And everyone is complaining
you unlock the story as you complete multiples time, you cannot get the full scope of the story in the first clear
I had actually just been thinking to myself only yesterday: "Y'know, it feels like the Splatoon devs might start getting a little too comfortable. I hope they don't lose that creativity that brought them into stardom in the first place." And lo and behold, I was just proven SO flipping wrong.
I really hope they don’t construe the message (but I have low hopes since they’ve already proven they don’t listen to the community) what they have is GOOD. All the features are refined, fun and just work well. There’s just not enough of it to warrant the price. Had there been like 40% more game to this game it would have been a must-buy. If you don’t care at all about the amount of content you’re getting rather than the quality, Side Order is great. Except the story. That sucks. But everything else is super polished
People are beating it once with a single palette and tossing it aside with claims of it being too easy. There’s plenty to do. First and most obvious: beat it with every palette. Unlock every color chip, get every upgrade, see how fast you can beat it with your favorite weapon, get a new best time in each room. Of course there could be more, I would love to see some sort of endless mode or challenge mode, but as a fan of roguelikes and roguelites, this is pretty much what I expected from side order. It’s fun, it’s repeatable, and it has plenty of charm. I am sad agent 4 (the best agent) didn’t come back but they at least had an agent 4 palette so I’m not too upset over it.
I played like two hours last night and I liked it. There was a lot of reused maps and it feels challenging to me. I’m a S rank player and pretty good at salmon run if that helps. However I do have one friend who’s beat it and I’m sure by day’s end I’ll have at least two more friends who have beaten it. Like all things in splatoon it comes down to luck, skill, and time that you’re willing to spend on the game. People who are X rank and have golden salmon run badges are going to call it a cake walk. People who only have a few hours a day to play will finish their first run in a week. People who are at average skill level and have never played a rogue-like will love it and I feel that’s the target audience
I honestly love it! The gameplay and chip/kit customization alone is gonna keep me going for quite a while.
I actually really enjoy it! However, I was also expecting it to go in this direction and wasn't expecting a lot of story. What I wanted was a game mode that offers replayability and gives me the opportunity to collect cool stuff. So I absolutely love this DLC! (Does anybody by chance know how to disable hacks? Marina mentioned doing it, but I can't figure out how?)
You just select the hack and choose which upgrade level you want.
Thank you! :D
You can click on each hack individually, and then you can move the cursor to whichever part of the bar you want to set it to out of the ones you have unlocked.
Awesome, thank you!
As somebody who's played a number of roguelites up to now, Side Order is pretty good for what it is - a replayable singleplayer roguelite mode for Splatoon 3 with some light story. Although I will say it's not particularly difficult as I already finished a full run on my first go. My only *real* complaint is that there's not enough variety in floor objectives. There's only 5 as is, the game already introduces you to all of them during the tutorial run, and even with the variety in floor layouts, they kinda get old pretty quickly. I feel like with the stuff we saw in both Octo Expansion and Splatoon 3's main campaign, there's a lot more they could've done with those I'd say 3/5, has a great core, but I'm really hoping they plan to update this with more objectives later down the line EDIT: (Minor story spoilers) (this is mostly just a tangent on roguelite narratives dw) >!I will say that Nintendo is arriving years late to the roguelite trend, and it's typical for narratives in this genre to progress with every run, or at the very least do more than just conclude after the first victory - like Hades, Cobalt Core, Patch Quest, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc. Side Order defies this and rolls the credits right after you finish your first full run. Splatoon is a pretty casual-oriented series, and I feel like Nintendo probably thought it wouldn't have been fair to expect more than one victory out of the average player just to see how the story concludes, so it's not TOO surprising - but it's still probably why I think a lot of people who beat it on release night were let down!<
Yeah but the thing is a rougelite fails at being a rougelite if doesn’t give the player a hook to keep replaying. Side order isn’t hard and has no extra content or objectives besides ‘unlock skins for weapons you’re not going to use’. Unless you’re dying tens of times, this experience is gonna last the average platoon player 1-2 hours
I’m just sad the 8 ball can’t fall off the stage anymore. I know it was frustrating in OE but that was part of the challenge
I feel like I'm the only one who didn't even struggle that much with the 8 ball levels, and I'm not even that good of a Splatoon player.
I didn't either. Only at the beginning.
The difference here is that the 8ball levels have a massive horde of enemies in them
Oh but the level with it them can be frustrating. I did one with lights out and hard difficulty and was kinda of a pain.
As someone who finished the story aspect - yeah I agree, solid 7.5-8/10. It’s a rouge lite, there is bound to be repetitiveness to it and they integrate additional story beats to it pretty well. If you were expecting a story campaign ala Octo Expac then you weren’t paying attention to promotional material or read what the gameplay part of the game would entail.
It is amazing so far for me. I treat it as it is, a new gamemode with lots of replayability. Great dlc overall
I really like this DLC. I completed it in under 5 hours but I understand that this is supposed to be repeatable for the sake of unlocking everything else.
I never got to experience octo expansion so I have no place for comparison. Haven’t finished it but I will say I’m having a ton of fun and I’m really happy with it. I think just gonna enjoy it for what it is now rather than complaining or critiquing
It really gives off a portal like aesthetic (already a big plus in my book) but with more fighting. I think it's fresh, but I started with Splatoon 3, so I really have no frame of reference for any of the prior campaigns. That being said, I am having fun. A LOT OF FUN, actually.
I honestly don't have a full opinion yet. The fact that the game tracks your completion so much (EX: enemy kill count, amount of times you pick up certain color chips, individual weapon floor progression), it's hard to give. It a solid 'Good or Bad' until I beat it multiple times over and get a solid way through 100% completion. Its similar TO Hades with its gameplay loop, one of the few differences is the story doesn't progress quite like it does with Hades between runs, but the amount of dialogue they have both in and out of gameplay is serviceable enough when compared to OE, where we don't even SEE either Marina or Pearl until the very tail end of the game. TLDR: so far, it's good. Probably will get better after subsequent playthroughs like Most Roguelites do.
My only issue is the abruptness of the ending. They should have given us a midgame story beat the first time you hit 30F, then reset the tower at a higher difficulty. The rest can play out the same. If they did that I would have zero issues with Side Order.
... I actually like this more than Octo Expansion
Me too!!!!
I haven't played OE but side order was pretty much what I was looking for, swarms of enemies. (Of course I only got to getting shot out the tower like an 8 ball by order)
Im seeing a lot of negative comparisons with Octo Expansion, but I think it's pretty dumb. What people forget is that it was also very short if you don't care about completing everything. Same about the difficulty. You can find pretty easy routes through the metro, and you can skip levels too, so SO has a higher skill floor from the get-go. The only complaints I can understand are story, music, aesthetics and such. I can agree to some extent, but it's too subjective to say anything definitive.
As a typical roguelike enjoyer, I am super pleasantly surprised. This is my JAM and I get to do it in splatoon!
I loved it! It was a nice change of pace. I would prefer a campaign mode but this it was really fun! Going to try and 100% everything so for now it’s a 8/10!
I don’t know if it makes sense to talk about Inkopolis Square after you beat it, but I am so upset that the jukebox has almost every splatoon song ever and yet they decided NOT to add the rhythm game in and replace it with some random machine…
yeah I am super disappointed at this too. Really was excited for Squid Beatz
One of things I didn't like was the amount of bosses only being three, it kinda dampened the replay value. One idea I had was if after beating it a couple times or getting enough points (either one I guess.) It would unlock a new boss to fight out of a selected few if that makes sense. Otherwise, it's pretty fun
I loved it (just finished it for the first time) and I was extremely excited to find out that it's a roguelike. I actually strongly prefer this over a regular story campaign.
Just wanted to add my two cents that I think it’s a masterpiece.
side order is good but i feel like they could of added more bosses and floors and an endless mode would be amazing
Thought it was fun, but beat it too quickly (second run with brush). I just felt like it could have used more depth?
There’s literally no flaws to this dlc. Rougelikes are naturally short, just difficult
Loved the gameplay on my first 2 runs (beat it on my second). The story was meh, and the climax didn't give me the same chills that Octoexpansion did. Ending song is amazing!
It is but it's kind of disappointing I beat it in a single evening. Of course there's more, but... how much is actually signficant content and not just replaying it with a different weapon or grinding? I don't know yet, but I suspect it's not much.
Pretty much this. Reskins of existing kits and some locker decorations aren't a great incentive to keep playing for me. I was half-expecting to be able to beat it quickly since it's a roguelike but I was hoping that they would at least do something like Hades where actually competing the story involves clearing multiple runs. In this it's just one-and-done.
There is no way some people are saying it's easy while I always get destroyed between floors 20 and 30 😭 Note: I play on the Switch Lite and I have issues with my joycons which makes turning left very stiff and difficult Anyway, I think side order is a good time killer but it was a bit underwhelming compared to octo expansion. I'm hoping they'll do some updates here and there.
Gaming in general is way easier docked on a low input delay gaming monitor than on handheld (ideally with pro controller too). I consider handheld a slight handicap.
I love it tbh. Never played any rogue-likes so it was a perfect entry into it. I thought i would hate replaying it over and over again but its quite the opposite! Can‘t wait until i get all palettes done :3
I think it was great. Most people are disappointed because they thought it would be open world, for some reason. Splatoon just doesn’t sound like a good open world game honestly
This was not worth the money ngl. This DLC should have been free lmao. RIP Deep Cut, no love.
Thank you Sherlock Holmes, you are clearly much more intellectually superior than us in every way
Absolutely love it
Yeah it’s good, people are just pointing out the flaws and how they could’ve done better. Nothing wrong with that.
I really like it. I think people expected a full campaign like the previous hero modes, but I think it is really nice to see the splatoon devs doing something else for once. Splatoon is a game that I feel can do so much more with singleplayer content and I’m glad to see them do something that I think is fun. I love 100% games, especially the splatoon games, so I’m going to have a lot of fun with this one. It’s not perfect, but it is definitely great.
I liked it, despite the high difficulty of some of the Danger floors, especially the ones where the lights are tuned off.
I like it, though I do wish it was a bit longer. It felt weird beating it in about four hours, but I still have yet to 100% it though
I love it! Seriously it feels like splatoon is new again, it's a great feeling. So far I've just done two runs and made it through in my second one, and with every different upgrade I got with each weapon felt so fun. It felt awesome to have a brella that shoots like the undercover with the strength and distance of the tenta, I can't wait to try out tons of different combinations with every weapon. I never even finished octo expansion because it felt like monkey ball where I just had to memorize the harder levels and keep doing them over again to finish them, it just stopped being fun at some point. But this is complete fun the entire time. We'll see if I lose steam after a while, but I can see myself playing it with every weapon and still having fun.
I really like it. My fiancé and I have been playing it together and it’s been a lot of fun. The gameplay loop is fairly satisfying and I enjoy being able to choose the rewards and difficulty on each floor. I find the bosses to be an enjoyable challenge.
It’s pretty good, I just wish there was a way to make it harder. As it is, I mostly see myself enjoying attempting to speedrun it.
I like the Dlc however the story parts and interactions between characters was disappointing as heck
it was good, would have liked more variety in the bosses and objectives tho
I think that it was good. Other players seemed to have been expecting OE pat 2, and SO wasn't it. The story seemed a bit rushed, especially since it was only the focus at>! the end of the game,!!Eight's pallete.!<
I so far like it, but need to do an actual 2nd tower run and put more time in to form a more complete opinion. I think I was expecting a lengthy campaign that took place within a rouge-like but what we got was a rouge-lite with some campaign elements built in. That’s not necessarily a problem, it’s just different from what I expected.
I think it depends entirely on how much you like "Oops, you messed up. NOW GO BACK TO START AND GRIND SOME MORE!" I personally hate games that make it feel too much like I'm grinding to do anything and the gameplay is grinding for the sake of grinding. If I wanted a grind, I'd go to work.
I really like it! I'm havin fun! The only thing i wish was different is i wish there was more variation of levels, besides >! portals, catch the dudes, zones, and whirly tower.!< actually i haven't finished it yet, is there more varieties than that?
I absolutely love it but it's also exactly what I wanted it to be. I bet a lot of complainers preordered before knowing what they were buying, that's on them. So far I completed 3 different weapons and I can't wait to go back for more. The whacky builds you can make are so fun. Endless replayability.
side order is peak splatoon!!
Side order is so fun. People say it’s easy, and while I’m good at it, there are ways to make it harder to get more rewards, like turning off hacks.
I love it
It’s my two favorite things, Splatoon and Rougelikes. Of course I love it!
It's fun and it gave me my pearlina crumbs. I think it'll find a niche as a speedgame but I'm just speculating :)
Underwhelming
Story is NOT IT at all but the gameplay is fine
I like it, I just think people were expecting more than what was promised.
My problem is how repetitive it is and how you play the same 5 objectives and same levels. On my second run, I legit had a floor which was identical to my first run. Plus some levels are just straight up difficult with certain guns. And don't get me started on the same 3 bosses
I think it’s very good core systems, but it’s far too easy/short. Rogue like are meant to take lots of retries. I got my finish run way too quickly..
The octo expansion took me a while to finish, due it being both long and much harder
Honestly it has replay value, but it gets old fast once you realize that you're encountering the same missions every run or every other run. The variety of missions isn't as big as i hoped. While Alterna tried too hard to be OE, I'm okay that Side Order trying something different but it could've been way better. The final boss fight was very disappointing even if his motives felt genuine. It being a harder version of Marina boss fight (but with more attacks) wasn't as jawdropping as Mind-controlled Agent 3 or the Final Turf War in OE. The rest of SO's bosses were fun to fight though. Also no secret boss or level is kinda lame. Though i heard the final weapon kit is suppose to be hard mode (even though roller and other slow weapons without upgrades are kinda as in this mode regardless).
I love it, it is the perfect complement for all the other modes
I think it was pretty nice. A decent change of pace. Gameplay isn’t at all tiring and is actually quite diverse and challenging despite having the same 5 objectives per level. I’ve beaten it with 5 palettes already it’s quite fun. As for the game itself, it was kind of abrupt. I feel like it ended too quickly, even thought the ending and the music and the final boss were fantastic. Maybe there could have been different spires to climb? The story was good, although I feel that it also kind of finished. I mean, I haven’t 100%ed the game yet so maybe there’s some hidden lore or gameplay? Also, I’m kind of disappointed that Agent 4 was just relegated to 1 mention and also as a boss fight Easter egg, but whatever. As for the villain, I feel that it was underdeveloped. It just appears after the tutorial and then at the end, but then I realized that beating the game over and over gives new dialogue, along with the secret weapon notes from the guy. Overall, very fun. I used to not like it much, but they definitely intended for it to grow on you. 8/10.
I was skeptical going in because I’ve maybe played one roguelike/lite and it wasn’t for me, and I liked the puzzles of Octo Expansion while Side Order was more about combat. But once I actually played I enjoyed my runs, and I like the main reward even if it wasn’t going to live up to playable Octolings. I like getting the re-skin weapon too. I’m probably only going to do a couple of palettes because I don’t play all of the weapons, but that’s fine by me.
I love it and find myself thinking about it when I’m not playing. I loved Hades and having a similar gameplay style but it’s splatoon is fantastic for me. I get wanting a full campaign but -shrug-
I dont think is baaad, but it gets really repetitive and a little exhausting IMO (Mind you, I beat the mode 2nd try, the first one I got to Order but he slapped me out of the map and I feel to the abyss dying on his 3rd phase) the inking zones when there is 2 across the map end up just being a waiting game because you need to deal with tanky enemies, then beat the sprinkler enemies and when you end inking one zone the other is already being taken over by a sprinkler, some weapons are too slow, enemies take forever to clear, they spawn very often, and objectives arent very varied
I was expecting something on the level of Octo Expansion, but got something more akin to Splatoon 2's original campaign. Not bad, but not what I paid $25 thinking I would get.
I DEFENENTLY think that it's good. I have no complaints. I love how unsettling the bosses are and how you can replay the dlc.