spot on with the corporate feeling. splatoon put so much care in their world building they made an entirely new language and writing system with hundred different fonts stickers posters music and bunch of art to populate the world and that amount of effort is just not present in foamstars

@ExzaktVid

Ай бұрын

It isnt actually a different language, its just english with different letters.

@squiddler7731

Ай бұрын

The best example I'd say is how each game handles it's music. In Splatoon, all the battle music is treated as music that exists in the world of the game, to the point where each track is made by a specific band with their own members and style and even stories about how members grow and jump between bands from one game to the next. Meanwhile as previously mentioned, Foamstars has AI generated album covers, lol. Regardless of the quality of the actual music (which I've heard is actually pretty good), it comes across as lazy and like no one really cared.

@MushroomEater64

Ай бұрын

THIS

@ajmoment8091

Ай бұрын

Yeah, the entire video I was kinda thinking to myself the colors look nice but it doesn't feel like they were put there with any intent other than jangling keys. Was so glad when he pointed that out.

@youcantbeatD

28 күн бұрын

I feel like they cared about the characters and world building in this game too going by the dev interviews

I genuinely cannot believe that Foamstars launched with only 8 characters. Splatoon 1, bearing in mind it launched with barebones content in hindsight, had at least double that in main weapons alone (the closest equivalent) on launch, not even talking about alternate kits. If they wanted to go the hero shooter angle, this is an abysmal starting line up.

13:09 as someone who plays Persona 5, I can not unhear it. It's literally the same as Lyn's vocals what on god.

@oOCCBo

Ай бұрын

It’s funny cus I don’t think that’s Lyn singing

@heromedley

Ай бұрын

word for word bar for bar 😭

@ajmoment8091

Ай бұрын

IDK who the singer is, but I feel like chances are it's just a Japanese singer who has an American accent down, but doesn't understand English. That's very much so why persona singers have a distinct sound to their voices, so that may be why it sounds similar. It really does just sound like if a persona game did... I'm not great with music genres, EDM? Though I cannot lie

@AverageEggmonEnthusiast

Ай бұрын

Yeah it does sound like her and the song they played even has slight “Take Over” energy which is WILD

@AverageEggmonEnthusiast

Ай бұрын

@@ajmoment8091 Lyn is also a professional Jazz singer which adds to her very distinctive voice even when she sings something less Jazz oriented like Axe to Grind or Let’s Go Featherman

Splatoon has a sea animals and late 19s early 2000s style. Foamstars is just a party and nothing else. Splatoon has a lot of complex and straight up dark lore. Foamstars has the character backstories and nothing else. Splatoon has big DLC ​​story modes with a lot of content the first one is just a really good single player story and the second is a Splatoon roguelike. Foamstars has simply the offline multiplayer mode with dialogue. Even if Splatoon isn't perfect, Splatoon has passion and effort, foamstars doesn't

this looks like what if some soulless korean game studio made splatoon

@Jobroski47

Ай бұрын

Genshin ass graphics fr

@BlazenR3d

Ай бұрын

@@Jobroski47genshins got a better and more unique art direction then whatever the generic fuck this shit is

@phoenixmorphix

Ай бұрын

😭

@giganticmoon

Ай бұрын

@@Jobroski47BAHA

@Ineverwannasleep

Ай бұрын

@@Jobroski47Genshin has better graphics and looks less soulless (and I don’t even play it LMAO)

I feel like the concept could have been more creative if instead of a multiplayer game it could be a story driven game where the characters fight trash themed monsters instead of feeling like a Splatoon clone

SqEx knows what they're doing. They got their cash-prize from the loyal playstation fans that will never touch a Nintendo system to save their lives, but also want to play Splatoon.

@dynamorolleruser

Ай бұрын

Heh. There is no “want” to play Splatoon. You’ve either played it, or never heard of it in your life 😂

@oOCCBo

Ай бұрын

Perfectly accurate

@justsomenoob1882

Ай бұрын

​@dynamorolleruser I mean, I had already been wanting to play splatoon when I first got into it lol

@TimeFrost

Ай бұрын

​@dynamorolleruser nah I'm not a fan, I have friends that love it so I've def heard of it XD I never played.

@lordmarshmal_0643

23 күн бұрын

​​@@dynamorolleruserlmao I guess my preference to avoid shooters doesn't exist anymore Although I did pick up Neon White and enjoyed what I've played of it so far (based music picks for background music on that note OC) but even then that game isn't entirely about the gunplay; it's arguably more about the _shmoovement_

The way to Splatoon community treated foam stars was funny Personally, I have no problem with games, taking aspiration as long it’s a good game but I knew it was kind of screwed when it was square Enix making it Personally, did enjoyed the game but holy shit the micro transactions $40 is crazy

NAH THERE WAS A GAME BEFORE SPLATOON! WHAT ABOUT "DE BLOB"?!???!!

@39ban9

Ай бұрын

aight take the mic u need it

@bernkastel7438

Ай бұрын

De Blob was my childhood, ngl tho I thought I dreamt that game up and it wasn’t actually real lol

@URnightmares162

Ай бұрын

@@bernkastel7438 I have the game for the wii, both de blob and de blob 2, it did felt like a dream.

@JephBoyardee

Ай бұрын

De Blob 2 on 360 was one of my favorite experiences

@39ban9

Ай бұрын

@@JephBoyardee it’s on switch so is the prequel

2:40 based also about salmon run's lack of progression or a sense of scaling power during gameplay, I love the dedication of the splatoon devs of making the world building in sync with the game itself and everything, but that's exactly what limits salmon run from having more fun "videogame" mechanics, because Salmon run is supposed to be a dangerous, garbage, badly paid job so it wouldn't make sense to have any of that, that's why it has "fck u" energy. It's awesome it makes sense but at the same time sticking that much to the lore is pretty detrimental to how fun it could potentially be.

@squiddler7731

Ай бұрын

I think the limits are just as much due to it's roots as a side mode in Splatoon 2 as it is the lore. Even if they don't add any sort of progression system, there's nothing stopping them from just like... adding a second rotation to play or more options for difficulty beyond just ranking up for more difficulty and demoting to make things easier. That wouldn't break the lore or anything, but I think the reason they don't do it is because salmon run was never designed to be a mode that you play for extended periods of time. It was built from the ground up in 2 to be something you play to get your bonuses, and then stop playing to go back to the main game until the next shift comes around. This is also why I feel like a spin-off dedicated to PvE would go so hard, cause they'd be able to take the best parts of salmon run and side order and make something where that style of gameplay gets to be front and center.

@vacuiaeruleum4252

Ай бұрын

@@squiddler7731 A dedicated PVE Salmon Run game would be so awesome

KID ICARUS UPRISING MENTIONED

@Ace_B000M

Ай бұрын

garden warfare is supirior, change my mind

@AverageEggmonEnthusiast

Ай бұрын

WHATS A COMFORTABLE CONTROL SCEME RAAAAAAA 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

@justalazer7485

Ай бұрын

@@AverageEggmonEnthusiast pro tip, use the left stick and your thumb on the touch screen. Best way to play the game

@AverageEggmonEnthusiast

Ай бұрын

@@justalazer7485 I’ve found that with 3DSXL the game gets confused about the L and R keys and for some reason swapping the control scheme fixes it 💀

@larrydupp3988

21 күн бұрын

And a jibanyan pfp as well, a veteran of the Nintendo 3Ds

Make the foam be less neon and glowy would help because then it’s not as much color stuffed into your face

@oOCCBo

Ай бұрын

Exactly

So it's to Splatoon what Nintendo Switch Sports is to Wii sports. Got it.

The English Voice Acting personally makes it feel like a Saturday morning cartoon (though i do like that it feels like that)

@oOCCBo

Ай бұрын

Honestly that’s not a bad way to think about it

The language in Splatoon is Japanese, but its technically gibberish Japanese

@raviolibirb8009

Ай бұрын

Gibberish Japanese and sometimes mixed with English

@insertstudionamehereproduction

Ай бұрын

It's like Japanese or English but you can't speak it so it sounds like gibberish

@milliefleur

24 күн бұрын

It’s not Japanese, it’s gibberish made to sound similar to English

@dylbro1166

22 күн бұрын

It’s just gibberish

@TheKirbArcade

21 күн бұрын

The songs have written lyrics that are legitimately just Japanese gibberish though

I cant believe someone mentioned the goddamn problem solvers in 2024. I had PTSD flashbacks

If splatoon players didnt try foamstars just to hate on it, it would have stopped getting updates the day it released. Pro business move ngl.

@sodapop2581

Ай бұрын

Splatoon players actually tried this game before dunking on it?

@BenjaMan64

Ай бұрын

I have both a Switch and a PS5. I play Splatoon. I was never interested in playing Foamstars.

The game failed because we didn't get spicy fanart of the main girl character

Hey, coming from a person who played this game since release and been wanting to push the game, the game was fun but then gets boring here and there. There's been a bunch of bugs and suchs after each patch since each season is basically 1 month long, content feels lacking, and there is a few balancing issues here and there (especially with Ramzey) While this game is fun casually, if you try and play it competitve, it's worse. Since the game has rollback, if you play in a lobby where someone has terrible internet or playing with JP host, you'll be teleporting everywhere, your shots won't hit, or foam will appear after 10 seconds. The game has horrible netcode and I'm hoping around August, IF this game does come to other consoles, they fix the netcode for the game. Edit: I should probably add more about whats wrong with the game on my side, but just don't try and push the game competitvly rn since JP has taken over it. If you are playing the game, it's fun with friends/casually and that's it.

@justalex528

Ай бұрын

Also coming back from this, the video is also missing the event modes of the game: Extreme Party and Friyay Extreme party is like challenge mode from splatoon but usually last about 4-5 hours and usually happens at the beginning of the season to the end of the season, usually each season gets 2 event parties, which ranges from everyone using the new characters, one hitting people, and the current one is using other characters specials instead of the character you're playing special (example, instead of Jet using his dive, suction bomb, and shield, he'll get Soa's bubble step and Agito's bomb and Chloe's SSS) Friyay is basically a way for people to try out the new character before the next season when they are released. We maybe getting one around the end of this season for the last character of the road map seasons. I don't think there is anything else I should mention after this, but this game is def a 6/10 if it wasn't for the marketing, usage of AI for the album covers (at least the album covers for season 3,4,5 isn't using AI, but the older ones are AI'd which is stupid af) and ofc, Square Enix.

My issues with it: 1. I don't have a PlayStation. I can't play. 2. I hate how neon the foam is as well as it is hard to see the shape of the foam. The foam looks like a shapeless blob when it is not shapeless but in fact very bumpy and this is such an easy problem to fix.

You know, I have a feeling this was supposed to be that NFT game before that bubble popped.

5:20 this game mode reminds me of the team multiplayer mode from kid Icarus: uprising! Once either team’s shared ko health bar is depleted, the player who died last takes the role of either Pit or Dark Pit depending on the team. If a player gets ko’d after their respective angel appears, I think said angel loses some health as well. Once the angel’s health is depleted, the match is over and the team whose angel survives is the winner! I think there’s also an achievement you get by ko-ing an angel while playing as the other angel too. Edit: you literally say this a few seconds later XD

I should preface this: I have not played foamstars, I am going off of gameplay I have seen and reviews for it. This is gonna be "Old man yells at new thing"-core because this is not a fault of the game itself and instead rather of my own personal opinion and philosophy, but foamstars having a reload button is infuriating. Shooters, every shooter to ever exist, is built off of a "Run, Shoot, Reload" cycle of gameplay. This is true from Wolfenstein to Fortnite. Part of Splatoons incredible innovation is combining the steps of "Run" and "Reload" and then enabling the players movement options with shooting. It is engaging, simple, and the most intuitive "Mosquito Shooter" (games where kill times are only a fraction of a second) where your planning ahead of time of where to go, what to shoot, and so on makes for an extremely in depth loop that still can be grasped by new players. Square Enix sees this, only gets the "Okay paint floor to move" and slaps that onto an already existing hero shooter.

The only other game that I can remember has movement and ammo tied to the same resource is Codename Steam, which is also a Nintendo game and was announced in the same direct

@johnnywakeup5515

Ай бұрын

Quake Rocket jumping & every successor that copied that mechanic too.

2:25 Broski it's not inspiration it's straight up copy, rave breaker? what even is rave, it clearly just is wave breaker but with a r instead of w.

@samuelyoung3911

Ай бұрын

and not just bc of wave breaker, but u can obviously tell it's straight up copy, basically splatoon plus overwatch

@jblazerndrowzy

Ай бұрын

A rave is a party, so the name fits But yeah, the copying is obvious

My favorite foamstars youtuber

Square Enix should stick to making rpgs, because this is not it. Also, I spent HOURS on Light VS. Dark mode as a kid.

I never played splatoons but I’m really enjoying foamstarts. I agree with a lot of the video hopefully the game gets better with time. They have added more characters and some new stages.

You know, I genuinely thought foam stars had potential, sure it was similar to Splatoon but it seemed different enough to still be fun, yet judging by the fact that this video exists I guess I am wrong.

@wo0my_w0omyy

Ай бұрын

Those were my exact thoughts

As someone who played persona 5 multiple times, and is a fan of the series. This video is a massive disrespect to the soundtrack of Persona 5 which is objectively one of THE BEST soundtracks for ANY video games.

@TableClothPersona

24 күн бұрын

Agreed but at the same time him fading to Last Surprise got me. I was like “this just sounds vaguely like Lyn-Oh damn.”

The opening made me think my audio was broken

@oOCCBo

4 күн бұрын

@@Astar24653 the meme in the beginning had the foamstars theme which got copy righted so I had to mute it

Omg OC is literally my favorite gootuber ever 😆🦑🐙

I like how all the outfit bundles now got a price cut from going from $44 to $24

2:49 we hate different😭 mans done channeled his inner kendrick

No way KF3 has heroes. The Perk system has been a staple since KF was just a mod and is it's biggest selling point. They'd be completely alienating their playerbase by doing that.

On its own, this seemed like a fun idea, but the execution was so so bad

Amazing that in the second season of this show i hear that you had the lowest brightest setting. What a plot twist. Still hurts my eyeballs.

lethal league blaze transitioning into machine girl. you have a1 music taste

I thought of a way Nintendo could spice up Salmon Run. New DLC: "Corporate Shakeup!" "A new competitor to Grizz Co. is taking to the Salmon Run, eager to break the iron grip of the corporation on the Power Egg market! Jump ship and swim with the new fish, as you take on new challenges, wield new weapons, and fight new enemies! The best part is, you're not alone. [Newcorp] has your back, sending upgrades to your gear and supporting your fight with mid-round events that allow you to regain control." Basically a new company hires you on and actually supports the team on the field, dropping in supplies or firing inktillery onto the field, and providing upgrades for your character, as well as actually allowing you to progress your equipment. It could be the roguelike thing Foamstars did...but better. Lore, design, planning... XD Also I like the idea of the two factions fighting, could do an entire event where people side with Grizz Co. or the new guys.

I'm so fucking tired of people complaining about hero shooters. It's been the sentiment since before fucking Overwatch came out, when Team Fortress 2 was the only game in the subgenre. Characters having different abilities is not the real reason why you don't enjoy a game.

The random jab at destiny around 9:50 caught me off guard lol.

I like how this came out and immediately disappeared into the void. This video is the first one to pop up on my feed, and I watch a lot of failed video game specializing youtubers.

During the soundtrack part of the video I was sitting there thinking "Why are you playing with persona music in the background?" Are you telling me it's an actual ost from the game???

Foamstars is just Splatoon for neurotypical people

@ED-gw9rg

21 күн бұрын

Not even that, man. You can make builds SO much more neurotypical in Splatoon (Special Spam, Sub Spam, Quick Super Jump, etc.)

Omghedidit!! Vamos!!!!! (Also I really dig the video style btw, you cooked.)

@oOCCBo

Ай бұрын

Thank you I’ve been really trying to improve my style

5:17 Hey wait a second! That ENTIRE concept for that mode is basically lifted wholesale from Kid Icarus Uprising's online multiplayer mode! Edit: Oh my god I made this comment and then I continue the video and you call it out seconds later lmao

Was better spending into Uktrakill

was just about to mention LvD in KI:U before you did. XD not wrong though, glad this one wasn't alone in feeling that Also, totally agree on needing another Kid Icarus game in the vein of Uprising. Or even just an Uprising port.

Wait, how did I get here? I don't like or play either Foamstars or Splatoon. Ah well, I'll watch anyway.

2:40 has to be the realest thing ever

As a Destiny fan, I totally get why you hate the game and totally respect your decision. But I will also say to each their own. The Final Shape was really great, even considered the best dlc Bungie ever created from long time players, surpassing The Taken King, Forsaken and Witch Queen

Probably not related, but I’m guessing a decent amount of people, like myself, were still playing Palworld too (along with Helldivers 2).

@oOCCBo

Ай бұрын

Myself included

5:47 im glad u said it cuz i was finna say it👌🏾till this day still waiting for them to do something with this franchise again 😢

that Vanoss reference got me ngl.

10:24 This brought back good memories

The fact Sony pushed this game more than Helldivers 2 should make us think about what Sony expects to be a good game/sell well.

Spending 500$ in general sounds like a waste depending on what you buying like I wanna play foamstar but I probably would buy a switch to play with friends

foamstars looks like dislyte but splatoon

2:40 trust me, we are the same

Instant like for the kid icarus uprising mention there lol

I literally never heard about this game until after it died lmao

The second you mentioned that game mode I knew it was just like in Uprising

I hate foamstars because I saw it dropped with a lot of micro transactions that are like 40 to 50 bucks a pop. Square Enix ever since they got this CEO has been nothing but slop content and FF7.

Mid take... This game reminds me of Ninjala...

I forgot this game existed. :0 Great video!

Kid Icarus uprising mentioned💯🗣 🔥

At least the soundtrack was balling iv got it on Spotify

VERTIGO 2 MENTIONED

No clue who'd be excited for KF3, it'll be utter shit. KF2 was good for like a year or something while it was in EA and before they've ruined it with lootboxes, cosmetic and weapon DLC and breaking promise after promise. Oh, and EDARs, which no one wanted, but they were added regardless.

I happened to find out about this game a bit before it came out, the story mode is really repetitive but I got some enjoyment from online, it overheated my ps4 often

nobody forced you to pay $500

Lost Judgement clip in the intro was great

9:45 - Shoehorned much? 😑 The neddless plastsring of walls of text from you is annoying in itself but don't spice something that just isn't unrelated to the video at all here, especially if you don't give a little bit of a reason here. Especially when it had things that don't make it completely terrible or all hat much so.

at least the music banger

Wanna play splatoon, no money :(

…isn’t it Sova?…

$500 WTF

is that glass ocean I hear in the background ⁉️⁉️

@REALKN1FE

Ай бұрын

slingshot phighting hjoly shitttttt

so we just lying now huh

w/e overwatching trying to do, nothing lmao maybe a halloween arcade mode for that weekend

Man, if only a game came out that was splatoon, vut not curated. I actually beat all og splatoon 2 but never touched the online because after ai proved ai was skilled enough to taie down inner agent 3, the game said ai wasnt skilled enough to use any weapon I wanted. All I want is to be able to choose my own loadouts, not have a curated map rotation, and not be dragged away from messing around to see a stupid announcement without my express choice to do so. Splatoon 3 at least let yoy choose any weapon for an increased price, but it really sucks to have to play online with a weapon yoy are not having fun with untio yoy unlock onw you do havw fun with.

the game needs to be free. i think people do spend money on this game. i spend over $40 on outfits on relase i though the game itself was free to play so i didnt mind the overpriced digital store. what a game like this needs is alway new players there is no one who wants to spend $30 to find that they need to spend more money later. bear minimum a in-game currency. Fornite is free and Fornite might be more expensive but if i play and grind battle pass i get stuff for free. the battle pass something has enough currency for the next battle pass

Speaking of movement also being your main form of attack, Black Rock Shooter the game (PSP) did this way before splatoon and foamstars did it and BRS the game was an JRPG. Too bad BRS as an IP is pretty much dead after the whole good smile co glazing Disney and WB debacle. So we probably won't see a remaster of the old game anytime soon. Then again there isn't very many games that have energy management based on weaponry and movement, other than splat and foam.

@ghoulchan7525

27 күн бұрын

i think part of the death of BRS IP has to do with how split up it is within it's own lore between all the different media. also to use the character you have to get permission from her Creator who's name escapes me at the moment. but yeah you have people who love say the anime, but hate the game lore, or prefer the manga versions of the characters. it's really mismatched. but it is pretty insane that BRS started as just an illustration. and one person getting inspired to write a song based on a character in said illustration. at least if i remember the story right.

I like your music choices

I lost interest when I heard $40

I don’t have a PlayStation because some games on there are trash and put so much graphics on there just feels disgusting

Hero shooters could be cool, but they are all the same...

is the lil main theme sung by lyn?

Foamstars has keep up the updates for longer than I thought they would, but maybe that is because they're betting on a PC release or they're betting they can make it better. Not sure. I would give it a shot on PC just to play Soa Soapland

I just watched this video, and i could disagree more

💯

I was heavily interested in foam stars and I was considering plugging up my Sony PlayStation Four and purchased a month of online for foam stars but Side Order had released a few days before and I decided to play / use my time to play something that I am familiar with. Since then I have no interest in playing foam stars now.

@cosmicXtropics

27 күн бұрын

You missed out.

18:54 tf2

You really spent 500 dollars to play a Splatoon rip-off!?

senran kagura bikini splash is better

Star player? 🤔

WE KNOW

I would have tried Foamstars if it weren't a live-service PlayStation game. I have a PS4, but my home internet is so bad that online games are rarely a good experience. If it were on PC or Switch, it would be fine (read: less bad) since I have both a Switch and a Steam Deck and can take those to places where I can reliably play online. But alas, Foamstars just isn't worth it to me unless it (somehow) makes it across platforms. Altho tbh I'd probably still hold off since it is a SqEx game and uses AI images (they're not "art") 😷

Wait Foamstars came out this year?? I thought it came out in 2022 or 2020

As soulless and typical as this is for SquareEnix, at least it doesn't have some toxic and infuriating anti-environment message like Splatoon 3 does. I'd honestly spend 500$ on this crap before I'd even spend a dime on Splatoon 3.

@NAFEDUDE

Ай бұрын

Bro what are you talking about "anti-environment message"

@baalfgames5318

Ай бұрын

@@NAFEDUDE The main campaign literally ends by implying that nature should perish for the sake of "progress." It's literally about humans-with-tentacles on their head trying to kill a bear to stop nature from coming back. I also love how people twist this and try to make HUMANS out to be nature and Grizz out to be the side of humans. If that was the case, then GRIZZ would be the human, NOT the humans that are SUPPOSED to be squids, but look like humans to pander to humanity's narcissism.

@Really-Eon

Ай бұрын

Bruh, I got lost halfway through, ur point isn't clearly stated after you go on the "people are twisting the story" rant. I do want to ask if u actually everu played the story mode lmao??? But what I do know is Mr.Grizz wanted to wipe out all the new life (inklings and octolings in this case) to revive mammals, I'd call that self preservation. Oh btw humans have been dead for thousands of years.To bring it into perspective that would be like a human trying to bring back the Wooly Mammoth to kill all of the newer organisms. It's not anyone's fault u misunderstood the ending

@baalfgames5318

Ай бұрын

@@Really-Eon No. I'm apparently the only one who understands the ending. Grizz wants to bring back mammals, but this does NOT include humans, which he wants to wipe out because the INKLINGS are literally humans. The devs just came up with some BS story to try and justify squids evolving into humans when that's literally what the "Inklings" are. They're just humans but with tentacles. If they're not supposed to be humans, then there's absolutely zero reason they should be humans, but the devs made them humans because "it's marketable" to appeal to humanity's narcissism. But the game ends with Grizz saying he cannot get in the way of "progress," a right-wing term used to slander environmentalism, and that environmentalism gets in the way of "progress." Implying that nature gets in the way of humanity's progress. Once again, if this message is supposed to be reversed, then GRIZZ would be the human and the "Inklings" would be squids or octopi or literally ANYTHING but humans, especially not when the humans hardly even fight for sea life, since most of it is horrible and antagonistic except for those precious humans. Even the little salmon guy becomes an antagonist for the humans to prove their dominance over. Even the Sting Ray starts out as something for humans to prove their dominance over. No. I am NOT misinterpreting the story. Everyone else is because they don't care about nature, so they're more than happy to buy an anti-nature game and ignore or even follow the message, and this is backed up by things like Kid Icarus Uprising or The Avengers that believe that humanity should never improve or take responsibility for its actions, and that nature should just tolerate humans more, like it's okay for thousands upon millions upon billions of animals to die for reasons as sinple as they exist, but good lord! Not the poor, innocent coporate business man or poacher or corrupt leader! Their lives are far too precious! Honestly, humanity's narcissism in media is infuriating.

@Really-Eon

Ай бұрын

@baalfgames5318 to be honest, you do bring up good points, I think this really just comes down to personal opinion, but I'm arguing for the sake of arguing if u don't mind Though stuff like the "devs made a lazy backstory," it's not lazy, and a lot of the story from the first game made most sense on human adjacent characters, aka a race war. Also, it would be really hard to make anything that isn't relatively human shoot a gun because splatoon is really just a shooter. I wouldn't say ur human narrassism point isn't completely wrong it's just not a good point for splatoon and other shooters. Back to the personal opinion, I believe the "progress" refers more to humans' nature (idk how to phrase it lmao) but I'm talking about stuff like AI, it's a good tool but the way, specifically generative, ai is stealing from real people to make an awful product isn't good. Or a more physically worse comparison, deforestation, because Grizz represents humanities worst aspects. He was alive for it after all. He runs a corrupt business that has bad working conditions, hunts animals to near extinction, etc etc. I also don't get how u think our salmon buddy is antagonistic at all. He literally helps defeat the big bad if you could elaborate this point that would be nice!!!