back in my Splatoon era (and Keigo Higashino)
Thursday, July 23rd: I got up at 5 am, made my coffee, and booted up Splatoon Raiders and damn I wish I hadn’t (only because it made being on time for work much harder).
I was able to fit in a solid hour before I washed up, got dressed, and scarfed down a bowl of natto over rice. But even with being able to squeeze in some Raiders time on a workday, I kinda wish I had just scheduled off in advance because boy- is it hard to break yourself away from Splatoon Raiders.
Every summer feels like a “Splatoon Summer”, at least in my eyes. There’s just something about its laidback, Y2K, Dreamcast-adjacent world and aesthetic it’s got going on.
Despite being dominated online in every other match, there’s just something so satisfying about the core concept of inking the most territory to win a match and skillfully traversing ink to get the advantage on the other team. It’s one of those games where no matter what you do, you are still helping out your team in some way.
Many people have said it before, but I’ll say it again: Splatoon is a great competitive shooter game for people who don’t play competitive shooters. But in that same vein, Splatoon Raiders feels like the perfect game for people who don’t like Splatoon.
When Raiders was announced last year, I was skeptical about it being a fully single player experience since in my mind, I assumed Splatoon could ONLY flourish within a multiplayer concept. Every time Splatoon has attempted single player in the past, it’s always come in the form of rudimentary platforming tutorials that don’t even come close to scratching the same itch as competitive online matches where you’re racing against the other team to ink as much of the map in the span of a few minutes.
With that, Raiders reorients Splatoon to be all about collecting loot rather than inking the most turf. And the satisfaction that comes from collecting loot is what locks the player into an addicting cycle.
Raiders is constantly rewarding you and giving you positive feedback (even when you die or fail a level) because it never dares to leave you empty handed. Splatting enemies nets you orange eggs that charge up a meter that then unleashes a powerful all-out-attack splats every enemy on the screen. Completing levels can get you better weapons and treasure can enhance your core abilities (i.e. increased damage, faster swim speed, increased ink efficiency, etc). Not to mention, there are crafting parts that let you power up different gadgets and as a result let you tackle bigger and stronger hoards of Salmonids that you couldn’t handle before.
In layman’s terms: playing Splatoon Raiders results in being able to play Splatoon Raiders faster and faster every time you pick it up.
Most of the time in Splatoon 1-3, you’d be shooting a stationary Octarian with little to no thought required. But in Raiders, Salmonids come in all different shapes and sizes, each with their own weak spots and different kinds of attacks.
And as the game throws dozens upon dozens of Salmonids at you in its 2nd half, you have to quickly start thinking about what order and what angle you take these Salmonids out. And that on-the-fly style of thinking this game encourages is part of what kept me glued to my Switch ALL weekend.
Splatoon Raiders is an addicting video game. In fact, I would say it’s not unlike BallxPit in the sense that it’s a game you play over and over again for the sake of playing faster and faster. And similarly to BallxPit, most of the time you are just watching a bunch of balls flood the screen as you plow through hoards of enemies and watching that high score go up and up.
Splatoon Raiders does have an end point and post-game content (neither of which I’ve made it to yet), and I myself am eager to see if my addiction will end once I roll credits or if I should just start seeking help now.
In all seriousness, after I’m done, I may need to read a book or something because dopamine hits and high scores can only hold my attention for so long.
Throughout the time that I’ve started writing this post, the news broke that Keigo Higashino had passed away on July 23rd.
Last year, I got VERY into Japanese detective fiction with the adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi and Detective Galieo. I had read through every Kindaichi story (currently translated in English) and had gotten through most of the Detective Galileo series.
While Yokomizo’s Kindaichi stories pushed me down the rabbit hole of Japanese detective novels, Keigo Higashino pulled me straight back to the bottom with his Detective Galileo series just as I thought I was ready to move on.
Keigo Higashino’s Devotion of Suspect X is one of Japan’s most popular mystery novels and has been translated and adapted multiple times worldwide. It’s a great mystery and there’s really nothing new for me to say about it that hasn’t already been said over the past 20 years. Rather than being a traditional mystery, it’s more of a game of mental chess between old friends (a mathematician vs a physicist) and flips the entire story on its head in its final moments.
While Yokomizo’s mysteries often displayed rich families pushed to their breaking point after being devastated by WWII, I admired how Higashino was much more interested in displaying how regular, unassuming people are pushed to their limits within their modern daily lives.
Just the other week, I talked about how Judgment is one of my favorite games ever and how that duology of games would not even exist without Higashino’s work inspiring Toshiro Nagoshi. I couldn’t not bring up just how important his work is and how much his Galileo series has only enhanced my love for Japanese mysteries and the high I felt after finishing Suspect X is something I’m still chasing to this day.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I’m having fun with Splatoon Raiders and will probably continue to be addicted to it even after I’ve maxed out everything in the game. I think I might also pick up Silent Parade by Higashino since that’s the only Detective Galileo book I haven’t gotten around to yet. Part of me wants to get around to his long-running Detective Kaga series but I feel like I have to pump the brakes before starting a new Japanese detective saga. Maybe I’ll finally get to Poirot or Martin Beck.
Anyway, I hope you’re well. Till next time- stay safe and use the library.
