The 5 Biggest Problems With Splatoon 3 

I feel like they should reduce the chunk price to complete a gear set, like 5 for the first, 10 for the second and 15 for the third, so 30 chunks to complete a full gear set

Don’t worry, they will bring back the Captain’s hat for a salmon run purchasable item and it will only cost 50 gold scales. A small price to pay for a hat

Probably the worst thing about Splatoon 3 for me was their choice to lock gear behind scales. I enjoy Salmon Run and in the past it has been easy to get Salmon Run exclusive gear by just playing a few rounds. Now they want me to grind the mode and get a ridiculous amount of scales for basic clothing, which aren't even related to the mode. I've been trying to grind scales in fear that they're going to lock Octoling gear behind it.

One thing that bugs me is the lack of music variety in battles, they have ALL the other songs from past games but you can’t listen to them for battles, and they haven’t added any new battle tracks since launch (except for the 1 splatfest song)

My biggest problem with Splatoon is it feels like too much of a grind, especially Salmon Run. I strongly dislike how they drop your rank every rotation and the scale drop rate is far too low.

Not a mention to Splatoon 3's matchmaking. Losing a series because of higher rank opponents (looking at their pins on their banners) is frustrating, and it happens very frequently. Yesterday farming in turf war I got a bunch of new players as opponents and they got absolutely annilihated every game. I'm really hoping for some fixes and improvements in matchmaking really soon

I think I said this on your maps video too, but I REALLY miss Splatoon 1's verticality in their map designs. While some of the stages were incredibly unbalanced, at least they felt different from one another. I feel like most of the newer stages don't have much of an identity compared to the old ones, and many of them just feel like the same stages but with different skins.

Custom Kits for not only private matches but also special Turf Wars would be a really cool way to extend the life of this game until the next Splatoon game comes out on the next Nintendo console

5:41 This is for JP region. We have a huge tournament called スプラトゥーン甲子園(Splatonn Koushien) and regulation of this event is only main ability. So Nintendo added this function before last Splatoon Koushien in Splatoon 2 to let us immitate this competition. So I understand it makes tottaly no sense to not only NA/EU players but also AS players outside JP. But I just wanted to show everyone here to say its not meaningless.

Seeing and Knowing your Splatoon Pet peeves are really nice and most, if not all, are very relateable for a wide range of players, including myself. Glad to see you speak openly about what you dislike about Splatoon 3.

I miss Ark Polaris glowfly rounds, still difficult but they were a lot more exciting than praying that a goldie didn’t knock your roller player off the sockeye tower

I wish they made your boss salmonid gauge fill faster the higher your rank is. I feel like that could help make up for the insane cost of the rewards

A huge problem with salmon run is the prevalence of shore bosses. Flyfish (in particular), stingers and big shots have too much influence at EVP ranks over 600, while not being as easily killable as they should be for their offensive power

I mentioned this in Ken's hot takes video, so I'll keep it brief. My problem with s3 is the flawed catalogue system imho. It feels heavily grind heavy and full of FOMO. It makes me feel that I'm not playing because I want to but because I have to or else I miss out on certain emotes that I want. Being able to unlock them from the gacha machine doesn't help much because you're leaving it to chance. I'd rather buy the emotes instead. Edit: P.S: The other problems you mentioned in this video are one of the main reasons I've been playing less and less. Combine that with bad matchmaking and you've got a recipe for "I don't wanna play anymore".

My biggest issue is probably just the matchmaking in general. I have friends who completely stopped playing Splatoon 3 because of how unbalanced the matchmaking can get and I fully get that. A lot of times the game just isn't fun when you're constantly being put against people who are clearly out of your league. And the weird thing is that from my own experience this wasn't an issue in Splatoon 1 and 2. Oh and of course, this is assuming the game is even able to start without getting a connection error or someone leaving in the first minute of a match.

For me there are some things about chunks and abilities that I dont like. I think the ability tickets should increase the chance of the ability should be better (I've had moments when I didn't get any ability even with the drink) there should be a in game guide what says what abilities are more-/less common for a brand And the splatfest shirt should atleast double the chunks when scrubbing abilities off

When it comes to grinding, the catalog also feels very hard to do, even with the 1.5 Boost from splatfests and daily wins. I play almost every day and I’m still barely at level 40 :’)

I truly could not believe they made the final salmon run banner 333 GOLD scales and still have the drop rate for gold scales be like 1%

Totally agree, with every point you make. I have 800k grizzco points and just got my fifth golden scale recently. I don’t have any issues with ability chunks, but I’m definitely not the norm since salmon run isn’t that popular (still that you can’t test anything is really disappointing).

My biggest gripe is Ranked in general. I do like the series and open more than 2's 3 strikes and you're out for Ranked but it makes no sense that you lose your rank every 3 months. Also for me, it just kills any motivation to play Ranked and finally get to whatever rank you hit only to have it reset at the end of the season and having to grind back up to it. It's like getting a promotion to manager at a job but then getting demoted back to a supervisor on the next quarter.

When my brother first started the game, he really wanted to do salmon run because of all the cool rewards. He was having a lot of fun, and then eventually fought Cohozuna after a few shifts. When he saw the scales you get on the win screen, he asked me what they're for. Having to explain to him that the coolest rewards in Salmon are locked behind scales that are 1. RNG dependent and 2. Take forever to get even a couple of anyway felt pretty bad. He was almost angry learning that those rewards would take so long to get...

as much as certain things annoy me in this game (tickrate, needing better servers, etc.) its hard to ignore the great steps up from the previous game. going back to s2 is actually painful for me with the worse motion, special design (with exceptions), and even things like UI, and i really appreciate all of the improvements that came with this game

Might be controversial but at this point I think that splatoon’s map rotation system is better than a lot of other games. I see in other games (mainly rainbow six siege) where the player base will avoid any new maps like the plague. I like that splatoon 3 somewhat forced you to play maps outside of your comfort zone and actually experiment and it’s a really nice change of pace.

I've always had an issue with Salmon Run's policies. Just the fact that someone could potentially (though very low of a chance) never see a Gold Scale is absolutely absurd. I wish they'd let us exchange scales for the higher tiered ones or even let us use the power eggs we get to buy them. That way it incentivizes the greedy to actually help out their teammates getting chummed on

6:09 Luci if you're reading this I gotta say, seeing you miss a stationary enemy wavebreaker because you flicked instead of just aiming at it is highly relatable and I feel your pain.

shocked no one's mentioned the most glaring omission: not being able to pet lil' Buddy when you find him in the square. let us give the good boy some scritches!

Good to know Anarchy Open actually has really small losses, because I'm like level 30 and still didn't really feel ready for it because rankings give me anxiety but I'd love to try them out.

I definitely agree about the gear system being too expensive. I only have one gear set for my main and I don’t want to spend a ton of chunks to try out a new build. I’d really love to play multiple different builds or try out something after a balance patch but I don’t because I either don’t have enough chunks or want to save some for other builds. Everything should be just worth less to let people who don’t know exact what they want to try stuff out and see what works. It’s way better than 2 but just needs some work

I would say the servers, net code and Wi-Fi problems have been pretty noticeable even in X battles for me

2:00 It took extra time because you did it suboptimally! Putting a second identical sub on a piece of gear takes twice as many chunks as the first (20 instead of 10) but provides the same benefit. You could have spread the swim speed, ink recovery, and quick super jump subs out more evenly between the three pieces of gear and saved yourself 30 chunks.

i miss when splatfests had all new stages. I get that they wanted to have a new gimmick with tri turf battle but i am not waiting in anticipation for that the same way that i did for the stages in splat 2. Even just a little bit of difference between the current stages and the splatfest versions like adding rails or sponges in places would definitely make it more like a fun event for me rather than just a day where i can’t play the ranked modes.

Another weird thing about private battles is that while you can choose what weapon you have in Salmon Run, you can't choose the Grizzco weapons, even if one is currently in rotation.

Biggest problem for me personally is Disruptor getting snuffed, that thing was SO much cooler than Toxic Mist and would have been rad to see in this Splat 1-themed roster. Maybe it could become a hybrid of sorts, being a Disruptor when it land and a Toxic Mist if it hits the ground?

The problem I see with it is how 1/3 of the weapons you can choose rn are shooters and we still have only two splatanas and two stringers and basically two brushes(not counting the kits)

I don't mind locking gear behind scales, but if they do so, they don't have to worry about people completely selling out the scale shop, so they should make it much more affordable and less grind intensive As a bamboozler main, I dread the day I have to grind 50+ gold scales for the cap of legends because you know they're gonna make it expensive, I'm already saving up just in case it happens

I wish we’d get new salmon run stages instead of returning ones!! I love the hydro stage and sockeye is so unique. Also maybe add more specials and fix the god awful reward system

I really think you should be able to buy chunks directly for coins, maybe 500 coins per chunk. This is without even suggesting abilities being free and gear being completely cosmetic which I truly actually think is how it should be.

The biggest problem for me is ultra stamp being really laggy, which is sad, because I main L3 D.

Im glad the ability system was addressed (Im still trying to get a pure of qr, even when a piece of gear with a qr main ALREADY on the gear. But, im still struggling with just a PART of a build.) Just a casual player nothing to big.

It would be much better if the salmon run gear wss only between 1-10 bronze scales since those scales frequently occur more and gives players less grind.

100% agree with all the points made here, especially the absurd grind that's required to unlock many things in the game. I've had such a hard time collecting scales from SR that it's preventing me from enjoying the mode and having fun--I feel incredibly discouraged knowing that I probably won't be able to obtain many of the rewards even if I keep playing for the next few years.

I felt sometime desperate when my salmon boss gauge is full charge, but after finaly winning one match to confront the boss, he doesn't appear

I feel like Nintendo should have top player beta testers, just having top players testing the game before updates, pointing out flaws might help the balance.

I'm actually very surprised the Salmon Run shells system hasn't been revamped yet

the thing is about that whole “ranked is unlocked at level 10” thing, if you have data from splatoon 2, you could completely bipass that entire requirement gate and play ranked immediately as you get your name in game. they locked an easy pass to ranked behind another game

Nice video keep up the good work, also nice to see almost daily content.🦑

6:01 another thing they could add as an option for Private Battles: gun game! Every splat, you swap weapons. Whether that’s one’s that are predetermined by you before the match starts, or randomized completely is up to you. Yeah it’s absolutely massive and would require a good bit of work to implement, but it’d improve the games lifespan and make things a lot more fun imo

I once suggested custom kits on Twitter. They called it the worst idea ever.

I agree with the point about the rewards for Salmon Run. It’s so expensive time wise that it’s almost discouraging.

I still don't understand how the netcode got worse between games.

Whoever edited has great taste in music!

I think one crucial aspect that keeps my friends from playing is the ability to climb ranks in a group. In ranked you can only play single ranked matches as a group and not do the series. It’s so much slower to climb that way and discourages playing with a group. And most of my friends only Want to play with eachother

Love the Triangle Strategy music at the end ❤

Man the custom game thing would be so much fun. With that you can have more tournaments, competitive and casual, give more ways for content creators and streamers to show off the game, and give more freedom to playing when rotations aren't in your favor. Having more options is always a good thing and I feel like most of the things you mentioned are things they could easily add as options. They might have to test some things out and balance a few here and there to make sure servers don't crash (like infinite specials but you can't use another until the other is over) but just adding the option feels like a no-brainer. And you briefly mentioned it but as a smaller addition I'd love to see more options to the training mode. The new area in 3 is a huge improvement but stuff like infinite tank / infinite special would be great for learning how to aim or how to get used to a weapon / special in general. Things like learning how to properly hit with Inkzooka or Inkjet would be way easier to practice if I didn't have to get my special back each time.

Your point about gear is so true, I’m always scared to spend chunks on anything because I’m holding large amounts in preparation for future season’s returning gear. (Enperry Jacket / Enperrial Shoes lol)

6:35 um uhh how do we tell him

I love your ideas for private battles!!! Those would all be an absolute blast. I also like the idea of testing any kit you want so that you can plan for skills and such. One thing I wish you could do is exchange food/drink tickets. I have SO MANY exp food tickets and I don't need them anymore, but I'd love some more full-team money tickets. It'd also be nice to stack them.

Yo Chara, I was wondering how much do you think opening gambit will be used now that it's gotten such a big buff. I've been experimenting with it on multiple weapons with 52, wiper, and range blaster being the best with it from what I've tested. There are definitely some other weapons that can use it very well, but I haven't tested everything. I've heard that it's bonkers on Nova though

you nailed it on the grind section. it is abysmal

If we could get a season of buffs and additions to non-shooters that would be nice

Definitely agree about the gear taking way too much grinding to get what you want, it leads me to playing the same weapon all the time because I can't get good gear for the weapons I want to try out. I don't mind the main ability being a bit more expensive though because I kind of like how it encourages you to use crazy outfit combos

I mean, you do have a good point about the update cycle, im fine with it, but id rather have the weekly weapons so we get more content/fun at the same time! It gets very boring after atleast a week of playing with the new weapons, but either way, still love the game!

I want to see a shift shuffle mode or something where it’s standard multiplayer modes, but with salmon run gimmicks.

Some of the badges in this game take WAY too long to get. I don't think anyone is going to get level 999 until like 2025. It also takes SO long to get evp 999, especially on maps like marooners. Even with that, I'd still day the map design is the worst for me.

“When League drops” we’ll keep waiting my friend. We’ll wait till half life 3

Agree with most these problems. Point 1 about the grinding, I think is such an easy fix and I'm not being a backseat dev a lot are just numbers. Hazmy recently did a video about all the Salmon Run issues and the frequency of scales dropped is terribly slow. Things like gear I agree with and to me the answer is just to make the juices a much higher chance of rolling than they are now, enough that with the right gear brand you're at 90% or something.

Holy rip I can not agree with you more. Everything you said is so true. here’s to hoping they actually do make things better in the future. This game feels like it’s having a slow start, so hopefully they start changing stuff more and giving more content in the future. Epic video Chara

I agree with the grinding issue everything is so insanely grindy as someone who OFTEN plays splatoon 3 its still a grind! They definitely need to tone it back

I heavily agree with NSO sucking more in Splatoon 3 than it did in Splatoon 2, and there's more to it than what was shown. The disconnections mid-match and pre-battle are well known, but then there's the addition of disconnecting post-match, despite getting the full results screen and still being in the lobby, and not getting any rewards for it. Another note would be the glitches. Even though many have been patched, they were still there. Sure, not every game is perfect at launch, but the amount that was (and still is) present is too much for how much hype was put into the game.

One thing, that has been bordering me is the reset of your anarchy tank each season. Not only throws it the game's balacing out of the window, but also punishes players, who spend a lot of time grinding for an S rank. Getting an high rank level is in Splatoon 3 a lot easier than in Splatoon 2, so I get why, the developers would introduce such an mechanic. That doesn't change the fact, that Splatoon 3 discourages you to play anarchy battles. Why would you ever play a significant harder mode that punishes you from investing time in it, when you could just play turf war until the end of time? At least it's harder to lose your rank, which was the reason, why I was afraid of playing ranked battles in Splatoon 2. Games have to penalize a player's mistake accordingly, but it should never feel frustrating.

Once again, I just love how you address issues with this game. You actually acknowledge the issues with the game and give constructive criticism on it but not because you want to bash on one of the best shooter games in modern years for no reason, but because you want the game to grow and become the best version of itself. Glad I subbed to you Edit: just watched till the end of the video so let me just say my point of view on most of these: I personally think that all of these are just pet peeves to me (which you probably think that too but I’m just saying) and also in terms of the update cycle, I think it was greatly improved form splatoon 2 and the seasonal updates do add enough content for me (probably just fresh season, chill season was a let down) I really like the idea of a mid season update. I think what they could add is a tiny new price of content like maybe adding a single new mode or a new stage for salmon run like you said. For now I’m not too upset about how it works rn because I am usually still invested in the game by the middle of the season (because it’s splatoon 3, duh) but also because there is usually a new splatfest announced by then. Great video as always Chara Sorry this is long I don’t realize how much I type 😑

big thing for me is not being able to get gear from previous catalogues once that season has ended. i was really busy irl last season and wasn't able to finish the catalogue, and missed out on the onyx o1sters and the tentaclinger earring, the two things i wanted most, and for the time being they're completely unattainable for me

Dude the PB ideas are killer... like for overwatch I really struggled to get into it, but what helped me for that game was custom match templates that people used that had infinite ammo and the like to help me jus, point and shoot without worrying about reloading. Something like that for splat pb would be kinda sick honestly

I think a great change for scales would be if you could exchange power eggs for scales

chara to help u in regards to gear, u can find ur gear seed and put the exact abilities u want. its rlly nice

Yes on the matchmaking, not only is it frustrating but it actively discourages you to test out new weapons because why would I want to my team at a disadvantage by trying out a new weapon. And having SBMM on casual modes like Turf War is completely baffling and complete ruins an already mediocre game mode.

Tableturf is also a grind in this game, the amount of exp you need to level up is ridiculous and it can take an hour or more at a time to level up, not only that but if you want to get character exclusive card sleeves you have to beata character on the hardest difficulty 30 times

Cant believe I've been regularly watching your system

I think having the ranked game modes in like a “party playlist” would be really nice

to add on to the grind complaint, the catalogue needs to be easier to level up outside of turf war. I started playing ranked when I unlocked it, but when I saw how little the catalogue level goes up when you lose, I dropped it pretty quick. for the past two seasons I've only managed to complete the catalogue within a week of the season ending, and if I want to keep completing it I can't really focus on anything other than turf

As someone who has a compulsive need to unlock everything in a game, the sheer amount of time needed to unlock all the Salmon Run and Tableturf stuff is so demoralizing. There's a Salmon Run banner for 999 silver scales. It will take literal years to get that and everything else.

I can’t believe you didn’t mention the 333 Gold Scale banner

My biggest gripe with the game is hit detection. Certain weapons feel absolutely criminal in how they land and how they can do damage. In other shooters things like that would be fixed like within the week of discovering it but in here it's just something that seems to be looked at and accepted

My biggest problem with Splatoon 3 are the battles where I do not win

Something that could be very cool to see is more events events for Salmon Run, but its a run where the chances of Silver and Gold scales are increased. Could be just for one rotation over the weekend like the Grizz weapons. But yeah the grind for Gold Scales can take months all for the Cap of Legend for example and needs a fix.

The whole grind issue is one I entirely agree on. It took me literal years to get at least like… more than 4 gear I use regularly and switch between when needed for turf/ranked, and that was in Splatoon 2. But Splatoon 3, I got one good gear just mere weeks after the game launched. The Chunks system is more improved from the 2nd game, but you still have to dedicated to a grind for that good gear within turf/ranked, even with the fact you can get extra chunks from filled gear, that “28000” exp you need is still much for those “spare chunks” Lots of the little things and major things need to be tweaked so grinding is less painful, but not as easy as some of these “Free to play” games I see, that let you get literally everything in the game without spending a single penny. Like, maybe making it so drink tickets for gear don’t just increase the exp by 50%, but maybe 75% or 2x, maybe even having it so there are 2.5x exp gear tickets as well, and team wide gear tickets so everyone benefits from the ticket, much like the money and level tickets (except they don’t have the useless “50%” tickets) like at least in salmon run now, you get more tickets more often due to the fact it’s open 24/7, because you just get more golden eggs the majority of the times compared to Splatoon 2, and also because there’s a higher chance to get multiple tickets in a bonus. Meanwhile the RNG for the scales…. Well what van you expect? They can’t make it that easy to get scales, more so it’s a pain because of how expensive everything is. More so they need to half the price of everything rather than make it so you get more scales more often. I couldn’t care less because all I wanted from that was the blue slopsuit anyway :P Match making could also be improved, but it’s also something that’s factually hard to make better, because not everyone who plays the game has a consistent play. Like some days with my main, I absolutely slay. But other days I lose more often, or have an equal win/lose ratio, which is either due to me, or due to the fact I’m paired up with people who just don’t do enough. Literally some people will either not take the objective, or will go for kills more than the objective/inking turf.

I do work at Nintendo, and I have these small interaction surveys to fill out. I may forge a few, highlighting these in hopes they reach further.

The gear issue is extremely valid, but if I’m being honest I forgot that was a thing. I’ve been doing gear seeding since I had access to drink tickets and I haven’t felt the “I don’t have any good gear hhhh.” Before that though, it was frustrating to roll ink recovery up on my otherwise perfect RSU jacket for my splatlings

I never realized that brinewater only has two paintable walls, actually crazy

Could someone please explain why line marker paints almost as much as burst bomb on EVERY BOUNCE

My biggest annoyances are: 1. Matchmaking I'm on a high level than my friends, but everytime we together, we go against a team that COMPLETETLY smokes us This especially happens during splatfest, 2.Ranking System I have been on the biggest losing streak I've ever been on in Splatoon, and it all started once i entered S+ I legitimately don't understand why you CAN'T RANK DOWN I'm stuck at like -1800 points I know i have my season reset, but do i just have to AVOID S+ and throw games for my teamates?

5:56 that sounds like so much fun. I can’t for it to not be in the game-

I feel that grind very much when it comes to gearsets. It really is night and day playing with a set built for your weapon and just using random stuff; I want to use gear. However, it takes so long, and even with using the extra chances to get what I need (drinks and gear brands) I feel like those increased numbers must be so insignificant that they may as well not exist. I go entire leveling cycles on a full set of Krak-on gear with a swimspeed drink and don't get a single chunk. Once I finally have a set I don't even feel like playing anymore

I think the Splatfest tee's chunk costs should be the standard. 3, 6, 9, so 18 overall. That way players could really get into testing out new gear sets, or even feel confident enough to wipe one set and put different abilities on them. I know I really don't like to touch gear that's been "completed" even if I'd like to have say, run speed up instead of swim speed. It's just too much time.

I was so excited when I saw the Juice Parka (My favorite shirt in Splatoon) until I saw the price...

Love the Xeno background music

to be fair, i do agree with the idea of having different settings added into private play, but the one thing i would add to that is the setting to add AI into private play as well that way you dont have to sit and wait for people to join in if you dont want to

For the gear abilities thing!! there's actually a website that tells you what abilities your gears gonna have and gives you a guide on how to get your desired ones it's SO helpful and only took me a few hours for me to get what I wanted on two gears ^_^ could've been faster but I got lazy

As soon as I saw the scale prices for Splatoon 2 salmon run gear my heart broke. What's gonna be the price of the stuff I really want when it comes back like the friendship bracelet, the flip flops, SRL coat and wooden sandals?

I agree, the grind in this game is abysmal. I think Nintendo overshoots way too much, me and my friends have been playing consistently since launch and have poured actual hundereds of hours into the game. We might not be tryhards or anything, but the grind is such a pain that: - none of us have any 5 star weapon badges - none of us have reached X Rank - none of us have any unique TCG sleeves - none of us have more than 4 GrizzCo gear pieces (mostly bc we're scared to spend our scales) - none of us have a 5 star piece of gear Sure, some of them might be us being lazy, but I still believe some of the requirements are atrocious. Salmon Run rarely even feels satisfying or fun anymore bc it's the same old thing over and over again with little to no change. It's just get in the chopper, commit April 1940 on Salmons, get your money and buy more gear if there's even any new pieces to buy in the mainstreet shops