The Problem With Splatoon 3's Map Design 

Thank you so much for watching this video! As always, please comment any ideas down below. Also, please like and subscribe if you enjoyed :D

Gem from Squid School put it best, imo: "When did Splatoon become a game with so many uninkable walls?"

"If I move around him or bring him down to me, I'll be able to easily fight him. 😼" *dies*

I love the point you made about stages feeling smaller because less places matter. That’s a very good insight, if only 40% of the map is important, it’s going to feel 60% smaller because you don’t ever use that portion. I do wish you elaborated more on the older maps that did this well like Flounder Heights and Urchin Underpass, it would be good to have a way to compare and contrast what the maps were like and how they are today because I do feel as if there was a significant downgrade between games beyond the movement changing. The factoid that the maps aren’t much smaller than they’ve been in the past with the statistics showing the points per smallest map in each game was very thought provoking and informed the overall video a lot. The chess analogy was initially a bit confusing but it gave the video an overall theme and a quick and easy way to explain game design. Overall, good video!

My brain has expanded to that of a nebula

The one thing I would say is faster weapons are not exactly better, weapons that control space while being seen and can effect people ahead of them do, such as chargers. I like the overall approach and the comparison between paint total and relevant areas hits it. Mentioning the decrease in paintable walls could also be good. Nice job

What also needs to be addressed are the =horrific= bottlenecks in the S3 maps. In S2, you ALWAYS had at least two ways to get into enemy turf. Now, there's maybe one small ramp AT BEST that can be easily defended, with Scorch Gorge's suicide grate being about as wide as a SHOE at the end, meaning that battles are determined by an extremely easily flippable mid that can lead to a turnaround win in the last five seconds. It doesn't reward skill, tactics, or patience like it used to.

So I guess the main solution is… wider maps I guess. Most maps tend to be linear, leading to mid with few good ways to circumvent this. A wider map would allow for that, or it would divide mid into 3 different sections, sort of turning the map into a 3x3 grid of sections rather than a 1x3 rectangle. Even a plus sign shape would be better, with spawn being one section, true mid being in the middle, and 2 side sections to flank around, each section having about the same percentage of turf to ink/control.

very interesting video, i liked the chess analogies even if they were a bit confusing to me at first. also isnt it funny how they added a whole new mechanic dedicated to climbing walls and yet they added so many uninkable walls? brinewater has NO inkable walls apart from the block in the middle. it’s ridiculous 💀 they also added squid rolls and yet so many maps are incredibly flat. scorch gorge mid is just a huge flat open area, its so uninteresting. and lets not even get into hammerhead i wish the map design was able to make the most of the movement system, bc splatoons movement is so cool and has been improved even more in this game with the new mechanics. they havent truly taken advantage of it yet, i hope we see some improvements soon

I really do miss how huge and vertical the Splatoon 1 map’s were. Seeing flounder heights and Mahi Mahi resort getting essentially massacred in 3 really wasn’t necessary.

Ive had way too many matches where we just get locked out at spawn. Its not fun when everyone dies and then nobody can recover. in Splatoon 2, this rarely happened, even in ranked modes

I’m an Ink Brush main, so these map issues are felt severely for me. The massive favoring of map designs towards backliners makes seeing a splatling or charger more of a “Guess I won’t be able to have fun today” feeling instead of “Time to find fun ways to pressure the snipers!” Being outranged by every other weapons means that on some maps with even just barely competent opponents, I can barely move anywhere without getting splatted even when I’m doing my best to maneuver or creatively flank/ambush

Thank you for explaining the issues of Splatoon 3's map design better than I could. This kind of level design makes the game feels so much smaller. A lot of the maps have what I call Walleye Warehouse syndrome. Just three places you can move, and incredibly easy to get trapped in. As long as the team can cover those three areas then they have the whole game. It makes the game too Charger and Splatling friendly as well because all they have to do is control those three areas without having to deal with any flank points. This makes the special roster even worse because specials like the Baller and even Bomb Rush could give the team the ability to push through. There were more options inside of Splatoon 2 than in 3 and I don't know if many really understand why some still prefer 2 over 3. 3 does have improvements over 2, but 3 limits the amount of options, flanks and positioning you could do towards the other team thanks to the difference in specials and the boxy, three way map design. It makes 3 a hassle to play and even somewhat boring. I hope they improve this with time as I've been playing Splatoon since the first game, and the second game is my most played Switch game. Excellent video!

Not only are the lack of Flank routes a problem, but also the clear advantage to chargers with the large open areas and lots of high ground is also an issue, making many matches for closer ranged weapons a nightmare if any e liter is on the opposing team

it appears that the devs hated spawncamping so much that they just made it near impossible to reach anywhere that wasnt mid. and that alone gave backline a massive advantage

i’ve played all three games and another problem i’ve felt with 3 is that the maps cater toward keeping players on specific set routes. uninkable walls, uninkable floors, and hazard areas that could lend themselves to smarter plays and better overall map coverage could in theory elevate the maps, but unfortunately with how many uninkables there are, it feels so controlling and limited. The maps feel forgettable and like any other shooting game with the severe lack of creativity they’ve put in. What’s the point of playing a game where you can paint walls and climb up them if the only paintable walls are the mandatory high ground in mid? Flounder Heights lends itself to such fun and varied gameplay because almost the entirety of mid is a flank route with how many walls you can climb. Unfortunately, with a portion of it being uninkable it has severely limited both the right and left side, but even then the map remains the best in the game

Thanks for this explanation, I noticed I was having a lot less fun and a lot more rage when playing _any_ Splat 3 despite the improvements . . . and at least now I can put words to why. I just miss alternate routes man.

Honestly, splatoon 2 maps just feel the best now that I've played splatoon 3. But now I think that yeah, the gameplay was still a bit slower in 2, though even slower in the wackier maps of 1. It feels like 2's maps in 3 are really hitting a sweet spot in how big they feel vs how fast the game is. And also maps generally in 3 are really lacking in gimmicks (mahi is executed badly), they all feel samey, whereas 2 still had a variety of maps even though some were tight like 3's more-than-just-some new maps.

See, I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this about the maps. I didn't play Splat 1, and not much of Splat 2 but from what I've played, I felt the maps played better in Splat 2 because the places you went, mattered. All routes goes to mid map destination isn't good design. Flounder Heights is the only map that doesn't feel too congested

honestly i feel like another problem is just ...... its small. It feels like everything in splatoon 3 shrunk while we grew. comparing maps that are still the “same” ie flounder heights i feel like you can kind of tell what i mean

This is a really interesting take. I never thought to consider that it was the pacing of the game that made the maps feel smaller and not the maps themselves. As fun as the game is, I do think the map design really makes it suffer at times. Right now, e-liters and long-range weapons dominate because there aren't many reliable ways to get to them. Hopefully the design team takes this into consideration when modifying current maps or creating new ones.

Really all we need is more verticality and flank route options. We should also provide areas where chargers and splatlings can benefit, but make it so their team has to cover their flanks.

'I would be able to easily fight him' Proceeds to die

4:35 i felt that in my soul

5:34 Translated by Google: Hey, I agree with you with what you said. If the chargers were a nightmare in Splatoon 2 but only on some maps since you had cover to protect yourself. In Splatoon 3 they are a thousand times worse, because add the new maps and some redesigns that most of them are flat, the chargers in professional hands literally have complete control because it will destroy your allies in an April and blink of an eye because there is almost no coverage to protect yourself. Splatoon 3 needs to redesign the maps so that there is more coverage and so that the magazines in professional hands are not broken at all times that is currently happening.

One massive impact ive noticed over the last two games is that you can no longer storm the enemy base. There is nearly always an uninkable wall, sponge, or other obstacle that will stop the enemy from entering the base. While that is good in theory to limit spawn camping… it creates a whole area of the game that isnt touched after you initially ink it. In splatoon 1, iirc, the ONLY map in the game in which you couldnt reach the enemy base was saltspray rig. This map at least did it well, by having multiple areas in the general map which you could funnel into. If the enemy cannot even enter your base, is there any point in having one? Each team is just going to have the same amount of turf there, and then the only important space in the map is the mid. Just something that sort of bothers me in 2 and 3, could be nostalgia but i really feel like it impacts the gameplay.

Remember when they removed a whole flank zone?

A characteristic to the Splatoon 3's map design is to use the peak hight of a squid roll (h) and make everything with that in mind. Also, Wave Breaker and Tacticooler are double that hight (2×h) which is the same with most of drops and ledges in this game. It helps to function properly those two specials, with Wave Breaker stopping at that hight and Tacticooler not getting destroyed by the rotating platforms on Museum for example. Unfortunately though, it makes everything short to the point that you lose cover just by standing. This is more well pronounced in Bridge, Hagglefish Market and 2 Star Hotel (Mahi). The absolute pinnacle of flat and boring in the game right now. I mean… we have squid surge and we can't use it by design. Great video! At first I didn't understood why you brought up chess but you nailed it. It's a comparison that seams random at first but makes so much sense!

Splatoon has always been a mobility focused shooter though, map size isn't really an issue, it's the map layouts. Flanks and alt routes is what splatoon maps actually lack, stands out more when you play a map that does have alt routes and flanks into center. Don't believe me go look into quake and unreal tournament. They were also mobility focused shooters and their maps were also pretty small, but they had corridors alternative passages and more to let you get around the maps while still being mostly in cover, now to also be fair unlike other shooters, splatoon doesn't have weapons thatcan shoot clear across the entire map, every weapon has limited range. Meaning every weapon can only really control a certain section around it.

I think maps are easier to change than we think but it’s hard to imagine them fixing it.

The maps are smaller in 3 you don’t really use all of the map space given to you because of how spawning works and how on most maps you aren’t really playing in the spawn area. And another method showing the scale of maps is how big it spaced out the props and groundwork Is on the maps you can have a big space with tons of massive obstacles in them that make the maps feel smaller

So glad to see someone putting it into words

great video hope it gets more attention. I like the comparisons to chess a lot

This video is great, truly a nice suprise after some other... interesting, takes ive seen in other videos

If you go back to the pre-release trailers you can see completely different versions of Eeltail and Scorch Gorge that have a bunch of alternate routes that were just completely removed in the final game just like with Mahi Mahi and Hammerhead. Which means this isn't a mistake that needs education, but a deliberate choice the devs made. They have versions of these maps that are good, and could revert them, but don't want to. Why? What's wrong with them?

Ive never considered the map situation like this, great video! Honestly, i have zero faith in nintendo to make the best decisions for this game, since the new season cycle is already showing its flaws, but some splattubers have said that splat2 was in a great state toward the END… so will they keep us all invested?

The problem with 3 is it’s mostly rehashed maps from 2 and the maps from 1 are butchered to be like ever other map from 2 and 3 where you are tunnelled to the middle. Butchering the maps from 1 just beats the point of bringing them back in the first place if there going to be made the same.

its either small maps or wat i call rush down maps. wall eye, new hammerhead bridge, arowanna mall, etc. theres not as many maps nowadays that give u flanking options or just different routes in general. lots of maps force u to either go straight to mid or just give u an "option" thats just a tiny side area going to mid. so theres barely any choice in the matter. i may hate saltspray rig but atleast it gives u SOME options that matter. new mahi mahi and inkblot for example are pretty bad for this. paltry side area that honestly doesnt change anything about the game. maybe ink matters a bit more but not by much. both side areas just take u to mid. thats probably my biggest issue with the map design as a whole. barely any choices that just takes u to mid. that might be better for competitive matches. but wat about THE mode nintendo advertises? idk, i feel like we need more openness of maps like old hammerhead and the reef where ur choices actually matter. new flounder heights are exempt cuz that still gives u options that matter but the maps an exception. having small maps and rushdown maps are fine in moderation. but i feel like having maps that give u some space and options for the majority of the map selection would be way better in my opionion.

I really enjoy the map design of Splatoon 3. It's very fast paced and works well with the new specials imo. One hell of a step up from walleye warehouse and moray towers.

Good video!

congratulations tiny channel, you have wound up on my home page

As a hero shooter main since Wii U I do not have an issue with the stages in three except mahi mahi zones. It is the most cluster stage in the whole title. I just need to learn the stage layout. How do I enter solo recon mode?

ive been playing since the first game and i love turf war. it gives me an alternative to just attacking and getting stuck in battles. splatoon 3 kind of diminished this aspect. weapons that favor ground cover over damage are practically useless now! everyone cheeses on aerosprays for dying in mid but there is nothing to do but fight in mid. it's a headache.

ngl my favorite moments in splatoon 3 is close combat with hectic movement like one time i had a jr and o was just rolling all around my enemy inching him closer to death with each bullet, that close combat is so thrilling and i kinda understand why they designed the map to make it happen more, but the thing is this sort of combat can happen in an open stage, just not as often but you know other kind of combat that is just as fun can happen like sneaking or flanking so i dont understand why they didnt just get the best of both worlds

4:25 Translated by Google: That map is HORRIBLE! because it is so small that it creates total chaos that almost all players cannot fit in the small size. The platforms is also another thing that he hated because the shot type weapons get in the way a lot. I prefer a thousand times that they return to the original because this redesign is TERRIBLE!

Cool vid, most of this i did not understand, im new to the series so yea...

Here’s the thing: Splatoon is still getting updates to give some extra features, so maybe we’ll eventually get an update about this if Nintendo sees this video or just how they said, considering it themselves.

My issue with mahi mahi is how useless water level become The underwater area is sooooo fucking small compared to splatoon 2, and the lakc of inkable turf just makes it useless

nice vid

I think I lost all of my brain cells at that chess game at the start lol

I like the chess analogy a lot here

I’ve never really understood the stages bad thing cause, well I’m pretty dumb and just fling mortars everywhere like an idiot. but the chess analogies really helped me, starting to see it!

Chess and Splatoon, I like it.

Am I the only one who has been kicked out 26 times because of a connection error today?

What in God's blessedly cursed earth was that chess opening?!?

0:40 bruh don’t cut the clip we all know you died

The Splatoon points are well constructed but that chess footage at the beginning hurts my soul to watch

This video is a prime example of how to sound smart without saying anything.

Hi, I thought we were watching a documentary about Splatoon, not chess

0:44. Did the Hydra win?

41-46 "i can easily splat him"

I took a charger on mahi mahi and was able to almost wipe the whole enemy team multiple times…

0:42 He says as he dies to the Hydra.

*Me regretting my decision to not join chess club:*

0:40 bro definitely died

The devs could’ve done a completely easy thing. Keep the maps big and have an unreachable area to not be spawn camped and then have 2nd section that can be navigated with at least 3 different ways. Simple use big maps. Salmon run has big maps why not multiplayer.

When I saw Brinewater springs I had low hopes, but then I was somehow more disappointed because I counted literally 0 climbable walls. It's like nintendo is completely disregarding the fact that Splatoon is the only shooter with climbable walls. Splatoon 1 actually embraced the unique movement mechanics. 2 and 3 feel slower because of the lack of utilization of those mechanics despite having more controls/movement.

no, no - the maps are also smaller dude. it's baaaddd.. they can't be so tiny!

I don't see any problem with the map design and i really don't think they need to fixed at all its not even "game breaking"

The map design definitely was built around turf war (WOW!!!! shocker!! Splatoon never cares about turf war!!!!!!!) I really wish nintendo would try to put more focus on other modes though, coming from a turf war main too lmao.

0:17 tell that to the 400 elo people who think Wayward Queen is a good opening lmao

I feel as though Splatoon 3 is almost just a different/worse version of Splatoon 2, like a glorified rom hack of sorts. Lots of things were changed for the sake of changing them (stage design, all the unnecessary currencies, muddier lighting etc.), as opposed to implementing new ideas and fixing genuine problems to provide an actually unique experience...

Dude cut the clip of him being fully splatted on 0:45 when that was an easy kill lol Don’t worry, I also end up getting splatted there

Of course. What isn't similar to Chess💀

Splatoon is not Chess, it’s strange to think the game should lean toward the way of Chess…

Can Splatoon players stop using chess in their arguments? I play both chess and Splatoon and I can say that while things from chess do carry over, it is not what Splatoon players think carry over. Here is what you need to know: There are two sides of the board: Queenside (files A,B,C,D) and Kingside (files E,F,G,H) with the center files being C-F, but mostly D and E. So yes, a square has more flank rotes than Splatoon maps. What you describe chess as is just one half of chess: the positional element. There is a tactical element where yes you can run into the enemy camp and attack. You can't just place your knights wherever you want and expect your opponent not to capture. If you are trying to argue that there is more action when you make the knights faster, actually show practical use cases that would make me want to give up my close-range beast. Ok I said enough. Thank you for listening to my TED-talk.

interesting concept, but id argue your analysis of both chess and splatoon are inaccurate here (but not blunders at least). it doesnt matter how many spaces a pawn can move if it can only move in a straight line, a bishop only needs to stay on the same diagonal with line of sight to promotion square to prevent the promotion from ever happening. likewise, the problem with many of splat3 maps is that you only ever need to watch 1 or maybe 2 paths which a charger can safely maintain line of sight on at all times. this isnt a problem in chess because if you have a bishop and your opponent only has a pawn, then you must have taken more relevant pieces than your opponent in several complex interactions to reach this gamestate to begin with. your advantage is your reward for outplaying your opponent. whereas in splat3, this is the natural state of the game as soon as 1 team coinflips past the singular choke on mid and gets to lockout the other team for the rest of the game. the mid sections of the map promote stalemates that are often only broken by random chance, and the team that wins that coinflip is rewarded with an advantage that can prevent the other team from leaving spawn entirely. THAT is what makes splat3 maps feel bad to play on. the number and effectiveness of the movement options are NOT the primary contributing factors to the maps playing out this way. we actually know this with certainty, because zipcaster and inkjet exist in the game to create (temporary) gamebreaking movement, and yet theyre pretty underrepresented in all levels of play and dont exacerbate the issues of the map design. if movement is whats breaking the map design, youd expect inkjet and zipcaster to be meta defining. crabs cant turn fast enough to hit either of these specials if theyre placed right. in fact, these specials are some of the very few options you can use to manually create flanking options against charger in spite of the map design, yet they still dont break the map design, nor do they feel like temporary solutions to the map design. id argue these specials, despite vastly increasing movement options, have very little influence on the way the map design currently feels. the added movement in splat3 doesnt even influence the map design all that much, imo. squid roll is more of a combat trick that sometimes enables minor shortcuts, but not enough to greatly influence what paths you can take and how quickly you can get to key areas of the map (squid rolling is slower than swimming, enough that the minor shortcuts they enable likely dont change the pace of the game on their own). squid surge has almost no relevant gameplay impact because its so slow. you could argue that both of these mechanics contribute indirectly to fewer paintable walls because maybe the devs thought these mechanics would result in abuse of those paintable walls, but thats a very different argument than the one you make in the video that points out movement freedom as a direct cause of the map design not being compatible with the increased pace of the game. the actual core issue with the design is the number of relevant sightlines, paths (both flank routes and objective routes included), and points of interest on the map. this is exacerbated by the fact that displacement specials are significantly weaker than in splat2. you do mention these as issues, but you inaccurately characterize them as symptoms of increased movement options, rather than as the main problems with the maps themselves. if you dumped splat3 maps into splat1, they would be slightly less problematic because of the slower pace of the game and the number of blowout specials to break stalemates that exist there, but i would expect they would still feel noticeably worse than the good stages in splat1, regardless of the vast difference in movement options. they might feel fine in splat2, but only because the strength of displacement specials prevents stalemates at mid from existing for too long, and force other parts of the map to be relevant because youre forced to move all the time, and notably this wouldnt be the result of the lack of squidroll or squid surge. a small nitpick perhaps, but one that kinda undermines one of the main premises of the video. that being said, very well written video tho, hope to see more from you in the future.

Have you considered the current maps are designed in such a way that lets players, both new and experienced but moreso new, get used to the new mechanics and weapons? We are already seeing "better designed" maps with Brinewater and Founder so I think the devs understand what they are doing with the map design. I think weapon balance is far more important than map design.

Save negative competitive Splatoon content for when we have a sizable English community that is relevant, so that videos like this can actually improve the community's knowledge, rather than get recommended and turn some off from getting into the scene

Lol don’t think it’s that complicated. Just run around and shoot people and paint sh!t

Bro it’s a game not that deep😹