When you hear the name 'Splatoon,' a specific scene comes to mind first: arenas drenched in colorful ink, Inklings and Octolings darting across them, and a city where everything from the music to the fashion pops with personality. From the original game and the Inkopolis of the second entry to the Splatsville of the third, Splatoon has always built its own unique culture around its urban hubs. The 4v4 Turf War, where players compete by spraying ink, was always just one part of that city culture.
'Splatoon Raiders' is a bit different. As the first spin-off in the series, this title moves away from the PVP-centric focus of its predecessors and puts single-player-focused PvE action at the forefront. It also whisks players away from the familiar city to a mysterious archipelago shrouded in thick fog.
'Splatoon' Outside the City
The starting point for 'Splatoon Raiders' is 'Salmon Run.' Salmon Run is a PvE mode where up to four players take on part-time jobs at Mr. Grizz's shop, defeating waves of Salmonids to collect Power Eggs. While it was only available during limited periods in 'Splatoon 2,' it became a permanent fixture in 'Splatoon 3' due to overwhelming player demand. 'Raiders' follows the same basic premise of defeating Salmonids and collecting eggs, but as a standalone title, it has added an incomparable amount of depth and content to that core loop.
Players start the game as a 'Mechanic' (Inkling or Octoling, player's choice). As the pilot of the helicopter carrying Deep Cut—the iconic trio from 'Splatoon 3'—this character possesses a natural talent for machinery. They can craft and repair weapons and even build a base from scratch on the island where they crash-land.
After being swept up in a typhoon, the Mechanic and Deep Cut crash-land on an unfamiliar archipelago, only to discover it is the legendary 'Salt-Spray Archipelago'. The overall story of 'Splatoon Raiders' follows their exploration as they search for a valuable treasure hidden somewhere in the islands.
Since we've left the city, the familiar arenas where we used to play 4v4 battles are gone, but the diverse landscapes of the Salt-Spray Archipelago fill that void. The environments are quite varied, ranging from sun-drenched beaches to volcanic and glacial zones, and even deep underground caverns. The entire archipelago, which forms a giant whirlpool as the name suggests, isn't fully open from the start; as players complete missions and grow, their area of operation gradually expands. As you push toward the center of the whirlpool, you realize that behind the simple treasure hunt lies a massive secret tied to these islands and the Salmonids.
Abandoning the familiar city doesn't mean abandoning the 'Splatoon' aesthetic. In fact, the colorful ink and signature character designs blend with the natural environment to create a unique look for this title. The visuals of 'Splatoon', always distinct and charming, maintain a strong presence even outside the city.
'Tanks and Gadgets': The Perfection of a Splatoon-style Build
The fundamental grammar of combat remains the same. You use various weapons to fire ink, dive into your own ink to move quickly or replenish your supply, pop back out to attack enemies, and hide back in the ink when things get dangerous. It's the signature rhythm the 'Splatoon' series has refined over the years.
'Raiders' adds a layer of farming and growth on top of these familiar rules. The biggest changes are the 'Tank' the Mechanic carries on their back, along with various 'Gadgets' and 'Artifacts'. While previous 'Splatoon 3' matches focused on combining weapons with gear abilities, 'Raiders' is designed around PvE, featuring a growth structure closer to a looter shooter where you acquire and upgrade equipment to become stronger.
The first choice a player must make is between three types of tanks: 'Speed', 'Power', and 'Technical'. Speed tanks focus on gadgets that enhance movement and mobility, while Power tanks utilize abilities suited for melee combat, such as charging directly at enemies to deal heavy damage. Technical tanks specialize in controlling the battlefield by installing various devices on the ground. Even with the same weapon, the combat feel changes significantly depending on which tank you carry.
Gadgets are secondary abilities used independently of your main weapon fire. If you think of them as an evolution of the sub-weapons attached to main weapons in 'Splatoon 3,' it’s easy to understand their role in 'Raiders.' In previous games, using items like grenades consumed a large amount of your ink tank, but in 'Raiders,' gadgets are managed by their own cooldowns. This allows for a much more aggressive combat style, where you can weave gadgets into your attacks whenever they are ready without worrying about your ink levels. Furthermore, you can customize each gadget's performance by attaching various parts.
Initially, you can only equip two gadgets per tank, but upgrading the tank increases this to a maximum of three. Eventually, you can even borrow and combine one gadget from a different tank type, further broadening your build options. For example, you could be a Technical tank installing devices across the battlefield, then switch to a Power-type melee gadget to finish off an enemy right in front of you. The moment the characteristics of different tanks begin to blend, your own playstyle becomes much more distinct.
However, the process of reaching that stage isn't entirely pleasant. To fully upgrade a tank, you must use other tanks to collect a certain amount of Power Eggs. To upgrade a Technical tank, you have to use a Power tank; Power tanks require Speed, and Speed tanks require Technical play. This is a rather inconvenient condition for players who want to find the tank that suits them and dive deep into a single build.
The same applies to dungeons that provide relevant artifacts. Even in the same dungeon, you receive different artifacts depending on which tank you have equipped, so if you want all the rewards, you have to repeat the same content at least three times. I can understand that the developers wanted to encourage players to experience the different fun provided by Speed, Power, and Technical tanks rather than sticking to one combat style. In fact, once you upgrade each tank, you can carry over some gadgets and artifacts from other types, which makes the experience of building your final setup quite rewarding.
Nevertheless, encouraging diverse play and forcing it are two different things. If you use only one tank, you end up accumulating Power Eggs without meeting the growth conditions for others, which can make you feel like you're wasting the EXP you're currently earning. Fortunately, the point at which you unlock all three tanks to their maximum level is relatively early in the overall playtime, so it's hard to call it a fatal flaw. However, it is a shame that a game emphasizing the freedom to create builds forces such a specific playstyle during the process of obtaining that freedom.
'Salmon Run' evolved beautifully into a looter shooter
If tanks and gadgets changed the combat style of 'Raiders', it is 'farming' that keeps the whole game running. This is the biggest feature that distinguishes 'Raiders' from the various single-player content 'Splatoon' has offered so far.
In the original Salmon Run, the core was using provided weapons to defeat waves of Salmonids and safely collecting as many Golden Eggs as possible. Once a shift ended, you returned to the start, and in the next play, you dealt with the waves using a new set of provided gear. In 'Raiders', almost every battle leads to growth for the next one.
Defeating enemies and opening chests yields weapons, various parts, and crafting materials. If you're lucky, you might get a weapon much more powerful than the one you're currently using, and even if you don't get gear you can use immediately, your effort isn't wasted. The materials you collect are used to upgrade your weapons, tanks, and gadgets.
Therefore, the basic gameplay loop of 'Raiders' is quite clear. You go out to a stage to get materials and gear, return to base to upgrade your weapons, tanks, and gadgets, and then challenge areas that were previously too difficult. The process of naturally repeating this to get better loot for the next challenge is a familiar structure in the looter shooter genre, but when combined with the exciting combat unique to Salmon Run, it creates a surprisingly strong addiction.
Above all, it's great that what you can get from each piece of content is relatively clearly defined. In 'Treasure' stages, which correspond to main quests, you can acquire important artifacts, and in areas where giant crystals appear, you can collect large amounts of 'Salt-Spray Shards', the basic currency. In underground ruins, you get artifacts needed for each tank, and in 'tasting' dungeons where you test various gadgets, you acquire 'Skillbooks' needed to enhance the Mechanic's abilities. If you know what you need, the path to getting it is naturally determined.
Weapon farming is also quite substantial. The game features various types of weapons familiar from the original 'Splatoon', and they are categorized from one star up to the highest grade, five-star 'Masterpiece'. Higher-grade weapons come with an additional ability called 'Weapon Power', which creates differences in performance and utility even among the same type of weapon.
After level 40, when you see the story ending, the scope of growth expands even further. Features that allow for more detailed enhancement of gadget parts and weapon powers open up, and the real farming for Masterpiece-grade weapons and high-performance gadget parts begins. It means that once the story ends, you aren't left with nothing to do; that's when the end-game content begins, where you refine your gear to perfection.
Ultimately, 'Raiders' is not just a game that stretches out Salmon Run combat. It takes the achievements that used to end in a single round and connects them to the growth of the entire game, adding long-term goals like finding high-grade weapons and desired parts to face stronger Salmonids with a completed build. The charm of Salmon Run's 'just one more round' and the desire of a looter shooter to find 'just a slightly better piece of gear' mesh quite exquisitely. If you enjoy the act of defeating Salmonids with ink, you won't have to worry about running out of things to do.
Found it! The real PvE 'Splatoon' we've been desperately waiting for
'Splatoon' is a work with a personality rarely found in other games, from its vibrant colors and music to its fashion and character design. At the same time, the threshold to properly enjoy that personality was quite high. It is fundamentally a PVP shooter where you compete against other players, and getting used to the unique control scheme is not easy. Even if you manage to adapt, the veterans on the opposing team will never go easy on you.
As a reporter, I also love the unique style of 'Splatoon', and after collecting Amiibos one by one, I have quite a few on the shelf above my PC. However, whenever I entered a match, I would end up getting beaten by opponents while happily painting ink, and eventually, I would soothe my thirst for 'Splatoon' by seeking out content like Salmon Run.
I'm sure many people have had similar experiences. The fact that 'Splatoon 2' and 'Splatoon 3' have consistently expanded their single-player content, and that Salmon Run has moved from a limited-time mode to a permanent one, is proof that there was sufficient demand for enjoying this game outside of PVP. In that sense, 'Splatoon Raiders' feels like a very clear reply to the users who have been waiting for such gameplay. The fact that it's a proper looter shooter where you can farm gear and build setups while just catching Salmonids with these cute squids (and octopuses) without the pressure of competition is attractive enough.
Co-op play also fits well with this direction. You can grow and progress calmly on your own, but you can also team up with other players to face Salmonids when needed, and then naturally return to your solo play afterward. You can also aim for additional rewards by accepting requests for help and playing in multiplayer. Even the 'tasting' dungeons are co-op enabled, so the experience is low-pressure, with cooperation naturally layered on top of the single-player experience.
Of course, this is also a clear limitation of 'Raiders'. If you didn't feel any particular charm in the combat of 'Splatoon' to begin with, it's highly likely that 'Raiders' won't be much different. There is a lot to do, but it's hard to say there is a lot of 'variety' in what you do. It faithfully follows the core loop of a looter shooter—getting good gear, getting stronger, defeating stronger Salmonids, and finding better gear—but in the end, a significant portion of the content is repeated with the same combat feel. The large bosses you meet in the main story provide variety with different gimmicks and flashy direction, but in general play, the same type of combat continues for a long time, which can cause fatigue depending on the person.
It is also a shame that many stages rely too heavily on 'time limits' to create tension. Since you have to collect a certain amount of eggs or clear objectives within a set time to move to the next stage, time itself becomes your biggest enemy if your firepower isn't sufficient.
Except for some challenge content, the time limits aren't overly tight, but the problem isn't the difficulty; it's the lack of variety in objectives. Through tanks, gadgets, weapons, and parts, the combat style can change constantly, but what the game demands of the player often converges on 'clear it a little faster'. There are many choices for combat, but the mission conditions are not as varied.
Nevertheless, what I felt most strongly while playing 'Splatoon Raiders' was that the 'Splatoon' I had been waiting for had finally arrived. 'Raiders' is closer to a result of taking the already proven PvE fun from Salmon Run, adding a structure of farming and growth, and completing it as an independent game, rather than a work that forcibly grafted the grammar of a looter shooter onto 'Splatoon'.
The 'Splatoon' action of painting ink, hiding in it, popping out, and bursting the swarming Salmonids is still fun. Add to that the anticipation of not knowing what gear will drop and the fun of completing a build, and it becomes even harder to put down. Although it has stepped outside the city, the 'Splatoon'-ness hasn't faded in the slightest; rather, it reveals even more clearly the other possibilities the series can show outside the PVP genre.
As an aside, costumes in this game are purely cosmetic items that do not affect stats. So, as someone who has collected a lot of Amiibos, I couldn't help but expect more exclusive costumes, but it's quite a shame that the only outfit you can get with all these Amiibos is a Salmon Run part-time job uniform. Nintendo, is this really the best you can do...
- The visuals of 'Splatoon', always charming
- Solid looter shooter design that adds farming to Salmon Run
- Smooth co-op play, whether solo or together
- Mission design that relies too heavily on time limits
- Virtually forces the use of various tanks
- I wish they had made more Amiibo costumes...
Review Platform: Switch 2 (1.1.1)
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