The Direct
During the September Direct, I think we can all confirm that for 2023 and 2024, it is the year of Nintendo, releasing both new games such as Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and some old games such as Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and also some upcoming information. However, at the start of the direct, we were presented with a one and a half minute video showing Splatoon 3: Side Order, an upcoming DLC that will be released during Spring 2024. But this isn’t like the Octo Expansion for Splatoon 2. During the Direct, Shinya Takahashi said, “We are developing this single player DLC to be replayable over and over again,”he also said, “You will strengthen your character’s abilities as you ascend the spire’s floor.” Now, because of this, and the video, we can interpret what this DLC might be about.
Is it Roguelike?
Based on what we saw, your character, or Agent 8, uses a board called a Pallette given to you by Pearl. Watching the video, you can see Dedf1sh, otherwise known as Acht, gives Agent 8 a Color Chip, a chip that looks like if you ascend the levels of The Spire of Order, you will gain more. It will give you powers, as during the scene where it shows the powers and the Pallette, there are categories such as Power, Support, Range, and Mobility, with each color of the Color Chip looking identical to the color of the category. We also saw that you can choose what color chip you want by choosing levels ranked from Easy, Normal, to Hard, with Hard giving you the best possible Color Chips. We can also see that this can be in Wave form, where you have a mission to complete, such as Tower Control, or SplatZone kind of work, while trying to fight off hordes of enemies. With all of these aspects combined, we can see it can possibly be similar to games such as Risk of Rain, Hades, and other Roguelike games, where if you die, you start back to level 1 and lose all your levels.
What might this DLC offer
This DLC is announced during the September 14, 2023 Nintendo Direct. It features Agent 8 or your player going through a tower called the Spire of Order. You also have Pearl, who is a drone, or remotely using the drone. This game features a Roguelike aspect because Agent 8 uses a Pallette, a strange device from Pearl, and using devices called Color Chips, Agent 8 can put it in the Pallette, and it gives Agent 8 increased Power, Range, Support, or even Mobility depending on the Color Chip. From what it looks like, there are 40 Color Chip slots, and these chips can be earned by completing levels and such. I’m really excited for this upcoming DLC, as Nintendo isn’t much of a creator for Roguelike aspect games, so it’s interesting we are getting a DLC for this.
Click this link if you want to watch the video for Side Order.
Click here if you would like to buy Splatoon 3: DLC and Side Order.
