'Team Past' Takes The Gold In Splatoon 3's 'Grand Festival' Splatfest

Off the Hook for me felt like the best mix of design and personalities, and overall best songs during Splatfests.

I went for present, just because out of the 3 teams, Off the Hook are the better one. I love how much effort Nintendo have put into this though! 🙌

Team Big Man.
He's so squishy!

I nearly went for team past because of my nostalgia for the original Splatoon, but ended up going for present instead because it has the best members and the Octo Expansion was legendary.

Team past, there would be no idols without Callie and Marie! The amount of freshness the original game brought is something Nintendo has yet to replicate.

I was leaning toward Team Past before their pitches but went with Team Present, just because Off the Hook made the better case for living in the moment. Also, I'm so bored of things being set in the future.

Like some red guys with purple light once said: "The endless now!"

But more seriously, the past helpus shape the present and create a future with our own hands. In other words, I cast my vote for Marina! 🙏

Happy Grand Festival!

I’m on Team Present because I feel like this happens to be the prime moments in my life, but maybe that’s not giving the future enough credit.

It seems like Present is the overwhelmingly popular choice. I thought it’d be a bit more split, but I think it will be okay. For what its worth, Future and Present seems to have a more even split looking amongst my friends on the NSO app, but that is a smaller sample size.

excited! i wonder how the splatfest theme will tie into the sequel since they never use the same idea twice for it. my prediction is the salmonoids will play a bigger part now that lil judd is taking over, and the splatfest theme will tie into them somehow

and team present, mainly for off the hook supremacy

Past. I'm a history geek, and the Squid Sisters are awesome.

Team Present! I live in the moment, and Off the Hook is my favorite idol group, so it's an easy choice for me.

Team Present. Pearl is just so adorable. Is anyone on Team Present looking for someone to team up for a few rounds during the Grand Festival?

Is now a good time to dive into this game? I always feel so overwhelmed when I consider jumping into this series because SOOO much is happening but I'm curious.

I selected future mostly because I’m not sure how this will be reflected in the next iteration of the series and I want to make sure they make splatoon 4!

Team Present for me. I will always love Off the Hook.

Hopefully if they win, we can get OTH featured in the main game story for Splatoon 4 rather than being regulated to DLC again.

@sonicbooming The game has a lot of content but this will be the last major Splatfest. That said, they may do additional Splatfests afterwards but it'll probably be intermittent rather than every other month.

The game also has a catalog feature that's basically a free, ingame battle pass that gives you some cosmetics and emotes and that just reset from when the game originally launched.

Ultimately, jumping in now wouldn't be bad. I would just try and play this weekend so you can experience the Grand Festival event before it ends.

Back to the future!

Here we stand, in an endless, past, present, future span.
Our wishes are the flames that light up history.
We've come far, you and I, on our journey.
Sights and sounds, highs and lows, all that we've seen.
Nothing at the start, at the void of night.
But then out there, in the dark, a path came to light.
Did you think back then we'd be here? Guiding others in our shoes?
Tiny, tiny seeds, left on the trail, someday to bloom.
Star at night, glowing bright, bringing us your light-
A message to us from far in the past, saying, "Shine on!"
Words you write, line by line, showing us your sights-
Passed down to us so we sing them today, we feel you still.
Team past. History.

I don't think we're voting for the next Idol. We're voting for the musical style of the series moving forward.

You might notice that Deep Cut are not from the future, and they should be team "present". Instead, Off the Hook is the "present" because when you look at the music scene in Splatoon's lore right now, it's completely dominated by Pearl. She strongly influenced Deep Cut and co-wrote "Tomorrow's Nostalgia Today". She's been working with a lot of the non-idol bands as well, including doing vocals for Damp Socks feat.

In Splatoon 2, Off the Hook where themselves strongly influenced by the Squid Sisters, given Marina's whole deal was trying to create music like the songs that freed the Octolings. And if you look at the direction things are naturally progressing, the next logical step is for Big Man to control the music scene by pushing for more and more calibrations.

So "past" would be a vote to return to the more J-pop roots of the Squid Sisters, "present" would be a vote to continue the current Pearl dominated, highly experimental style, while a vote for the future would be to have Big Man to keep on keeping on.

Interestingly, keity.pop (Callie), Mari Kikuma (Marie), Rina Itou (Pearl) and Alice Peralta (Marina) have all confirmed continued projects with Nintendo. Anna Sato (Shiver) and Laura Yokozawa (Frye) have not.

And Deep Cut didn't get an Amiibo refresh.

Team Past. My life was better then. 😔

The choice/idol pairings made this very difficult for me. Off the Hook’s my favorite idol group by far, but the present is equally by far the least interesting concept to hang Splatoon 4 around, no matter how one interprets it. The prospect of exploring the time period of the first Great Turf War is the most appealing to me, but there’s no guarantee that’s where the developers would go, and the Squid Sisters just aren’t as exciting as the others these days.

So Team Future is my compromise pick. They’re not my fave but I dig Deep Cut and think it would be fitting for them to win out in the game they ostensibly headline. And the future suggests something different which I do feel Splatoon needs. Lastly, although ink shouldn’t and doesn’t normally play a part in my splatfest decision making, I do think the lime green is the most eye catching.

No matter who wins, Grand Fest is going to be epic, and I’m so happy to experience it with all of you who’ve been playing this game over the last two years. Let’s all have fun!

I'm interested in seeing how the world of Splatoon would look like in the past so that gets my vote although future is tempting as well.

I'm going with future. Our Past idols got ALL the story modes; our Present idols got Octo Expansion and Side Order; our Future idols got... boss fights in their game's story mode. Would love for them to get a bigger role.
Plus, I've almost always gotta side with my man Big Man.

Seeing how serious people take this choice, I’m glad I care little for the idols and for what the theme winning might mean for the rest of the series.

Honestly I'd be happy with any of them winning. Splatoon 1 was the best/most fun game to me, but I love them all so much.

Team Past, because when my daughter was a baby, she would sit in her playpen watching us play Splatoon on Wii U. Whenever Callie and Marie came up to dance during splatfests, she was MESMERIZED. Now she's almost 10, playing Splatoon 3, and Callie and Marie are still her favourite idols by a landslide.

I also just want to see Splatoon 4 take a more past oriented approach if possible. Or maybe it would mean that they would bring more classic Splatoon 1 map designs with proper flanking routes and make the game less spammy overall. A win in my book.

Team present.

Trans 4th of July.

@sonicbooming Absolutley! There's never been a better time. The amount of content you get with 3 is great at this point, and you won't have to deal with the drip feed until 4.

Just logged in. HOLY CRAP. Mind blown. This amount of effort is just insane.

I don't have Splatoon 3 but I'd be inclined to go with Off the Hook as my favorites.

@GregamanX

That's such a fantastic story. I hope they keep bringing her smiles for years to come.

You probably already know about this, but just incase you're one of today's lucky 10,000 ...

https://youtu.be/wxkKUbNnXKE

I'm obviously partial to the Polymanga 2018 concert where Off the Hook opened for them, but this is their first recorded performances as the Squid Sisters, so it's special. There are rumors they are doing another concert in 2025. I really hope they turn out to be true.

@HeadPirate LOL, my daughter has seen that concert on YouTube. She's seen the Squid Sisters, Off The Hook and Deep Cut in that style. She's just as mesmerized by those holograms now as she was watching the game when she was a baby.

@GregamanX

Love to hear it.

My favorites part of any concert is the drummer in Polymanga. He's local, this was before the human analog for Ink Floor did backup consistently. So that's just some guy who advertises he plays drums at events, and about a week before the concert someone called him and offered him a job playing for a Japanize band made up of a squid and an octopus who sing in two made up languages. That has to catch you off guard.

But he is just vibing SO HARD the whole time. Every time it cuts to him he's got this huge schoolboy smile that can't help but be contagious. The whole rest of the back up is also having a great time, but these is just something about him that always warms my heart.

Final Splatfest and STILL people haven't learned in Tri-Color, if we are the attacking team, do NOT kill the other attackers. Only kill the defense. I've lost so many games where the other attackers attack me when WE have already captured the Ultra Signal, if we are taking the 2nd one, don't kill us.

I fought until the last second for our Squid Sisters! As an OG player I just couldn’t not pick my OG girls.

Edit: WE WON!!! Even tho votes for present were 2:1 OG players were BEASTS, I had multiple matches were I scored 2000+ points plus won lots of 333x, 100x and 10x battles.
This was the most fun I’ve had in Splatfests with Splatoon 3 and FINALLY picked the winner team after being Team Callie and Team Order lol.
SQUID SISTERS ARE BACK IN THE MAIN GAME!

LETS GO PAST!!! I don't have this game but I think past/future would be the best outcomes. If this affects Splatoon 4, past should have a unique approach. Callie and Marie are by far the best hosts, glad to see them take the W!

Genuinely the most fun I have ever had in splatoon, what an incredible event. Thank you to everyone who played, and congratulations to Team Past

@SoIDecidedTo I think that highlights how tricolour matches don't work in their current form, if you're on the same team within the match then you shouldn't be able to splat each other. I don't much enjoy the concept in general but it just seems ridiculous to have 4 players from one team and two players each from the other two, it's a recipe for poor outcomes in my experience. Or maybe I'm just not good 😅

Well earned victory Team Past, congratulations.

What a weekend.

I contributed 1.25 MILLION clout to team past, and I'm thrilled we got the W.

I have seen full on paid expansions that had less effort put into them then put into this Splatfest. A new zone, completely new assists, revamped sound and music for almost every aspect of the game, and I counted 8 completely new studio recordings for songs.

Just casually get 7 popular artists together and put out a full album for your 3 day event. Only Nintendo.

Gratz to everyone. Like I always say ... we're all winners today.

Sooooooo many mirror matches as team present it sucked. Friends and I were super disappointed we started calling it mirror mode the game. The one 100x battle we got our one random teammate dropped out and cancelled the match! So frustrating. All the new stuff they did for the game was rad tho

@Croctopus

My man, I get that it can be disappointing and frightening to think that something you care about might be over, but I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Splatoon 2's "last" Splatfest had a huge impact on the setting of 3, but it was called the freaking SPLATOCALYPSE. We knew what we were getting into. But in the orginal , the "Finale Fest" only had a cosmetic effect on the second game. The loser got kidnaped, but everything else would have played out the same regardless of who won.

This was the "Grand Festival". It's a clear indication that it's NOT going to have the same weight the splatocalypse or even the "Final Fest" just in how it's named. This was a celebration. The headline performance was a new band consisting of all 7 idols. It was really chill and friendly and everyone was supporting and cheering for the other teams. And most importantly, no one invoked article 4.

Contrast that to the splatocalypse. That was a fight, a battle between 2 clearly defined sides with everything at stake. Everyone was super serious. It was tense! It was clear it was going to change things.

And moving to the real world ... you're not going to tell your incredibly talented and beloved voice actors that their next contract, which might include years of commitments and live performances, depends on the results of a Splatfest.

This result is only going to have a cosmetic effect, just like in the original. You can read post #20 if you want details of how I think it's going to play out. And while I do think Deep Cut will feature less in the next game, I think that decision was already made (they didn't get an Amiibo refresh and didn't do nearly as much voice work for this event as the other 4 did), and it doesn't mean the end of Deep Cut forever.

The Squid Sisters literally disbanded after Splatoon 1. "Fresh Start" was their only new track in the second game. Callie left the industry completely and Marie moved on to doing choreography for Off The Hook. Off the Hook did four live performances solo.

But they brought them back. No reason to think that wont happen to Deep Cut, even if they mostly sit the next game out.

I know we're not the first to have had this idea, but as we started our fifth mirror match in a row, my friend said, "I wish they gave you the option to wait longer for a match against the other teams."

I'm a big boy and don't mind losing, but it's rather annoying that so much of our time was eaten up by matches with no effect on the outcome that we weren't allowed to quit (and seeing as Present cleared 50% of the vote, I doubt we were the only ones), especially since the outcome of this Splatfest will likely affect the form of Splatoon 4.

I did team past because Callie and Marie started my obsession with the game. I actually like Pearl and Marina a LOT so almost picked them. I really don't like the third games characters other than Big Man. The other two I find annoying. I still say "Say Fresh" and do my hands like theirs so I had to go with Past overall.

Great work team past! Thank you for leading me to a final win. But thank you to everyone, friend or enemy, who played this game. And most of all, thanks to the dev team! You guys are amazing!!

@SpinEnDash

Mirror matches suck, and while that solution sound logical, it doesn't work. The problem is that there is a differential in the player pool.

Look at it this way, if there are 500 people from one team and 1000 people on the other team online, then 500 people have to be in mirror matches. Doesn't matter how long you wait individually, there are always going to be 500 people who need to be matched against their own team.

So when you get a mirror match, it means your number came up and you're part of that 500. It's like a coin flip, you "lost" and owe Splatoon a mirror match. The only way you could get out of playing that match would be for someone else to take your place, because there are always 500 people who need to be in mirror matches. "Waiting" is irrelevant. You can't even wait for the differential to change for complex database query reasons.

The only fair option to not play a mirror match would be for you to "pay" the match you owe by just doing nothing for 4 minutes(ish), then flipping the coin again. You can't even make it so that after you sit out a match you're guaranteed to get a real match, because the pool is dynamic. If 100 people from the other team log off, you don't have enough "good" matches for everyone who sat out a match to get one without forcing some people to play 2 mirror matches in a row. So it has to be random.

It's a pretty good example of the best possible solution still being really bad.

Does this mean we are looking at pre-historic squids for Splatoon 4?

@HeadPirate Yeah, that's a really good argument, but like you said, the best solution is pretty bad. It's still annoying that the team scores come from an average of each player's score when one or two teams spend a long time prevented from playing, particularly because this one time the results will likely have an effect on the next game's design (in which case I probably would've felt a lot better if we lost to Future). They of course couldn't go by win rate because someone could log on, win their first match, and just stop with a 100% win rate, but perhaps there's some complicated way to weigh the number of matches played? Or maybe—and I'm just thinking through my keyboard here; I'm sure there's a good reason against this idea that may even occur to me later—have mirror matches give some (very) low percentage of clout?

Still, I'd like the option to wait for a match against the other team because my friend has moved nearly 1,500 miles away, and if we can't get a match that counts, I'd rather spend the time talking with her without dividing our attention.

Of course, my social life is not Nintendo's responsibility, and we already hang out weekly online, but the option would still be nice.

As an og, who voted for Team Past and made it to Ruler, I love this result.

I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't really care about mirror matches. I'm just here to play the funny squid shooty game, and if it has to be against my own team then so be it. There'll still be plenty of non mirror matches that WILL count.

Anyway, too bad that team Past won (I was team Present), but I still had a really good time with this Splatfest! The grand festival was SO good, the idols singing were so nice. And the Three Wishes finale was really amazing too.

My wife, daughter and I were so happy with the results here. My daughter's lifelong love of Callie and Marie was the cornerstone of our choice of Team Past. She fought HARD, darn it, and I fought hard, despite being really sick all weekend. We all fought hard, really, in both the splatfest and from us all being very sick over the course of a month. I was the last one to get better last night, just as Splatfest was ending, so it was a nice touch after 2 hard fought battles. They both made it to Ruler. I almost did, but I sat out some matches of Tricolor while nursing my sickness. It went so much better than last Splatfest. I was Team Bread and I know how it feels to get WIPED OUT.

We (especially my kid) loved the concerts. Especially the Three Wishes One. Also that venue when the lights first turned on was magical, and hearing the low hum as it was getting ready before that was atmospheric.

That final tricolor venue was amazing, even though I only played 4 times (I mostly coached my daughter in Tricolor as she fought [not backseat gaming. She actually appreciated me pointing where an enemy was coming from that she didn't see). But when I did play, I fell in love with that arena. The Rainbow Ikantation was better than my favourite song, Calamari Inkantation, and really pumped me up. My favourite moment was defending and exploshing people below as I held that signal on the block for pretty much the whole three minutes. My favourite moment of my daughter's is when she was defending. She splatted a Team Present guy named "Murder-something" who was picking up the ultra signal. She then pulls out a booyah bomb and Bette-Midlers the thing (Simpsons reference) into a post on their side of the spawn. He spawned and immediately ran into that booyah bomb. Mr. Murder stomped by lil 9 year old Chupachups. Sublime. That's my girl!

Congrats to everyone who participated. I know mirror matches sucked for Present, and the results sucked for Future, but I still hope there was still some fun in there, at least in the venue.

@SpinEnDash

I feel ya, and I understand where you're coming from.

But keep in mind that while the community has decided this Splatfest is going to impact the next game in some monumental way, I think there is a strong argument against that. You should check out post 46. TL:DR, no article 4 and the vibe was in no way competitive.

I can't speak for Nintendo, but I'm pretty sure they would tell every match does matter, because every match is an opportunity to have fun, and that's what Splatfest is about. Most people would rather play then wait, and giving you the option makes match making harder for them. Sometimes you just have to go with the majority. As someone who's opinion often lies outside the majority, it sucks ... but whatcha gonna do?

Mirror matches have a minor impact on the results because if you get a conch battle, that's a free point towards "Sneak Peak" for your team. Another option would be to play Tri-color. Mirror matches are far less likely AND you earn more clout with the only small downside being that they are unbearably awful.

@Yosher

You are absolutely part of the overwhelming majority.

It's just that no one goes on a message board and types "I just came here to let everyone know that I think everything is more or less fine". Comments always self-select people with strong opinions, and strong opinions tend to be negative.

@HeadPirate A good point for sure, though that does make me wonder how many players.. percentage wise.. really care about it. I know someone who barely ever plays Splatoon, and when they play Splatfest they still get annoyed when they get a mirror match. That's just one person of course, but you know. Of all the people I know who play Splatoon, there's only one or two besides myself who don't really care about mirror matches.

In any case, it's simply a part of Splatfest, and the best they can probably do is just think of topics and choices where they think votes will be more balanced.

@HeadPirate If you ask me, Nintendo needs to rethink how future Splatfests are won, maybe reworking the Clout mechanic (maybe by awarding them to the overall team in mirror matches, albeit half of what it would have been if you went up against another team).

It seems to me like, more often than not lately, the winning team took home the victory based on Clout alone. In this case, Team Past didn't even need the most votes in order to win. And Team Future (my team) didn't win any points at all. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little miffed by that.

My only question at this point is how far into the past the next Splatoon game will be. Personally, I'm hoping they cover the first Turf War between the Inklings and Octarians, thus making it a prequel of sorts.

@AstroTheGamosian

That position is completely valid and a lot of people will agree with you. I somewhat agree. But I don't think Nintendo agrees even a little.

Every play Mario Kart? The game is specifically built around the idea that the "best" person shouldn't always win. Items add chaos and comeback potential to all players. You're supposed to embrace the madness and just have a good time. Getting blue shelled and losing to a 5 year old isn't even something you shouldn't let spoil the fun, it's supposed to be PART of the fun.

When you think about it ... most Nintendo games are built like that. Smash uses items in the same way, Party has random Stars.

The idea that if you don't win, it wasn't worth the time or effort or that it can't be just as fun to lose is a very western idea. It's just not that big a part of the mindset in Japan. I don't know that Nintendo sees a problem here. Or, more accurately, the problem they see is that western players care too much about winning. The solution, if anything, would be to make it EVEN MORE random, so you basically can't care anymore.

I also don't think the next game is going to be set in the past. I think we were just influencing the musical direction of the series moving forward, and with team past winning it's going to move back to it's Jpop roots. I cover it in post 20. No one invoked article 4, this isn't even a binding result. It was just a fun music festival.

Fun side note: One thing I really noticed right away from Japanese commercials is that for multiplayer games, when they cut to the people playing it's almost always the LOSER laughing and people telling them "nice try" or "try again". In the West, it's almost always to the winner being congratulated (or congratulating themselves). Even if it's the same game, the experience they are selling in the West is "you can be a winner!", while the experience they are selling in Japan is more that every match is unpredictable and fun.

As an outsider who followed along with Splatoon 3 much more closely than with Splatoon 2, I can say it's been really fun watching from the sideline. And although I waited too long to feel like it would be worth jumping into Splatoon 3, I'm definitely at the point where I will be prepared to buy Splatoon 4 on day one.

I have an inkling Splatoon 4's DLC will more closely resemble a Fortnite-esque season pass structure.

@HeadPirate I hope you're right, that Nintendo goes in their own direction with Splatoon 4. And even if it did, hopefully it's more like a traditional Japanese theme rather than oonga-boonga caveman 😅 I prefer the Squid Sisters' JPop to Marina's experimental style anyway!

@Ulysses

I don't want to "well actually" you, but I basically live for any opportunity to talk about Splatoon's music. So ...

Pearl is the experimental one. Marina's music is "traditional" Octoling, which itself is very traditionally Japanese. "Nasty Majesty" is the first song written entirely by Marina in her own style (she wrote most of Ebb and Flow, but was trying to mimic the style of the Squid Sisters with that song), and if you dissect it ... it's basically 14th century Noh music with Pearl rapping over it. This makes sense; the culture that represents traditional Japan in modern stories is more often the VICTUM of war, rather then the victors. So if her music sounds weird and out there, it just because it's following a style that doesn't get a lot of representation ... but it's very structed and "safe".

Pearl has strongly Western influences, her first solo track (and I promise I am not making this up) "＃$@%* Dudes Be ＃$@%* Sleepin", which is her flaming her team for being bad at Turf War, is a very traditional hair metal rift, with some influence from Japanese Death Metal. She hooked up with Marina after hearing the Ebb and Flow demo ( https://youtu.be/ODaPVD9aq2g ) and wanting to work Octoling styles into her own. Neat detail ... that's Octoling, but the lines Pearl sings in the final version are in Inkling. (Because if you only made up ONE language for your 4 person competitive shooter, would people even buy it?)

It wasn't until after the SPLATOCALYPSE that Pearl went all in on experimental music. And honestly .... yeah, I'm pretty happy if that's run it's coarse. I'm glad we got it, but I'm ready to go back to how things were.

@HeadPirate Oh oops! I had a brainfart and typed Marina even though my brain was thinking Pearl 😆 Especially since you were just saying that Pearl's style dominated the present compared to the other groups. However I appreciate the writeup nonetheless! Always fun to hear more in-depth about Splatoon's music lore.

@HeadPirate I know. But even then, it still feels like we were set up for failure here. And personally, I'm not really a fan of Mario Kart anymore; I played 50cc on Mario Kart 7 so many times trying to grind for coins to unlock the golden parts that I have been permanently burned out playing any iteration of Mario Kart.

And let's not forget with Smash that tournaments, especially professional ones, tend to turn items off and play on Final Destination only, to give people more of a chance to win based on skill and not luck of the draw (in the case of a randomly selected item appearing) or taking advantage of a given map's terrain (such as Hyrule Temple or Brinstar).

I don't know much about the cultural differences between Japan and the West when it comes to winning and losing games, but if we remember a few months ago how a Japanese man was arrested for making bomb threats against Nintendo because he was frustrated that he kept losing in the games he was playing, I'd say the desire to win and not lose is universal.

And I could see them returning to their J-pop roots if that's what they mean by "past." The question will be if it means that Callie and Marie will be the hosts again, or if it will be a new music group. That being said, I would love a more story-centric entry in the series, one even more complex and full of character development than the Story Mode we got in Splatoon 3. And I do feel like a prequel that shows the first Turf War between the Inklings and Octarians would be the perfect setting for that.

@AstroTheGamosian

Ok, full stop. Suggesting that the actions of a crazy person who committed a horrible crime can give you insight into Japanese culture is not okay. I know sometimes on message boards we get carried away trying to argue our point, but that crosses a line. It would like if someone said that in the UK or US it's culturally unacceptable to abuse children, and I said "well this one guy got arrested for child abuse, so that's not true". There are crazy people in every country in the world. They are outliers and IN NO WAY AT ALL reflect the cultural norms of that country.

You also shouldn't be ANY stock into Google translated court documents on a gaming website under a sensationalized headline. Translated in context, he is suggesting that his irrational anger about losing at a video game and how it caused him to act is an indirection he has a severe mental illness, in an attempt to get leniency in his sentencing.

The only other comment I'll makes is that the VAs for Pearl, Marina, Callie and Marie are all still under contract with Nintendo, so we can assume they will all be in the next game.