Splatoon 3 Return of the Mammalians: Octo Expansion 2 Electric Boogaloo?

 Ever since the Salmon Run Next Wave trailer dropped, there has been a lot of confusion and speculation in the Splatoon community regarding what is actually going on with Splatoon 3’s story and setting. Even though Salmon Run is a hugely popular mode, all of the promotional materials for Splatoon 3 prior to this trailer basically set us up to believe that salmonids wouldn’t be the enemy in this game, so this is indeed a puzzling revelation.

After lots of digging back into all the materials we’ve had so far, here’s my current theory for what’s going on in the Splatoon 3 story: it's going to be a whacky sequel to Octo Expansion. Let's dive into the ink!

Salmonids - Chaotic Friends or Orderly Enemies?

The first instance of promotional material that made us think the salmonids won’t be the antagonistic force in Splatoon 3 anymore was back in New Year 2020 with this official key art. Keen users immediately spotted the SOS reflection as well as the waves of the water spelling out the phrase “Save Our Salmons”. This resulted in widespread expectations that Splatoon 3’s story will revolve around rescuing or even allying with the Salmonids, and we will no longer be working for Grizzco as he’d be the new “villain”. Especially since the timing of releasing this key art was just a few months after the final splatfest Chaos vs. Order where Team Chaos won, and this event would shape the story of Splatoon 3 just as the final splatfest Callie vs. Marie in Splatoon 1 did for 2. 

Lo and behold, the Splatoon 3 announcement trailer dropped in February 2021 and we now have a salmonid companion in the story mode, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic land of chaos. This further ignited the community’s expectation for the story mode of 3 to be a pro-salmonid, in line with the previous tease. Then, in the September Direct last year, Nintendo dropped the Hero Mode trailer and more details regarding the story mode confirming that the salmonid buddy will be assisting our player character gameplay-wise in the campaign. From the brown deserts of chaos, we will be venturing into the white orderly snowy lands of Alterna that strangely gives off Ark Polaris vibes.

Interesting to note that in all Splatoon games, the location where our Hero Mode adventures take place is usually a hidden area that resides within the region. However, the climate and environmental contrast between Splatsville and Alterna are especially jarring since, in the previous games, the difference technically wasn’t that drastic. Not to mention, the new Agent 3 was basically dropped in the chilly Alterna while still wearing her desert gear, an emphasis on this climate disparity between the two locations that are supposedly in the same geographical region.

 

 

 

Not only that, it's very telling that the mode’s name is “Return of the Mammalians” and the obvious bear fur “epidemic” that is plaguing the setting of this mode was all but a soft confirmation of the villainy of Grizzco. And of course, Mr. Grizz’s laugh that plays whenever you go into Grizzco’s place is heard at the end of the trailer.

This further pushed this expectation and even led many fans to believe that Salmon Run would not be returning as a game mode due to the narrative clash it would cause with this new story until the “bombshell” February Direct trailer dropped at last. There have been other theories that the fur could be from the Judds as the newest Turf War demo trailer showed a sneak peek at a suspiciously shaggy looking and brown Lil Judd. Especially since the furry decorations on the game's official Japanese website are brown fur and the Judds are rather prominently featured on the Hero mode section of the site. And of course, just like bears, cats also love fish (salmon!).  But so far, it’s hard to dismiss the brown fur from being bear fur completely due to the strong Grizzco influences in the story mode.

 

 

 

 

Side note, but the Splatoon team even made a conscious effort to model the inkling that is prominently featured in the Salmon Run trailer after the new Agent 3 featured in the story mode trailer. It was indeed a major whiplash to see the same inkling cozying up with her smallfry buddy in one trailer, only to splat down hordes of salmonids in the next trailer then ruthlessly.

We know for a fact our new Agent 3 will be buddies with one salmonid, but what does it mean when Salmon Run is also returning and staying as a permanent game mode in Splatoon 3? And what is the connection between the Judds and the salmonids beyond the simple “cat eats fish” logic?

 

Aside from Judd being neutrally aligned during the Chaos vs. Order splatfest similar to Mr. Grizz, the cats have never appeared in the Salmon Run mode in Splatoon 2 after all. In fact, little Judd is noticeably, on team Chaos and is suspiciously close to DJ Octavio, who is hinted to be an ally in Splatoon 3’s story mode. Other interesting things to note are that Sheldon, our weapons engineer is Neutral; the Salmonids, Agent 4, and Iso Padre, one of the two notable characters of the Deepsea Metro are Team Chaos, the winning team that sets the backdrop for Splatoon 3. Meanwhile, the Octarians, Agent 3 and 8, Commander Tartar, and CQ Cumber are Team Order.

Splatoon 3 and Octo Expansion, Connected?

Speaking of Octo Expansion, it was recently added to the list of “free” DLC you can access by subscribing to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, and the wording in the news article seems to imply some kind of connection between this DLC and Splatoon 3. “Practice before taking on the Splatlands”, which contains both the online hub Splatsville and the singleplayer area, Alterna. At the very least, this could imply the singleplayer campaign in 3 will be more intricately designed contained levels like Octo Expansion, which was one of the best DLCs Nintendo ever created. Or of course, this could just be a strategy to drive more subscriptions for the expansion pack, but it’s something worth considering.

This is not the only connection drawn between Octo Expansion and Splatoon 3 so far. There are many little nods to the DLC throughout all of the promotional trailers and materials. Starting from the announcement trailer, our new Agent 3 is riding on a train that bears striking resemblance to the Deepsea Metro ride, though not the same one.

 

Inside the train, the passengers also give off a somewhat similar vibe to the denizens of the deep, though not nearly as weird. But we haven’t seen everyone on the train yet so who knows? The faint radio music in the background as the inkling rides the train is also strongly reminiscent of the vibe when riding the Deepsea Metro.

 

Then, in the Hero mode trailer, we get a glimpse at the gear of the new Agent 3, most notably in Alterna. The new ink tank design is quite similar to Agent 8’s, kind of like how Agent 4’s ink tank in Splatoon 2 resembled the original Agent 3’s from Splatoon 1. Also, the end of the trailer with the new Agent 3 waking up on the ground just gives me some vibes similar to how Agent 8 woke up in the DLC story.

 

 

 

Also, this might be a stretch but the "desert" version of the new Hero Suit sports a strange neck accessory that looks weirdly reminiscent of the specimen kit with the deadly liquid bag in Octo Expansion....

 

 

Another visual similarity is concerning the main source of the problem: Fuzzy Ooze. It has a similar pattern to the substance stuck on Agent 3's eye that sanitized them, which is also the same kind of ooze that made up Commander Tartar’s… body. And this substance is implied to be the blended bodies of the experiment subjects who took part in the test to reach the Promised Land. Now we see that the fuzzy Octarians are also infected with this ooze in their eyes, also similar to Agent 3.

 

 

 

Interestingly enough, Nintendo has confirmed that this substance pulsates like a life form but “doesn’t seem to be a living creature”, and if it’s stuck to the cephalopod’s body will cause them to lose their sense of self… which is similar to how Agent 3 got brainwashed by the biomass. Is Commander Tartar truly gone at the end of Octo Expansion?

Also, in the most recent batch of Hero mode, many users have noted the stage's goal looking like the goal in Octo Expansion instead of the typical Zapfish in story mode, though we do know Zapfishes are coming back for Splatoon 3's Hero mode. 

 

 

Next, in the Salmon Run trailer, user ardnin noted that the jingle when the new Fish Stick boss makes its landing uses the same tunes from the theme that played when the Blender was assembled, implying some kind of connection between the new Salmon Run gig and Kamabo Co. Also, the King Salmonid has chains around his neck. It could be because he’s the gang leader, as alluded to by the Japanese name “okashirashake” in which “okashira” refers to yakuza bosses. Or… it could be because he was chained down and experimented on due to his size, or it was all the experimentation that caused him to grow so abnormally huge in the first place.

 

 

 

Lastly, the release date reveal trailer. The very first thing that stood out here is the customizable banners and name tags. Many people have theorized that this is the new player ID for a hopefully much-improved friend system or even Discord integration. This is all good and expected as gameplay features, but perhaps it could also be story-related? 

Recall that in Octo Expansion, Agent 8 was referred to by a number - 10,008 to be exact. It’s much bigger than these 4-digit tags for sure, but Splatlands isn’t Inkopolis, which spanned the course of 2 games and should be more densely populated. According to Nintendo, it’s a “newly discovered city” that has “developed rapidly for the past 1.5 years since the final splatfest, even though it’s located far from Inkopolis”. It wouldn’t be a huge stretch to say its population would be much thinner than that of Inkpolis, especially when its climate is much less “inhabitable”. Also, this number could just work like Discord where people can have the same username that is differentiate via discriminators, so there could be more than 9,999 cephalopods in Splatsland.

 

The victory screen will now feature battle achievement medals. It is unknown what exact purpose they serve, as so far the devs has only confirmed that more banner customization will be unlocked by playingTurf War, no words on these medals yet/ They could just be encouraging little badges for players, or some kind of data and statistical recording on individually numbered cephalopods in Splatsland. Hmmm…

Note that the new Agent 3 inkling of story is also represented in the Turf War trailer, just like all previous trailers, indicating that it’s the same inkling. Even her banner title suggests this: “Third-gen Ringleader”, meaning the protagonist of Splatoon 3. So it really is the same inkling throughout the game, splatting fellow inklings and octolings in Turf War, splatting Salmonids in her part-time job to collect golden eggs for Grizzco, and adventuring in Alterna with the smallfry little buddy as the new Agent 3. How is this possible?

 

 

A Darker Theory for Splatoon 3’s Story as an Octo Expansion Follow-up

So where am I going with all this? My theory for Splatoon 3’s story (so far) is: We’re trapped inside the Splatsland in an Octo Expansion 2.0 type of situation where a concentrated population of cephalopods, each with their own identifier tags, are combating each other and collecting golden eggs from Salmonids in Splatsville while their data is being collected to study the way to defeat/exploit the inklings and octolings. Alterna is the “hidden” valley in Splatsland where all the combat data and golden eggs collected from Splatsville are being utilized to bring about the “Return of the Mammalians” via conversion of the Octarian army into mammals against the wishes of their leader, DJ Octavio, and this why he has teamed up with us in the story mode. And it’s our job as the new Agent 3 to save uncover the mystery behind the Splatsland with the help of the new Squidbeak Splatoon. It's likely related to space travelling somehow, as the eggs are being used to power up the spaceships in Alterna.

The Fuzzy Ooze and Alterna are likely related to Kamabo Co. and Grizzco Industries, and I do not believe Commander Tartar and Mr. Grizz are the same person. Once again, Kamabo Co. will be attempting to manipulate the cephalopods, this time both the octolings and the inklings to bring the parallels to full circle: Kamabo Co. exploitation happening under the surface and Grizzo Industries’ exploitation happening right on the surface. Perhaps Sheldon would be more involved in the story mode, and Craig Cuttlefish could even replace Sheldon as the weapons guy this time around as the original Agent 3 takes over his role as the Captain.

 However, I don’t think this makes Salmon Run a purely “evil” activity, as even if you finish the story mode, this coop raid mode will remain in the game. In line with how Octo Expansion gave Commander Tartar a reason to carry out what he did, it’s likely that Returns of the Mammalians will give some justification for the actions of Kamabo Co. and especially Mr. Grizz. The “main” antagonistic force of the game will be the Order faction and the Neutral faction will remain, well, neutral instead of full-on villainous. Some fans are predicting that the paid DLC of Splatoon 3 will be about a “what-if” scenario where team Order wins, and I’d imagine it’d make for a neat role-reversal for this theory I’ve proposed.

This might seem like reaching and I do admit that it can feel rather far-fetched. However, I believe that Octo Expansion has made one thing clear: the devs do want to bring Splatoon’s story and lore into a whackier, darker direction, and I can’t wait to experience it in full this September!