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Any tips to get back into the previous games ?

Posted by Moshroom

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Forum: Splatoon Group

It's gonna be a bit personal, but I'll try to keep it short, I really need advices and reassurance. I never played the first game, simply because I struggled to follow what was popular as a kid, and never really discovered video games on my own. I would just receive one or two for my birthday or christmas, and would just play it regardless of the popularity or story behind it. I started getting into Splatoon with the 2, I started few days before the octo expansion was out. But at that time, I wasn't at my best. I thought I was, but I was just in denial of childhood traumas still hurting me, and I started spiraling down into searching my identity and reasons to live. At that time, because of my previous bad school, I didn't had any time to play, I had an overload of homeworks. I never played the story mode, never finished the octo expansion, and never had time to play any splatfest. The only moment I finally had time for it was after a burn-out because of school, during the lockdown. But I faced a pretty new major trauma, and couldn't play for long. And with time, I just abandonned Splatoon because in my mind, it was associated with my trauma, and those times I tried to hide from it by playing during my sleepness nights. 

I really started to get into the game when I bought the 3 right when it came out. And I've been obsessed with it. I'm still depressed but I'm no longer living the trauma, so it feels way more enjoyable to play. It became my hyperfixation, I loved it so much. But my hype about it kinda fell down when I tried to connect with the fanbase online. Anytime I tried to express myself about a topic, search about fans' creations, or even just share some positive messages or encouragments, I mostly received back toxicity. I completely shutted myself from the community and just decided to play all by myself. And I was happy about that, until recently. I really love Splatoon's lore, but after so much overthinking and toxic messages online, my brain keep telling me that I'm not a good fan of the franchise, and how dare I to say that it's my main hyperfixation if I never played the 1st and barely touched the 2nd games ? The only few times I wasn't spat on online, I just felt like I didn't belong there, I realized how much backstories, elements of lore, and universal nostalgia among the community I didn't had, and it's starting to weight on me.

I know that the Splatoon 1 server was shut down, but I still want to try to find it and try the story mode. And I know that it should be easy since I already have it, but I want to go back to Splatoon 2, finally play the story mode, finish the octo expansion, and feel the nostalgia of some maps. I don't know where to find the first one, and I literally can't look at the second one icon on my Switch menu without crying. There is literally nothing related between my trauma and the game, just the fact that I played it while I was going trough this long lasting trauma (watching a loved one slowly die from an uncurable disease over few months) made me associate the game to it. And I'm not mentally stable enough yet to try to force myself to launch it again.

I'm scared that the guilt of all of that might make me lose my hyperfixation and passion about it. And on top of that, I will not be able to play for a couple of weeks because I sent today my joy-cons for repair. I said to myself that I will never try to get back into any Splatoon community after all my bad experiences, but this social media is different and don't have the same users than other popular ones. I trust more a Splatoon community from here than from Reddit or Instagram. 

Until I can get my joy-cons back, I really need some advices to feel less like an impostor for all of I just shared, advices to learn to get back to Splatoon 2 and enjoy it before the unknown day the server might get shut down as well. And I also need reassurance about all of that please, if you lived something similar and are comfortable to share a bit about it, I would really appreciate it please, thanks.

◈ Mo ◈


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Reply by eliza

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I just joined this server so I am a month late but I just wanted to say that I felt the exact same way. I was hyper fixated on splatoon for most of this year, I still play it now just not as heavily  but I felt it really hard to try to engage with the community for the same reason, I didn’t feel like I was a good enough fan, felt like I didn’t belong in the community although I was quite literally hyper fixated like it was all I really thought about during my awake hours but It was frustrating because I felt like I had to know every thing and have done everything to call myself a huge fan which I considered myself but I could never 100% alterna because some of the weapons were too tricky and I still haven’t yet to do after alterna. I recently got splatoon 1 but i have been kinda mad at myself because although I have had a Wii U since I was around either 7 or 8 I didn’t have many games for it because I was too focused on roblox that I missed out on nintendo games and I would have loved splatoon when I was younger so it sucks I never got to play I wish i at least got to once. 


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Reply by Alpha

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In case you ever come back to this, I want you to know you are no less of a fan for not playing all of the games. If you love splatoon, that's all you need to be a fan. You don't even need to know all the lore and worldbuilding and everything.
Splatoon is one of my favorite things ever, and it has been since even before the first game came out, and I fully consider myself a fan of it. And despite me being a fan for 9 years and having all 3 games, guess what? I've never played a single splatfest, never played the dlc for 2 or 3, and never played salmon run. I've never even played online at all on 2 or 3 yet. But I'm still a fan.

Unfortunately one of the things that's kind of bugged me about Splatoon and its live nature is the FOMO is creates, because I've definitely felt it myself too. I didn't know that splatfests were a thing that existed at all during the entire time they were happening in 1 because I didn't get to connect my Wii U to the internet until 2019, and I didn't even know that Splatoon 2 existed either until a full year into its lifespan. I haven't had NSO this whole time that 3 has existed so far and now that people are talking about the final fest I'm starting to feel the pressure with that. I've absolutely been there, and I'm really sorry to hear you've had bad experiences with people because of it. I don't think how much you've actually played any game should matter if you truly do like it.

I can't quite relate to the trauma part, but maybe just taking it in small steps would help? It's ok to pace yourself if you need to, since 2's servers are hosted on the same network as 3, and 3 is still getting new content, I imagine 2 won't go offline for a long while. Either way, refer to what I said at the beginning of this and don't be too hard on yourself. Take a break if you need to, it'll be okay.

And as for Splatoon 1, I'm not sure where would be a good place to find it, but surely there must be some copies of it somewhere online? Hopefully not too expensive, though. Especially now that the online is unavailable*** people might be more eager to sell it, idk. 

***Actually, the online isn't really unavailable. There's a replacement for the Nintendo Network called Pretendo, and on Wii U you can even use it without having to hack your console or anything. You can find a simple step by step guide to set it up on the Pretendo website. And yes, Splatoon 1's online is still accessible this way.


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Reply by Agent 8

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Hey, I totally get that. I only got to play Splatoon 3 and 2 in that order cause I was a bit nervous about not being good at shooters, but I pushed through it and finally became a player good enough to get to level 30 on Splatoon 3. I definitely felt a bit sad that I never got to experience the Splatfests I liked because I didn't have the money to buy the games, but I reminded myself that it's good that I got into the game series at all.

For me, the most important thing is the feeling that Splatoon gives me. The joy of seeing beautiful art, the wonder in the music, and the pride I feel in humanity with how much the world of the game adored and respected the contributions that humanity made to their world. The good and the bad. If you're ever feeling bad about not being able to stick through the entirety of Splatoon, just remember that you could have never seen this series at all. You could have never known the love you feel when you boot up the game and gave it a shot. 


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