The minor antagonists of story mode this time is not the octorians, but a new idol group called Deep Cut, who are bandits on the side. I really really really LOVED deep cut, and their scenes, every moment they showed up was a really treat, they also serve as the mini-bosses of each area you complete throughout the story mode. Their boss fights weren't really hard, once you understood what was going on, out of all of them I would say that Shriver's boss fight with her master Meg was the hardest only because I'm not that good with timing or aiming large enemies in the mouth. 

I really enjoyed the banter between Shiver and her master Meg, I just enjoy how she get frustrated with Meg in such an elegant way, and you can tell that they really have a connect with each other. 

The whole story mode, in general, have some really good puns and banter, but I think with Deep Cut it really shines the most, another moment with them that I like is the way the blast off away on stage once you defeat them.

Their intro scene and the scene when Agent 3 and crew give them the "loot" (that's just like a helicopter thingy) after they're done using are another fave of mine.

The final fave moment with Deep cut has to be when they come in and use all of the powers to help agent 3 defeat the true culprit behind the Zapfish theif, Mr. Grizz , a ""bear"" who runs Grizzo and was one of the only remaining mammals after the sea creature took over the land. His plan was to turn the world back over to the mammals by making everyone fizz fuzzy like he is! 

(I'm kind of running out of gifs, but if you want to see the scene in action, WHICH YOU SHOULD you can check it out here; it last about 48 secs)

Another thing I liked about the story mode is that in this  Splatoon you're given a little pet salmon head called SmallFry, who follows agent 3 around and helps out by eating away at the fuzz goop, once you load him up on some eggs you win after completing a level, he can also sniff out extra eggs and treasure too.

The boss fight with Grizzo in this weird mega fuzzy goop mode was visually stunning, but playing it (at least with my skill level) was a bit frustrating. You end up fighting Grizz in outer space since that's where he ends up shooting off his huge fuzz ray. At first, you start out fighting him on a rocket ship which is pretty cool, but once he starts to roll the spaceship it was a bit hard to keep up, and the fuzzy goop gets really packed in some places, and before you can really get a hit on Grizz you have to collect some golden fish eggs to power up little buddy to serve a brutal hit to Grizz.  Some of the eggs were placed in areas that were really packed with fuzz goop and combined with the rotating ship, it was just oof, but again, that's just my opinion with my skillset.

The most frustrating part of the boss battle with Grizz was the final part where DJ Octavio comes in to help too (which actually pretty cool), and you have to move Octavio's ship towards Grizz and the same time use the big razor to get rid of all of the big fuzz goop spots on Grizz's fur, while Small Fry , who now all powered up and super sayain thanks to the fresh beats made by both DJ Octo and Deep Cut and Squid Sisters, tries to fight off Mega Grizz. OH, I almost forgot you gotta do this all within like 3 mins or else all of splatville plus the da world is now a big fuzzball.

YEAH, it a lot, and what  I really didn't like is how the counter still counted down even when characters were speaking diagonal, this got SUPER frustrating after starting over this battle after like 10 times, but again I guess this just falls on my lack of timing skills, oof. So, this is probably just me a thing.

One more thing I liked about story mode was how the scrolls were presented, you still had your regular splat land scrolls about the history and lore of splat lands, but this time you also had the addition of some other "scrolls" or logs from an organization know as Alterna, a civilization that was only one of the few left after the extinction built out of volcanic. They were able to survive for a while until the rocket they made caused a cave-in once it returned to earth, wiping out most of the residents. Alterna was also responsible for leading to the creation of the inklings and the rise of sea creatures on lead due to the liquid crystals that Alterna was working on falling into the sea and being absorbed in the ocean by the sea life.

I think the approach of Alterna was also taken from Octo expansion 

The original Splatoon Scrolls were still pretty interesting, I really like how it gave updates to some fan faves, especially Off The Hook

We 're suppose to get a story mode DLC in the future that expands on the whereabouts and going ons of Off The Hook and I'm super excited to see how that I'll play out...

Oh, I almost forgot, after you beat Grizz in story mode, when you go to Grizz Co HQ  you can see his little bear statue has been replace with a wood scuplture of Small Fry defeating Girzz.

(Aye, nice story touch)

All in all, I think that story mode was pretty cool, I have yet to go back and replay the levels to get the extra stamps and stuff, but I'll do that later, now on to more general splatoon 3 game stuff...

In Splatoon 3, you can have a Splashtag, which is explained to be like a business card for inklings and ocotlings in the new city of Splatville, The tags are highly customizable, you can change the banner of your Splashtag and even add on some cute badages just to show off...

You can also give your inkling or octoling cool/funny title to go on their Splashtag, you can get both new titles and banners for your Splashtag through the big gacha machine in the lobby, next to the food vendor and right outside the locker room. 

As mention before the new hub in Splatoon 3 is called Splatville, a new and popular bustling city that seems wayy bigger than the previous hubs in Splatoon...

My favorite spot in Splatvilles is the new general store called Hotlantis, that's run by (or at least store sat by) Melody, the lead singer of the band Chirpy Chips in Splatoon 2 and 1. I really like both Melody and the store itself, Melody has such a cute design and a cool chill attitude...

The general store is full of the stuff that you can use to decorate your locker and I really love of each new item that can be found at the store adds just a little bit more lore and worldbuilding to the Splatoon/Splatlands lore...

 Atlantis also has a catalog that changes every season (as catalogs do), each player has a catalog level that grows the more you play in turf wars, and each time you level up melody has something new for you in the store...

Speaking of lockers in Splatoon 3, you can customize your locker in the locker room (duh), with all the weapons, clothes, and items you collect/ buy from various stores around Splatvilles, some people have done some really cool stuff with their lockers, the amount of creative potential in such of small space is really astounding.  A lot of Splatoon fans really want a room or dorm for their inkling or octoling, so having a customizable locker really quelled  that itch 

I'm still trying to figure out the vibe of my locker, still have quite gotten the idea for what weapons/gear I want to showcase in there....

(I'm STILL working on making it look cool, pls dont bully me abt it, oof)

Other than Turf Wars, you can also take part in the new card mini-game, Tableturf Battle, which is like a tabletop version of turf wars. At first, I thought I wasn't going to enjoy/be any good at this card game, but after giving it a try (just for memes)  I ended up really enjoying it. 

In Tableturf Battle you can choose to battle other inklings/ocotlings or NPC around Splatville's every time you beat an NPC opponent in Tableturf Battle you get some cool badges, titles, and banners too!

Some NPC rivals can be surprisingly easy or surprisingly hard, currently, in my playthrough, I'm still trying to best Sheldon of Ammon Knights and Mr.CoCo of Crush Station...

I really want to be at least decent at Tabletop Battles, so I always try to in get a battle or two in between every Truf Wars, speaking of Turf War let's move on the main event Splatfest...

The first Splatfest of Splatoon 3 was  Gear v Grub v Fun ( as an answer to the question what would you pick to bring with you if you were stuck on an island), in Splatoon 3 we have 3-way Splatfest since there are now 3 idols to represent each team. I picked Team Gear because you can use gear to make food, shelter, and entertainment if you really put your survivor skills to the test, Team Gear also happened to be Shiver's Team too...

While I never got a chance to play in a tri-battle, I still had a really good time participating in Splatfest. At some point in my splatfest experience, I was paired with a real choice team, we were able to breeze through 100x battles and they were all kind of enough to booyah back (if need be)...

The transformation of Splatvilles during Splatfest was a treat too, The members of Deep Cut did their performance separately on different floats at the start of Splatfest, but at the end, they came together on the stage to perform the new Splatfest theme Anrachy Rainbow, which slaps btw! This time Splatfest (and the design of Spaltoon 3 as whole) takes a lot inspiration from the Japanese Edo period, you can really see this in the floats during Splatfest, the way Deep Cut do their dance routine during the show (especially with Shivers fan dancing) 

One thing I really like about wandering the city during Splatfest is looking at all of the little food stalls and vendors that open up during the event, your inkling/octoling can't really buy anything from them (which would be a cool idea, but you know) , but it is just really cool and fun to look at watch the jellies interact and run their food stalls.

Out of teams, Team fun was the most formidable (surprisingly), I feel like I won more times against Team Grub than Team Fun, but I was paired up against another Team Gear alot tho. But, it was Team Gear who took home the trophy in the end, YEAH BBY!

Overall, I feel like Splatoon 3 is a really cool entry into the Splatoon series, some people think it was a little bit too early for another Splatoon game, while I kind of do agree with that some what I also free like I can't look a gift horse in the mouth right. I really love the characters and the world building of Splatoon so its always really cool to get more of that, Splatoon 3 has really improve on its story and character animation and expressions, everything and everyone feels so lively and fun. Even just walking around the city during Splatfest is a joy all on its own.

I was going to go on and on about my take on the new agent 3 and how she was interact with the previous agents and the new captain, but this post is already long and rambly enough, so Imma save that post for another day....

Until next time later days...