On the morning of July 19th, Nintendo suddenly dropped a trailer on their YouTube channel. Soon, the Splatoon community grew stoked everywhere. Watching all three music idol groups were coming together for the Grand Festival concert. It made many fans emotional, believing the end was coming sooner than expected.
Could it truly be the end for Splatoon or is there something more than what viewers were given? Strap in as we go over the lore of Splatoon 3 and how it relates to the Grand Festival Splatfest’s theme.
Splatoon 3’s Band Lore
The Grand Festival shows the Splatlands is hosting an all-out arena concert in the announcement trailer. Deep Cut is joined by the J-pop idols, The Squid Sisters, and hip-hop duo, Off The Hook. Since last August, Deep Cut members, Shiver, Frye, and Big Man have been very antagonistic with one another before Splatoon 3’s first anniversary Splatfest in the song, Big Betrayal.
Their Splatfest was themed after Fame (Team Frye), Fortune (Team Shiver), and what caused the whole mess, wanting Friendship (Team Big Man). Big Betrayal’s cinematic music video showed Big Man as his alter ego, Ian BGM in a photo with Squid Sisters Callie and Marie. Frye and Shiver harshly criticize him for having a collab song called Liquid Sunshine.
The Splatoon Community would see Shiver and Frye’s behavior continue on Mar. 21st, 2024, in the song, Suffer No Fools. They meet Off The Hook members, Pearl and Marina at a nightclub. All four idols face off in a diss track battle, though Marina sounds like she’s having fun despite Shiver’s sarcastic insults.
Now all three Splatoon music groups come together for what may feel like a grand finale for Splatoon 3. The background music gives off this exciting yet unifying melody combining the themes of the Splatoon Trilogy. Their promotional art shows everyone holding hands, hinting they are ready to face a new threat.
The Color White Relates To Side Order
In the promo art and the Grand Festival, the Splatoon community noticed the musicians wearing white during the performance montage. White plays a key role in Splatoon 3’s campaign expansion, Side Order. It’s a “what if” scenario of Splatoon 2 from their final Splatfest ended with Team Order (Marina) beating Team Chaos (Pearl). Inkopolis Square has all its colors drained leaving a single building in operation, the Spire of Order.
Players play as the secret service Octoling, Agent 8 (Eight) who saved Inkopolis’ Inkling hero, Agent 3 in Splatoon 2. Their newest mission is to rescue Marina from The Order and destroy Jelletons on sight. While progressing each floor by elevator, a mysterious colorful Octoling with red reflector shades named Acht has been gathering intel about The Order.
She learned Marina created the program entity for the Memverse to rescue sanitized Octolings from Splatoon 2. According to Nintendo’s Splatoon Base, Acht is one of these individuals, stripping her emotions away. However, The Order adapted to Marina’s desire for peace wanting to destroy individuality, creating a process called grayscaling.
Dedf1sh (Acht) Will Appear At Splatfest
Nintendo describes Acht as a perfectionist. Due to her doubts about being a DJ, she chose to be sanitized by Commander Tartar. She is also revealed to be the double-bass techno artist Dedf1sh. In Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion, Dedf1sh was introduced as a music producer but no person had seen their appearance. Her tracks could be heard in the metro and the Kamabo Corps Test Facility.
Acht’s tracks are named after emotions such as “#1 shell “ for emptiness and “#2 dunno” for confusion. Completing Side Order a second time will grant players Acht’s diary entries. She reveals that she and Marina went to the same Octarian academy. She was known to be a troublemaker yet Marina didn’t mind as they shared their love for music-making.
Her last entry shows she felt deserted when Marina formed Off The Hook with Pearl yet finding her in the Memverse made her feel connected to her again. She dove into music for so long to fight away her abandonment. It may relate to the theme of September’s Splatfest, Past, Present, Future, as she left her a text, “If you’re ever up for it, we should jam.”
Celebrating Past, Present, And Future
In Splatoon 3’s campaign, players play as Agent 3 in the Splatlands. What was once left of Inkopolis is now in shambles after the events of Splatoon 2’s Finale Splatfest, Order vs. Chaos. Now Inklings and Octolings return to the city’s ruins to celebrate how far Splatoon has come since the franchise’s debut in 2015.
Instead of Deep Cut members pitted against each other, it’s a battle between generations. The Squid Sisters is Team Past, Off The Hook is Team Present, and Deep Cut is Team Future. From what the community learned about Side Order’s purpose, whichever team wins could decide the fate of Splatoon. Everyone is holding hands to embrace the ending they may meet.
As part of the celebration, Nintendo will launch exclusive amiibos of the Squid Sisters and Off The Hook in their Splatoon 3 outfits. There will also be limited-time T-shirts in the Nintendo Store for players to show off the team they represent. The Grand Festival will begin on Sept. 13th and end on Sept. 16th. Join the colorful celebration in Splatoon 3 on Nintendo Switch!
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