Update on What's next
calling quits on the personal website experiment and Splatoon Raiders
Hi all,
It has been a while and I have been on a bit of a journey, especially when it came to writing and building my own website.
While I was super excited about the project and actually managing to build something, it was becoming too much to maintain behind the scenes. I still wanted to make sure I write and have the energy to write, but every time I went to write a post on the personal site, there were bugs or small tweaks or even security vulnerabilities I had to address first, kind of killing my mojo.
Therefore the site is now gone and I want to focus on writing. I am aiming to port over the few posts I did write on the site in the near future, but I also don’t want to spam everyone with loads of posts all of a sudden.
I have several posts in my backlog too, that I want to write and finish. Having deleted the personal site today, I feel free to actually write them so that is a nice feeling. :)
In the meantime here a snippet about my enjoyment of playing Splatoon Raiders in July. It is my tied top game on the Switch 2 with Pokopia. (I am ignoring the Zelda’s as they came out before the Switch 2).
Splatoon Raiders
Splat scores of enemies in Splatoon Raiders, a new single-player focused Splatoon game coming exclusively to Nintendo Switch 2.
Play as the mechanic, working with Deep Cut – a trio of swashbuckling musicians – and venture out into the mysterious Spirhalite Islands in search of treasure! Customise your character, kit yourself out with mechanical Gadgets and a host of ink-flinging weapons, and take on waves of foes called Salmonids.
I have never played any of the Splatoon games before. I thought they were multiplayer only, and while I liked the idea that you shoot ink and cover areas in ink to win, it never really appealed to me. Then for some reason Splatoon Raiders came out and called my name. This year has been so full mentally that something more simple without a big story to follow really appealed. The gameplay is in reasonable bitesize chunks. Not quite like a roguelite but more-ish.
I love the animations between the levels and the loading screen animation. It is so well thought out and just lovely. Your crew is stranded and you play as the mechanic. For each outing you double up with one of 3 buddies who each has a special ability that you can call upon after collecting a certain amount of power eggs. You gain these from killing Salmonoids. I love that the character design is a bit edgy and not completely cutesy. There are sharp teeth for example for the main character and the Salmonoids have a zombie-ish feel to them.
While the setting and the backgrounds are reasonably bland, I felt this was appropriate considering you shoot colourful ink. If there was too much going on in the world it would look too bright and after all, the Splatoon universe is set in an apocalyptic world, so I would imagine it looking a bit grey and drab.
I loved all the weapon and gadget assets as well. I found myself just looking at them and how they are made from different materials. It put a smile on my face and I am not even sure why I appreciated it so much. I guess having spent a lot of time in worlds like Crimson Desert which is fantasy but based on some sort of reality, it was nice to see some silly weapons made up of washing up powder containers and paint rollers.
My only slight gripe was the music. It felt a bit too dramatic. I understand the vibe they were going for but I would love an update with a different sound track. Is that bad? The characters are so fun and as you level up you become quite powerful, so something more upbeat would be fun to listen to. I even tried turning off the main music but I don’t think that is possible yet. Unless I looked in the wrong place. I didn’t try very hard to be fair.
While the game is a single player game first and foremost there are ways you can collaborate by either asking for help or offering help, by simply pressing the minus button. This worked really well (I have the nintendo online subscription), and if you manage to help someone complete a level you get a nice bonus. There is also a way to create or join your own server, which I haven’t done explicitly yet. I am first and foremost a lonesome raider. :D
After over 20 hours, I am at the stage where I am grinding for currencies to finish upgrading my gear and getting certain ratings in certain levels, so feel accomplished and may dip in and out now. I had a lot of fun with the ga,e and it is really easy to pick up.
If you need something fun, a bit of 3D vampire survivors vibes but with more skin in the game, then you may also sink many hours into this.
What did you play in July? Did you pick up any new (to you) games?
Personally I’m glad you’re back here, I had missed your game reviews and commentary! (I did read one or two articles on your site but missed being able to comment and interact). Always good to try new things and see what works though!!
As a blogger who has been using WordPress for over 12 years, I could have told you so ;) A personal website sounds great in theory, but it always comes with extra work and hassle. Nothing beats substack when it comes to ease of use for a newsletter project. I’m glad you’re back here!