Early Splatoon Raiders Prototype Left Developers Feeling Like Villains: Players Expressed Sympathy for Salmonids

Splatoon Raiders reviews are rolling in today, showcasing the game ahead of its July 23 launch. Alongside this, there’s a new interview with the development team that dives into the game’s creation process. These interviews are always a treat, packed with intriguing concept art and insights into ideas that didn’t make the cut. This time, there’s a particularly interesting tidbit about the game’s design: it originally leaned heavily into colonial themes.

In the interview, art director Koji Sonoyama discussed the choice to set Splatoon Raiders on remote islands, moving away from the urban landscapes of previous titles. This shift was made to take advantage of the Switch 2’s capabilities in rendering lush, natural environments. For example, players can now ink over grass, a feature that wasn’t feasible on the original Switch.

Sonoyama shared some concept art that illustrated the initial vision, but he noted that this vibrant setting “didn’t work out at all.” The team felt that having players invade the peaceful homes of the Salmonids, the game’s antagonists, and take their resources felt morally questionable.

“Somehow, with this setting, it started to feel like we were unfairly picking on the Salmonids, who were simply going about their lives happily on the island, and it became a bit difficult to accept emotionally. On top of that, it felt like we were attacking the Salmonids and taking their cherished treasures by force, and then basking in our spoils.”

While Sonoyama doesn’t explicitly use the term “colonialism,” that’s essentially what he’s describing. He continued:

I still remember the feedback we received from team members about a scene where the Salmonids looked like they were chatting. Maybe it was because the Salmonids were depicted in a way that made people sympathize with them as living creatures, but without any prior discussion, everyone who played the prototype kept saying, “Poor Salmonids!” (Laughs) We thought we needed to do something about that feedback, which prompted us to significantly rethink the visual direction. However, development had already progressed to a certain point. We were in a phase where we couldn’t really change things like the line-up of Salmonid or the overall characteristics of the terrain, so we thought about what we could do within that scope.

Sound director Shu Tamura added his perspective, noting that even the background music, inspired by the resort-like concept art, had an adventurous and friendly tone. This only heightened the feeling that players were unjustly attacking these cute, innocent creatures. The team began to question if they were on the right path, and the motivation for progressing through the game became muddled.

So, how did they adapt with so much of the design already set? They shifted one key concept, Sonoyama explained, focusing on the idea of “I’ve wound up in an outlandish environment.”

Unfortunately, this still didn’t quite hit the mark. While Sonoyama referred to this as a “turning point” in design, the idyllic white sand and beautiful ocean didn’t feel “outlandish” enough. The team ultimately had to overhaul the design, including reimagining the Salmonids to appear more “out of the ordinary” and tweaking details like lighting. They aimed for an eerie and unpredictable landscape, marked by geological upheaval, and introduced Salmonids that diverged from previous iterations. They settled on this:

To enhance the game’s eerie atmosphere (and seemingly lessen the sense of invasion), they also modified the Salmonids. In terms of lore, the “salt” found on the Spirhalite Islands causes Salmonids to behave aggressively, increasingly so as they become encrusted in it. “We wanted players to feel like they’ve wandered into a place filled with Salmonids behaving in strange and unsettling ways,” Tamura said. “The Spirhalite Islands are located far away from Splatsville, and they couldn’t be more different.”

Wow! That’s quite a revelation! It’s great to see the team collectively recognize that the original approach would have created a bizarre vibe for a Splatoon game. Nintendo has a history of its titles inadvertently touching on sensitive themes, including colonialism. It’s fascinating that they chose to draw this line, and while I’m glad they did, I’m also curious if these changes are enough. There’s always been a strange dissonance in Splatoon between the competitive multiplayer aspect, which is treated as a fun sport, and the PvE side where players battle Salmonids, actively attacking them to collect treasure for a shady corporation. Splatoon Raiders takes this a step further by turning it into a treasure hunt on an inhabited island, raising questions that Splatoon may not be ready to tackle.

Splatoon Raiders launches this Friday, July 23, and we’ll soon find out if Nintendo can steer this game toward a quirky adventure rather than a troubling narrative.