Yesterday at 9:00 PM (PDT), @SplatoonJP (Japanese Splatoon account) announced on Twitter the “Grand Festival” for Splatoon 3. This is similar to the Final Fest in Splatoon 2, however I don’t think it will end all Splatfests. I’ll talk about that later. The main focus of this is to discuss the choices and options of this Splatfest.
In @SplatoonJP’s announcement, the Splatfest theme was “大切なのは？ 過去 vs 現在 vs 未来”. I translated this using Jisho.org, which said the question was “What is most important?” and the answers were “Past, Present or Future.” @SplatoonNA (North American Splatoon account) announced the Splatfest this morning at 6:10 AM. They translated it differently: “What is most important to you?” The answers remained the same, but this question changed my thinking entirely.
Originally, based on the Japanese translation, I was very convinced to join team Future. This was because of the process of elimination. The past is infinite, but at some finite point it somehow gained things (the Big Bang), meaning that before that it somehow didn’t exist.
This means that it is finite, even though it is very large. I eliminated the present because it is such a tiny amount of time. It’s infinitely small, how I see it. Yes, it’s the only section where you can change things, but that doesn’t affect the present, only the future.
I didn’t eliminate the future because, possibly, it can go on forever. If all of the correct decisions are made in the present and future, the future could be infinitely large and everything can happen there.
But this was before the @SplatoonNA announcement, where they changed the question slightly. This changed the question from “What is most important to everything, the universe, and conscious thought” to “Which personally is the most important to your existence and experience in the universe?”
I will not exist forever into the future, even if I make all of the perfect decisions. I have not always existed in the past. The future matters a lot to me because I like to imagine all of the possibilities for what might happen, but that doesn’t actually affect me after I stop existing.
The present is very important to me because it’s where I make decisions and act on things. It’s what happens. However what I do in the present may not matter that much simply because it just might not affect anything. For example, say I discover something in the present that has the possibility to massively affect the future, but then I just somehow forget. Then the future would be the same as if I never had the discovery in the first place.
The past is very important to me. Even though I didn’t exist for all of it, it affects my decisions and existence. Without the past, how would I know how to speak? How would life have evolved? Without the past, there would be no present or future.
Everyone I’ve seen online is picking Team Future, however when I looked at a poll it seemed relatively balanced (around ¼ each including the “undecided” option, which I chose at the time).
There is another reason behind this Splatfest. In Splatoon 1, the last Splatfest (which didn’t have a fancy name) was “Callie vs Marie,” making people choose their favorite between the two idols from that game. Marie won this Splatfest, which affected Splatoon 2’s story mode plot by having Callie run away and get captured by Octavio (I didn’t play Splatoon 2 so don’t quote me on that). Splatoon 2’s Final Fest was between Team Chaos and Team Order, where Chaos won which affected Splatoon 3’s worldbuilding and also its DLC “Side Order” which takes place in an orderly world.
Now, which team am I going to pick?
I think I’m going to pick Team Past, partially because it is what is most important to me and partially because I simply love the story behind this series of games. I think if Past wins we might get a lot of things from the past, possibly interacting with humans during the story mode. We would get so much more backstory for the series if this wins. Also, I think we’d get a lot of new things if Future wins. If Present wins, I feel like it’ll probably be a less interesting sequel.
So, I don’t know yet which team I’m on; I’m still deciding. I can’t wait to see how this affects Splatoon 4, and I’m so excited to see all the music and events this Splatfest brings.
Also, I will definitely be buying a shirt for whatever team I pick (once the shirts become available).