I ADORE this SO MUCH, the story feels so personal with you/Eight, there is no WAY there could've been a better end, it feels like the entire history of the series is backing it up to make for the most climactic ending ever, the story of Eight escaping a hole, only to be dragged down to a trap, and having to fight their way out of it is AWESOME, the music is at the series PEAK after you get the fourth thang, it's still absolutely crazy to me just HOW GOOD THIS IS.
The gameplay system of the stations is really fun and DIFFICULT, I really can't put into words just HOW MUCH I love this DLC, the characters are funny and the way they interact with each other is too, but as I write this I can't stop thinking about just how good of a story it has, not even mentioning Commander Tartar being cool as hell, he's extremely hypocritical, and at this point is so far removed from humanity and their wishes that there really was no other way than to destroy him, he's straight up just a villain.
so far nothing has beat this DLC, although Return of The Mammalians did come close, the ending sequence all the way from the escape is 1000% times better than the rocket infiltration sequence in Alterna.

I love it so much :)

the DLC kinda disappointed me ngl, I still absolutely love it don't get me wrong, but the story didn't really do much, even with the cutscene of Inkopolis Plaza and The Splatlands getting mind/soul fucked or whatever, it didn't really make me feel like I had any pressure. The end with you just wailing on Order with the saturated chips did feel epic, but nowhere CLOSE to the ending of Octo Expansion, or even Return of The Mammalians.
I might just be a Splatoon nerd, but the difficulty really isn't there in my opinion, I know it's a completely different system, but Octo Expansion really went way harder on the player.
I really wish some more characters were involved, or that reconfiguring the palettes felt way more rewarding, JUST giving you keys is lame, and it would've been cool if they ACTUALLY tied into the story more.
The Dev Diaries explaining that the Memverse was to help people that were sanitized is actually the most interesting part of the story, it's really cool how everything in this series feels like it's connected, but that's really it in terms of interesting story for me, I feel like I can gush about the previous campaigns for hours, but I don't know if I really can for this.
as it stands I would really rather play Octo Expansion or even the Splatoon 3 Hero mode, it's not a problem with me not liking Rougelikes, I actually love returning to the spire so many times, but it's just that the other campaigns make me feel better, it's hard to explain.
None of the songs really stood out for me, which is definitely NOT the case for ANY of the other singleplayer campaigns in the series, the only part where any of the songs even caught my attention was in the FINAL FIGHT when I recognized the song as Ebb & Flow, THAT'S IT, which is a little sad, I'm not saying the music is BAD, not at all, but I won't be listening to it on my free time like I do with the other songs on the series.

it feels like I'm being overly negative, and I like this DLC, I really do, the aesthetic is pretty, the gameplay loop is addicting, the characters are fun. it's just that the stories are what make my favorite Splatoon campaigns, and I KNOW that the story that started in Splatoon 1 ended with Return of The Mammalians, like the developers said in an interview, but it doesn't have to be that for it to be interesting.

either way, Pearl Drone is the best thing ever, so the DLC HAS to be 5/5 /j