A beautiful game about life and what makes a life worth living, with one of the most unique gameplay mechanics I've ever experienced. The blinking gameplay just works, not just as a mechanic, but as a storytelling tool. Without it I would not have cursed out loud as I accidentally blinked in the middle of a conversation, or painfully tried to keep my eyes open for as long as possible because I simple did not want to leave this place. The fact your tears make it even harder to keep your eyes open just adds to the whole experience. Stellar all around, not a game I'll soon forget.

It's very hard to properly and definitively review this game, because there's so much to talk about. I would love to say it is one of my absolute favorite pokemon games in the entire series, which is true in some ways, but then in other ways it is one of the most embarrassing releases in recent memory considering the game is struggling to run and looks like it's coming apart at the seams 50% of the time.

On one hand the open world nature of the game fits the pokemon formula like a glove and makes finding pokemon super fun, but on the other hand every time I move my camera shadows just stutter and pop in and out of existence all over the screen. On one hand the writing, story and characters might be the best the series has seen, but on the other hand the framerate can absolutely tank in some spots, and the camera glitches through the floor. It is inexcusable that it released in this shoddy state, but I can't help but love the time I spent with it. It's such an anomaly. It would've easily been my favorite game in the series if it came out one year later.

Absolutely phenomenal game. The card gameplay is just fundamentally solid and begs to be fooled around and experimented with, being endlessly replayable. But then the game throws you for a loop and becomes so many different things and adds in a surprisingly effective story to boot, which a truly wonderful ending sequence. The only problem is everything to do with the ARG/Lucky Carder segments, they just feel completely unnecessary and I honestly think the game was better off without them. Luckily it is vastly outshone by how utterly great the rest of the game is. Might have retroactively become my GOTY of 2021

The game is mostly more Splatoon goodness which is all I truly wanted. The new single player campaign was fantastic, although I think the ending (while still really cool) honestly might have gone a bit too shark-jumpy for my liking. Other than this Turf War and Salmon Run are just as fun as always. Tableturf Battle is mildly entertaining but nothing worth obsessing over, which is basically my opinion to most of the new features. However, it cannot be stated enough how many very subtle little tweaks and additions have been made in areas like UI design, animation and overall gamefeel which makes this easily the most fluid and most satisfying Splatoon game in the series.

One last gripe is the new Tricolor Turf Wars during Splatfests (which are better than ever). It seems like they overcorrected after the World Premiere, causing them to basically never happen. Playing hours during the last splatfest only gave me one single Tricolor match, which is just stupid considering this is one of the game's main selling points.

Despite some things I feel meh about, for me it's still absolutely a worthwhile purchase. Luv me sum Splatoon, simple as.