splatoon
as a testament to the strength of gear abilities, i've thought, literally since the release of the game, that i had this terrible habit of getting complacent when i had an early lead, causing me to play more defensively and get steamrolled
turns out, i may have just underestimated last ditch effort
splatoon
i don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner
because like, early pushes that nearly knock-out, but don't are extremely common, and so are the snapback victories that often happen immediately afterwards
also pretty much everyone i know runs last ditch effort
HMMM
splatoon
i can't even be upset about this because coming back from the brink of a knockout with a clean sweep as the timer is ticking down the last 30 seconds feels incredible
the more skilled and coordinated team is still going to win, but also that kind of push and pull makes matches absolutely intoxicating
splatoon
on top of that, unlike catchup mechanics in games, it's something we opt into with gear
we know what we are hoping for when we equip last ditch effort, and we are explicitly investing in a main of gear dependence that won't even proc if we do exceptionally well
and for it, the game is just more exciting for us, everyone we play with, and anyone who might be watching!
splatoon
i guess the tl;dr is: people are encouraged to pick LDE because:
- it's a generally very potent ability
- everyone loses matches
but it also has a fun side effect where it also just makes the game more fun with the way the maps/modes have been designed
did you know that a significant number of people only feel a game is "fair" when they win 75% of the time? but online, that's obviously impossible
but what happens if in the 50% you win, some were underdog stories that felt amazing?
splatoon
of course, this all falls flat if objectives are hard to get
which means the fact that clam blitz needing fewer clams, and rainmaker having checkpoints plays into this really well!
smaller victories matter
they mean that underdog teams can still accomplish things, but also, teams facing others with LDE activated can counter very predictably where those objectives exist
but it does also recontextualize the map chokepoint struggle a bit