Neige posted:

I'm going to choose to read this statement as is.

The nuts & bolts of Splatoon are hard to explain, so bear with me if I get anything wrong. Splatoon servers are peer-to-peer, with Nintendo dealing with the matchmaking, "splat" (kill) confirmations and buffering. There has never been any control over the matchmaking from the player's side. There were regional events (known as Splatfests) but outside of those events (which are sadly finis) you would be paired with anyone available. So when you're paired up with a Japanese/East-Asian player base, you're dependent on their point of view for gameplay purposes and you (the Westerner) suffer for it. Splatoon is one of the most exacting shooters I've ever come across and the peer-to-peer format gives it no favors. Nintendo hasn't done much to support their star product either. There's been weapon balance, but no changes as to how players are teamed up/connected since the very start.

Offline Splatoon is nothing to write home about. It's been rightfully called a tutorial for the online play. Were you to rent the game, you'd probably finish the story mode within a weekend.