Splatoon 2 Producer Explains How Swimming Through Ink Actually Works

Splatoon squid leaps through ink

With Splatoon 2 still going strong on the Nintendo Switch and the game's first major single player DLC due out later this year, fans have started to ask some pretty deep questions concerning the game world's physics and lore. For instance: How do those squid kids swim around in ink?

In case you've missed out on all things Splatoon, the game's rowdy youngsters have the ability to change form. One moment they're running around as ink-slinging kids and, the next, they're turning into adorable squids capable of actually swimming through that ink.

If you think about it harder than is probably necessary, you might wonder how, even as a squid, these characters can splash around and totally submerge themselves in ink that's only a coat or two thick. Thankfully, the folks over at Gameinformer got curious enough to ask the question themselves, getting a pretty satisfactory answer out of the game's producer, Hisashi Nogami.

At least in my mind, they're becoming a liquid. They've sort of changed forms to become something long and thin that allows them to slip through the ink at great speed. It's not that they lose their shape completely but...wow you've really put it to me here, this is difficult... [Laughs] I guess maybe it's something a little closer to jellyfish where they can become really flat and stretched out, still holding their shape as they're slipping through the ink.

The crazy thing about Splatoon is that it actually takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Kind of like the film Waterworld, Splatoon takes place on a planet where water has all but consumed the entire globe. Some theories are splashing around about how Splatoon is set in the same universe as Nintendo's other core series, only hundreds (if not thousands) of years in the future.

Evolution has led to the squid kids, capable of living on dry land and splashing around in ink. For whatever reason, though, regular water tends to kill them...Again, this is a game. Don't think about things too hard.

Anyway, we like Nogami's take on the whole swimming through ink thing, as it fits in nicely with the physiology of the characters. As Nogami points out himself, the kids basically turn into a liquid goo as they become squids, and vice versa. In other words, becoming a barely-there liquid squid creature capable of swimming through ink pretty much fits in with the game's loose rules about how physics work.

If you're up for a light and silly read, you should give the whole interview a gander. Nogami tackles plenty of tough Splatoon-related questions about everything from the upcoming Octo Expansion and the in-game food truck menu, to whether or not the beloved Marina and tolerated Pearl are aware they are in a video game.

And, if that's not enough Splatoon goodness for you, get ready to throw down as an Inkling in Super Smash Bros., releasing later this year.

Ryan Winslett

Staff Writer for CinemaBlend.