honestly, if i had to boil down the issues with splatoon 3's plot to just one thing, i'd say it suffers from being... unfocused? like, ok, in octo expansion, your goal is to escape and reach the surface. and everything in the mode, all the characters, all the gameplay objectives, are obviously related to the goal, progressing it or commenting on it or relating to its themes. splatoon 3 doesn't have that; technically your goal is to find cuttlefish, but the game isn't ABOUT that. it's not about anything. things just kind of happen to you without any clear relation to each other; the only reason for you to be doing any of this crap is because you as the player know it will lead to the end of the game.

if i were in charge of writing the thing, i would have just made the game's plot be about finding human secrets from the get-go. like say the prophecy about the end of the world comes into play more heavily and that's the only way to stop it, something like that. i honestly think all the issues with the game feeling overloaded with random elements would be solved if they just made everything tie in to a centralized goal!

YES!!! unfocused is the exact perfect word to describe it.