Octoling

- This article is about the prominent species of octopus in Splatoon. For the enemy variant found in single-player modes, see Octoling (enemy).
- For other uses of the term Octoling, see Octoling (disambiguation).
Octolings, sometimes referred to with the hypochorism Octo[a], are a species of humanoid cephalopod, acting as the Octarian equivalent of Inklings, that became available as playable characters in Splatoon 2 after beating the downloadable solo campaign Octo Expansion. In Splatoon 3, Octolings are instead playable from the start, just like Inklings.
Background

Like the other Octarians, Octolings pertain to an evolved species of octopus that came to be after rising sea levels destroyed humanity. The long abandoned human settlement of Alterna is the birthplace of the species, after psycho-reactive liquid crystals infused with lingering human thoughts and feelings leaked into the ocean surrounding the settlement, unintentionally accelerated the evolution of octopuses and other species of marine life.
At least 2,000 years before the events of Splatoon, Turf Wars were established. The original Turf Wars were overseen by Judd, a cat that was cryogenically frozen by his human owner before the Earth was flooded. 100 years before the events of Splatoon, the Inklings and the Octarians of Inkadia engaged in a Great Turf War after otherwise having good relations, when rising sea levels caused disputes over the remaining territory. The young Cap'n Cuttlefish and his Inkling comrades were victorious, forcing the Octarians to retreat to desolate areas such as Octo Valley, Octo Canyon, and take up residence underground.
All playable Octolings from Inkadia began their lives in Octarian domes, eventually becoming soldiers in the Octarian military lead by DJ Octavio. Propaganda kept Octolings fiercely loyal to the Octarian lifestyle, however, during the final boss "Enter the Octobot King!" in Splatoon, the idol duo Squid Sisters performed the Calamari Inkantation to support Agent 3 during the fight. This performance inspired new feelings within Octoling soldiers that attended, and many began to long for the surface, eventually escaping and assimilating into Inkling culture, hoping to start anew.
Some Octolings, however, namely Mashup, are implied to have families which have lived on the surface prior to the mass assimilation of Octoling soldiers. The Octolings from the Splatlands also seem to not have experienced segregation from Inklings, having instead always coexisted peacefully, with Shiver being stated to come from a family that used to supersede Splatsville's traditional festivals for generations.[1]
Appearance
- For a visual overview of character customization options, see Player Settings.
Like Inklings, Octolings can switch between a humanoid form and an octopus form.
Their octopus form is slightly different from the ones enemy Octolings have, with two long tentacles, two much smaller ones in front resembling a mustache, and four smaller ones on the underside, along with a pair of eyes resembling that of an Inkling squid's, albeit not connected. Their tentacles have suction cups located on their underside, as opposed to their humanoid form having them on top; their tentacle tips, like the top of their heads, have a darker gradient and a small ring pattern on them.
When splatted, they will fly off in the form of a small ghost, just like Inklings; while their eyes appear white in Splatoon 2, they are yellow in Splatoon 3, resembling those of the ghosts of enemy Octolings. The general UI also shows the difference between player Octolings and Inklings, with features such as the weapon and status indicators, the mini-map, splat messages, and splatted enemy markers replacing the squid icon symbolizing the player with one that depicts an octopus.
Their humanoid forms are similar in appearance to that of Inklings, sharing body and face proportions, skin tones, and eye colors; between Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3, Octolings undergo design changes reflecting their squid counterparts, appearing slightly taller, and having more rounded and less squat faces.
Like Inklings, Octolings have black eye markings with a thicker underline, although not connected in the middle and with sharper corners; feminine Octolings have an additional eyelash on the bottom outer corner of the markings. Their teeth are also differently set, with one sharp fang tooth on the left of the top row, and another one on the bottom right. Unlike the Inklings' pointed ears, Octoling ears are rounded; they also are asymmetrical, with the right one being flat and the left one being indented, each respectively resembling an octopus's fin and siphon. Contrarily to Inklings' squared fingertips, theirs are instead pointed. Their eyebrows are also different from those of Inklings, being generally rounder and more curved.
Just like Inklings, Octolings are able to choose from a variety of skin tones, hairstyles, and eye colors. As seen in The Art of Splatoon, they were originally going to have Inkling masks and floppy ears like a dumbo octopus.
In Splatoon 2, both male and female Octolings can choose between two hairstyles. The female Octolings' first possible hairstyle, called "Tentacurl", has two thin tentacles in front reaching past the shoulders and two thicker, shorter tentacles in the back, all with curled tips. The second hairstyle, called "Pony", has two tentacles tied back into a ponytail, with the other two as sideburns. The male Octolings' first possible hairstyle, called "Punk", features a mostly shaved style, with one large, curled tentacle and three smaller tentacles lined up along their head to create a mohawk, possibly referencing the Octotrooper tentacle. Their second hairstyle, called "Afro", is a round mass reminiscent of a simplified octopus's mantle. This hairstyle notably molds while wearing headgear.
Splatoon 3 has four new hairstyles, to go along with the previous ones, with them all being available to both styles. The first one, called "Tentatwists", has the front tentacles being twisted in spirals. The second hairstyle, called "Octolocks", is similar to the Tentacurl hairstyle, but with the tentacles growing from the middle of the head instead of the right side, and the back tentacles being conjoined together by a mantle structure. The third hairstyle, called "Fade", is shaven all around, akin to the Punk hairstyle, but with four tentacles curling together towards the center of the head. The final hairstyle, called "Surfcurl", is also similar to Punk, but replaces the mohawk with a much thicker tentacle that has been curled into a spiral, strongly resembling a pompadour.
Some non-playable Octolings, like Marina, Shiver and Tao Blu, have special features, such as uniquely colored tentacles, different eye and eyebrow shapes, and infinity symbol-shaped pupils, which look like the ones found in real octopuses.
Like enemy Octolings, many of them also have colored fingertips and toetips, reflecting their ink color (like in Marina's case) or not (like in Shiver's); this feature has also been made available for playable Octolings for the first time in Side Order. As seen on Mashup from Diss-Pair, they can have a different color on each hand's fingertips. In some pieces of artwork, Octolings who normally have this characteristic are shown without; conversely, playable Octolings were seldom shown having colored fingertips in artwork prior to Side Order's launch.
Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion
The Octo Expansion DLC story mode introduces the mysterious Octoling character Agent 8, allowing players to use Octolings in multiplayer for the first time upon its completion. The male version of Agent 8 is also the first appearance of a character which is clearly shown to be a male Octoling in-game.
When the player completes the Octo Expansion, they will be able to change from being an Inkling to an Octoling in the player settings. Playable Octolings have different animations for trying on gear, winning or losing, and for taking photos with amiibo. According to the Squid Research Lab Tumblr, Octolings are more serious than Inklings and have an interest in technology. For example, instead of aiming with weapons, they will look more closely at them to see how they work, they wave around their phones and look at them more closely, and their icons in battles are not seen smiling. Due to have been defecting from the Octarian army, their animations around Inkopolis Square make them look curious and almost confused.
Their losing animations in Splatoon 2 seem to suggest that Octolings take defeat worse than Inklings, as they tend to collapse and shake their fists if boys, or cross their arms if girls; when winning, they usually strike proud poses, as opposed to jumping for joy like Inklings do.
While both types of characters are called "Octolings" in English Octo Expansion material, the Japanese version makes a notable distinction between the player Octoling, called タコ tako (the word for "octopus"), and the enemy Octolings, called タコゾネス Takozonesu (portmanteau of タコ tako and アマゾネス Amazonesu, "Amazons"). The latter specifically refers to the older-aged, all-female unit that only a select few of the former can become.
Splatoon 3
Octolings appear as playable characters in Splatoon 3. Unlike in Splatoon 2, their animations do not differ from Inklings, and those present in Inkopolis Plaza and Inkopolis Square appear to be fully integrated with the surface lifestyle. Furthermore, both the Octoling and Octoling Octopus amiibo appear to speak with proper grammar.
Gallery
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Trivia
- After unlocking Octolings in Splatoon 2, their default appearance in the Player Menu has them have pink hair, while Inklings have green; prior to this, these colors are used for girl and boy Inklings respectively. The background's animation also adds octopus icons swimming along with the squid ones.
- In this circumstance, Octolings are shown to have different animations for girls and boys, unlike Inklings, who share animations between genders.
- Attempting to enter Octo Canyon as an Octoling switches the player to their last used Inkling character, which corresponds to Agent 4. The same happens with Inklings entering the Deepsea Metro, as only Agent 8 can access it.
- The Squid vs. Octopus Splatfest was the only way to play as an Octoling in Splatoon 2 without purchasing Octo Expansion. Players would become their team's respective species in battle, but their avatar would remain the same as usual when in Inkopolis Square.
- According to Famitsu's Splatoon 2 anniversary developer interview[2], Octolings were revealed to be planned as playable since the start of the game's development; in an older interview[3], playable Octolings were stated to be considered a possibility even before players started hacking them into Splatoon, but the development team wanted an explanation for why they were suddenly playable and a reason for players to empathize with them, which led to the creation of Off the Hook and Octo Expansion.
- Splatoon 2's art director, Seita Inoue, has stated wanting the Afro to be the default hairstyle for male Octolings. The hairstyle also appears to have been conceived as available for girls, as shown in concept art.[Citation needed]
- Concept art of Salmon Run in The Art of Splatoon 2 depicts Octolings fighting together with Inklings against early versions of Salmonids, further showing them to be planned as being playable early on.[Citation needed]
- Early models of the playable Octolings have been found as early as the Splatoon 2 Global Testfire, where the male Octolings have a hairstyle close to the finalized Punk, while the female model uses the enemy Octoling hair.[4] The models were removed from the release version of the game, but entries for the player model type still exist in version 1.0.0.
- In promotional artwork and videos, Octolings are sometimes erroneously shown with physical features pertaining to Inklings; to name some, the cover for Weekly Famitsu's September 26, 2024 depicts an Octoling with pointed ears and squared fingertips[5], and the announcement trailer of Splatoon 3 shows an Octoling with a Hydra Splatling having Inkling-like teeth. This latter error was later corrected in other promotional artwork on Splatoon 3's official Japanese website.
Names in other languages
Language | Name | Meaning |
---|---|---|
オクトリング Okutoringu |
Octoling[b] | |
Octoling | - | |
Octaling | From octarien ("Octarian") and -ling | |
Oktoling | Octoling | |
Octoling | - | |
Осьмолинг Os'moling |
From осьминог os'minog ("octopus") and -ling | |
Octoling | - | |
章鱼 zhāngyú (Mandarin) |
Octopus | |
章魚 [6] 章魚圈 [7] zhāngyú (Mandarin) Zhāngyú quān |
Octopus Octopus ring | |
문어 Mun-eo |
Octopus | |
Octoling [8] |
Translation notes
- ↑ As in the title of Octo Expansion and the song Fly Octo Fly, as well as in the lyrics of Suffer No Fools
- ↑ Known as タコ tako ("octopus") in Splatoon 2 and sometimes in Splatoon 3
References
- ↑
Ask the Developer Vol. 7, Splatoon 3–Part 3 - News - Nintendo Official Site
- ↑ Famitsu - Splatoon 2 one year anniversary developer interview
- ↑ Interview: Hisashi Nogami on Squids, Kids, and Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion | Nintendo Life
- ↑
@OatmealDome - Early Octoling boy hair
- ↑ File:Weekly Famitsu 26-9-24 Cover Art.png
- ↑ Splatoon 3
- ↑ Name for Octoling (Blue) amiibo at
nintendo.com.hk
- ↑
Leanny on GitHub
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