Pomelo Punch Beats an Octarian Boss in Her First Hours of Splatoon 3

NIJISANJI — Pomelo Punch, a Nijisanji streamer, played Splatoon 3 for the first time on Monday, working through the game’s single-player stages and defeating an Octarian boss during a 137-minute stream. She opened by announcing it was her first time with Splatoon.

She said she is prone to motion sickness in 3D games and had taken medicine beforehand. She said her younger sister owned Splatoon 2 and 3 but never let her play them. In character creation she searched for the closest match to her own punch-colored hair, calling the result very close, and settled on a hairstyle she liked. She learned the controls as she went, noting that her Zelda habits kept making her press the wrong button to jump.

“My heart is pounding right now.” — Pomelo Punch, after clearing a stage with a single chance

An elderly adviser in the game’s town asked her to look into the disappearance of the town’s big power source, which he blamed on the Octarians, and she was paired with a companion, Kojake. Around the 41-minute mark she reached the boss, DJ Takowasa General, and dodged its attacks and painted the arena to beat it in about six minutes. She then moved on to timed and key-hunting stages, collecting in-game currency and using it to power up Kojake.

Her tensest moment came near the 108-minute mark, in a survive-until-time-runs-out stage that allowed her only one hit. She made it through with seconds to spare. She missed the optional currency pickup but said the one-shot clear mattered more.

At about two hours and 14 minutes she decided to stop, leaving some stages on the first island unfinished. She said her next stream would be a morning one on Tuesday, and that if she streamed in the evening it would be Splatoon or Breath of the Wild.