Nintendo Treehouse returns this Thursday with new Splatoon 3 and Harvestella gameplay

A Nintendo Treehouse August 2022 showcase has been announced, promising new gameplay for September headliner Splatoon 3 as well as Square Enix's bizarre farming RPG Harvestella. 

The August 25 stream was announced earlier today and already has a placeholder over on Nintendo's YouTube channel. The show kicks off at 9:30am PT / 12:30pm ET / 5:30pm BT. The video description confirms "a deep-dive into the all-new Splatoon 3 single-player mode, and an overview of stages and strategies for the upcoming Splatfest World Premiere demo." 

This Treehouse segment should give us a more in-depth breakdown of some of the features and maps teased at the recent Splatoon 3 Nintendo Direct, most importantly the Splatfest beta kicking off August 27. Players will be fighting on behalf of the new characters Frye, Shiver, and Big Man, and based on the community's response so far, our money's on Big Man. 

Thursday's Nintendo Treehouse will also feature "the world premier of live gameplay for Harvestella," a mash-up of Stardew Valley and Final Fantasy which is totally real and not a figment of your imagination. 

Harvestella, out this November, was one of the strangest titles at June's Nintendo Direct Mini. It's effectively combined comfy farming sim gameplay with an apocalyptic fantasy setting barreling headlong toward certain doom. It's got some Atelier blood in it, but the art and world could pass for a Final Fantasy game circa 2010. The whole thing is bewildering at first glance, and indeed second glance. We've seen gameplay before but frankly we still have questions, so hopefully this "live" showing can help make sense of the game's wildly different themes. 

Splatoon 3 will get "large-scale paid DLC" alongside two years of free updates.