Endless Ocean Luminous Review (Switch) - Like Shooting Fish Down the a Barrel of a Camera Lens

Genuine excitement was my first reaction to the Nintendo Direct reveal that developer Arika was bringing back Endless Ocean, the Wii series that’s all about scuba diving and interacting with marine life. The first game in the series was a hidden gem, a low-key 2008 exclusive that might have appealed to a niche audience, but accomplished its goal of providing a relaxing, feature-rich diving simulator suitable for the Wii’s ‘blue ocean’ casual audience.

Just two years later, Endless Ocean: Blue World improved upon the original game in every conceivable way. There was a decent storyline, treasure hunts, dolphin training (and riding), an island to decorate and explore, aquarium management, pacifying hurt animals, unlocking gear, and that’s just scratching the surface. It was a feature-rich experience with hundreds of species to discover and a humongous map to explore. There were even secret areas you could only unlock with the right animal companions. You could easily spend over 200 hours with Blue World.

So you can imagine that when Endless Ocean Luminous was announced, fans were through the roof. Neither of the Wii games were smash hits, but they have a dedicated cult following, and since there was a ton of improvement from the original to the sequel, fans were sure that we would see the return of most, if not all, of the features.

You’re here to do one thing, and that’s to dive (and scan)

Well, as it turns out, a proper evolution of Endless Ocean Blue World’s gameplay might have been too much to hope for. Instead, what Endless Ocean Luminous provides is a stripped-down version of the experience with a strong focus on multiplayer gameplay and sharing your “Dives”. There are only three modes in the game. First off is the extremely barebones Story Mode with very short missions. It also significantly gates your progress based on the number of species you’ve scanned in the other modes. You’ll be aiming to save a seemingly sick ‘World Coral’ whose fate is tied to the oceans themselves. There are also massive kaiju-like fish that you can get up close to and scan.

Second, there’s the Solo Dive mode, which is where I spent most of my time exploring the Veiled Sea. The maps here are randomly generated, but they are massive and each will take many hours to fully explore and scan. There’s still secrets to be found, such as legendary creatures and bits of lore to uncover, but they are infrequent enough to feel special when exploring a Dive site.

On top of all of the solo diving, if you have a Nintendo Online account, you can also embark on a Shared Dive, where up to 30 other players can explore a massive map together. You can host or join other players if you have their Dive Site ID. While it’s theoretically possible to dive and explore together, the maps are expansive and quite vertical, so chances are you’ll barely interact with others aside from marking and following others’ markers to discoveries such as rare species and buried treasures. The tagging and sharing of markers is a brilliant system, but it takes some time to be able to get animal companions to follow you around. This is a game that’s meant to be played for the long haul, even though it only really focuses on one simple loop.

The selling point here is obviously the marine life you encounter, and in this sense the game delivers in spades. There’s an abundance of creatures - over 500 - and finding new ones and reading up on them is always exciting. There are megalodons and great whites. Ammonites and spider crabs. And somehow they all live together in one massive sea in great clusters and basically ignore one another while doing one or two signature actions. The models are lovingly rendered and animated in great detail, and there is a photo mode for taking snapshots of the sometimes incredible variety of creatures on-screen at once. For the endgame, you’ll be expected to scan over 8,000 creatures.

Simple pleasures, simple controls

Endless Ocean Luminous controls the way I wished the first two games did. You’re fairly flexible
and swimming is never a struggle. Controlling your diver is painless. You can press B to boost your speed by kicking, and the twin stick maneuvering makes quick turns easy. These are the best controls in the series, which is a big deal when you’re underwater. 

Presentation-wise, the music is soothing and often ethereal and transporting. It’s not always on, but when it kicks in, it helps you along even when things might start looking repetitive after hours of exploration. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a variety of environments - caves, tunnels, underwater volcanoes, shipwrecks of many sizes, reefs, etc.

The game is not graphically significant, but the lighting engine is pleasant enough, and the models are the clear highlight. The music is sublime and relaxing, setting the mood without being distracting. Playing this game felt like a form of meditation, an unwinding. T’was good vibes all around.

If spending hours doing nothing but swimming around, scanning for marine life, and scouring the ocean floor for treasures sounds like fun, this might be the game for you. I thoroughly enjoyed filling out my log and exploring Dive Sites, but missing key items in such a vast, omnidirectional environment might be frustrating to completionists who want to max out every Dive Site (it’s not worth it, move on). While the game is listed at full price in most regions, I think this ought to be a budget title, so I am giving it this slight recommendation on the caveat that it will likely drop in price eventually.

It has been slim pickings for Nintendo fans recently in terms of first-party content. Even so, I would only recommend Endless Ocean Luminous to fans who are already madly in love with marine life and to whom spending countless hours swimming and scanning sounds like a relaxing evening, and not simply a meaningless grind.

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Verdict: 3/5 (Great)

PROS

• Beautifully rendered marine life for miles

• Relaxing soundtrack and chill general vibe

• Finely-tuned controls

CONS

• Fairly aimless and repetitive gameplay

• No challenge whatsoever

• Story Mode feels unfinished and sloppy

• Totally barebones experience. No side missions, animal helpers, etc.

What I’ve Played 

• 10 hours of diving

• Scanned over 9,500 different species

• Beat the Story Mode

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