After a fifteen-year silence, developer Arika released a long-awaited installment of the Endless Ocean series, bringing to life Endless Ocean Luminous; an adventure simulation game where players freely explore the expanse of the “Veiled Sea” and discover and learn about a myriad of sea creatures.
This game was released on the Nintendo Switch on May 2nd, 2024.
An endlessly generated ocean
Players have the choice of playing the story mode, or taking a freestyle solo or multiplayer dive.
You play as a marine researcher tasked with tagging fish and taking snapshots of them within the unexplored sea. In the story mode, players are accompanied by Sera, the assistant AI who aids with navigation and support. Sera points out to you the “World Coral,” which hosts a healthy variety of wildlife and is crucial to the survival of the Veiled Sea’s ecosystem. The research team begun “Project Aegis” in order to rescue the coral reef from succumbing to necrosis.
While exploring the depths of the ocean–specifically during the solo and multiplayer dives–the map is randomly generated every time. Essentially, players are not even exploring the same ocean . . . after ending a dive session, it is not like you can then go back and return to a previous location you explored.
For other games, the random generation works quite well and provides a unique freshness to the experience. Such is the case with Minecraft or Don’t Starve. For Endless Ocean Luminous, I feel as if this feature does not really add anything to the experience. If anything, it takes away from the continuity and geographical memory of the Veiled Sea. In reality, the landscape of an ocean does not fully shift every thirty minutes. It feels as if I am exploring different seas entirely every time, but not in an interesting way.
Low risk low reward
There are several things players are able to do in the game, and the vibe is overall relaxing and chill. You do not have any particular goals outside of the story mode, other than collecting sparkling items and taking pictures of fish you find in order to extrapolate data. Players can dive and swim, tag creatures, take snapshots, and permit some fish to follow you around. There are achievements and badges you can acquire, so while this is a nice feature for collectors, I believe that most people that play this game are just looking for something slow-paced and cozy.
Players can explore several different sea biomes, like kelp forests, coral reefs, and polar areas. There is said to be over 500 species of sea creatures waiting to be explored, ranging from marine life you could find in real life, to once-thought “extinct” species (e.g., the Megalodon) or even mythical creatures.
Lucky for the scuba diving researcher, players have no stakes whatsoever. The diver can never run out of oxygen, nor get too cold, tired, or hungry. Players cannot get hurt nor attacked by any creature, no matter how menacing. For the vibe of the game, this makes sense. Endless Ocean Luminous is supposed to be soothing and curious. For gamers who enjoy a challenge, or any sort of tangible consequence . . . then this is certainly not a game you would be looking for.
A sea of nothingness
Is Endless Ocean Luminous a relaxing and somewhat enjoyable video game? Sure. Is it a full-fledged, adventure game worth $50? In my opinion . . . not really.
The story mode, while nice to have in theory, is kind of irrelevant. It simply serves as a tutorial that teaches players in twoish-minute chapters all the different game functions. It is great to showcase all the mechanics in this format, but why disguise it as a story mode?
The story itself is much of nothing. Players are exposed to monotonous, uninteresting dialogue . . . and that is about it. The whole topic on “Project Aegis” and the “World Coral” only extends so deep, yet it implies that it is so important to the point if it were to fully die out, all life on the planet would perish. Not only is Project Aegis private information that the publish is unaware of, but I find it strange that only two divers are set out to learn more about the World Coral and find ways of maintaining its life. Most of the time, players are just taking pictures of fish anyways. It isn’t until several chapters in that Sera explains to Daniel and the player that you must fix the coral’s “geological veins.”
It is a sure nod to reality-based efforts to fight coral bleaching and ecosystem disruption. Endless Ocean Luminous attempts to be a learning tool, but these blips of information fail to elaborate and pretty much reinforce details that most people are already aware of.
The mechanics of the story mode are rather lame. Players’ movements are incredibly restricted, the instructions are sometimes unclear, and the friendship-rivalry with your coworker Daniel lacks dynamism. There were many moments where I simply skipped several chapters of the tutorial. I would rather just explore and understand the game myself.
Explore the unexplored
The solo and multiplayer modes are where Endless Ocean Luminous shines the brightest (though not by much). In the solo dives, players have near-absolute freedom to move around and explore the seabed and caves and reefs galore. There are random sets of marine creatures clustered in different areas, for example in a seemingly barren area I discovered a whale shark, several schools of fish, and had a “rare” encounter with the mythical shark Thanatos. Taking pictures of these creatures will give players information on that species’ habitat, diet, and size. There is not really any in-depth data given. While somewhat of a learning feature, it is not a full-scale encyclopedia.
Players are able to customize their scuba diver with different color options. You can also purchase more stickers to tag with and more emotes to communicate with on multiplayer. Players acquire currency by extrapolating data, salvaging, filling out the sea map, and harvesting bioluminescent algae. Some purchasable items are unlocked by attaining achievements, however.
In the multiplayer mode, you can play with up to 30 players online. This function does not add anything practical to the experience, but might offer some good vibes and the fun of learning together. The online play seems to run smoothly without issue.
Beautiful setting, in “Nintendo Switch terms”
Many people describe the graphics as rather breathtaking, but I was admittedly underwhelmed. When watching the trailer to Endless Ocean Luminous, I was expecting a magical atmosphere and a highly detailed appearance of the seascape. When actually playing the game, sure, the graphics are lovely . . . by Nintendo Switch standards. There is an overall fuzziness to the graphics because the Switch can only process so much. Though, the sea creatures and corals themselves are indeed impressively realistic. The details of the fish both large and small are quite mesmerizing.
There were times where the visuals impressed me, and other times where they were major disappointments. The Veiled Sea is pretty, but there are also so many spots on the map in which the sea is just bare and devoid.
The search for awe and wonder
When I would encounter groups of marine life, there was the occasional awe and excitement. I mean, fish are beautifully weird. Witnessing the menacing grace of the Rajas Emas coelacanth or the Lamba Apsara is quite the sight to see, especially when playing Endless Ocean Luminous on the big television screen.
Otherwise, the game just seemed to majorly lack a certain something. I never became fully engrossed into the atmosphere, and the style of it felt rather uninspired and nonmagical. In terms of underwater simulations, there are definite other titles that do deliver wonderous, artful experiences to the mysterious ocean depths, such as Subnautica, Abzu, or Koral. These games are equipped with their own sort of artistic choices and immersive charm. Endless Ocean as a series just does not seem to hold up. I think that Luminous should have done something more profoundly unique and make it stand out from its previous 2000s titles to be up in the running as a sea-inspired competitor.
Final thoughts
Once upon a time, Endless Ocean served as a novelty for an at-home diving experience. Now, despite its polished graphics, it is anything but a shell of itself. The fish are so nicely detailed, the soundtrack is chill, and the playthrough may be fun for half an hour.
Endless Ocean Luminous is going to have a hard time being someone’s first choice for an underwater simulation experience. To be frank, I think I would just rather go to an aquarium.
