Aquatic-based games have always appealed to me. The serenity of the ocean and the vast amount of creatures you can explore and discover have been crafted throughout gaming history with Ecco the Dolphin, Beyond Blue, Abzu and Subnautica, to name a few.
The blend of underwater exploration, sea creature scanning and world-building are all key ingredients to making the ocean feel real. In ARIKA’s new game Endless Ocean Luminous, none of this applies. After spending 25 hours diving into the depths of Luminous, I’m still asking myself the question, what exactly is the point of this game?
Get Ready, Explorers!
In Endless Ocean Luminous, you play as a diver, exploring the Ocean to scan and catalogue sea creatures, collect treasure and complete random missions on a mysterious tablet in the Veiled Sea. Each mission will drop you randomly into different areas and offer up a variety of sea creatures for you to scan. While there is no specific path to follow, you do get a mini-map in the corner of your screen, but the objectives of each story mission don’t exactly point you in the exact direction you need to go.
That is why it really comes down to whether this game is for you or not. If you need a specific goal, mission and path to go on, you may get frustrated at this game’s loose guidance and goals.
The exploration is, as the game implies, endless. You use your scanner to catalogue each sea creature and fish you encounter. Previously, this game series had two titles on the Nintendo Wii, with the sequel Adventures of the Deep Ocean offering further progression by healing animals, etc., so it feels a little redundant that this long-awaited sequel feels like it’s taking the series backwards.
While the gameplay mechanics may feel a bit dated, the visual and audio aspects of the game are where Endless Ocean Luminous truly shines. You’ll find yourself swimming and diving through meticulously detailed coral reef beds on the ocean floor, exploring intricate cave systems with ancient ruins and shipwrecks.
These environments are brought to life on the Nintendo Switch system, particularly impressive considering the console’s advanced age. When you scan a sea creature, you’re treated to a close-up shot that showcases the beautiful animations. The streaks of sunlight and water ripples are incredibly realistic, enhancing the game’s immersive experience and making the endless ocean feel truly alive.
Scan and Scan Again
There are over 500 species to catalogue, including fish, dolphins, eels, whales and sharks. When you perform the successful scan, you are treated to a short paragraph about the animal, what it likes to eat and where it lives. Regrettably, this is about as much as you get. The devs had an opportunity here to make this a proper education tool, and it, unfortunately, falls short of offering anything more than a glimpse into the creature. Taking away the ability to interact with the animals also adds to the feeling of separation you get from this game.
There is a story mode that offers a large number of missions for each player. Unfortunately, these are delivered in short bursts, only taking about 2 or 3 minutes to complete. These essentially act as a tutorial to show you the mechanics of the game and the controls before becoming increasingly challenging to unlock the next round of missions. Each dive you complete will earn you research points and coins, which can help you upgrade your character. As you do this and level up your character, you can purchase emotes to use in the online co-op, decorate your wetsuit and change its design and colours.
Dive Together
The game offers a multiplayer mode, where you join a 30-person online multiplayer diving session. Each player’s scan contributes to the team’s collective discoveries. I tried this a few times during my review session and had no connection issues or lagging during my play.
While a solo dive can take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes to complete, the multiplayer sessions can often be much quicker, with other players able to track down the hard-to-find fish often a lot quicker than I could.
Final Thoughts
Endless Ocean Luminous showed a lot of promise but was ultimately disappointing. The promise of an ocean-exploring game, especially after the progression in the previous title. While it has been 10 years since we last had an entry in this series, the gameplay feels like it has taken a massive step backwards rather than forwards. Fortunately, a lot of attention to detail has been given to the graphics and the design of each creature.
Even with the ageing Nintendo Switch console, you can see the incredible detail put into each frame of this endless ocean. If you are looking for an easy scanning game, this is the perfect one, regrettably Endless Ocean Luminous doesn’t offer much beyond that.
TWO STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Gorgeous visuals, Solid multiplayer
Lowlights: Lack of variety in gameplay, Missions are too small and don’t entice you to keep playing.
Developer: ARIKA
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Available: Now
Review conducted on Nintendo Switch with a pre-release code provided by the publisher.
