Endless Ocean Luminous Reviews
Boring in multiplayer and frustrating alone, Endless Ocean Luminous is a tedious, aggravating slog that feels endless in all the wrong ways.
The SCUBA simulator has relaxing chill vibes for a little while but quickly runs out of oxygen.
Endless Ocean: Luminous attempts to revive a niche Wii franchise as an online exploration experience, and fails miserably in the process. In comparison to the likes of Subnautica, this is an empty, cold, and boring ocean space to explore, devoid of any real reason to play beyond its generally relaxing ambiance and the opportunity to learn some facts about underwater animals. Even taken on those terms, it's weak, its online play is basic and bland, and its story does little to engage beyond teaching you the ropes. It didn't need to be this boring, but it is.
Endless Ocean Luminous is a lovely adventure that lets you play your way, and rewards you with a relaxing feeling few games offer.
Endless Ocean Luminous declines to be the definitive underwater experience on Switch with little variety in missions and a slow progression system.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
With a little more attention, Endless Ocean Luminous could have been an interesting video game. However, as it is, it is merely a wasted opportunity: interaction with environments and sea creatures is stripped to the bone, while the direction is not exactly outstanding. It remains a relaxing experience, but it is not enough.
Review in Italian | Read full review
While Endless Ocean Luminous feels limited as a single player game, it works far better as a communal activity. Whether it's with friends or random players, Luminous is at its best when there are more fish (figuratively and literally) in the sea. There are a few things that hold it back from being truly transcendent, like the limited ocean life animations and the story's overall structure, which is told through all-too-short individual chapters. With that said, Endless Ocean Luminous doesn't make a big splash, but it does feel like a relaxing swim.
As laidback and undemanding as the Wii originals but in the modern age it seems restrictive and repetitive in a way that's unnecessary and even patronising.
Endless Ocean Luminous isn't a game for everyone. The absence of action or challenge for the player, along with a calm pace of play, may not please all palates. But if you connect with its proposal, as it has happened to me, you will discover a unique game of its kind, with more than what it shows at first. And catch the beast.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Everything about Endless Ocean: Luminous makes it a particularly Nintendo game: the chunky menu layout, the soothing AI voice, the tranquil music and the laidback vibes. That's emphasised by the notion that this is a deeply unusual piece of software, and one that you wouldn't find coming from the other major console manufacturers. It's a shame then that, unless you're an avid fan of marine facts, it's interminably dull.
Endless Ocean: Luminous’ calming ocean exploration and lovely multiplayer components wear thin due to slow progression hooks that turn every aspect of it into a long chore. With tons of features from previous installments missing, anyone who wants to see its miniscule story to its end will need to tread a lot of water to find the pearls.
Endless Ocean's procedural generation keeps its exploration engaging enough for a while, but its Story mode is poor. As long as you're willing to forgo plot (and any meaningful interaction with the species you encounter) in favour of exploring random underwater environments, there's still a good deal of fun to be had here.
Overall, Endless Ocean Luminous is an incredibly beautiful and immersive aquatic game. Slow loading screens and some monotonous tasks can take away from the immersion some, but for a cozy simulation of underwater exploration, it is a tranquil and fun experience.
Endless Ocean Luminous is not the dream sequel I always hoped for to Arika's beloved submarine series. The change of direction has favoured the co-operative component, but has mutilated the original experience of many interesting and distinctive features. The purely educational aspect remains, and the possibility of organising dives together with such a large number of friends is not to be underestimated, but I wouldn't recommend the game to those who are only interested in reliving the fascinating sensations of the original chapters on Wii.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Endless Ocean Luminous offers some agreeable laid-back moments, but a lack of depth and complexity, even compared to the 15-year-old Wii entries in the series, waters down the game’s appeal. Endless Ocean Luminous was always destined to be a niche product, but even the diehards may find the game’s narrow focus on procedural generation and unexceptional online play over almost anything else a bit fishy.
This is a pretty simple game to break down. You’re drifting through a beautiful ocean paradise, scanning marine life. Doing so teaches you more about them, and also saves the world. Getting to this story gets harder and harder as things progress. If you love the simple gameplay loop, you’re in luck! There’s so much of it to be had. But if this simple premise doesn’t immediately appeal to you, then this game will disagree with you completely. For the ocean life lovers out there, Endless Ocean Luminous will be a peaceful meditation and an extensive learning experience. There just isn’t a ton of gameplay to go along with it, is all.
Between going back to basics and modernization, Endless Ocean Luminous has the merit of bringing back to the large pool of the Switch a license dear to Wii fans.
Review in French | Read full review
The game does include a functional and robust multiplayer mode, where groups of up to 30 online players can dive together, but to what end? As the gameplay itself is so simplistic and the sessions poorly emulate real diving, the cooperative experience is fairly inane. Outside of enlisting others to hasten the progress of unlocks, there’s very little to this mode, and the same can be said of most everything that Luminous has to offer.
Endless Ocean Luminous offers pleasant deep sea exploration on Nintendo Switch, but the fish photography goes from soothing to boring far too often.
The lack of threat aside, Endless Ocean Luminous is pretty average. The graphics are fine, the mass multiplayer is cool, and the creatures are interesting. If you like to have a list to complete and a love of the ocean, then this game is perfect. If, however, you are looking for something that offers more than just a peaceful swim and a slow-moving story, then it may not be worth your time.