Endless Ocean Luminous Reviews
Endless Ocean Luminous is a great return to the cult series of the Wii. Arika presents just the type of experience that that fans have been waiting for almost 15 years.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Endless Ocean Luminous is a mildly confounding product. On the one hand, it's still got that very compelling offering of hours spent drifting through gorgeous oceans and coming face-to-face with hundreds of stunning creatures, without complex mechanics or urgency to get in the way. On the other hand, the overall gameplay experience has been dulled down so much to feel like a backwards step, and the system of randomly-seeded dive spots dilutes a lot of its personality.
Endless Ocean Luminous continues the relaxing series, changing a few things but keeping the core mechanics in place. It's easy to lose yourself in this environment, though newcomers like myself might enjoy it moreso. I genuinely enjoyed my time in the water and will continue diving for some time to come.
Endless Ocean Luminous occasionally has some interesting moments, but it squanders its potential with tedious gameplay and a boring sea.
Endless Ocean Luminous is not a bad game per se, but not an excellent one either: you should enjoy it in small doses and, if possible, with the right companions.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Endless Ocean Luminous could be far better in a lot of ways, but as it stands it's good enough to have eked out a decent chunk of my time collecting hundreds of fish and hunting down the elusive mythical beasts!
Endless Ocean Luminous caught a lot of attention amongst fans of the series when announced. Those who enjoy long, peaceful diving sessions may well feel at home with Endless Ocean Luminous. It's a formula that, on paper, had a lot of potential to have opened up the flood-gates (pun intended) for a comprehensive diving experience - especially with the capabilities of the Nintendo Switch. Initially it's a bright and intriguing but drifts off into the mundane fairly quickly.
Endless Ocean Luminous is a title for those who seek a peaceful experience in a place filled with marine life, where the secrets of the ocean can be discovered in an interactive and educational way. Sadly, the game lacks options that could have made it more enjoyable and focused exclusively on exploration that can be too relaxed and at times even very repetitive.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
It’s ironic given everything I have just written above that I would never be game to go scuba diving myself. I can be pretty severely risk averse, and just like bungie jumping, skydiving, and motorsports, I’m not going to be jumping into the ocean depths anytime soon. That just makes me appreciate Endless Ocean all the more. It’s a chance to enjoy the qualities of scuba diving at their best (at least, as I imagine them to be), without having to actually put myself out there. This is a beautiful, serene and relaxing experience and I loved every second of it.
As long as you don’t approach it with a completionist mindset, Endless Ocean Luminous is a relaxing and overall fulfilling experience that is perfect for short solo gameplay sessions or group dives with friends. The limited variety in the procedurally generated maps means that the novelty of exploration will likely wear off for most long before they catalogue everything, and the story mode is disappointingly sparse and disjointed, but what it lacks in depth it more than makes up for in sheer volume of content. If you are looking to try something with a slightly different flow, this might just be worth diving into.
Endless Ocean Luminous is an enjoyable diving adventure in which you get to know many species of marine animals and the reason for their protection. However, the game quickly becomes stereotypical, and the story is incomprehensibly locked behind a series of generic and tediously repetitive quests outside of the story mode.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
At the end of the day, if you're not playing Endless Ocean Luminous to look at and learn about oceanic creatures then you won't enjoy it as there is little else to it. While not necessarily a bad game, it becomes less and less fun the more you play it and I wouldn't exactly call that the hallmark of a good game either. 🤿
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.
"The sea is full of fish. It takes a while to find them all."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
Endless Ocean Luminous is, in my opinion, quite disappointing. Graphically, the game looks good, and when you first start playing, it's really cool to explore such a realistic environment. Unfortunately, the game quickly becomes monotonous, as you're mostly occupied with scanning fish that you've already seen dozens of times. There's simply not enough to do to keep the game interesting and enjoyable. For me, it's definitely not worth the full price. I think I'll just pull out Scubakids again.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
The most beautiful part of the game is the soundtrack, which makes the experience much more serene. When I enjoyed the game, I had the music turned up during a dive. The ambient score was stunning and made the journey relaxing.
There are some positives to Endless Ocean Luminous. The game is very chill and has an enjoyable atmosphere. Every now and then, some background music will start up as you’re swimming along and I had fun and enjoyed myself more when it did. I didn’t hate the game and I do believe it performed as expected, I didn’t have any unexpected problems. Nevertheless, in the end, this game was extremely bare bones, quite shallow and not at all what I think old fans would want from a new Endless Ocean. It’s not a horrible game, but I expect better from this series and a $49.99 price tag. I’m disappointed in what they decided to release. You may find this to be an enjoyable enough carefree adventure should you find it on sale in the future. Still, I don’t know that I can honestly recommend picking it up if you’re an old fan of Endless Ocean from the series’ Wii days.
At the bottom of the sea we find a different experience, but one that quickly plays all its cards and is only recommended for fans of maritime exploration who are looking for as little challenge as possible.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
A practically non-existent story and some navigation problems are not enough to make this adventure go down the drain. With an immensity in the catalogue, the most sublime feeling of freedom and a realistic setting, this title is a great treat for marine enthusiasts and could even attract new explorers and perhaps go further, inspiring a new wave of scholars in the field.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Endless Ocean Luminous is a good option for those who love marine life and exploration with beautiful visuals, but its repetitive gameplay and poor in-game store can quickly become boring.
Review in Turkish | Read full review