Yeah, the entire story mode so far just feels like a tutorial for the game or something, not an actual fleshed out - immersive plot line. The biggest reason I’m talking about it so much is because of the uniqueness and quality the other games brought!💕
I hear what you're saying, and even agree with many of your pros/cons. But as someone who also put countless hours into both previous games, my overall conclusion is actually somewhat the opposite. You say Luminous isn't "Endless Ocean." I feel like Luminous offers the very core of Endless Ocean - but only the core. That core being a totally relaxed experience of swimming around, scanning / learning about marine life, collecting treasure, and taking cool photos. Those are the things that drew me to the first two games, drew me back to this game (well over 100 hours and still playing daily), and will draw me into any future entries in the series. With Luminous offering more species than either of the previous two games, as well as semi-random maps, the photo album to fill up, "variants" of UMLs to find, large/small sizes of each species to hunt down, community events that tweak the marine life algorithm even more, etc, it's hard to argue the core experience of diving and looking at fish isn't there. The thing is, the first two games offered a bit more "dressing" on top of that core experience. EO2 in particular added a lot of additional features, including some (like aggressive creatures) that were a bit divisive amongst earlier fans, but which attracted an even broader audience to the game. Because of that, Endless Ocean, while always a bit niche, ended up drawing players from slightly different target groups. Some played it mostly for the (admittedly cool, for the most part) dressing. Things like the story, an occasional adrenaline rush from aggressive creatures / low oxygen levels, or the ability to change up what they were doing from time to time for more variety added a lot to the game. This was always a series about chill diving, but all of that extra stuff brought in players who ended up disappointed when Luminous stripped it all away to offer "just" the core diving again. I absolutely get why so many were disappointed with this game. Heck, I'm disappointed with many of the missing features. But this is still Endless Ocean. It's just the core of Endless Ocean, and nothing more. For me, that core is the main reason I play, so I'm able to put as much time into Luminous as I did the previous games - if not more. But for others, it just isn't enough. It really depends on what each person wants/needs from the series, and if they're a long time fan, why they played those earlier games.
I am so grateful that you shared your own thoughts here even though they are different than ones mentioned in the video! Everybody has a different experience and opinion from the game, and your views make total sense💕 it really does give off more vibes from the first game with the more laid back and peaceful diving, it definitely returned to its roots with the no predator feature. Thank you so much for sharing!
i completely agree, i liked the stories but always played and loved this series as primarily nature exploration games. i actually preferred dive discover dream. i like the random maps in luminous, and the prehistoric creatures are the best...i just wish there was more customization, human characters, and a proper 'home base', like an island, boat, etc. also the music is seriously disappointing but, unlike acnh, i can always turn it off and listen to my own. and i wish that there was an option, like in blue world when you talked to Hayako, to see what creatures (or even biomes. I'm missing lots of fresh water stuff) were in the area so you didn't have to explore the entire map every time!
@@MandysGamingGarden Thanks. You definitely made a lot of good points in your video, and I agree this game definitely feels more similar to the first entry in the series than the second. While I am having fun, I do miss some of the second game's features. That said, my hope is that the devs were using Luminous as a way to "test the waters" when it came to interest in an older series that was admittedly niche even in its prime. They may have chosen to do this by releasing a stripped back entry near the end of the Switch's lifecycle before hopefully making a more fleshed out version for the Switch 2. Since Luminous seems to be selling fairly well (it's been near the top of the charts in the US and elsewhere, and seems to be regularly out of stock at various retailers), I'm thinking a strong signal has been sent that a market absolutely exists for this series. Fingers crossed we get the full sequel we've all been dreaming of in the next year or two!
@@cyanoticpsychic5585 I agree 100%. I'm having a lot of fun, and was pleasantly surprised at the QOL update we received a few days ago. That gives me slight hope the dev may provide further QOL updates if enough people continue playing, participating in community events, etc. In addition to the things you mentioned, I'd love to see an indicator while scanning that tells me whether or not I've already photographed that species. I'm trying to fill out my in-game album with decent quality photos of every species, but there were a few rare species I failed to take pics of earlier in my playthrough and couldn't for the life of me find again. That led to me needing to fully scan every group of fish, then scroll through the entire list while watching to see if the green checkmark on the camera icon at the bottom was missing for any of them. I somewhat fixed this by eventually looking up map IDs online for the few species I had already found but failed to photograph, then taking pics of them. Now I'm able to move forward knowing that the only fish I haven't taken pics of are the ones I haven't discovered at all, so they'll have the "question mark" circle when scanning. That way I can cancel any scans that only have "normal" circles, and go about my swim finding treasure and doing other dive related things. But the addition of something like a red camera icon within the circle of any non-photographed fish would be super helpful and would have saved me needing to re-discover the few species I failed to take pics of the first time around. In any case, thanks for the comment. You brought up a lot of great ideas. Here's hoping we see at least some of them implemented, either in this game or (hopefully at least) the next.
@@nicked_fenyx yes I've had the exact same issue with trying to get all the photos, endless scrolling! at this point i try to double check my species log and remember based on that. i didn't even notice the quality of life update, lol, what were the features? another thing is i wish that the stickers etc didn't cost so freaking much. but it'll probably even out eventually if i keep playing and IF i try for the million dollar achievement 🤑
My overall thoughts of Endless Ocean: Luminous: It’s a pretty good game, but the story wasn’t as good or enjoyable like the first two. This one does not have the magic that the first two Endless Ocean games had. I won’t be harsh on Luminous, especially now that I’m apart of the Endless Ocean community and dive club. After diving with a lot of other Endless Ocean fans, it showed that even Luminous brought back a whole community after 15 years.
To me, it feels like we got Endless Ocean 0.5, instead of Endless Ocean 3. I like what's there (except for Sera's AI voice and her annoying interruptions), but there is so much missing, not just in terms of content from the previous two games, but charm, soul and heart. Still, I've had fun with the game for what it is and enjoy all the prehistoric fish, UMLs, relaxing atmosphere and character customisation. I think the story mode is a lost cause, but there is still room for them to add in features like an aquarium, animal training, above-water exploration etc. Even if those things end up being single player features, I'm sure fans would be happier. Arika needs to lose the mentality that every feature in the game has to serve the online multiplayer. Unfortunately, I can't see them updating the game in any major way, as they probably consider it a failed project, but I guess time will tell. Here's hoping the Nintendo Direct next month will prove me wrong. I will say that being a part of your Discord has greatly enhanced the experience, as sharing experiences, photos and tips with others players has added an extra sense of community and fun to the game (and it helps that you're all nice, friendly people). Overall, great job with the video and I love what you've done with the thumbnail! 😄
It does feel like Endless Ocean 0.5! That’s a great way to put it. Honestly, even though I do have some negative things to say, my intentions are not to hate on the game because it is very cozy, there are just things that made the other games so sweet to us that were left forgotten in Luminous. Mostly because a lot of stories nowadays are thrown together, it seems to just be the new norm😌 Thank you so much for the kind things you said about this community, I am so grateful that you stumbled upon it and enjoy it🫶 so grateful that you are here! And thank you so much for the amazing photo that I could use for the thumbnail😍
Great review. Pretty much agree with what you've said. This feels a bit more like Beyond Blue though, but I'm not complaining. I'd be happy if Endless Ocean 1 and 2 were remastered on the Switch. 😛
It does feel like Beyond Blue! But if I’m being honest… I felt more EO nostalgia playing Beyond Blue than Luminous😅 the story in BB was short but sweet and they definitely put a lot of care into it. I want to replay it!
Yeah it definitely doesn’t give the same feeling as the other two games, honestly so many old games seem to surpass the new ones nowadays and in my opinion! That’s why I love playing the old stuff🩵
@@M00nlightOfficial my friend, in my personal humble opinion, blue world was so much better than both the first game and luminous. Here’s what I would put in order from worst to best: (1.) luminous (2.) EO1 (3.) blue world Why? Well, luminous, even though the maps are different, you are not rewarded by completing the app, you only get a code to share with others and that’s pretty cool, but here’s the thing, the environment makes absolutely no sense, I found a giant squid, my first time playing luminous out on a shallow, coral reef near the surface of the water for absolutely no reason, that is not where squid usually live. I also found freshwater fish inside of the ocean, luminous has so many problems with the right environments with the right fish, it also has a problem with representing salvage items, in EO1 you were unable to sell them, but you at least had a reaction of sorts or a revelation, after finding each piece of treasure, or an explanation behind each piece of treasure. In blue world, the treasure you can sell and trade to make money, and you can even complete treasure quest, but luminous, there is absolutely nothing to do with treasure, except reading the descriptions of each piece that you find. There is no mysteries behind the treasures. In EO1 you only had one ocean, but you are still chasing after some thing to get to the bottom of, you were still discovering temples, and finding legends and stories and building a friendship with Katherine on the boat. In blue world, you start to have a friendship with even more characters, rather than just one, and you get to travel around the world, and even the fish were all in the right environments and you were even able to go on islands, and on top of the ice to pet penguins, and be a part of an aquarium. Both the first and second game had goals to build something up. unfortunately, with luminous, nobody is chasing after a dream, nobody is chasing after a legend, you’re just finding random pieces of treasure that have no correlation with each other, or the story, the only quests only have to do with the world coral, and the world coral is not a very creative story because we’ve heard something similar like this in National Geographic it has nothing to do with the correlation with the song of dragons or the ancient mother, or anything of that sort. The only reason why I love luminous is because I get to dive with other people, and I can scan fish and learn more about them, that is literally all. All three games have everything to do with that, but luminous is the bare minimum, there is no actual adventure, it is all boring and gray area within that. Idk why Arika decided to make a surprising and unexpected, endless ocean game, prizing everybody and then letting a lot of people down. I only have two theories: it’s either the fact that it’s their last game of the endless ocean series, and they are giving up on us, or they made a quick cheap game like this in order to save up money to make a better endless ocean game like the first two, that’s all I have to say. But also, like the first person said, the beautiful, magical, enchanting soundtrack is completely gone, there is no Celtic women, there is no Hayley Westenra, there is no beautiful thing, it’s bland. But I will admit, sometimes I love playing this game if I have enough time in the day, and I just want to relax and swim around and learn about fish, otherwise, no, this is not the game for actual adventures. As a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with the first two games, because there was so much excitement and legend behind it, and now there is absolutely none, they even butchered some of how the legendary creatures looked. Even the okeanos guardian has glowing green eyes when he didn’t before.
Like, on the topic of story mode, compare the stories of the first two games to this. EO1 story- Discovering a new species of whale. EO2 story- Uncover the Cavern of the Gods and locate the Pacifica treasure. Both pretty low-stakes, but the stories themselves were still pretty fleshed out despite it. Now we have: EO3 story- Harvest glowing algae and locate weird fantasy animals in order to PREVENT TOTAL GLOBAL EXTINCTION. Luminous’ story is simultaneously the highest stakes plot in the series, but also the least fleshed out. As if the game itself doesn’t even care about its story.
I’m sorry you were so disappointed by the game…🥺 I agree, the story always felt like the biggest enjoyment of the games for me personally (on top of the beautiful diving experience of course), so to experience Luminous for the first time and see that the story wasn’t a priority was disappointing!
I was cautiously optimistic for this game and it was still a let down. I played it for a couple of days when it first released, and just haven't picked it back up again. I got so bored. I feel like all the maps are just regurgitations of each other. It's all the same few ships and monuments and caverns. I wish it hadn't gotten stale so fast
I won't lie, I'm pretty damn disappointed. I think there is something here that can still be enjoyable if you are indeed big into marine biology. But this just kind of feels like an interactive fish tank, and it's barely interactive other than just scanning things. I prefer literally everything that endless ocean 2 does over anything this game does. I think if it was like 20 to $30 and it was marketed just as a spin-off of the franchise and they expanded a little bit more of the interaction and purpose with multiplayer dives and just made that the focus, that could be something unique Otherwise for $50, I feel pretty ripped off. I have found it to be quite the opposite usually with the procedurally generated maps. I get a lot that have nothing interesting at all in them and then repeat the same areas multiple times in one map I don't know I was just hoping for better endless ocean 2 I guess. And this most definitely isn't that But it's staying installed on my switch, it's indeed still something you can just hop into while you have a podcast on in the background, or something to play for a little bit before you go to bed I just can't recommend this to anybody for full price
your thoughts totally make sense and I agree! Definitely crazy that it’s a $50 dollar game, I played less money for Red Dead Online and Minecraft ??? Crazy how much the prices have gone up! Thanks so much for your comment and for sharing your thoughts on the game!💙
"Story" mode is a joke. The AI voice (hate it) and Danials lack of personality don't help. No investment in the "story". Love the rest of the game! Fish look awesome! But the cost to unlock all achievements is ridiculous. I think it'll cost about 20 mill to unlock everything. I'm 130+ hrs in and only have 1 mill+.
