Endless Ocean: Luminous Nintendo Switch Review - Is It Worth It? 

It’s a shame they didn’t take more from the sequel. Having a more robust story mode and a customizable aquarium would’ve been perfect with the online setting. Just imagine being able to visit your friend’s aquarium and dive in it. Maybe even allow you to create tank decorations and caves for the fish to hide in. There is so much potential for this series and I hope Nintendo will give it another chance.

So no more going on land? I always loved emerging from the water in EO2 and finding seals, penguins, etc. I'm also surprised they got rid of air tanks, and the gun to calm down aggressive animals. Upgrading all of the gear was a great aspect of EO2. If it's bad guess I'll just replay that again

Not gonna lie. This laid back, slow paced collectathon exploring sounds right up my alley

$19.99 maybe. But Nintendo doesn't know what a sale is.

Probably not a game that'll appeal to everybody, but this game contributes to Nintendo's mantra: diverse genres in their games.

I always saw endless ocean as a interactive experience to learn about sea life. There are no stakes because the focus of this piece of software is to be a immersive learning sim.

The thing is this game really doesn’t feel like an endless ocean game. I grew up with EO2 and played countless hours finding all the fish, treasures, and gaining enough pelagos to reopen the cavern of the gods. Just the whole vibe of having a team of divers go on an adventure across multiple different seas, meeting up at the island or aquarium, unlocking all the different diving gear. It’s just not here at all. The controls feel different too. Never would I find myself wishing a game had floatier controls, but here I am. And yea, I get that this is more laid back and doesn’t intend for the creatures to be dangerous (even though they added Thanatos and multiple large, dangerous marine reptiles), or have scary situations, but that’s also something EO2 excelled at. When I play subnautica, I’m afraid that a leviathan will kill me. When I play EO2, I’m afraid I’ll find something in the depths that I shouldn’t. This game had so much potential to expand on a bigger story, have more unique designated areas to explore (rather than one big randomized area), have a campy yet endearing cast of characters, and have more secrets to find. Seriously, I was shocked when I started to find many of the named mythical creatures from EO2 within the first hour, having done absolutely nothing. I remember having to do puzzles and waiting for full moons and following birds across the world to find certain creatures. I don’t know. This game is certainly its own experience, but it seems far from an endless ocean game…

Honestly, I loved the first Endless Ocean game because it was relaxing. No oxygen, no sharks that can attack you. Just swimming, interacting, exploring, salvaging. The second one gave me way too much anxiety with their “attention!! Something is going ti attack you!!” sound and symbol.

Not all games need tension. Sometimes, just having a purely chill experience is just what someone needs. Endless Ocean was about that jam. I don’t remember picking up Endless Ocean 2 but I don’t remember that doing anything with more tension than just cataloging deep sea creatures. The great thing about the first game is that it took advantage of the SD card slot on the Wii and allowed for custom music. Just load up some chill tunes, which today would be some bomb ass lo-fi, and just mellow out under the sea with the fishies.

Personally, I LOVE the fact that I don't have to worry about being attacked. I love the relaxed atmosphere of Endless Ocean, and I never finished Blue World due to the fact that you could get attacked and run out of air. The only thing I'm not really thrilled about this game is the fact that the map resets after an hour. I would prefer a world that doesn't change. That way they could put more effort into making the environment the best it could be.

I got a pre-order for this game and Paper mario, for someone that work alot of hours, having a chill game before sleep is always nice. So, i can't wait to try it. Maybe i'll not like it, but at least i'm willing to try, i love underwater games.

So it sounds like the reviewer was more focused on what kinda games they wanted versus what the game is. They made a laid back explore game

Only thing I wanted out of this game was a relaxing ocean scanning game, sounds nice

This feels cool, but the price should be a smooth 24.99.

I'm still gonna give this game a go. I want to play a game where I'm not getting murdered under water. I'll play abzu or subnautica if I want that. 😊

If I want high tension fighting I’ll play Monster Hunter; if I want to relax I’ll play Endless Ocean or Animal Crossing

I’m sorry it disappointed you. Luckily the description you gave was what I was expecting so I do plan to pick it up, but I can see your gripes with the game and agree they probably should have put some more time into it.

I loved endless oceans 2 on my Wii - I was so excited when I heard this was coming however there doesn’t seem to be much of a ‘story’ like endless oceans 2 had which was my favourite part of that game because you were always going into these areas with an objective as almost a dive archaeologist and some danger and ‘scary fish’ involved too With it being more a group game without much of what I liked in endless oceans 2 I’ll likely give it a miss unfortunately unless it goes on a good discount

I’m still trying to find all the fish in ACNH 😂😂😂

I was a massive fan of Blue World.... this strips SO much out and leaves only the bones. No more customizable reef, more aquarium to manage, no more dolphins to name and train, no more interesting characters with their own specialties, no more salvaging, no more picture challenges, no more calming sharks and caiman, no more walking on land for extra animals, no more island to customize, no more scuba business to manage, and worst of all no interesting story. The story of Endless Ocean is honestly slept on. It's a world spanning mystery with phenomenal characters and steller locations. I'll eventually play this, but I'll buy it on sale

It's soulless. You don't interact with the creatures you meet, there's no hubworld like the ship in EO1 or Nineball Island in EO2. No Hayley Westenra to grace us with her songs as we explore, just a stupid AI chiseling away at our eardrums. No dolphins to befriend and partner up with to aid us in finding hidden, tiny lifeforms or treasures on the seafloor. The story is waaaaaaay too slow to progress (e.g. scan a million fish to progress for two minutes of the next chapter) so it doesn't capture my interest. It would have been way better if the Endless Ocean prequels were ported over onto the Switch instead of this hollow, empty, insulting, soulless excuse that dares to call itself a sequel to one of best casual gaming series ever produced by Nintendo.

It sounds like the reviewer went into this expecting Subnautica (as he repeatedly compares the two), and graded the game accordingly. This isn't Subnautica. It's Endless Ocean. Relaxing dives, exploring different areas trying to identify all the fish and find all the collectibles is what this game's about. Sure, there could be more of a story mode, but nobody comes to these games primarily for a deep, engaging story. And the aggressive animals from the second game were a bit divisive - I personally didn't like them, so don't mind seeing them gone. Overall, people come to this series for the relaxed diving and beautiful scenery. And that's what this game delivers, by all accounts (even this one). Also, this reviewer left out important details. There are additional sub-missions and puzzles that give more structure to each dive for those who want/need that. There are incentives to keep exploring. I'd recommend anyone interested check out some other reviews online. At least then you'll get a more accurate picture of what's *actually* on offer here, rather than a guy repeatedly comparing a game that's all about relaxation to a more challenging survival game and complaining about the lack of challenge. Not the best take, NL. Thankfully, reading the comments, it seems most other fans of the series also see the flaws in this review and remain hyped for the game anyway. May 2nd can't come fast enough!

I guess I'm the audience because a relaxing educational experience is exactly what I want from this game

The people excited for this game wanted simple quiet underwater exploration. This game is exactly what the developers wanted to make and the people who like Endless ocean enjoy.

I pre-ordered two copies of this game to play with my daughter. I love this type of relaxing collectathon, and my kid loves to learn about animals. I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun exploring together. Not every game needs to end with a boss fight.

I’m not a “graphics snob” or someone who needs top tier visuals to play a game, but honestly I think a game like this needs it. I love the idea-never played the first two-but I don’t see enough here to buy immediately. Maybe when there’s a good sale.

So is this game basically Pokémon Snap but you swim around instead?

I already pre ordered. So stoked for this. Im gonna grab some wine and sit in the dark in my room and swim around the ocean.

So... does this mean you dont level up equipment and dont need to worry about Oxygen? You can just.. go?

the 2nd Endless Ocean had so much more to do. Walking on land, building an aqauarium, stunning agressive animals to cure them, taming dolphins. what a shame this new game sucks

I get what the reviewer is getting at, but it’s kind of the whole point of the game, no?

These games aren’t supposed to be high energy games they are swimming exploring games. You aren’t fighting enemies here and nothing has ever come close to it for me. I read a review that Abzu wasn’t actually a game that would fill the hole Endless Ocean left after I finished the second one.

I see the endless ocean series as an interactive encyclopedia, you swim and discover thing and then you can read about your discoveries. it doesn't have a ship but did the encyclopedia exist in this one ?

I feel like the environments don't give enough atmosphere/realism. I remember the old games used to even scare me in the deep parts.

Shame it doesn't sound like the aquarium feature is returning but having to fight off sharks was my least favourite part of the last game. This does sound like what I want, could potentially still deliver for a niche audience

Wait, you're complaining that the controls are pick-up-and-play easy? Why?

Seems like the same kind of thing that happened between Style Savvy and Fashion Dreamer. I'll wait for a few more reviews, but I might just wait until I can pick it up cheaper second hand.

i think I'll still pick it up but from all the reviews this looks on par of what a Wiiware game would have been on the Wii. I think a lower price like 25$ would have been perfect for this game

Looks like something I'll check out on a sale. It sucks to see such a huge amount of content and gameplay removed from the last title. Feels like the big focus here was just finding a way to implement multiplayer

thank you for the review. this let me know that this game (as i feared) is probably a shell of its immediate predecessor. its been years since i played Blue World, but 10 year old me loved it, and i’m confident i’d still find it compelling today. to hear that this game doesn’t have at least an equally interesting narrative (with fun and relatable characters) i’m full of disdain. also i know its not technically possible considering the switch obviously has better hardware than the wii, but Luminous also looks worse to me visually (not sure if its the nostalgia goggles at work).

I understand where the reviewer was coming from cause honestly I can't see any of my friends picking this up, but even when described in such a negative light, they mentioned the reason of why exactly I want it. Just a chill self-made documentary to play at the end of the day 💙.

Seems like a nice "loading" game. The one you play for 15-20 minutes while you decide which game you really want to dive into for the evening.

Man, I loved this game on Wii.

It's completely valid if someone doesn't like a type of game. But that person would really not be a good fit for reviewing that type of game. This game might be good, bad, or mediocre. But we'll never know from this review because the reviewer doesn't seem to enjoy the type of game this game is trying to be to begin with.

I think what held this game back was the fact that the actual gameplay and story are completely separate from each other, and the fact that you can explore everything the sea has to offer right away without having to work for it. I should feel awe when I discover a trench, ancient ruins, or a huge whale, and I did in the first two Endless Ocean games, but for Luminous, I just... don't.

I will give credit to the music in the background, it sounds really beautiful. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Lake Lamode from "Super Mario Odyssey" when you're underwater.

Easily one of my most anticipated games this year

Oh wow, had no idea a game like this existed :’) I was just telling my sister the other day that some of the games I had been playing, like Majora’s Mask, just felt too difficult at times when really what I wanted to do after work some days was to just relax and explore 🐟

So unfortunately, it sounds like they took everything fun from the first and second games (story, characters, varied map designs, treasure hunts, companions, land exploration, hub customization) to turn this one into just a multiplayer diving sim. What a shames. That's what happens when the devs don't know its own franchise or fanbase.

The biggest problem with this game is that you have to find all 99 mystery board items just to complete the main story. These items are randomly hidden in randomly generated maps. You can spend hours and hours and hours exploring all different kinds of maps and never find any new mystery board items.

this is my very first Endless Ocean game seems like a very chill game just swimming about and looking at fish !

This game is much better than this review. It feels like the reviewer barely played online dives. Online dives is what makes this game great. I have over 20 hours and can’t wait for the next 20.

Watching you rush about scanning like 20 different things all at once, not stopping to look at what you've uncovered just shows you didn't get this game at all.

After watching a couple reviews I have cancelled my pre order. I can't justify full price day one purchase. Might be good to pick up on decent sale down the road.

It sounds like they didn't keep a lot of the things that made Blue World so great, which is a real shame. I've been hoping for years they would continue endless ocean but it sounds like they didn't really give it the time it deserved. I wonder if we could get a port of Blue World to the switch? With all the other games they've brought to the switch, it's not like they can't do it. And I think all the new fans who enjoy luminous will love Blue World all the more.

Honestly feels great to play an endless ocean game again! Played 1st and 2nd game. Less scary and more just relaxing. I have talked it up to a lot of my friends who need something to help with anxiety. But have been honest with others whom are more geared toward an game like Subnautica. They want action and story and lore! Excitiment and this game is not that kind of game. Outside from missing out on the aquarium and dolphin training. I feel this edition nails the endless ocean vibe and themes. I love it to pieces even after playing four days straight! You described this game extremely well. It’s appricated. And agreed. This game is not for everyone. It’s defiantly a chill vibe. Not for action, but for relaxation! Appriacte your video!

I want an exploration game like Endless Ocean... - as polished as Subnautica for movements in the water... - with realistic looking, with good lighting ambiance & audio... - with the possibility to hunt fish & be hunted by sharks (or worse). - with the possibility to find treasures and sell them to upgrade (like Blue World) - with the possibility to go on shore, and walk around your base and explore caves. Imagine the fun.

I grew up with Endless ocean and it's always been one of my favourite WII games ever. I was a huge marine biology nerd and I still love games where you get a open world to explore. I'm thrilled knowing that I'll be able to play it on the Switch with new things to discover 😊

The question is, how does it stack up to the old games in the series?

I would appreciate a mention of how it compares to the previous Endless Ocean games. I really liked them and the description here seems... pretty similar to those games. Is this worse than those? Have you played them?

Why do the graphics look so bad compared to the trailers they were showing

I Play endless ocean for the story so hearing this it's kinda disappointing 😞

i hate how dismissive people are of the reviewers on this one. it sounds like a lot of old fans were dissapointed in changes too, just not all of them. its ok if you still wanna play it, theres nothing to prove, go enjoy your ocean vibes.

Anything like the 360/3ds era sounds perfect to me...that was a time when games were actually good.

How is it. The game that came out on the Wii over a decade ago, has more content and stuff to do?

This game is so pretty. I can’t wait to get my copy of Subnautica!

I typically find Nintendo Life gives more gracious scores than I would. Most of the time, if I take the score they gave and subtract 2 from it, that's closer to how I would have scored it. Seeing them give this a 5/10 is very discouraging because I was trying to hype myself up about picking it up this week because Nintendo's release calendar has been so dry this year, and I love that the Switch allows me to check out franchises I never checked out before. The only thing that gives me hope that I'll enjoy it is I'm the type of guy who plays Metroid Prime and my FAVORITE part is scanning everything and filling up the catalog. So maybe I'm in that tiny niche of people that loves exactly what Endless Ocean is trying to do.

Endless Ocean 2 was almost everything I wanted from the series, and for them to just. Remove all that great content? Its honestly sad.

Oh dear. I loved the two Endless Ocean games on Wii and was really looking forward to this one. I guess I won't be bothering now. Certainly not at that price.

Kind of seems like No Man's Sky does all of these things with more stuff to do. Probably looks about as good too. Guess I'll just stick with that.

Wow, this review is off the mark. This isn’t Abzu and thank goodness.

So there isn’t any sort of story or economic progression like EO2? That’s didsapointing?

So, you're giving it a low rating because it's too chill?!? What's next? Giving a farmer a ticket for driving the antique tractor too slow? There's little action, because it's not an action game! There's no danger or tension, because it's not a horror game! Not everything has to be a big, bold attraction! Sometimes, a more laid-back alternative is desired. This isn't trying to be the next big phenomenon. Consider this; an atmospheric appetizer before the thousand-year entrée. [Edited 04/30/2024, 2:15 PM EST]

This is the kind of game that should have been delayed until they had more impressive hardware. Would have also given them more time to add extra mechanics.

Something about this review feels a bit off and the reviewer comments seem to be suggesting that it is not video-gamey enough. Everything you described along with the visuals and the sound seemed spot on to me. In fact it seems exactly what I was hoping for. I am definitely going to get this game.

Losing gorgeous hand designed levels for bland procedural generated maps is a massive downgrade, in a game where exploration is the entire game, that choice deincentivizes not just exploring but the entire gameplay loop

I'm ~endlessly~ curious about this game! I was hoping this would be a Zion fare!

This makes me really sad. I haven't really spent time in the first game, but I put hours into Blue World, and I think that game is genuinely good! It had an interesting story, varied locations, you had a home island to come back to, you could go on land, dive suits had unique variations, the soundtrack was amazing, and so much more. As excited as I was for this game, I was a bit skeptical, and it seemed they were really only advertising the multiplayer. Turns out, it looks like that's all this game really has going for it. It's just sad to me to see a series with such potential wasted. I will probably still buy it, since I love this series, and hope it gets another game that is good, but I am disappointed.

Do you guys think a newcomer would enjoy Blue World more or should I start with this when it's on sale. I'm very down to just mindlessly swim around in the gameplay loop

Sounds like the reviewer (not Zion, the guy that wrote it) completely missed the point of this game. To chill - with the fishies.

There's nothing wrong with very chill games like this and just exploring and looking for sea creatures. Not everyone wants games with a huge story, in depth gameplay, etc plus after a long game sometimes we just want to lay back and play something like this. What bothers me a lot about this reivew is the comparison to Subnotica as well as Abzu. If you are going to compare it to a game maybe compare it to the first two on the Wii 🤷

This game was made for Felix, not Zion. Zion can’t dive.

This game looks utterly incomplete tbh.

Sad to hear it didn’t impress you Zion. I’ll be trying it out still but definitely would have appreciated more gameplay mechanics :/

Subnautica might be an off choice here in terms of genre, so let's look at Feather instead. All you do is fly around a landscape as a bird - but that experience is dotted with so many small details that I could relax for hours. You can try and stay just above the surface of water and kick up a wake, or dive under and find your bird got a fish. Or explore the island, find caves and swerve through trees - even special rings that change the song or the colour of your bird. Stuff like this makes it a great game to relax to, and compared to what's on show here - an empty landscape with a couple fish here and there and some random exploration elements that makes this game feel like a backpedaling from the original experiences on Wii (not to mention those frame drops) - show that "relaxing" games do not need to be monotous or empty or lackluster in content and appearance to be relaxing and enjoyable. No but seriously go play Feather. Its a beautiful game, its on switch, and its relatively cheap. If you want to relax, go get Feather. Its gorgeous.

This man's negativity towards this game is so unbearable I had to simply stop after five minutes to comment. The entire first five minutes felt like nothing but complaints because it wasn't what he envisioned. A lack of understanding leads to him seeing little light in this game which is truly a shame. Different people like different things and that's fine but this game was meant to be a laid-back "cozy game" where you can explore the ocean at your own pace and that's what's freaking him out. A review for a game should be about the game and not about what the game should be. I can't watch more of this as his negativity is giving me a headache but I see this game as a relaxation and exploration game and that's the gaming experience I'm looking forward to.

"Why doesn't my relaxing diving game have game over conditions? I'm a gamer. I HATE relaxing!"

I loved the original Endless Ocean and was excited for this. I had to turn off the AI voice it was so bad and doubt I'll spend more than a few hours on this game 😔

So what I'm gathering here is: this is basically an interactive aquatic Wikipedia game that they charge $50 for? Honestly, I think I'd rather play Buzzy the Knowledge Bug on Windows XP!😂

I was pretty much on the fence on buying this game from the trailers and sales pitches. It just seems like there isn't much to do except move around in a sandbox and read trivia. I haven't played any of the old games, but have watched the older ones and wish this one was like the older games and had more to do or different options for people's preferred playstyle. An in-depth story mode with a whole bunch of different locations and set events as well as a narrative would be nice. They could even get creative with map design and hide creatures in nooks and crevasses to make the player explore and 100% their journal as well as let the player replay chapters if they missed a creature and want to go back and find them. Some sort of defensive combat against hostile creatures would make the game more interesting and would make the sea feel more life-like and inform people on which creatures are dangerous and which ones are harmless. From the looks of it, this whole game looks like it should be a free-dive mode in the game where nothing hurts you. A mode like that is good, but I feel like it needs more modes to make it good and worth the price tag. being able to set if creatures can attack or not would be nice. Especially in multiplayer, it would be neat if players could help each other stop large, threatening creatures or simply choose to nope out of battle while another player deals with it. Another neat thing could be a mode or objectives in multiplayer diving, like find and scan specific creatures within a time limit. Then if you complete the objectives, you earn points to unlock new cosmetics, emotes, etc. Maybe areas on land would be cool as well? Maybe you can have a beach house that you could customize with furniture and show other players or you could simply walk along the beach or go to an aquarium you can customize and add and remove fish to show off the ones you've scanned? Maybe have extremely rare fish that show up on certain days, certain times, specific seasons, or during specific types of weather in game? I'm probably going to skip this game since there doesn't seem to be much to do.

Played for an hour so far, why did reviewers hate on this? The aquarium would've been a nice addition but everything else has been wonderful. Guessing I'll find out with time, does bother me that i don't think i can get islands explored except via caves

Imagine hating the game cuz its so relaxing 😂

Pretty sad that I’m starting to not be able to rely on reviewers anymore. This review is basically saying you wanted subnautica 3 and missed the point of this game. I can tell from all your jitteriness you must have some personal thing against this game or you have to play something that’s fast paced or else you’ll lose interest quick.

This is a cozy exploration game. It's supposed to be relaxing and captivating. There's not supposed to be much "to do" and I plan on relaxing into this game all summer long.

I guess I'm just gonna fire up my Wii and replay blue world until luminous drops in price substantially or I can get it used. It honestly seems so disappointing compared to what cane before it😢

I wish they made a game like this for the other consoles where better graphics is possible. Especially when the focus is on exploration and getting lost in the world, it's more difficult when the visuals are so underwhelming.

I'm expecting fish exploration although with features taken out it should be 30 dollars and under.

I actually laughed out loud at asking for movement options. Guys, you did not understand the assignment.

It not supposed to have action it a chill series

5/10 Damn. Cant wait to pick it up!