Endless Ocean Luminous

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 takes you deep into the sea to encounter various species and make you feel like a qualified researcher. Learning basic and valuable facts about different species and leveling up is fantastic, but the gameplay experience can be repetitive. Endless Ocean Luminous isn't a title for every user. You have to enjoy science and the sea in general.

Endless Ocean Luminous is a relaxing deep dive into something beautiful, though admittedly niche. This is a simple, yet, elegant experience that not everyone will appreciate, but those who do are in for something unforgettable.

Endless Ocean Luminous is a welcome return to the series. It offers a fun story mode, enjoyable multiplayer, and an abundance of creatures to discover. However, the repetitive nature of the game may begin to wear on you after a while.

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.

Endless Ocean Luminous is not a game for everyone. The absence of action or challenge for the player, together 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.

Endless Ocean Luminous provides an immersive and moreish deep sea diving experience with an impressive variety of biomes, over 500 species of sea creatures to catalog, treasures to collect, and mysteries to solve. And it’s all backed up by a staunch pro-environmental message.

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 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.

An accurate online multiplayer submarine exploration experience that focuses on discovering marine wildlife and relaxation. The loss in sound quality compared to its predecessors is evident, as is the increase in the amount of content available and a wealth of collectibles to keep you entertained for dozens of hours.

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.

If you like marine life and are hungry for knowledge about it, Endless Ocean Luminous is a fairly complete game. Thanks to its great range of collectibles and its calm and relaxed gameplay, it can be a good option to invest many hours if you are part of its target audience.

Endless Ocean Luminous is one of those niche Nintendo titles that isn’t for everyone. However, for those with a fascination for the natural world who can find the right flow state, there’s a world of discovery waiting for you in the forever blue waters of the Veiled Sea.

Endless Ocean: Luminous is a highly unique and beautiful game that can serve as relaxation software for all ocean enthusiasts. Although it lacks almost any gameplay challenge, the loop is very addictive. However, it quickly reaches its limits, especially if you play alone.

Endless Ocean Luminous is worth the plunge, and, along with other experiences like Nintendo Labo and Game Builder Garage, demonstrates a commitment to broadening what Nintendo Switch can offer beyond simply being a “games” console. It’s a welcome change of pace from the regular bustle of modern-day gaming experiences, offering a relaxing underwater diversion that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Endless Ocean Luminous offers a relaxing, beautiful underwater exploration experience, ideal for short sessions with no specific goals in mind. Despite its monotonous structure and lack of variety in procedural elements, its online multiplayer mode enhances the gameplay, making it more enjoyable by promoting cooperation.

Endless Ocean Luminous declines to be the definitive underwater experience on Switch with little variety in missions and a slow progression system.

A lo-fi ocean adventure for those in need of calm, monotonous focus, Endless Ocean: Luminous provides an experience that is entirely low stakes, low risk, and low reward. It’s incredibly soothing to dive in and chase down a huge variety of aquatic creatures through the game’s diverse, atmospheric marine environments, but anyone looking for a deeper narrative will be left high and dry. Check this out if you’ve got the funds and don’t mind fumbling through a bit of jank to reach your zen state of mind.

Endless Ocean Luminous occasionally has some interesting moments, but it squanders its potential with tedious gameplay and a boring sea.

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.

Endless Ocean is the granddaddy of the cozy game, and there are some great chilled experiences to be had here. Diving with a bunch of people, uncovering mysteries, plus cataloguing and photographing some of the ocean's cutest and most disgusting creatures is a lot of fun. However, the grating AI-voiced story and the near-essential requirement for online to get the most out of it goes against the chilled vibe for which the series is known. It is a game somewhat at odds with itself, but deep down, it is a relaxing, chilled experience one that you can share with massive group of people.

Endless Ocean Luminous is less a game than an experience. If you want to explore the diverse ocean life in a very relaxed manner, you might be strongly tied up to the atmosphere. But if you want to be challenged at least at a minimum level, this is nothing you need to play.

Despite the lack of variety, the diving trips in co-op mode are still fun. Solo gameplay, however, is a tough affair. The story mode doesn't deserve its name and is not more than a mere accessory.

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.

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.

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.

Endless Ocean Luminous lets the player loose and, at the same time, blocks its progress by imposing limits to the story progression by requiring exploration in its free diving modes. But you only need a few hours of gameplay to understand the game's true goal: to offer a relaxing and therapeutic experience.

Luminous doesn’t lend itself to long sessions of scuba adventures – it just doesn’t have the depth for that. But as an antidote to the pressurised atmosphere of modern life, it acts like a cleansing bath.

At once expanded yet stripped back (or focused, if you're feeling generous), Luminous might not quite be Endless Ocean as we knew it, but it retains enough of the series' distinctive signature that it's worth taking the plunge. [Issue#398, p.120]

It’s unfortunate that a niche series has finally made a return after so many years in a market that should be more receptive to its charms, only to make some big changes that significantly weaken the overall package. There’s still something to Endless Ocean Luminous, things you can’t find in this exact form anywhere else, but the loss of a properly designed world to explore and the sometimes tedious nature of the tasks it requires of you make this a difficult game to recommend with much vigor.

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.

Endless Ocean Luminous is a game that leaves survival mechanics behind to offer a relaxing experience in which we are invited to discover sea creatures and treasures. However, after a while it will become monotonous, we have no challenges or other things to do.

A return to the exploration of the oceans, their ruins and treasures that is done with enthusiasm and a few surprises, even if the challenge is superficial.

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.

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. The story of the game is simple, and only unlocked in small pieces after scanning hundreds and thousands of creatures in the open dives, showing that the story really isn't the focus. Experiencing an unknown world taking place underwater, even if not entirely realistic, is what makes Endless Ocean Luminous a charming simulation game.

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.

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.

I don’t see much replay value in Endless Ocean Luminous, nor do I see enough to keep players occupied or interested for the long haul, aside from perhaps the multiplayer offering. If you’re nuts about fish then this is probably a game for you, but if you’re looking for anything more than an artificial aquarium simulator, you might be disappointed by how shallow it is.

If you love, or are very curious about marine life, and if you're looking for a casual water exploration experience (I think it lacks excitement to be called an adventure), this works like a relaxing, occasionally fascinating interactive documentary that will pacify your own mind and body before going to bed.

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's procedural generation keeps its exploration engaging enough for a while, but its Story mode is extremely 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.

Endless Ocean Luminous’ highs come early, with a relaxing atmosphere and excitement of seeing new sea creatures and learning about them. Those highs quickly drop off and what you’re left with is an often frustrating, bland game that completely abandoned what made the series special in the first place.

We eagerly awaited the return of Endless Ocean. Unfortunately, Luminous has largely disappointed expectations. The gameplay and level design are so ephemeral that relaxing while exploring the seabed is too boring and lacks any appeal.

It's difficult to fully enjoy yourself in the waters of Endless Ocean Luminous which, even in multiplayer, make us feel very alone. The latest underwater exploration game struggles to appeal on a fun level and provides the minimum on an informative level, which is nevertheless a major attraction of the component. Let's remember, however, that the ride is intuitive and rather comfortable, especially as it is lulled by very pretty music.

Endless Ocean: Luminous invites players to dive into a serene underwater world, offering a relaxing and visually stunning exploration experience. The game’s calming atmosphere and beautiful aquatic environments make it a perfect escape, though it might not appeal to those looking for more action-packed gameplay. It’s a tranquil adventure that encourages players to just keep swimming, ideal for those who enjoy peaceful exploration and marine life.

Like previous games in the franchise, this one is also incredibly relaxing to play and even educational here and there. Still, we can't get around the fact that it is not too engaging, which is due to the long load times and because there is fairly little to do and unlock. It's all not that special and on top of that, audio-visually it can be a bit shaky.

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.

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.

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 lacks heart. It’s a shallow take on a franchise with a lot of potential to be special, especially on a handheld console like the Nintendo Switch. If you’re looking for a chill way to pass the time or if you have a child who is interested in learning about marine life, I’d recommend trying it out. But you may be disappointed if you’re looking for anything more than that.

Oh dear, what happened there? Instead of a triumphant return for the series, Endless Ocean Luminous unfortunately is only a shadow of what made its predecessors so brilliant.

As far as franchise revivals go, Endless Ocean: Luminous doesn't put its best fin forward.

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 delivers its familiar formula of underwater exploration under a relaxing premise. It does several things right - namely its online multiplayer, which allows sharing discoveries with up to thirty players, and its well written soundtrack that fits nicely with the game's concept. Nevertheless, the single player experience quickly runs out of steam and ends up feeling too repetitive due to a lack of stimulation and repeat of the same objectives and actions. The flaws of Endless Ocean Luminous end up weighing more than its positive aspects, in an experience that runs out of motivation too soon and too easily.

Once upon a time, Endless Ocean served as a novelty for an at-home diving experience. Now, despite its polished graphics, it is anything but a shell of itself. The fish are so nicely detailed, the soundtrack is chill, and the playthrough may be fun for half an hour. Endless Ocean Luminous is going to have a hard time being someone’s first choice for an underwater simulation experience. To be frank, I think I would just rather go to an aquarium.

While I did not run into any bugs amidst my time playing Endless Ocean: Luminous, and it did run at a very comfortable 30fps, it just adds up to an incredible disappointment and doesn’t really have much going for it. It’s a downgrade from the Wii titles in basically every conceivable manner, and I sincerely cannot recommend it, especially for a $50 price tag. If you have the option, please just go find a copy of the second game at a secondhand shop for $15. I promise you it’ll be a better experience.

My time with Endless Ocean Luminous was endlessly frustrating. Rather than providing a relaxing, undersea escape, Luminous’ repetitive tasks and uninspiring environments are boring and forgettable from the start. The ridiculous, random requirements to advance the story feel inconvenient in multiplayer and nearly impossible if you’re playing alone, and the story I was rewarded with is so brief and shallow that it fails to make any impression at all. I’ve always been mesmerized by the ocean, but Luminous turns the deep blue into something deeply monotonous.

Endless Ocean Luminous sells itself as an immense blue expanse, but its developers seem to have forgotten to create enough content to broaden the player's interest in returning to repetitive scenarios with fish that look more like robots than the game's artificial intelligence. The tedious experience is made worse as you progress through the basic story, which doesn't justify the large number of hours spent scanning an exaggerated number of marine animals.

If you're looking for a game where you can control a scuba diver and occasionally see a fish, you're in luck. If you're looking for ANYTHING more than that though you're going to be deeply disappointed. A step down from Endless Ocean's original Wii entries, Endless Ocean Luminous has you exploring a version of the ocean depths so boring and devoid of detail that it may as well be the background.

Despite its name, Endless Ocean Luminous is frustratingly shallow.