I have a soft spot for the Endless Ocean franchise. Back in the Wii era those were two of my favorite games because they were so relaxing. Taking a dive, discovering the ocean guided by incredible music and chilling on the boat with a couple of my favorite animals. There was a certain charm about the games and I was beyond happy when Endless Ocean Luminous was revealed for the Nintendo Switch. With the extra power of the Switch, this has to be the best Endless Ocean game to date, right? Well… Let’s dive in.

A strange introduction

When I first started Endless Ocean Luminous I was taken by surprise. The game no longer has a central HUB where I could chill and plan my next dive. Instead of a boat or tiny island, I was greeted by a rather boring menu which really took away a big part of the charm. For me, Endless Ocean is all about relaxing and taking the edge of a busy day at work. The previous Endless Ocean entries managed to offer this immediately thanks to the HUBs so I wasn’t that happy to see those traded for a generic menu. Now, nothing lost just yet, time for my first dive. In the menu you can choose between shared dives, solo dives or story. Because I wanted to relax, I picked the solo dive first and noticed some more changes to the formula. Luminous doesn’t offer a vast open ocean but uses randomly generated maps with ever new dive. They also traded some of the realism for fantasy by adding prehistoric and even fictional species. I don’t really know if I like that to be honest. Sure, the information you can read with every scan is pretty fun and you learn a lot about prehistoric life but if I’m being honest, I just want to learn about the animals that I can encounter in real life. It’s a personal issue for sure but it made it even harder to immerse myself in the game. A bigger issue are the randomly generated maps.

The charm of the Endless Ocean franchise is the exploration of a vast ocean, with each new dive, you’ll venture further and discover more secrets while you’re slowly discovering the ocean. With those randomly generated maps it’s a bit hit or miss. Some maps offered great exploration and species to scan while other maps felt empty and reused certain assets. Discovering the same shipwreck on two different maps isn’t that much fun. I don’t now, Luminous feels like a strange step back when it comes to the solo experience. The vast open ocean is gone and there’s no way to chill in between dives, it feels more like a pitch than an actual game and I can’t deny I’m disappointed.

Story mode

So, the solo dives aren’t that thrilling but what about the story mode? In this mode, you’re part of team who’s diving into the Veiled Sea in order to save a rare coral. Sound like a noble mission but in reality, it’s a lot of grinding. The story itself is a fun addition but the gameplay mechanics behind it are lackluster. You’ll spend most of your time swimming around in circles, scanning everything you see before you can advance. Progress is locked behind those scans and you’ll often have to pause your exploration to do some additional scanning in the other modes. It’s a weird choice if you ask me, scanning isn’t that thrilling and when you have to do it more than 500 times it’s just too much and takes away the fun. The story mode comes with a lot of frustrations and I never managed to unwind and relax, something this franchise is known for. It’s a good idea on paper to have a story mode in an Endless Ocean game but if you can’t come up with better gameplay mechanics, you shouldn’t have bothered including this mode. I gave up on it the moment I was forced to scan an unrealistic amount of sea creatures.

Multiplayer to the rescue

With both solo modes being less than what I expected, I wasn’t too eager to dive into the multiplayer mode but luckily I did. Multiplayer is the selling point of Luminous as it’s the only mode that does things right. You can play with up to 30 other divers and explore a generated ocean together. Finding treasures together and pointing out rare fish is both as fun and relaxing as it should be. Sharing the diving experience with others online works like a charm and performs well on the Nintendo Switch. In multiplayer there’s no clear objective, it’s just casual exploration where you’re scanning fish and searching for mysterious artifacts, no story, no pressure just fun. That’s exactly what the franchise is about and I’m happy to see that they captured the essence of the franchise in multiplayer. The only downside is the timer that’s limited to one hour so you can’t dive around countless of hours but it’s a sacrifice worth making. The points you earn during multiplayer will give you access to cosmetics to really make your diver stand out of the crowd. It’s super casual but super fun.

Conclusion:

Endless Ocean Luminous is worth diving into for the multiplayer experience. It’s a shame the solo adventure is a step in the wrong direction for the franchise and offers more frustration than relaxation. I can’t shake the feeling that this game could have been so much more but sadly I can only recommend it for those who will buy it for the multiplayer.

6/10

Tested on Nintendo Switch