Endless Ocean: Luminous (2024)

Endless Ocean Luminous offers a relaxing diving experience, but its repetitive mission structure and shallow story mode limit long-term motivation. While the multiplayer focus and serene atmosphere may appeal to some, the lack of variety and reliance on random dives make the overall experience frustrating at times. Also, the story mode is much more a tutorial mode than a full-fledged story mode.

The ocean is something particularly fascinating. There are endless possibilities for exploring various angles of the ocean in a game - from the wonder present in such different ecosystems, to the sense of dread that that vast unknown space can bring - and there are several games that do this very well. Unfortunately, however, Endless Ocean Luminous chooses the most boring angle possible: introducing you to the ocean through a barely interactive experience that requires you to complete tedious tasks in order to progress, and which results in something that seems less about exploring the ocean than about a brief dip in a pool with fish.

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.

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.

A really strong title for those who have a love of Endless Ocean’s many trappings. The sealife on show is fantastic and researching them by scanning and cataloguing feels quite satisfying. Storymode presents a fairly expected and oddly structured set of missions that are not too shabby but do feel impacted by the interim menus and grinding to progress. It’s a serviceable game with lofty goals that it doesn’t quite meet meaning it lacks the long lifespan that was being aimed for.