is a 2024

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

game developed by

Arika is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It was formed in 1995 by former Capcom employees. It was originally known as ARMtech K.K, but was later named Arika. The name of the company is the reverse of the name of the company's founder, ...

and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

for the

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

. As the third game in the ''

Endless Ocean ''Endless Ocean'' (known as ''Forever Blue'' in Japanese) is a scuba diving adventure game developed by Arika and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is considered a spiritual successor to '' Everblue'', another scuba diving adventure game seri ...

'' series, ''Luminous'' marks the first installment since 2009's '' Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep'' for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

. Similar to previous entries, the player takes the role of a

scuba diver Scuba, originally SCUBA, often expanded to scuba set, is any self contained underwater breathing apparatus, a source of breathing gas used for underwater diving which is carried by the diver. Scuba may also refer to: * Scuba diving Scuba ...

tasked with encountering and documenting

marine life Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, aquatic plant, plants, algae, marine fungi, fungi, marine protists, protists, single-celled marine microorganisms, microorganisms ...

. Additionally, the game features online multiplayer that allows groups of up to 30 players to explore together. The game was announced in a February 2024

Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase Nintendo Direct is a series of online presentations or live shows produced by Nintendo, where information regarding the company's upcoming content or franchises is presented, such as information about games and consoles. The presentations began ...

and released on May 2, 2024 to mixed reviews.

Gameplay

''Endless Ocean Luminous'' tasks the player with exploring the Veiled Sea, a fictional, unexplored region, in order to encounter and document marine life. The game itself has over 500 species to learn about, including creatures that are deemed mythical or extinct such as the

Mosasaurus ''Mosasaurus'' (; "lizard of the Meuse (river), Meuse River") is the type genus (defining example) of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic Squamata, squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian an ...

. Outside of marine life, the player can also explore underwater structures such as

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

and

shipwrecks A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

. ''Luminous'' features a new mechanic for the series in which the region will change with each dive the player goes on. Unlike the multiplayer modes in previous installments, the game allows groups of up to 30 online players to embark on dives together. Players in groups can share their findings and communicate between one another via emotes.

Development

''Endless Ocean Luminous'' is the third game in the ''Endless Ocean'' series after ''Endless Ocean'' (2007) and ''Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep'' (2009). The game was developed by Japanese video game company

and published by

for the

. ''Luminous'' was first announced at the end of a

in late February 2024 and was given the release date of May 2, 2024. Music and sound effects were created by the music production company SuperSweep, including

Shinji Hosoe , also known as Megaten and Sampling Masters MEGA, is a Japanese video game composer and musician most famous for scoring ''Ridge Racer'', ''Street Fighter EX'' and many Namco arcade games between 1987 and 1996. He also runs the music production ...

, Ayako Saso, and Takahiro Eguchi.

Reception

It was released to a score of 61/100 on review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, indicating mixed to average reviews. Andrew Webster of ''

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...

'' gave ''Endless Ocean Luminous'' a positive review, describing the gameplay as basic but fun nonetheless. He described the game as at its best when played alone and exploring with no goal in mind, and considered the story mode and Mystery Board "mundane."

Notes

References

External links

{{Everblue series Adventure games Arika games Endless Ocean Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo games Nintendo Switch games Nintendo Switch-only games Scuba diving video games Simulation video games 2024 video games Video games developed in Japan Video games set underwater