Topic: Endless Ocean Luminous

New Endless Ocean game announced in today's Nintendo Direct.

I'll be honest, I always wanted to play the Wii entries so I was pretty excited that this was rumored, however the multiplayer focus & randomly generated elements (the trailer said the environment changes with each dive) are turn offs.

Hope it has some sort of more traditional single player goals as well.

I thought it was ABZU until I realized ABZU was already get ported to Switch then I recalled the other scuba diving games by Nintendo called Endless Ocean from Wii.

Meh, I'd rather play Abzu honestly.

I never got around to buying Endless Ocean despite having it on my wishlist for the longest time but I finished ABZU literally last month and that was an interesting little game. Bit weird seeing this in Partner Showcase since Nintendo is the one publishing it but I guess the developer is still its own independent entity.

I'm not entirely against the multiplayer idea either as long as it's not the main focus. I'm not sure how they're going to handle it but just casually running into other divers while you're exploring could be fun. I'd at least expect the multiplayer to work well since the team behind Endless Ocean is also responsible for Tetris 99 alongside couple of other similar games for Switch.

This announcement made the direct for me. So glad to see that series still lives!

So happy for a third game. I always thought it would have been so cool to have one on the Wii U that did like what that maps app did where you could stand there and turn around with the Gamepad and the view would change with you like the ocean was all around you, but alas, it never happened. I'm not a fan of the heavy online multiplayer focus or the randomly generated world, but as long as it has a solid singleplayer campaign like the originals I can deal with it.

So like what do you do in the game lol

@GalaxicGlobe this is why I'm scrambling to find a decent Wii copy on eBay lol

Had an awareness and interest in the original but never played it. Was it open world? How did it progress?

This new one seems interesting but I can't see how there's a gameplay loop. Maybe it's just casual exploration.
They also said things change with each dive, so hopefully it's not all procedurally generated...

@ElRoberico For real i have never heard about this game lol

@GalaxicGlobe @Kimyonaakuma I have purchased a copy of the original, and I will post back when it arrives.

Ok I gotta admit, I had no interest when this game leaked before the Direct, but after seeing it...

I'm really interested 😀

It's so gorgeous and looks relaxing. Even prehistoric dinofish are in the game. And co-op so friends can explore the ocean together? It has that Nintendo polish. I love it.

$50 for an oceanic photography simulator? I enjoy a good walking simulator every now and then, but there appears to be less "gameplay" than that here. Might as well play Subnautica, turn the survival mechanics off, and get more value for your money.

@ElRoberico Okay!! Hope its worth your money lol

For those wondering (and there seem to be quite a few of you), there are definitely goals for you to try to achieve. You have to catalog specimens, find new locations, discover treasure, etc. You absolutely can just swim around enjoying yourself, but there are certain goals that if you discover them you advance the story. At least that is the way I remember the first games, it has been a long time since I played them. But it is not just a walking simulator. I have never played one of those that I have enjoyed, even highly rated ones like Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch, but I love Endless Ocean.

This sounds exactly right up my marine biologist girlfriend's alley.

Oh my god, I have been asking for this ever since I joined NintendoLife, I even have a very old (2018) forum post where I asked for this as one of the games in my 'wishlist'.

I loved the originals and they've deepened my love for the ocean, not to mention these games are actually PACKED with a lot of content.

Skimming through the trailer, I noticed the voiceover mention that this game will have over 500 species — that's more than DOUBLE of Endless Ocean 2 which means this game will have hundreds of hours of play.

Honestly, I get this isn't everyone's type of game because it's a very chill, 'lay back and explore' experience but I think these types of games are very few on the market, and Endless Ocean 1/2 on the Wii did almost everything right.

That's also not to say that EO doesn't have depth, from memory the second game had a massive grind segment where you had to get 1,000,000 in currency to explore some of the coolest areas and encounter the creatures there.

I also loved the quest system and I hope that doesn't change here, because they gave you hints as to where to go and what to look for, but didn't outright mark locations on your map, so you had to go with the instinct and explore the areas that the quests were hinting at. Think of it as almost the treasure hunts in Breath of the Wild.

Overall, I know this announcement was only made for us select few, but trust me when I say don't pass on this series, if this one is great like the two previous entries then this franchise could become one on everyone's radar.

The only think that struck me as a little off was the focus on online play here, Endless Ocean was a very atmospheric game (some of the deep sea segments were legit spooky) and I feel with players in your way constantly this will not be the case, I hope that the online play isn't intrusive, EO doesn't need to be an MMO, it just needs to be a great game.

@Magician Subnautica is a great game, and I'm not going to say that what you feel about this game is wrong, but I did want to mention briefly that this game has a ton of stuff that is not just swimming around and taking photos.

There is dolphin training, genuine quests with rewards, an island customization system with unlockables, some Metroidvania aspects in unlocking new areas (i.e. get this specific type of companion to let you access this new area), an aquarium management system, performance shows, a decent storyline, mythical creature hunts, treasure hunting, pacifying aggressive/diseased animals, special cinematic events that are genuinely interesting and teach a lot about the alien marine life, weirdly enough there's even unlockable 'fashion' and some utterly bizarre things you can put on your island, I could go on.

I suggest reading up some of the features in Endless Ocean 2 before coming to a conclusion, I understand where you're coming from if you're basing this off the trailer, but there is a whole lot more to this game than the trailer showed.

Of course, the features I described are in Endless Ocean 2 so they could potentially cut corners here to streamline the experience, but I somehow doubt it, those were some of the most beloved features by the community and what cemented the game as a unique experience you couldn't find elsewhere. I tried getting the same feeling from Abzu or Subnautica, and while those games are great in their own respects, the original Endless Ocean games are still the best underwater game experiences in my opinion.

@GalaxicGlobe @JaxonH Sorry for spamming the forum (a little bit hyped about this), but read up my above post to @Magician to see some of the stuff in the game, you could even go on the game's Wiki and see some info there as well.

As someone who absolutely loved ABZU but has zero interest in Subnautica, where do you think this game falls?