In 2008, the Wii was really picking up steam in the United States, and a lot of diverse titles were hitting the shelves for the console. One such game was a scuba diving adventure that served as the spiritual successor to the PS2 Capcom game Everblue. Endless Ocean provided players with a vast underwater space to explore, and a sequel in 2010 did the same. Now, we have a return to the deep blue with Endless Ocean Luminous for the Nintendo Switch.

The prospect of Endless Ocean Luminous should be an easy sell for cozy gamers and even fans of Animal Crossing who spent hours filling their museum. Taking place in the fictional Veiled Sea, you dive and explore a massive ocean environment seeking out new species of underwater creatures as well as the 99 mysteries of the Sea. There are over 500 species of underwater life to find, and the map feels massive, but like the real sea, there is a lot of emptiness here that fails to excite or inspire awe.

From the first two hours of the Endless Ocean Luminous, I felt as if I had seen the extent of the gameplay. I was not under any spell as to what I would be doing in the game. You, as a diver, are essentially working to fill your records with as many species of fish and marine life as possible. This is a relatively simple premise, but the gameplay’s repetitiveness lends itself to a gameplay loop that fosters little creativity. If you’re a fan of marine life, then I’m sure this is a great time for you. For the rest of us, this is an experience that wears its welcome in less than 5 hours.

You can vary your experience by playing with up to 30 friends online as well as exploring the Story missions. The first few are open to you from the start of the game and do little beyond familiarizing you with the controls. There’s a light story involved, but it doesn’t captivate in any way as Subnautica does. After a few missions, however, you’re forced to explore solo or with friends to scan a certain amount of species before progressing. This is where I started to hit a wall.

Scanning is as simple as holding down the L shoulder button and scanning the area you can see. You’re almost immediately rescanning fish you’ve already logged and seeing a lot of repeat underwater friends. Hitting that first milestone of 500 scans felt like a chore rather than a cozy, relaxing experience. In a perfect world, Endless Ocean Luminous inspires calm and serenity as you learn about different fish and just sort of bask in the ocean. In reality, your mind wanders almost immediately to other things as you scan, swim a bit, scan, swim, and so forth.

Elements like customizing your suit feel thrown together and limited. There’s not much life in Endless Ocean Luminous despite its large roster of observable creatures. It’s also worth noting that, graphically, the game offers little in terms of jaw-dropping visuals. This is not some unfair critique of the game but rather the reality of a late-cycle Switch game that is underpowered. For a game like this where the ocean and creatures are the main draw, the console’s age is shown here in a way that really harms the overall experience.

So where does that leave us? If you’re a fan of the Wii series, then you’ll get more of the same here. If that quiet, relatively uneventful game loop served as a nice way to keep your hands and eyes busy while catching up on podcasts or chatting with friends, then you’ll have more to enjoy here. That said, the lack of expansion to the experience might even frustrate Endless Ocean‘s biggest fans. This is a late-cycle Switch game that does little to up the ante on an already minimalist experience.

While I’m not saying it’s egregious that Endless Ocean Luminous exists, I am questioning the value of the title beyond the admiration folks have for the series. It doesn’t happen often in my reviews, but I am at the point with this one that I’m not recommending it for really any type of gamer. If curiosity wins out, or you live and breathe marine life, you will be better satiated in an encyclopedia of fish and underwater friends rather than what’s offered here. No hard feelings, I just feel that there’s a little too much endlessness here and not enough ocean fun.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Endless Ocean Luminous was provided by Nintendo Co. for the purposes of this review.

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Endless Ocean Luminous

$49.99

3

Score

3.0/10

Pros

• Over 500 species of fish to discover

Cons

• A very unrewarding gameplay loop
• Low on story and creativity
• The Switch's age is really hurting this game
• Nothing truly expands the series in a new way
• Buyer beware: this one is not offering much in terms of value to the player