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Reviews Endless Ocean review thread

beej

beej

Tektite
Opencritic 60/100

Nintendolife 5/10 -

Endless Ocean: Luminous attempts to revive a niche Wii franchise as an online exploration experience, and fails miserably in the process. In comparison to the likes of Subnautica, this is an empty, cold, and boring ocean space to explore, devoid of any real reason to play beyond its generally relaxing ambiance and the opportunity to learn some facts about underwater animals. Even taken on those terms, it's weak, its online play is basic and bland, and its story does little to engage beyond teaching you the ropes. It didn't need to be this boring, but it is.

IGN 4/10


VGC 3/5

Endless Ocean's procedural generation keeps its exploration engaging enough for a while, but its Story mode is poor. As long as you're willing to forgo plot (and any meaningful interaction with the species you encounter) in favour of exploring random underwater environments, there's still a good deal of fun to be had here.

Checkpoint Gaming 7/10

A lo-fi ocean adventure for those in need of calm, monotonous focus, Endless Ocean: Luminous provides an experience that is entirely low stakes, low risk, and low reward. It's incredibly soothing to dive in and chase down a huge variety of aquatic creatures through the game's diverse, atmospheric marine environments, but anyone looking for a deeper narrative will be left high and dry. Check this out if you've got the funds and don't mind fumbling through a bit of jank to reach your zen state of mind.

Will add more reviews later - God willing
 
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It seems like there’s not much content here, but they stretched the little content there was to a 30-50 hour play through time with questionable procedural generation and questionable collectible finding sections.
 
Oof, can’t say I’m too shocked though. At least all 30 people that pick up this game can all play online together.
 
Welp won't be picking this up, glad the reviews are clear about the non-existent single player story.
 
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The Verge’s unscored review definitely has me excited to pick it up.

For maybe 30 minutes at a time, I dive in a new area, turn off the UI for extra immersion, and just head off and see what I can find. No goals, no rules, just me and a calm aquatic world. In a time of time-sucking live-service games and open worlds packed with checklists, it’s nice to sit back with something so peaceful and leisurely.
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I'm still gonna get this because I loved Blue World, but it's sad to see the proc-gen stuff was a whiff. Fingers crossed they remaster the Wii games, or if by some miracle we get EO4 and they return to a more designed and bespoke structure
 
I was really really primed to buy this but every video I’ve seen has the diver with an unsecured octopus and gauge. I can’t have that. Not having it at all.

Edit : I’m not just lamely bragging about my scuba knowledge. I wanted to buy this so I could dive whilst not diving, but it weirdly seems to skip the mechanics of actual diving.

Like there doesn’t seem to be a limit on your rate of ascent. Which would make a lot of sense as a game. The dive gear also doesn’t doesn’t look like any dive gear I see. Those full face masks are very rare.

Having limits on how deep you can go, and having to buy better gear to go deeper is clearly a great mechanic. Is it in the game? The reviews don’t say much.


The act of actually moving in the water also requires skill. It’s a shame they didn’t make movement through the water and buoyancy more of a feature.
 
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Definitely the type of game where reviews aren’t gonna matter much, at least for those already interested. It seems to be more or less exactly what you’d expect. A lot of people just aren’t interested in that, hence the lower review score.

Reviewers aren’t obligated to give a game a higher score if they aren’t interested in the core experience, just like how players aren’t obligated to take reviews at face value.
 
terribleidiot said:
I was really really primed to buy this but every video I’ve seen has the diver with an unsecured octopus and gauge. I can’t have that. Not having it at all.

Edit : I’m not just lamely bragging about my scuba knowledge. I wanted to buy this so I could dive whilst not diving, but it weirdly seems to skip the mechanics of actual diving.

Like there doesn’t seem to be a limit on your rate of ascent. Which would make a lot of sense as a game. The dive gear also doesn’t doesn’t look like any dive gear I see. Those full face masks are very rare.

Having limits on how deep you can go, and having to buy better gear to go deeper is clearly a great mechanic. Is it in the game? The reviews don’t say much.


The act of actually moving in the water also requires skill. It’s a shame they didn’t make movement through the water and buoyancy more of a feature.
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It's meant to be a relaxing underwater exploration game, not a scuba simulator.
 
Umm, I just found a very alarming detail in one review. Please tell me this is just a bad mistranslation.


The original quote:

Como nota curiosa, el modo historia cuenta con una narradora que es una inteligencia artificial, y cuya voz ha sido generada a través de software.
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Which Google, umm, translated as:

As a curious note, the story mode has a narrator who is an artificial intelligence, and whose voice has been generated through software.
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Please for the love of god tell me this isn't true. :'(
 
Paxie said:
I'm still gonna get this because I loved Blue World, but it's sad to see the proc-gen stuff was a whiff. Fingers crossed they remaster the Wii games, or if by some miracle we get EO4 and they return to a more designed and bespoke structure
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The generated stuff is definitely the worst part. As much as it sounds like it's still a good time to just fire it up and go for a swim for a while, seeing new creatures and finding new things at your leisure, the world in the first two games were still major parts of the experience. Would definitely be nice if we at least got the first two remastered so more people can meet GG and Katherine. Or EO4 just doing its damndest to build on the expectations set by Blue World now that the core gameplay has been remade in a new engine I guess.
 
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Hero of Legend said:
Umm, I just found a very alarming detail in one review. Please tell me this is just a bad mistranslation.


The original quote:



Which Google, umm, translated as:



Please for the love of god tell me this isn't true. :'(
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I mean, maybe I'm jumping the gun, but that reads to me like "they used text-to-speech for an in-game AI", not "they used generative AI to voice a character"

Y'know, this kind of thing:
 
The narrator is an AI voice. Yup.

To be more accurate, the character is an AI - played by an AI voice. Whether it's text to speech or whatever I don't know.
 
zumaddy said:


Kinda sounds like AI to me (the background voice reading the fish facts). Although it may be older text-to-speech since it has that sort of cadence.
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that sounds like text-to speech to me. Kinda like ADAM in Dread


Also FYI the opencritic is lower because they made a 7/10 into a 0.7 for some reason
 
I mean it's not so bad if it's a literal robot in the game. I'm just worried if they did the garbage "we're cheap, we'll just AI that shit for free!" thing I'd have hoped Nintendo/anything with their name on it would be above.
 
I was mildly interested in this but did not expect reviews like this. Might need to see more gameplay footage before making a decision there.
 
Hero of Legend said:
I mean it's not so bad if it's a literal robot in the game. I'm just worried if they did the garbage "we're cheap, we'll just AI that shit for free!" thing I'd have hoped Nintendo/anything with their name on it would be above.
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you need to admit no human being no matter how much they try can achieve the lifeless souless impression that a true AI voice give
 
Mekanos said:
I was mildly interested in this but did not expect reviews like this. Might need to see more gameplay footage before making a decision there.
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Yeah, same. I know the original games didn't get great scores but I was expecting more like Blue World. It doesn't help that Nintendo didn't release a demo for me to decide for myself.
 
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zumaddy said:


Kinda sounds like AI to me (the background voice reading the fish facts). Although it may be older text-to-speech since it has that sort of cadence.
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It sounds like a TTS to me, the way it says "blue-green" reminds me a lot of the Google Maps narrator
 
So Endless Ocean will actually be endless this time? Sounds good to me. As long as the atmosphere is still there, I'm in.
 
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Apparently the character in question is even called MarIA, so it does indeed seem obvious and.. I'm kinda okay given the context as it does work for the authenticity. Obviously just the concept is gross just because what folks have done this for these days, but in isolation, isn't that bad here. They're clearly to me not hiding it seemingly. It's not a legit character that a real person would otherwise be voicing.

As pointed above, it's more authentic this way, we're just trained to be violently against AI at the first whiff for obvious reasons.
 
Hero of Legend said:
Apparently the character in question is even called MarIA, so it does indeed seem obvious and.. I'm kinda okay given the context as it does work for the authenticity. Obviously just the concept is gross just because what folks have done this for these days, but in isolation, isn't that bad here. They're clearly to me not hiding it seemingly. It's not a legit character that a real person would otherwise be voicing.

As pointed above, it's more authentic this way, we're just trained to be violently against AI at the first whiff for obvious reasons.
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In English at least it's Sera (Survey, Explorations, Research and Assistant AI).
 
I think people who played the previous entries know what they're getting into but I think the series could have evolved a bit. I think I will still give it a go though.
 
Not sure there is a game I could care less about critic reviews for, there was no way Endless friggin’ Ocean was going to review amazingly. The series is super unique and will be a fresh experience for me - I’m so looking forward to learning about fish this weekend!
 
Derachi said:
The Verge’s unscored review definitely has me excited to pick it up.
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Same. Also, this part from the same review let me know that it's exactly what I'm looking for:


The Verge said:
What makes Luminous so chill, at least when you’re going for a solo dive, is that it’s completely open-ended and devoid of roadblocks. You’re given a huge swath of the so-called Veiled Sea to explore (the game generates a new map with each dive), and you don’t have to worry about monitoring your oxygen, getting too cold, or running into a dangerous shark. There’s no way to die or even get stuck.

This might be frustrating for folks in search of a challenge, but I found it liberating. It allowed me to explore at my own pace without any pressure. And there is a lot of stuff to find in the game. Luminous features close to 600 sea creatures to find and scan, ranging from schools of tuna to spiky starfish to battle-scarred sharks. There are even some prehistoric beasts to spot. (Note: this is not a particularly realistic game, though you can learn some quick facts for every creature you scan.) This is on top of curious artifacts and ruins that lend the world an air of mystery.
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This is the lowest reviewed Endless Ocean game just fyi (although I'm still getting it).

terribleidiot said:
Like there doesn’t seem to be a limit on your rate of ascent. Which would make a lot of sense as a game. The dive gear also doesn’t doesn’t look like any dive gear I see. Those full face masks are very rare.

Having limits on how deep you can go, and having to buy better gear to go deeper is clearly a great mechanic. Is it in the game? The reviews don’t say much.
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This has never been a part of the series tbh. They've said in the past that they want people to have a realistic diving experience but without the hassle of needing to deal with things like pressure and oxygen. The first game didn't even have you come up for air, you can just stay down underwater forever (although the second game did add oxygen as a mechanic to make it harder).
 
Sad to read that they've removed features but I'm still curious to try the online mode.

Kinda stumped on the whole procedurally generated locations though. I was thinking before they might have crafted a bunch of areas for the story, then had that option for online dives. It just seems like... a waste. For this type of game, I mean. If I found a cool looking reef with species I wanted to observe there'd be no way to revisit that exact location, right? Unless I'm not understanding what their implementation of procedurally generated content is.

Impressions aside, this is one of those titles I kinda feel obligated to buy as a fan and because I want more games like this in theory.
 
NantenJex said:
This is the lowest reviewed Endless Ocean game just fyi (although I'm still getting it).


This has never been a part of the series tbh. They've said in the past that they want people to have a realistic diving experience but without the hassle of needing to deal with things like pressure and oxygen. The first game didn't even have you come up for air, you can just stay down underwater forever (although the second game did add oxygen as a mechanic to make it harder).
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I feel that's kinda because reviewers were more generous to theser types of games in the past
 
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oof, the proc-gen nature of the level design seems to be an actual issue rather than minecraft-style infinite loop kind of thing
 
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As always procedural generation used as a cheap trick to stretch little content. Disappointing. I loved Endless Ocean 2, but this new game seems like it will be a very bad experience.
 
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Felony said:
Sad to read that they've removed features but I'm still curious to try the online mode.

Kinda stumped on the whole procedurally generated locations though. I was thinking before they might have crafted a bunch of areas for the story, then had that option for online dives. It just seems like... a waste. For this type of game, I mean. If I found a cool looking reef with species I wanted to observe there'd be no way to revisit that exact location, right? Unless I'm not understanding what their implementation of procedurally generated content is.

Impressions aside, this is one of those titles I kinda feel obligated to buy as a fan and because I want more games like this in theory.
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You can record the seed number to revisit
 
I don't get it. Nintendo has so much money now with the enormous success of the Switch and they can not afford a decent budget for this game?

And I have seen a lot of marketing for this game, so marketing budget was there but not budget for production or better developers? It is very disappointing. Surely a dampener on my enthusiasm for the next Switch if Nintendo is so cheap that new games that are not from the main series seem to have lower budget than in Wii days.
 
FUCK.

I wouldn't mind this being a bit of a misfire if they'd learn the right lessons from it, but I expect the lesson here to be "let's give this series a burial at sea."
 
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EnergyDrink said:
I don't get it. Nintendo has so much money now with the enormous success of the Switch and they can not afford a decent budget for this game?

And I have seen a lot of marketing for this game, so marketing budget was there but not budget for production or better developers? It is very disappointing. Surely a dampener on my enthusiasm for the next Switch if Nintendo is so cheap that new games that are not from the main series seem to have lower budget than in Wii days.
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there is no way this game had a lower budget than the wii game
 
EnergyDrink said:
I don't get it. Nintendo has so much money now with the enormous success of the Switch and they can not afford a decent budget for this game?

And I have seen a lot of marketing for this game, so marketing budget was there but not budget for production or better developers? It is very disappointing. Surely a dampener on my enthusiasm for the next Switch if Nintendo is so cheap that new games that are not from the main series seem to have lower budget than in Wii days.
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The thing to keep in mind is that the budget is based on how much they expect it to sell. They’re not going to throw a ton of money into a project they only expect to sell a few hundred thousand copies of.

Honestly it’s refreshing to me to see a big company like Nintendo make these lower budget experimental games. They could have just poured all their resources into a few, huge budget games like every other game company does nowadays, but instead they take these smaller, interesting risks
 
Derachi said:
The thing to keep in mind is that the budget is based on how much they expect it to sell. They’re not going to throw a ton of money into a project they only expect to sell a few hundred thousand copies of.

Honestly it’s refreshing to me to see a big company like Nintendo make these lower budget experimental games. They could have just poured all their resources into a few, huge budget games like every other game company does nowadays, but instead they take these smaller, interesting risks
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It's refreshing in principle, but if it leads to those games being underbudgeted, coming out poor, and/or selling perhaps even below their already low expectations, that ends up looking more like just setting up those projects to fail. Love to be wrong, but a full ten points below its last entry on reviews is not a good look for a niche series, if it wants to continue.

Like, they should look at this and say "oh dang, it looks like we miscalculated what it would take to realize this concept. We should try again with a different perspective and perhaps more resources," but despite their own decisions being the reason for any lack of success it might see, I fully anticipate the "lesson" here being that the series itself is a flop, it doesn't resonate with people, and the developers should stop making it.
 
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