Endless Ocean: Luminous is the 3rd game in the long running Endless Ocean series. This marks the first game in 15 years for the franchise and the first for Nintendo Switch. For those unfamiliar, Endless Ocean: Luminous is an underwater diving game where you research and scan underwater creatures, as well as find hidden mysteries.

Gameplay

If you’ve seen a trailer you can probably guess what the gameplay is like – you are swimming through the sea, scanning underwater wildlife. There’s no enemies, health or survival elements to worry about. Just swim and discover.

Endless Ocean: Luminous, contains 3 game modes and you’ll need to explore them all to find everything the game has to offer.

Shared Dives is the multiplayer mode. Up to 30 people can dive together and experience the dives together. Although in my time with the game I only saw 15 players at one time. you may not notice this though, as map is so big you may not meet the other players on the server. These dives are restricted to one hour sessions.

Solo Dives are just like they sound, dives by yourself. There is no time limit, so you’re free to explore many areas. Every time you dive it's a new location, however, if you compete a dive you get a code you can use to go back to that area. You can also share these codes with friends, so if you found something particularly interesting you can let them know.

The last mode is the Story mode and it is by far, the weakest part of Endless Ocean: Luminous. The whole things feels like a long tutorial. There are 5 chapters each split into 5 parts, but there isn’t much variety. Mostly you just go from spot A to B to complete an objective. I felt like there was an interesting story there, but it was buried in monotony. Another downside I found is that you cannot complete the Story without using the other modes. Progression is tied to discovering wildlife, so you need to go on Solo or Shared Dives to scan more things.

There is also a roadmap of multiplayer events scheduled starting on May 10th.

Look and Feel

Despite being a underwater based title, Endless Ocean: Luminous controls well. It’s very responsive, and you even get a speed boost button to help you swim faster, which is nice. There was a few frustrating moments in underwater ruins where the camera would mess up or I would get stuck, but most of the time it was very simple and easy to control. The music also helps add in to the relaxing feel of exploration and discovery. It’s incredibly soothing and give the game a nice feeling.

Graphically, Endless Ocean: Luminous looks pretty decent for a Switch game, although there are some issues with draw distance – the further you try and look the worse things look. There are also customization options that unlock by getting more experience by uncovering sea life and you get emotes to interact with others, but no voice chat.

Verdict:

Endless Ocean: Luminous suffers from a lack of innovation over the past entries and a repetitiveness that hold this game back from being a great experience on the Switch. It feels like a rogue-like, but without the elements of what make them fun. The game gets repetitive fast, but it’s good if you're looking for a relaxing game before bed.

(Endless Ocean: Luminous is available now for Nintendo Switch)