Should you take the plunge with this game?
Take a deep breath and plunge into the Veiled Sea: an unexplored region with discoveries that change with each dive. Encounter and learn about over 500 species of marine life—some of which are presumed extinct, or even mythical!
I missed out on the original Endless Ocean games, so I didn’t know exactly what to expect going in to this Switch sequel. The task is simple, explore the ocean and scan whatever marine life you can find along the way. There is a story mode that is more contained, but there’s a online mode which is more open-ended with the only task being to scan everything you can.
There are plenty of sea life to scan and each has facts about them attached, so it’s quite educational. The marine life varies from your typical schools of fish, sharks and so forth, but even has extinct or mythical creatures that are rare, so are naturally harder to find.
There’s no real sense of danger to be found here, you won’t get ripped apart by a shark or eaten by a blue whale. The sea life just kind of exists around you, which is fine but there isn’t a whole lot of depth to be found here. Having said that, it’s a nice chilled game that can be very relaxing as there’s no imminent threat or even time limits to contend with.
The visuals are pretty good for a game that’s on a system in it’s 7th year, the marine life look well detailed and the game runs smoothly overall. The music is calming with chilled soundtracks to keep you relaxed as you continue scanning the ocean depths.
The Verdict
Endless Ocean: Luminous may not have a lot of depth to it, but it’s a very serene game that is calming and knowledgeable about marine life. If you are a looking for a game to chill out to without zero stress, then this is for you.