Endless Ocean Luminous (Nintendo Switch) – The test

The Earth is made up of no less than 70% water: what an advantage it is to know how to swim! Especially since the seabed offers an exceptional panorama of life and its wonders. Using fins and diving tanks allows you to contemplate a little more of this environment rich in discoveries. If marine wildlife is among your greatest passions, this is a title that can only arouse your curiosity…

Developed by Arika and published by Nintendo, Endless Ocean Luminous opens directly with an immersion in the open sea: surprising but rather pleasant. OcéanIA is there to assist us, this is an artificial assistant. We love the play on words! Moreover, the dialogues are entirely in French throughout the adventure, both written and spoken. A good point.

Despite the very relaxing aspect of the meeting, we are not there to thread pearls (or rather hooks), but rather to participate in a large-scale marine research project. The latter is particularly oriented towards the sea tree: it is in decline, subject to multiple necroses throughout. Yet the seat of an important marine fauna, the entire ecosystem is in danger if the sea tree perishes. The Egide project is trying to help him. Of course, we enthusiastically join this research and discover what needs to be done to help marine wildlife. We have several tasks, the main one being to identify as many animal species as possible. To achieve this, simply scan them (via the L button) over a large area in order to treat a larger number of animals. However, other missions are quickly entrusted to us… but for that, we will first have to work a little (a little? A lot!) alone…

Like a fish in water…

Once the tutorial has been completed, we are invited to discover the general menu of the game. It is then possible to join three axes: diving with others, diving alone, or the story. Various information is visible on this said menu such as the player's level, his logo, etc.

The first chapter of the story mainly boils down to a presentation of the title's capabilities: the correct movement of the player in his aquatic environment, the discovery and identification of species, the recognition of finds (trinkets lying around at the bottom of the 'water), or even teamwork. The story develops in the form of chapters, themselves divided into several missions. These are mostly short and quite easy: you just have to follow the instructions of OcéanIA, soon joined by Daniel, an experienced diver, very “real” this time (but not always very courageous!). The directions are particularly clear and accessible, with visual cues that are very easy to follow. The player notably keeps an eye on the depth at which he is found. This information may seem trivial, but it becomes essential when we completely lose our bearings underwater: the surface is definitely this way! The missions follow one another without a hitch… unless?

… who is bored like a carp in the sun

Quickly, players are asked to complete certain conditions before they can continue with the game's main story. Unfortunately, Endless Ocean Luminous suggests the same tasks over and over again, with increasingly bulky species recognition. From then on, we found ourselves doing nothing but that for hours on end… sifting through a veiled sea which quickly seemed quite forbidding to us. If during our first dives we took care to read the explanations on the different species, we quickly threw in the (sea) towel to save time, tired of these incessant repetitions. Certainly, the number of species to be scanned is significant, but their discovery ultimately does not add much.

Furthermore, the entire title remains quite smooth with certain graphics that leave something to be desired, and few truly remarkable spaces. We ultimately preferred to get lost in the abyssal depths, in search of unusual animals (we are fans of nautiluses to begin with!). Some encounters actually amused us.

Nevertheless, the environments remain essentially the same, despite some changes in relief and a few additional corals. We had the opportunity to cross an ice environment, what a great idea! However, we were left hungry again… that didn't change much. Only the discovery of a wreck was able to tickle our curiosity… for a few minutes. We expected to find unusual objects there in order to multiply our points (we will come back to the score count), but this was not the case. These finds are added to some more mystical elements, of which we leave the freedom of discovery to the players. Just know that you will quickly find a mysterious tablet with 99 squares, symbolizing the 99 mysteries that inhabit the veiled sea. It's up to players to discover them one by one, by searching the sea depths again and again.

During our multiple solo descents, the expedition HQ sometimes asked us for emergency missions, including, again, the identification of species. We appreciated these little bonuses during our solo underwater descents, which added a little more interaction to our aquatic wanderings. These also take into account the time of day, alternating between day and night.

A map is available at the touch of a button: we can thus discover all the places we still have to explore. It is possible to mark our passage with different markers in order to be able to keep a visual reference on certain areas that we consider interesting. This marking game is, of course, more suited to a multiplayer game.

It's time to get back to the surface! And to take stock of the dive that has just passed (don’t sink too much though…!). Several aspects are taken into account: the discovery of species, the collection of finds, cooperation but also exploration (more or less expanded depending on your dive). All this earns us points which, once fully counted, allow us to gain levels.

It is with a certain excitement that we then discover whether or not we are now able to join the story again… for the next mission, yes! What a bad surprise, however, to find that we will have to scan 2000 (yes, 2000) species again to continue the main story… What can we say when the mission is completed in a few minutes, without any gameplay? (just talk). Ready for a new session of random scanning of more than 1000 animals…? Hell, not yet…!

Let us emphasize that we played exclusively solo during this test, which probably turns out to be more laborious. Indeed, during group dives, the title promises us larger harvests. Let's hope that when the time comes, we will indeed be able to move forward more calmly… for the moment, this is not the case.

The numerous (and tedious) dives allow us to earn quite a few coins. Some finds are in fact relatively valuable and a source of profit. What to do with all this money? Spend it of course! The customization of the equipment is quite extensive with a multitude of colors at our disposal. We nevertheless regret the lack of improvement of the latter… unless it is necessary to spend 30 hours on the title, something for which, we admit, we prefer to give up!

The purchase can also be oriented towards communication since some positions and other underwater gestures can be acquired by the investment of numerous parts. Once again, the interest is above all in multiplayer.

Some customizations are acquired in the form of objectives to complete.

Sad sea

After all these hours spent underwater, are we at least soothed by a contemplative aspect, important in this type of game?

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Some areas are inexorably empty, with large expanses of sand without a living soul. The schools of fish that we come across end up looking the same, down to the largest species which ultimately don't bring us much… We thus spent our last moments on the title crisscrossing the map in the passages that we did not have. still borrowed, in search of surprises and discoveries… without success. Furthermore, some slightly long loading times should be noted.

Endless Ocean Luminous is available oneShop of the Nintendo Switch at the price of 50 euros. That’s still tingling, don’t you think…?!

What do you think ?
Although they are still subject to some tales and other ancestral fears, the International Wildlife Museum estimates a risk of 1 in 3,750,000 of being attacked by a shark, compared to 1 in 80,000 of being struck by lightning. I have to say that this is reduced for the inhabitants of Creuse!