With Endless Ocean Luminous making its way to Nintendo Switch on May 2nd, 2024, we wanted to take you on a little deep dive into the Endless Ocean series and why we are so looking forward to the next instalment. We hope you have your Scuba gear with you because we are going to dive straight in!
Forever Blue / Endless Ocean
For the majority of the world, the series is known as Endless Ocean, In Japan though, it is called Forever Blue. It is a video game series developed by Arika and is published by Nintendo. The first game in the series released on the Nintendo Wii in 2007 and is actually considered a spiritual successor to another game developed by Arika called Everblue, which released on the PS2 in 2001 in Japan and 2002 in Europe. It spawned a sequel, Everblue 2, and both games were published by Capcom.
Getting back to Endless Ocean, the game itself allowed players to dive into the fictional Manaurai Sea, located somewhere in the South Pacific, with the objective to explore the ocean depths, documenting sea creatures and collecting any treasures that they may find. Although the majority of the diving is locked to the Manaurai Sea, there were plenty of diverse areas that players could explore including coral reefs, kelp forests, the abyss, and shipwrecks. All of these areas have their own ecosystem of marine life to make each zone feel vibrant and full of life.
Aside from diving the depths, you could also dive in a vast aquarium that you can fill up with all kinds of marine life that you have seen on your previous dives from the amusing clownfish to the majestic whaleshark. Some species can’t be added to the aquarium though due to being quite dangerous like the Great White Shark. Although you can’t take any damage in Endless Ocean, you can lose a good portion of your air and that will shorten how long you can stay immersed for.
To help keep things interesting, The game has its main story as well as optional requests like taking tourists on dives to try and find their favourite sea creature. You can also take photograph requests and send them off to magazines that will grade your photo depending on how good it is; With C being an accompaniment to an article, B being a two page spread and A being worthy of being the main cover art for an issue.
Another good way to pass the time is by training any dolphins that you have befriended on your diving adventures to learn some neat tricks, You will occasionally receive requests from people who wish to see your dolphin friends perform certain tricks as well. The best thing about training dolphins though, is that you can have them accompany you on dives and they can point out points of interest like treasure you haven’t found yet.
Endless Ocean 2: Blue World / Adventures of the Deep
The second game in the series also released on the Wii (in 2009) and this game took the scope of the previous game and blew it out of the water. While Endless Ocean gave you a single large area to explore, Endless Ocean 2: Blue World as it is known in the US (Adventures of the Deep in Europe and other regions), gave you six very distinct areas based on the Pacific Ocean, the Aegean Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Antartic Ocean, the Amazon river, and the Red Sea. Then of course, you have access to the Aquarium in Japan, technically making up a seventh dive spot.
Each region gave the player even more means of exploration and a much more biodiversity than the first game could ever offer. There were even more marine creatures to discover, including those endemic to their respective region as well as more dangerous creatures like crocodiles and eels. It’s not just new critters that you’ll find, you will also have the opportunity to dive deep inside vast ruins that were long abandoned by civilizations from ages past like temples and castles that have succumbed to the ravages of time and sunken below the water’s surface.
Much of what you could do in the first game make a return in Endless Ocean 2: Blue World but this time around, you can also explore some of the islands of the pacific by going ashore. Here you can also find some creatures that you won’t normally find in the water by are required to help fill out your in-game species guide.
Both Endless Ocean and Endless Ocean 2: Blue World allowed you to play online so you could have a friend join you for some co-op scuba diving fun. Obviously, it will not be possible to use co-op play now as the servers have long since been shut down but its good to know that online multiplayer will be making a return in Endless Ocean: Luminous and in a big way too!
Endless Ocean: Luminous
This is the game we have long been waiting for. It is a travesty that we have never received another entry into the Endless Ocean series until now. Two fantastic titles on the Wii but then nothing on the Wii U at all, we had almost given up hope that the series would get another entry until it was finally revealed during the Partner Showcase earlier this year.
While we can only theorise on what Endless Ocean Luminous will be like, we do have some details on the game thanks to Nintendo gradually adding more information on the game’s listing page on Nintendo.com as well as recently dropping a 5-minute long overview trailer, which we recently covered here at Miketendo64.com
Nintendo Takes a Deep Dive Into Endless Ocean Luminous With an extensive Overview Trailer
Endless Ocean Luminous takes place in the fictional Veiled Sea which is a strange and mysterious location where the topography and its ecosystems change every time you dive. This means you will rarely ever dive the same location twice, unless you want to. Each dive will have its own ID number that you can copy down with a pen and paper and then use it whenever you wish to dive that location again, Perhaps it has a particular species of marine creature you are looking for? Maybe it has a incredible cave system you wish to explore, or perhaps a cool shipwreck you wish to revisit? Whatever the reason may be, you can keep hold of the ID number and even share it with friends so they can check it out too.
Speaking of friends, Arika has really gone overboard this time around. Up 3o players will be able to dive with each other online, be it with friends or random people. You will be albe to use emotes to communicate with one another and can help each other find particular creatures of interest. Tagging animals like sharks and turtles or perhaps small and hard to find fish, may help other divers to fill out their creature logs. With over 500 different species or marine life to discover, every little helps.
On the topic of marine creatures, the sheer abundance of different species in this game is mind blowin and I really can’t wait to discover them all. What I love most is that these creatures can actually be found in the wild and I have actually seen them first hand during my own subaquatic adventures. The added bonus of long extinct and mythical sea creatures also gets me very excited for Endless Ocean Luminous as well as the Event dives that Nintendo will be hosting to keep players coming back to the game.
The one thing that has briefly been touched upon but not yet been explained in any capacity is the game’s single player campaign. All we know is that a story mode does exist and that it will consist of helping to sustain the World Coral. There has been no mention of returning support characters, or hubs like the yacht in Endless Ocean or the island in Endless Ocean 2 but we do hope to learn more about the single player experience before the game’s release on May 2nd, 2024, for Nintendo Switch.
Living & Breathing Endless Ocean
The Endless Ocean games were not just an escape from reality for my brother, and I, we actually lived and breathed the games and are certified and experienced PADI Divemasters (Professional Association of Diving Instructors for anyone who is not familiar with the term). However, in case anyone thinks we may have become divers because of playing Endless Ocean, that is not the case. We were certified scuba divers long before Endless Ocean ever came to the Wii. I myself became certified some time in 2004 and had dreams of becoming a Marine Biologist so I could study the oceans and its magnificent wildlife. My brother Jack also had similar designs and got certified as soon as he was able. Even our sister Ashleigh got certified and we would all go diving together when the opportunity arose.
Scuba diving isn’t just a hobby to us, it is a passion. A passion that has burned deep in our hearts for decades. We would spend most of our free time diving in the sea when we could but when the sea was rough, we found escapism through Endless Ocean. Although the game is a far cry from emulating the pure joy and excitement that we would feel scuba diving for real, the games did allow us to experience marine creatures and visit exotic diving locations that we could only dream about while we were growing up as well as combine our two passions into one: Scuba diving and video games.
We may not have been able to afford luxury diving holidays to Caraçao or the Great Barrier Reef but we didn’t have to as we were fortunate to live in a very popular diving destination in Southern Spain. Over the years of living there, I must have clocked up around 1,000 dives and have taken just as many people on guided dives or taught them how to dive. I also practiced underwater photography and although I may not have had the best or most expensive equipment, it certainly did the job and I enjoyed every moment of it.
During my diving adventures, I would explore the rocky reefs and the sandy desert, I would venture inside caves or take part in night dives which were even more fascinating as diving during the day. I would find all manner of sea life on my dives from Blennies and Gobies to Damselfish and Cardinalfish, Rainbow Wrasse and Groupers, Scorpionfish and Moray Eels, Ocean Sunfish and torpedo rays, and everything in between. I even got upclose to a Dolphin and her calf once and it was the most invogirating experience as their eyes locked onto mine. I swear for the longest time, I probably stopped breathing altogether and was completely lost in the moment. It is experiences like these that I will cherish forever.
Even though the Endless Ocean series may not be able to fully encapsulate moments like that, I am truly grateful that I can relive those moments anyway and engage with the game by exclaiming things like “Hey, I’ve seen those fish before!” or knowing where to find a particular species of fish due to its nature of being benthic (bottom-dwelling), nectonic (free swimming but stick close to rocky outcrops or corals), or pelagic (open water). The Endless Ocean games hold a special place in my heart and allow me to be nostalgic for my more adventurous past.
Art Imitating Life
I have played a number of Scuba diving games like Abzü, Beyond Blue, Scuba Diving Simulator, Silt, GO Vacation, etc., but none have quite as close to the real thing as Endless Ocean has. It is one of the few game series that is as close to the real thing as you could possibly get without actually stepping foot into the sea. The series prides itself with being as realistic as possible (although the story may be a little fantastical in places) but every marine animal and plant is faithfully modelled to look as much like they do in real life as possible.
One thing I will add though in contrast to my love for the Endless Ocean series is how the spare regulator (known as the octopus because the number of hoses attached to the first stage regulator makes it look a bit like an octopus) and air/depth gauge is floating freely in the water. Scuba divers are trained to keep their apparatus within the triangle formed by their chin and ribcage at all times so they know where they are in case they need to use them.
Wearing a mask limits your peripheral vision, making it harder to see what is immediately around you so if you have a dangling regulator that is not where it is supposed to be, it could get caught on something or even expulse air from your tank if it starts to freeflow. This is a pet peeve of mine to see this in games as I have spent years teaching divers how to attached their dive equipment properly.
Another thing I would like to add, is as real as the games are, I understand that the Arika can’t make the games too realistic. Diving with a Tiger Shark or Bull Shark is extremely dangerous and can result in a viscious attack and even death. The developers do well to add a sense of danger with the sharks and other dangerous creatures in the game taking a swing at you with their tail. A feature I would like to have seen added to this is have the screen become momentarily blurry and the player would have to press a button to clear it.
In real life scuba diving, it is not uncommon for a diver’s mask to become dislodged by another diver or perhaps they were bumped by a sea animal. This can cause the mask to fill up with water and it requires the diver to look down, hold the top of their mask and breath out of their nose whilst slowly moving their head upwards to clear out the water. It would be cool to see something similar in future Endless Ocean games or even in diving games in general as it would give more reason for players to be more careful in the game.
End Of Dive
Well it is time to bring this deep dive into the Endless Ocean series and why we hold it so dear. We hope you enjoyed this special feature and we thank you for sticking with us until the end. It was not my intention to veer off into our own personal life too much but Endless Ocean is a special case that goes well beyond our love for Super Mario or the Legend of Zelda or Nintendo as a whole. We didn’t just play these games, we lived them and to be able to dive into Endless Ocean Luminous this May, we can’t wait to experience it and relive our old lives all over again.
Do you have any fond memories of the Endless Ocean series? What are you looking forward to most in the upcoming sequel? Have you also experienced Scuba diving and would like to share those experiences with us? Please let us know in the comments.
