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StarTopic Endless Ocean Luminous |ST|

I do wish the characters in the story mode were presented in a more consistent manner:

Player: Silent
Sera: Text to speech voice
Daniel: [BLURBLING NOISES]
 
I started it this morning! Played about three hours and went the full gamut of emotions. Found the tutorials tedious, loved loved loved swimming around and just finding cool fish for a while, then got into my third hour of one dive and stopped because it got tedious again. Anyway Daniel for Smash
 
I have never played Endless Ocean cause I was a way too cool teenager back with the originals, but now I am an old tired dad and swimming around with other people and looking at fish sounds interesting.

It is great! I really zen out just swimming around and scanning stuff, finding cool spots, looking for treasure, waving at people. Some of the areas that have appeared in the maps are really interesting, like a purple zone under a glacier and pretty creepy deep sea spots. Lots to see and do, definitely a game to take slow and just do a dive a night, hang out with people and find some weird stuff, and play some story that unlocks every now and then. Hard disagree on the bad reviews.
 
I went to my local game store today to buy the game but decided against it in the end, because images of giant isopods clinging to me kept flashing through my mind. So, thanks derachi!
I'm only half-joking, lol

Okay, but to be serious- I just couldn't bring myself to buy it at full price with all the missing features AND the short natural play time on top. It would be fine, if you were not to encounter about half of the fish in one single dive already. But with the game being as it is, I will wait until it goes on sale, which probably will happen sooner than later.

On the plus side, I got myself a Bulbasaur plushie, a crocheted Kirby and five amiibo figures (on top of the 28 I ordered within the last 30 days... yeah, I have a problem).
 
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Now that I’ve gotten through the initial rush of every fish being a new species the game has settled into a better pace with dishing out new fish. I’m generally finding a new species every 10-15 minutes, which makes them feel more special and I’m more likely to listen to the info.

Pacing on the dives is a little screwy though. Solo dives feel too slow, group dives can be too fast and sometimes chaotic. I might spend some time on the solo dive map I’ve already cleared since it shows where the special creatures are to scan which pop the UML. I think removing the tedium of uncovering those tiny squares on the map will help a ton.
 
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My time and energy for games was low these past few days, so I only booted the game up for a second time today. Was very pleased to discover I can keep exploring my first solo dive area! I wrapped up the dinosaur ruins I had first found and started heading off into a new area with coral reefs! Definitely want to complete that map 100% before I move on if possible. Curious if that event map coming out will be online only or not and if that will interrupt my solo dive save essentially.
 
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Haven’t been playing very much the past few days just because I’ve been limiting myself to playing when my partner can play with me, but I’m still very much enjoying the game! More so now that I’ve already scanned the bulk of marine life available!

Also, regarding the lack of body types for the diver model, that surprisingly hasn’t bothered me at all. Normally I’m rarely ever content with customizable character models, as a short non-binary person who doesn’t fit into or care for either of the one or two typical options given—tall, muscular, masculine body and/or short, curvy, feminine body—but I guess the diver models in this game don’t really bother me due to how alien they feel being entirely masked and equipped with with scuba gear from head to toe. Plus while they kinda lean more masc, the gear makes them ambiguous enough that they don’t feel particularly gendered or anything to me at all. Only obvious thing is the lack of any prominent breasts, really.

That said, I definitely understand disappointment in there not being any customization in terms of body type. Perhaps they felt it unnecessary with the divers being completely masked and covered in gear, or maybe it would have caused too many issues with the emote animations if they were to actually provide body options that differed in size and proportion. And, let’s face it, if they did give us body type options, it would almost certainly have been the two standard masc and fem options that most games default to using (the tall, muscular, masculine body and short, curvy, feminine body) which wouldn’t exactly please everyone, either—not me, at least, and I imagine the masc body would be even more masc leaning than the current diver model in that scenario—so in a way I kinda like that they just stuck with a single mostly ambiguous model, anyway, personally.
 
Two individuals in a wetsuit with the same height aren't going to look too obviously gendered regardless, so it's easy for me to not mind much even if I do wish there were options. Those things cover up extremely well. However, the big issue for me with the lack of customization is that it feels like a possible reason there's not really any NPCs like Katherine from the first game or Blue World's sizeable cast. It's one of the many things that, even though I'm loving Luminous, I can feel its absence and constantly making me wish for features that just feel missing. Hopefully being so high on eShop right now means that the game's doing well enough that a follow-up could address that stuff.

The online part of the game has been pretty fun, more than I figured it would be considering I never cared for it in the Wii games. If we get a sequel more in line with the originals, I really hope that this general setup is still used for the online multiplayer. It's great fun to race around, finding treasures, looking for new animals, and seeing what other divers are up to. Even without any options to communicate, there's still some fun social experiences to be had. Like finding a group of people posing and swimming in to pose alongside them and finding the pictures on Twitter later.
 
The game does an awful job to explain things and even when they explain, people do not read.

Add to that the short 20 minute timer for this event and people do not explore, do not scan and damn those of you that do not tag the UML, haha.

At least I cracked the top 100 (for now).
 
I started writing about this game. And suddenly I had 2000 words. This isn't a review. It’s unfair on the game. It talks about what i want the game to be rather than what the game is. Its a perpective on the game as a diver. Its not very positive. Sorry. But i think some of you might be interested.

My thoughts
 
terribleidiot said:
I started writing about this game. And suddenly I had 2000 words. This isn't a review. It’s unfair on the game. It talks about what i want the game to be rather than what the game is. Its a perpective on the game as a diver. Its not very positive. Sorry. But i think some of you might be interested.

My thoughts
Click to expand...

Nice read, an interesting perspective for sure. I totally agree with the unrealistic biodiversity in any of the generated maps. It makes it more exciting, I suppose, but does spoil the thrill of finding a new or rare species. And yeah, the reliance on scanning being the main gameplay is a bit unsatisfying.

This kinda makes we want to do the piece of Zelda BotW/TotK from a birder’s perspective I’ve had kicking around in my head forever. That game handles species distribution quite nicely, though it has a bit of ‘one per region’ syndrome going on where a bird was obviously created to compliment each region of the map.
 
the Tetris 99 theme is also available this weekend by the way, if you are also into that sort of thing

bit of an arika x arika crossover situation, which is neat
 
ImpromptuR said:
The game does an awful job to explain things and even when they explain, people do not read.
Click to expand...

I still don't know what happens when, during a dive, it says "Light Gathered - Drawing Tags" and a little slot machine thing runs in the top corner and shows some pictures. And Sera will say 'Lucky draw!' every time, but nothing seems to change or anything. I figured it would explain this at some point in the story mode but I've yet to see that happen.
 
touchfuzzy said:
I still don't know what happens when, during a dive, it says "Light Gathered - Drawing Tags" and a little slot machine thing runs in the top corner and shows some pictures. And Sera will say 'Lucky draw!' every time, but nothing seems to change or anything. I figured it would explain this at some point in the story mode but I've yet to see that happen.
Click to expand...
The game doesn't seem to explain this, but from my (very vague) understanding, when enough light is gathered and it says it is "Drawing Tags", it is essentially a roulette. If the tags it draws are ones that are currently on the map, you get bonus points based on the amount of those tags that are present.

I don't know why it says "Lucky draw" every time, even if you don't match any of them.
 
Symtendo said:
Do we know what the rare event fish are yet? Is there a list anywhere?
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I saw zero rare fish until now. Only the usual "rare" like the Thanatos.
Regarding UMLs, in more than 50 dives one was a Lancia Presto, all other were either Raja Emas or Yurlungur. :/
 
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E.Gadd said:
the Tetris 99 theme is also available this weekend by the way, if you are also into that sort of thing
Click to expand...
I dunno why they scheduled both of these events at the same time…

And it’s worse than that—it’s not just the events for Endless Ocean Luminous and Tetris 99 that are going on right now, because there’s also Eggstra Work in Splatoon 3 that just started, too! Plus there’s Community Day in Pikmin Bloom starting tomorrow on top of that… There are too many Nintendo events happening on the same weekend!! lol
 
Does anyone know how the save file works for event dives? I’m 50% into my first solo dive as I’ve been playing off and on and while it’s listed in the same solo menu, I’m unclear if clicking on that would remove my first map.

Similar question, for people who have done both group dives and solo dives, are those two separate saves? I’m curious to try the multiplayer, but again don’t want to lose my solo dive map until I’ve 100% cleared it.

Edit: ok maybe I somewhat misunderstood from the prior night when I thought the event was already active. I guess events are shared dives only given a fourth menu appeared. So uh yeah just my second question then.
 
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xghost777 said:
Does anyone know how the save file works for event dives? I’m 50% into my first solo dive as I’ve been playing off and on and while it’s listed in the same solo menu, I’m unclear if clicking on that would remove my first map.

Similar question, for people who have done both group dives and solo dives, are those two separate saves? I’m curious to try the multiplayer, but again don’t want to lose my solo dive map until I’ve 100% cleared it.
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your solo dive map shouldn't change until you select new solo dive

I go from random group sessions back to my ongoing solo dive map all the time
 
There’s also the Pokemon Tera Taid event this weekend too…

Are the UML’a the draw here? I’d love them to out out a list so i know how much time to put aside
 
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E.Gadd said:
the Tetris 99 theme is also available this weekend by the way, if you are also into that sort of thing

bit of an arika x arika crossover situation, which is neat
Click to expand...

tubj6I1.jpeg

yeah
 
E.Gadd said:
your solo dive map shouldn't change until you select new solo dive

I go from random group sessions back to my ongoing solo dive map all the time
Click to expand...
Thank you! Appreciate this a ton :)

…

Made some awesome progress on my solo dive tonight as I jumped from 50% map to a little over 80%! As others have shared, once you have a great number of fish logged you can start making your way through maps more quickly which is more pleasant. Closing in on 90% fish for my first ocean too and I got my first UML Great Ancestor which is exciting.

Also one question I had that got answered tonight for islands you just can’t seem to get the map tile for once you hit 80% the map fills in with topography and gray tiles for places you haven’t been and pops the in game achievement. Had been anxious how that’d be handled as I was going for 100% map.
 
The event really shows how me and the devs differ on what we think is the draw of the game. The event is ‘work together to get the UML quickly then get out’. I think the UMLs are the least interesting part of these games. Ive seen so many games with fantastical creatures. Ive seen hardly any with realistic depictions of fish.

Which, you know, is fine. I think long term i can still imagine myself getting a lot of joy by just skipping the game bit altogether and just doing the solo dives and stopping when i get bored.
 
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I think the real draw of the event is being able to find some animals in abnormally large sizes, which I think may be the only thing that’s actually “exclusive” to this event? (Though maybe that’s not even exclusive, either—I’m not sure, but I’ve never seen sizes that are as comically large compared to the average size of a species as what can be found in this event, lol.) I think it only feels like a “rush” because they set the time at 20 minutes rather than 60 minutes—and I think that’s mostly because it makes sense to have a shorter time for a fixed event map like this that people are likely going to be visiting more than once. It would be kind of a drag if every dive on the same exact event map was a full hour each time. But if you’ve been playing the game for awhile you’ve probably already seen most of what’s available in this event map (besides the comically large animals, at least), and even if you haven’t you can probably see it all within a few event dive sessions, so I don’t think you even particularly need to rush to reveal and scan the UML here if you don’t want to.
 
Yeah, I don't think the UML is the focus. The UML is just a challenge to do in the 20 minute timespan if you want. You get a random UML from every normal dive anyway, so they ain't special.

The unique things are what you have to explore and discover, along with a few sidequests to wrap up if you haven't done them in a regular dive, but you have to be good at remembering where the relevant animal and the relevant tablet is and all that, which can take multiple dives if you find one or the other really late. Like the tablet asking for a stingray but none are anywhere nearby because there's a group of them allllllllllll the way in the lower righthand corner. Also a higher rate of rare salvage. Then there's unusual sights that aren't going to be documented by something in-game, like a large group of green seaturtles swimming together, the easter egg posted above, or little groups of isopods or other animals in arrangements that would never normally happen.

Anyway, I got a survey e-mail from Nintendo this morning, so check your inboxes y'all. Make sure to ask for more features from Blue World/Adventures of the Deep if this game is a success and hammer in whatever other desires like animal behaviors and whatnot you wanna see.
 
Hailinel said:
Ever since the Event Dive started, I've been seeing the UML from the ED in standard dives.

So...what's the point of the Event Dive?
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The previous two posts above yours explain what the point is. There are no exclusive UMLs in the event dive.
 
Tye said:
…find some animals in abnormally large sizes
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This so far is the thing that really sticks out. Combined with the map being the (exact?) same each dive means someone is always carrying a ginormous lobster on their back which is quite fun and goofy. Also it has that geothermal area which is really cool, this event was the first time I explored it, and it helped me get past 400 species catalogued.
 
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Tye said:
The previous two posts above yours explain what the point is. There are no exclusive UMLs in the event dive.
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I wish the game did a better job of explaining things like this. There's barely any explanation of what an Event Dive actually entails. Or if there is an in-game explanation, it's not obviously presented. Otherwise EDs feel like 20 minute sessions to catch the UML or you're out of luck and need to try again.
 
Quoted by: Tye
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I been trying to use the event dives to get the alt forms of the UMLs but haven't gotten one so far even after like 30 tries lol

I did run into one group of divers who were tagging everything with different tags , so that really boosted my tag collection, but I still wish normal divers would use different tags when they find things

Seeing a map full of like 25 thumbs up is useful but man use other stuff I wanna fill out my tags lmao
 
Dang this all sounds intriguing. I won't get my Play-Asia copy until Paper Mario TTYD ships since it's all the same order. Might not be playing until June I guess.

Hope there's another group dive event at that time.
 
Hailinel said:
I wish the game did a better job of explaining things like this. There's barely any explanation of what an Event Dive actually entails. Or if there is an in-game explanation, it's not obviously presented. Otherwise EDs feel like 20 minute sessions to catch the UML or you're out of luck and need to try again.
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Yeah, that’s definitely one of the biggest areas in which the game could use some improvement. Lots of stuff isn’t really explained at all, leaving many players confused about things, unfortunately.

I found this guide that covers a lot of basic features that the game doesn’t really explain well, if at all:

Endless Ocean Luminous Guide - Thonky.com

A guide to the 2024 casual exploration and simulation game, Endless Ocean Luminous, for Nintendo Switch.
www.thonky.com www.thonky.com

Though there’s one thing that still eludes me about the game, and that is…where the hell do new tags come from?! Like, I understand that you can obtain tags that you didn’t already have from other players by scanning or salvaging something they put those tags on…but where do the new tags originate from in the first place?? Because everyone starts out with the same tags, and if the only way to get new tags is from scanning/salvaging stuff that other players have marked with their own tags…how do any other tags beyond the starting tags even exist?! It makes absolutely no sense and I am extremely intrigued by this mystery, lol. I haven’t been able to find an answer to that anywhere online yet, either.
 
I finished my first dive area with 90% fish so I’m happy to finally call it there. I don’t know if you get the same UML I did Grand Ancestor if you play the map I got, but figured I’d share my code just in case. It has a very big dinosaur ruins zone that’s pretty cool and some other spots I thought were pretty neat.

0058 6720 7300 7745

I’m eager to try out my first group and event dives tomorrow, but I think I’m at a turning point here as the way scanning works is starting to get to me. If I don’t vibe with either I might be putting the game down. Overall, I had a great time with it even if I end up not being into it for the long haul.
 
Despite the bad reviews I bought it anyway. I loved the second game.

The best part? The graphics look decent, some fish look and move like swimming stones, but some have at least a bare minimum of animation. The Quality of the models fluctuates greatly.

Anyway the game feels really cheap, the AI voice sounds unbearable, the story is just dumb and boring. The story bits are often just badly animated movies. The music is forgettable.

Most parts of the maps are barren, you have a coral reef here and there that looks nice. The cool moments of the second game when you encounter new fish or find hidden caves or ruins, are completely gone.

It's just mass scanning now, the descriptions of the creatures, read by this cheaply sounding text-to-speech voice, are often just extremely superficial nothings. And it seems there is no distinction made between fantasy creatures, extinct creatures and real, living creatures, all will be presented the same, and the descriptions don't seem to differentiate between them. So if you don't know beforehand about these creatures it's weird.

It is by far the worst and most cheaply looking Nintendo game I played in years. Instead of giving this franchise a boost, it seems newly super rich Nintendo decided, to cut the budget in half and sell it for almost full price anyway. Very disappointing.
 
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Tye said:
Yeah, that’s definitely one of the biggest areas in which the game could use some improvement. Lots of stuff isn’t really explained at all, leaving many players confused about things, unfortunately.

I found this guide that covers a lot of basic features that the game doesn’t really explain well, if at all:

Endless Ocean Luminous Guide - Thonky.com

A guide to the 2024 casual exploration and simulation game, Endless Ocean Luminous, for Nintendo Switch.
www.thonky.com www.thonky.com

Though there’s one thing that still eludes me about the game, and that is…where the hell do new tags come from?! Like, I understand that you can obtain tags that you didn’t already have from other players by scanning or salvaging something they put those tags on…but where do the new tags originate from in the first place?? Because everyone starts out with the same tags, and if the only way to get new tags is from scanning/salvaging stuff that other players have marked with their own tags…how do any other tags beyond the starting tags even exist?! It makes absolutely no sense and I am extremely intrigued by this mystery, lol. I haven’t been able to find an answer to that anywhere online yet, either.
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Initially I thought that the tag slot machine somehow also added new tags, but I read somewhere that at the start of the game everyone has the same 3 or 4 tags and also 4 random ones.
 
It wasnt until just now in this thread that I realised that the event was the same map every time. I thought it was similar. I didnt realise it was the same!
 
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Rosmarina said:
Initially I thought that the tag slot machine somehow also added new tags, but I read somewhere that at the start of the game everyone has the same 3 or 4 tags and also 4 random ones.
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Oh? Maybe that is the case then. I could’ve sworn that my partner and I started with the same tags, though, which would either mean that’s not true or that that was an incredible coincidence. But it’s not like I actually recorded which tags we both started with so I could easily be mistaken and maybe we just both started with similar tags and I didn’t really notice.

EDIT: Looking up early gameplay footage from someone else, and yup, that does seem to be the case, because they started with some tags that I definitely didn’t have at the beginning. Well, mystery solved, I guess! lol
 
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the story mode trying to act as primarily a tutorial for the game yet also requiring that you scan hundreds/thousands of fish to unlock the next little bit ends up meaning you will absolutely have already encountered or stumbled your way into figuring out how to do all the stuff it tries to introduce to you waaaay before hand

it's so bizarre. don't get why it's gated off at all considering what it is(I haven't completed it yet so maybe something changes? not expecting it to tho)

but even though I don't enjoy this game the way I love what Blue World did(that game is just on another level. Easily an all time best Nintendo game imo)

I still find the aimless swimming around in this big random aquarium really relaxing and therapeutic. I went to scan a couple fish for like 15 mins yesterday and ended up spending an hour and a half before realizing it

tho I guess I should clarify that that's how it is for me with the Solo dives anyway

The rando dive sessions are becoming more and more just big ol UML speedruns. I can't get over how different the two experiences are even though everything else is exactly the same. but the group dives feel like Endless Ocean 200cc mode or something idk
 
The real fun in this game, at least for me, is playing it together with someone else—not just solo or with random players online. My partner and I have been doing a shared dive or two together almost every day now and it’s been a really great time! Meeting up with each other and then working together to communicate where we’ve found new stuff and all as been really fun and relaxing for us.
 
Be sure to check out the southwest corner of F4 during the event dive for a neat surprise!! Just gotta make sure you look at it from the right angle… 👀

bSmIHIo.jpeg
 
I did my first group dive and two event dives today. I think I’ll be up for at least another group dive or two tomorrow! For the normal group dive in particular, I really like the differences here between this and solo dives. First, it’s just kind of fun to see other people and second I like how you essentially divide up the scanning work naturally. I really enjoyed coming across already lit up creatures that I hadn’t seen before vs the strictly luminated / blue shadow approach you otherwise contend with. I’m glad you still keep your own creature log separate which was one of my big concerns. I knew there was a time limit which bummed me out a bit and noticed how the randomly generated areas pop out more, which together is why I think I’ll be calling it quits for sure soon, but yeah this was good fun.

The event dive in contrast, I was kind of down on. I didn’t like the strict time limit and how I missed my first UML and barely tagged the second since I think it was so hectic everyone was just racing around the map. Barely found any dive buddies. Incredible map though. How deep it goes and how many caves it has is absolutely wild. Also I cannot believe I found the Tetris Easter Egg randomly given how big the map is lol.
 
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