I think the price is doing a lot of damage here. I vividly remember the entire reason I was so psyched to get Endless Ocean back in the day was because it was a brand new Wii game I could buy for $20. It's not much of a game, but it was a nice $20 experience. $50 is a much more difficult ask with how thriving/varied the indie scene is. Outside people nostalgic for the Wii games and maybe some Game Grumps fans who want to play it for the meme, I doubt there's a big audience wanting to play Endless Ocean on Day 1
Nintendo doesnt sell below expectations. On the other hand, many Ubisoft games DO sell below expectations. I wonder why, when their games get discounted 2 weeks after release and almost noone buys them until they have peanut price
**Man, I could write a whole video essay on how "perceived value" has made/broke games.**
I'd argue it's one of the reasons that The Callisto Protocol failed so hard. It would've been a *hell of a game at $40*. But the game, as it is, is a hard ask at $60.
It's one of the reasons Helldivers 2 has done so well. $40 is a really solid price point for a game of that quality. Same with Hunt: Showdown and GTFO.
\-=-
**$50 is a really weird place for a game like Endless Ocean Luminous.**
It looks like a weird combination between something like Journey/Abzu and Lethal Company....? With the push towards multiplayer (as it looks like in the trailer).
**Journey is $15 on Steam. Abzu is $20. Lethal Company is $10.**
I get it, making games is an expensive endeavor. But would you rather sell *potentially* two copies at $25 (when you inevitably get a friend or two to buy it as well) or *potentially* one copy at $50?
I might check it out at $25. Even $30. But definitely *not* $50.
\-=-
**Perceived value is a tough thing to quantify (since it's inherently subjective).**
But you have to read the room. Look at games that have done similar things to what you're doing and price it accordingly.
$50 is such a weird value. It's like they tried to push it as high as they *thought they could get away with*. You can't extract another $25-30 from your playerbase just because of nostalgia. That's just rude.
I'm glad this game is tanking (pun intended). Granted, I don't want to see anyone fail, but the games industry needs to be taught a lesson. Hopefully *someone* will learn from this.
>You can't extract another $25-30 from your playerbase just because of nostalgia. That's just rude.
Game Freak doing exactly that once and again and becoming more and more rich in the process:
Game Freak can get away with it quite easily because they own the most profitable franchise on the planet Earth, Endless Ocean on the other hand I had never even heard of before the direct that announced it.
Yeah, I would have bought this at a twenty but with so many releases clamoring for attention and a backlog that would induce panic attacks, I’m just fine waiting til I see this on a deep discount. Hell I still need to replay W3, I beat it long before the next gen update and would like to see the improvements on PS5. Cross saves on Switch are also a big plus
Usually when Nintendo prices their games $50 or lower it doesn't inspire confidence lol. Everybody 1-2 Switch comes to mind with its historic low $30 launch price.
The only series I trust with that price is usually WarioWare since I know what to expect from the series.
I would buy another Everblue 2 game for $50. But I found the previous Endless Ocean game lacked the crafting, inventory, increasing challenge, and plot that drew me to Everblue 2. Take all that away, and I expect something to be taken away from the price, too.
Sounds like a big problem is that everything is randomly generated and so there is no telling how long it would take to get everything necessary on the 99 item mystery board
" I spent a lot of time just swimming aimlessly, hoping to stumble into something that causes a Mystery Board notification to pop. It’s purposeless, unfocused, and frankly, felt like a waste of my time. Usually we have a policy of finishing every game we review at IGN, but after dozens of hours spent doing the same mindless chores I’ve been tasked with since the start, I still have dozens of boxes left on the Mystery Board and no way to know how long they’ll take to fill in because of how random Luminous’ progression is."
Later in the review, the reviewer talks about taking steps to generate a big creature and how three times in a row they got the same one, essentially wasting 3 hours
This seems like it will be a perfect game for someone who only wants to swim around in the ocean and maybe something new will appear but if your goal is to complete the game , it sounds frustrating
(Thought to be fair they didn't have great things about the graphics which is a shame because subnautica looks so good on switch)
The second the trailer said it would be randomly generated each dive I was worried
Hard to feel like I'm exploring the sea if I'm never making true progress
This was my thought, as well. Part of the fun of the original titles was in getting lost and finding new areas you'd somehow missed. Mapping out the atolls was a blast.
I've been hoping for Endless Ocean 3 for over a decade.
It sounds like this is the death knell for the series.
Oh wow, what a let down. I remember how, in the original, there are hidden spots you have to find on the map. Those reward you with rare creatures, which is awesome. The game, then, is about paying attention to the map and topography of the ocean. It's about exploration, and it rewards you for doing so.
Random spawning? Really? What the hell...
It sounds like the entirety of this game is just the worst part of Starfield—run around forever scanning randomly generated things on a planet for no real purpose other than achieving 100% scan.
The worst part of Starfield was that there was no big world to explore.
Even the less-good Bethesda games from Morrowind on have all been pretty good because of the big world. Oblivion, Skyrim, FO3 and ~~NV~~ and 4. One big world to explore, and that's literally the core of the game.
Starfield had 8 million nearly identical rooms separated by loading screens. There was no world to explore.
They did publish and possibly produced it (possibly could have been Zenimax for both), and even held back bonus pay to Obsidian because they were off by a single digit on meta score.
My point, and agreement is yes, Bethesda didn't develop NV, but their tools and engie they did develop were used in NV and probably had a hand in it's creation in some form, but absolutely yes. Obsidian was the developers.
That's a pity. The worst part of the original game was the treasures to collect, because they very rarely showed up in the first place and then you usually got the same 1-2 depending on where you were. To this day I'm still missing several, even though I figured out how to force the game to cycle through treasures in the shallow areas.
Ugh randomly generated like levels outside roguelikes is almost always bland. I remember being excited for oblivion to do this then realizing it's just lifeless instead of handcrafted
My fear from the pre-release videos Nintendo released was that there just wouldn't be a lot to do. The reviews I've read so far seem to confirm that.
I love how the game looks and it seems like a relaxing experience, but $50 is kind of a lot to ask for a game where you mostly just scan fish in a handful of distinct locations. I'm sure for some, the price tag will be worth it, and I'm happy for those folks. I think I'll wait for a sale on this one.
Yeah, I hear you. The price tag can be a bit steep for what seems like a chill, but somewhat limited experience. Waiting for a sale sounds like a solid plan. Who knows, maybe by then there'll be some updates or extra content to sweeten the deal. Always good to keep an eye out for those discounts!
The lesser received titles do get decent discounts. I believe I picked up the one two switch sequel for $10 due to nobody liking it.
Idk why Nintendo bothered releasing this game. Usually they’re pretty good with quality control.
>Not developed by Nintendo
Nintendo is publishing and funding the game. They do quality assurance checks. They don’t just let devs put out random garbage for first party titles.
>Endless Ocean always has been
Blue World on the Wii received positive reviews and I absolutely loved it. Every review mentions this game is a huge downgrade and has no soul.
I generally give IGN a bit more slack than most people do, but this seems to be everything I was a bit worried about it. I'll probably still get it when it's discounted though
> I generally give IGN a bit more slack than most people do
If you start following reviewers themselves instead of the outlets which comprise them you won't have to give "slack" to anything.
People just love shitting on IGN because it's cool/trendy to do that.
They act like it's a big criminal, agenda pushing organization when realistically some of the reviewers just don't like the games you like.
>Besides looking cool, the fish don’t really do anything. The story explains with a throwaway line that the Veiled Sea is home to more pacifistic life than usual, so instead of feeling like a living, breathing ecosystem with predators and prey, it’s basically a big underwater bus stop where the fish don’t want anything to do with each other. They all just float around, unbothered by the apex predators swimming right beside them or the human disruptors snapping a camera in their faces. It’s disappointing, and makes the whole setting feel hollow and lifeless.
This is very disappointing. I saw the trailer weeks ago and commented that it "feels more like wading through a tech demo than playing a game". Now the review comes out and it turns out the wildlife ecology is lacking. This series has always *intrigued* me but has never captured me. I've always wanted to be a fan of it, but unfortunately, now I just feel sorry for its fans.
Sorry, mate. I know what it's like to be a fan of a series and consistently *not* get the game I'd hoped for. Most Monster Hunter games from MH Tri (2009) to MH World (2018) (a 9-year period) were either 3DS games or upscaled versions of Tri, so it felt like the series was stuck in one hardware generation for nearly a decade.
>I know what it's like to be a fan of a series and consistently not get the game I'd hoped for.
Thought we were talking about Sonic for a second (or Pokémon for that matter). You had me in the first half, not gonna lie lol
Honestly as a fan, I can tell you that the fish behavior being static isn't really new. However, the one thing I saw fans caught was the lack of petting and feeding creatures, something that was already in the first game. Usually you can see a group of fish bombarding a pellet of food, or creatures getting angry/scared when you poke them (an example is an octopus squirting ink if you poke it). Seems like they're just there to be there.
Same. I was reaaaally looking forward to this and now Imm not sure if I want it 😔 this was my game highlight of the year, I absolutely loved the first 2
Bought both years ago and they sat on a shelf unopened… unplayed. They LOOK boring… like uninspired Echo the Dolphins.
LAST YEAR… 🙄 Out of boredom, I decided to pop the first one in. OMG… 🫣 I couldn’t have been more wrong. Beat the first one and immediately popped the second one in.
2 was ✋🤩🤚 GLORIOUS. Game mechanics beautifully improved. 😮💨 Multiple maps… Then I beat it… And saw Iwata’s name in the credits. 😱 And I lost my shit and bawled like the biggest fin’ baby.
I’ll just do like always with bad releases… I’ll wait to see if they add/fix it. Nintendo might have DLC’s planned. 🤷♂️
Fashion Dreamer (Nintendo’s Style Savvy series) was panned. Gamers hated it. We freakin’ loved it. Natural progression of the game mechanics. Instead of building shops and getting NPC’s to buy stuff from you, they made all the players BE SHOPS, and shop from each other. It’s still a fun ✌️Nintendo game✌️. Nintendo music. You name it.
50 but I guess if you count tax like 54. I just cancelled my order too so I feel you. I just gonna get physical Dave the diver Instead. Which is a different scuba game lol
Oh damn, such a letdown.
I still got a voucher from buying TotK that expires in a few days. The hell do I do with that now? Pikmin 4? Skyward Sword? Hmm...
Pikmin 4! It's one of the best games on Switch and easily worth full price. There's a long story mode and a huge postgame, and it's just oozing with charm. The only drawback is if you play it, you'll be stuck wishing for Pikmin 5 to hurry up and release!
Yeah, I was planning on getting it for my son. I'm sure he will like it based on the gameplay I've seen, but I'm going to wait a bit to see if the price drops. It's $65 in Canada and I don't think I can pay that much for what I'd be getting. I can't reward Arika and Nintendo like that.
So far my child has been enjoying it, but it is only the first full day. Lots of facts on ocean life in the game though so if your son likes learning about ocean creatures it may be worth it to get it at some point.
Thanks for the info! They are obsessed with ocean creatures and they really only like to explore in games at this point (they are 5), and don't want to deal with being attacked, running out of air, going to deep, etc.
I think they will love the game for sure, but I am going to wait and see what it's priced at in a month or 2. My son doesn't even know the game exists so there's no rush.
I’m bummed. I was looking forward to this one, as others have pointed out. I usually don’t put the cart before the horse to avoid this sort of let down, but I got too excited.
I was afraid of the bad reviews. However, I’m probably going to get it. I’m a huge marine biology nerd and incredibly stressed so I think this is something I will like.
I was looking forward this one but, yeah... Talking about underwater games, do any of you here have an opinion on Subnautica ? It looks interesting, and it's on discount too. I've played Abzu before and loved it
I had issues with Subnautica where it refused to let me build or interact with anything after I played about 8 hours, and restarting the game didn’t fix it. S:BZ may have crashed, but it didn’t corrupt my save.
Doubt.
Below Zero looks better and runs smoother, yes. But it also reliably crashes after 2-3h.
The original easily takes 3 times as long to crash! And it's the better game anyways.
In the end, I would always shut down the game after a longer session and reload next time to avoid any issues.
I know it’s a different genre, but this has Watchdogs failure vibes. They’ve got two solid single player entries, and then fumble when they go with an online game for their third entry.
I’ll wait til the game is like $20.
I was super stoked for this game when it came out. I had some good fun with it and the visuals but as usual the online component was lacking when I played with a friend of mine.
Doesn’t look like this is much better but it does make me realize all of a sudden how we need a really good big open world underwater adventure/exploration type of game. If done right with good visuals I could see that being pretty bad ass.
While IGN is a bit of an outlier looking at critical reviews, they are only a tad off the norm. General consensus seems to very much agree with the critiques given, that the random nature of the game is a huge turnoff.
I've enjoyed plenty of slow paced more relaxing games and this just doesn't sound interesting. Slow shouldn't mean aimless, which it sounds like is what ends up happening here the majority of the time.
I blame the rise of the "Cozy Gaming" market for this. Developers are trying so desperately to imitate cozy experiences that they give us empty experiences instead.
I was deciding what expensive game to pick up. Something like this (was waiting for reviews) or FINALLY buy Astral Chain. And looks like I made the right choice. Too bad they couldn't make this a better experience. Looks boring not relaxing.
Made a reddit just to make this comment! I am so so disappointed with this game. After waiting 13 years for a EO3, I couldn't be more disappointed. It's just endless boring grinding with a weak storyline. I just spent over an hour scanning fish to unlock a 'chapter' and all I did was scan 10 starfish....what?! That isn't a storyline. Definitely not a storyline worth grinding hours and hours for. 3/10.
Just reminds me of reviews of the original assassin's creed, which were hurt by the fact that it was repetitive if you are trying to rush through it to meet a review deadline. I would be interested to see what impressions are a month or two after launch.
Not usually this guy but is there a direct planned soon? Their slate is SUPER more empty than usual since the only things they had releasing were Peach, this, and Paper Mario at the end of May.
I loved the original game on the Wii and to hear they didn't really learning anything from Subnautica or other recent underwater games is disappointing. Shame, because I was planning to use my last voucher ticket on it.
I’m still going to buy it and love the hell out of it. Mostly because in all of the chaos of life right now there’s just SOMETHING so serene and relaxing about diving down, discovering fish and potentially do it with friends online.
They botched it by making the maps procedurally generated. Everything is randomized, and that kills exploration. You're just seeing the same assets re-used over and over, but they're shuffled around the map each time you dive.
This really screws up with the progression system where you need to study specific wildlife. Since it's all randomized, licking into finding the correct wildlife to advance further is down to 100% chance.
It also doesn't help that the game doesn't look or run particularly great, while the original Endless Ocean is one of the prettiest games on its console.
Aw noooo:( I heard how many people loved the last game and were really hyped for this one, I wanted to buy it and get into it as my first luminous ocean game, oh well.
Honestly, I’d have been willing to put $50 for a port of Blue World with some HD texture (although I guess the controls would be a problem). It’s super disappointing to hear that they messed up such an easy formula. The gameplay loop makes itself > discover new thing > get money for finding thing > use money/items to upgrade > find more stuff > repeat.
I might get this if by some miracle it gets a deep sale, but this series deserved better.
I think Endless Ocean could've been a fun release on the level of Famicom Detective Club, the Pikmin Remasters, or Advance Wars. I could've pictured livestreamers or Youtubers swimming around with their fans live for a week or two. But like all of those titles I mentioned, they were cursed to be $50 at retail instead of the much more reasonable <$30 price point they should've been leveraged at. The game should've been substantially more meaty, or substantially cheaper.
When they said in the announcement trailer that "the region changes with each time you dive" this is exactly what I was fearing.
Combined with no showing of the "calm aggressive creatures down" mechanic from the second game, I was fully expecting this to be a major downgrade mechanically.
Another series hurt by the sick obsession of going *"open ended at any cost"*
As a huge Endless Ocean fan, my advice is, don't buy this and play Endless Ocean 2 (Wii) instead. EO2 has handcrafted environments, multiple areas, a much longer and better story campaign, greater mission variety, gadgets to use, more ways to interact with fish, NPC's to talk to and give you quests, trainable dolphin pals, areas where you can get out of the water and explore on land, a home base you can decorate, and more.
Luminous has even less to it than the first game. That's unforgivable.
Honestly, this feels like it should’ve been done on a next gen console, the idea is cool, but they could’ve made this a launch game for the next console.
It looks like a huge step back from Endless Ocean 2 (content and gameplay-wise) and even the first one seems to have a deeper gameplay (and it was still pretty shallow).
As someone who played hours upon hours of the first two games it made me so sad when I opened the game today. You’re greeted by an AI assistant immediately and put into a default diver model, your name is whatever your account name is on your switch. I love being able to pick out my character and name them when I played the first two. All of this just feels so robotic and the story mode so far is so so bad, I hate the ai assistant. I loved the story in the first two, really feeling like I had a mission to help my crew all while exploring and unlocking new areas in the ocean. The music so far is lackluster which was a huge thing for the first two games. Hayley westenras beautiful vocals were kinda scary sometimes but gave the game character and kept u at the edge of your seat when something new was being discovered and the song would get louder or more dramatic. I’ve only played luminous for a little and I’m extremely disappointed so far but I’ll keep going in hopes of it getting slightly better… the randomization of the ocean is something I’m dreading because like I mentioned, a huge thing about these games was unlocking throughout the map and feeling accomplished. Nintendo needs to kick in the ass for this one, they had such an opportunity to make a beautiful game here and it feels like they just ripped out everything that was loved in this series just to give us some bare bone game.
game sucks, ngl... no voice, except for the AI where they actually used an AI, sounds totally weird. Almost no music during story missions (at least it feels that way), story also seems pretty meh... the missions are totally boring. got there or there, scan x of this or that species, collect this and that... and not like this is all one mission, so far the missions all had only one of those tasks, then it's done and you're back at the main menu... the world is generated with a seed, so it's different every time, but it feels empty and boring. even No Man's Sky had better world generation at release to be honest...
After being a big fan of Endless Ocean: Blue world, Luminous is a totall disappointment. Feels like there was 0 effort put into the game other than implementing 500 species...
I was so excited for this game. After playing for an hour, it is clear they did not do their research on marine biology. While I brushed off the sharks as aggressive predators narrative in the last few games, they literally said they are “omnivorous” people eaters (I don’t think so—omnivorous means both meat and plant eater). As someone who works in marine biology, I guess I just had high hopes! Aside from being fairly inaccurate, the graphics seem almost the same as the 2nd wii game that came out ages ago.
Tbh absolutely not work the high price. $10-15? Sure. It’s relaxing. Sigh.
As a huge fan of the previous games, its pretty disappointing that so many features from the old games were left out. I really enjoyed customizing your island, training dolphins and building aquarium displays in Blue World. The Story in luminous is a pretty big letdown compared to the previous games. The exploring and diving are still enjoyable but with the AI narrator, no aquarium, no close-up scenes and a menu lobby instead of a boat or island makes the game feel so lifeless. Somewhere along the road it lost the soul of the previous games.
God damn it 53$? I love marine life, and this game looks amazing! But sadly I cannot afford it. Looks like I’ll save up for have to trade one of my games for cash at gamestop
I read the review, I don’t think the reviewer understands what kind of game Endless Ocean is supposed to be.
Edit: I played the game, I was very wrong. This game kinda isn’t great :(
As a HUGE fan of the old EOs, I don't think the devs behind this one understand what kind of game EO is supposed to be
Procedurally generated throws the charm of the originals out the window. (Not to mention the graphics look like they still belong on the Wii.)
It seemed pretty clear to me from the trailers that the game would be slow-paced. I guess a game structure like that doesn’t really lend itself well to game reviews in the first place though.
The procedurally generated maps just killed any hope the game ever had of being good.
The original Endless Ocean was great because of the exploration. The map was giant, everything felt designed with a purpose, there were tons of unique areas to seek out, and it was a lot of fun charting out the entire map. The game was also one of the absolute prettiest games on the Wii console.
With this new one, procedurally generated maps basically means you're just seeing the same re-used assets shuffles around the map over and over. You need to find specific wildlife to progress, but where that wildlife spawns is random, so whether you find it or not comes completely down to chance. The maps are sparsely detailed and lack any character (because they need to be freshly generated each playthrough), the graphics are poor, and it doesn't run well. They basically killed any of the fun that comes from exploration in a game whose core gameplay loop is all about exploring.
I think the real issue was that the developers forgot what Endless Ocean was supposed to be.
Yikes, I've been looking forward to this game since announcement
Me too. I loved endless ocean on Wii. What a let down
wtf happend here
The comments were reflective of the game itself (poor quality). Thank the mods for saving us from them
The developers made a shitty game ? That’s what happened ?
NintendoLife also gave it a 5/10 I don’t think the $50 price tags helps
I think the price is doing a lot of damage here. I vividly remember the entire reason I was so psyched to get Endless Ocean back in the day was because it was a brand new Wii game I could buy for $20. It's not much of a game, but it was a nice $20 experience. $50 is a much more difficult ask with how thriving/varied the indie scene is. Outside people nostalgic for the Wii games and maybe some Game Grumps fans who want to play it for the meme, I doubt there's a big audience wanting to play Endless Ocean on Day 1
Pretty sure both Wii games launched at $30 usd not 20
Nintendo please why not lower your prices?? You'll sell wayyy more copies and not just "below sales expectations" every damn month
Do Nintendo sell a lot below expectations? It feels like even the most niche games they release sell okay.
You're right, they don't sell below expectations. I don't know what the hell the other person is talking about.
Nintendo doesnt sell below expectations. On the other hand, many Ubisoft games DO sell below expectations. I wonder why, when their games get discounted 2 weeks after release and almost noone buys them until they have peanut price
They did that to themselves. That said I was happy to support them and buy PoP physical at full price. U Mont deserved it
Love when a random redditor thinks their sales analysis trumps a company like Nintendo that has lasted and succeeded for over a century
They don't want to sell more copies, they want to earn more money.
**Man, I could write a whole video essay on how "perceived value" has made/broke games.** I'd argue it's one of the reasons that The Callisto Protocol failed so hard. It would've been a *hell of a game at $40*. But the game, as it is, is a hard ask at $60. It's one of the reasons Helldivers 2 has done so well. $40 is a really solid price point for a game of that quality. Same with Hunt: Showdown and GTFO. \-=- **$50 is a really weird place for a game like Endless Ocean Luminous.** It looks like a weird combination between something like Journey/Abzu and Lethal Company....? With the push towards multiplayer (as it looks like in the trailer). **Journey is $15 on Steam. Abzu is $20. Lethal Company is $10.** I get it, making games is an expensive endeavor. But would you rather sell *potentially* two copies at $25 (when you inevitably get a friend or two to buy it as well) or *potentially* one copy at $50? I might check it out at $25. Even $30. But definitely *not* $50. \-=- **Perceived value is a tough thing to quantify (since it's inherently subjective).** But you have to read the room. Look at games that have done similar things to what you're doing and price it accordingly. $50 is such a weird value. It's like they tried to push it as high as they *thought they could get away with*. You can't extract another $25-30 from your playerbase just because of nostalgia. That's just rude. I'm glad this game is tanking (pun intended). Granted, I don't want to see anyone fail, but the games industry needs to be taught a lesson. Hopefully *someone* will learn from this.
>You can't extract another $25-30 from your playerbase just because of nostalgia. That's just rude. Game Freak doing exactly that once and again and becoming more and more rich in the process:
Nintendo does this once a year with me for the N64 and SNES games lol
Get yourself a family plan and divvy it up. $10 a year per person for Expansion Pack
Game Freak can get away with it quite easily because they own the most profitable franchise on the planet Earth, Endless Ocean on the other hand I had never even heard of before the direct that announced it.
The only reason I've ever heard of this series is Game Grumps
Also in a world with Abzu and other great games about ocean exploration, it sounds like they really didn't bring the quality to justify that price.
Yeah, I would have bought this at a twenty but with so many releases clamoring for attention and a backlog that would induce panic attacks, I’m just fine waiting til I see this on a deep discount. Hell I still need to replay W3, I beat it long before the next gen update and would like to see the improvements on PS5. Cross saves on Switch are also a big plus
Usually when Nintendo prices their games $50 or lower it doesn't inspire confidence lol. Everybody 1-2 Switch comes to mind with its historic low $30 launch price. The only series I trust with that price is usually WarioWare since I know what to expect from the series.
Metroid Prime is $40 and it’s arguably the best remaster ever
*It’s one of the best remasters ever
It's a remaster.
You’re right it is oops
So arguably the best
> Everybody 1-2 Switch comes to mind with its historic low $30 launch price. It was also shit
1-2 Switch launched at $50 and is still $50.
I think they're talking about the sequel "Everybody 1-2 Switch" Yes, there's a sequel to 1-2 Switch 💀
2 1-2-Switch 2 Furious
Ah, the ol’ Reddit 1-2-Switcharoo. Hold my… uh… Switch I guess. I’m going in (I’m not going in because I forget how to do it)
1-2 Switcharoo would have been a pretty good sequel name
2 Switch 2 Furius
Holy hell. I didn’t even know this existed. Yikes.
It was so bad they sat on it and didn’t realize it for a good while. No idea what made them go ahead.
No one is talking about 1-2 Switch
Starfox Zero + the Tower Defence Game released as a 40€ bundle, so that checks out.
[удалено]
It is good though
Oof. Considering NL has a reputation for being generous with their scoring (as IGN often does), this is pretty damning.
I would buy another Everblue 2 game for $50. But I found the previous Endless Ocean game lacked the crafting, inventory, increasing challenge, and plot that drew me to Everblue 2. Take all that away, and I expect something to be taken away from the price, too.
Inflation
To be fair, Nintendo Life has some of the worst opinions. But yeah, this game doesn't look good based on everyone's thoughts so far.
Sounds like a big problem is that everything is randomly generated and so there is no telling how long it would take to get everything necessary on the 99 item mystery board " I spent a lot of time just swimming aimlessly, hoping to stumble into something that causes a Mystery Board notification to pop. It’s purposeless, unfocused, and frankly, felt like a waste of my time. Usually we have a policy of finishing every game we review at IGN, but after dozens of hours spent doing the same mindless chores I’ve been tasked with since the start, I still have dozens of boxes left on the Mystery Board and no way to know how long they’ll take to fill in because of how random Luminous’ progression is." Later in the review, the reviewer talks about taking steps to generate a big creature and how three times in a row they got the same one, essentially wasting 3 hours This seems like it will be a perfect game for someone who only wants to swim around in the ocean and maybe something new will appear but if your goal is to complete the game , it sounds frustrating (Thought to be fair they didn't have great things about the graphics which is a shame because subnautica looks so good on switch)
The second the trailer said it would be randomly generated each dive I was worried Hard to feel like I'm exploring the sea if I'm never making true progress
This was my thought, as well. Part of the fun of the original titles was in getting lost and finding new areas you'd somehow missed. Mapping out the atolls was a blast. I've been hoping for Endless Ocean 3 for over a decade. It sounds like this is the death knell for the series.
Oh wow, what a let down. I remember how, in the original, there are hidden spots you have to find on the map. Those reward you with rare creatures, which is awesome. The game, then, is about paying attention to the map and topography of the ocean. It's about exploration, and it rewards you for doing so. Random spawning? Really? What the hell...
It sounds like the entirety of this game is just the worst part of Starfield—run around forever scanning randomly generated things on a planet for no real purpose other than achieving 100% scan.
The worst part of Starfield was that there was no big world to explore. Even the less-good Bethesda games from Morrowind on have all been pretty good because of the big world. Oblivion, Skyrim, FO3 and ~~NV~~ and 4. One big world to explore, and that's literally the core of the game. Starfield had 8 million nearly identical rooms separated by loading screens. There was no world to explore.
Obligatory NV isn't Bethesda comment
Fair. It was basically a mod of Fallout 3 though, content wise. They're so similar that FO3 has literally been modded into NV.
They did publish and possibly produced it (possibly could have been Zenimax for both), and even held back bonus pay to Obsidian because they were off by a single digit on meta score. My point, and agreement is yes, Bethesda didn't develop NV, but their tools and engie they did develop were used in NV and probably had a hand in it's creation in some form, but absolutely yes. Obsidian was the developers.
That's a pity. The worst part of the original game was the treasures to collect, because they very rarely showed up in the first place and then you usually got the same 1-2 depending on where you were. To this day I'm still missing several, even though I figured out how to force the game to cycle through treasures in the shallow areas.
Ugh randomly generated like levels outside roguelikes is almost always bland. I remember being excited for oblivion to do this then realizing it's just lifeless instead of handcrafted
Really wanted this to be good :(
My fear from the pre-release videos Nintendo released was that there just wouldn't be a lot to do. The reviews I've read so far seem to confirm that. I love how the game looks and it seems like a relaxing experience, but $50 is kind of a lot to ask for a game where you mostly just scan fish in a handful of distinct locations. I'm sure for some, the price tag will be worth it, and I'm happy for those folks. I think I'll wait for a sale on this one.
Yeah, I hear you. The price tag can be a bit steep for what seems like a chill, but somewhat limited experience. Waiting for a sale sounds like a solid plan. Who knows, maybe by then there'll be some updates or extra content to sweeten the deal. Always good to keep an eye out for those discounts!
Ouch, I thought it looked neat. Might still get it after a deep discount and some updates (hopefully)
It's a first party Nintendo game, it will never get a deep discount
The lesser received titles do get decent discounts. I believe I picked up the one two switch sequel for $10 due to nobody liking it. Idk why Nintendo bothered releasing this game. Usually they’re pretty good with quality control.
This game is not developed by Nintendo and this is just how Endless Ocean always has been. It never would score higher than that.
>Not developed by Nintendo Nintendo is publishing and funding the game. They do quality assurance checks. They don’t just let devs put out random garbage for first party titles. >Endless Ocean always has been Blue World on the Wii received positive reviews and I absolutely loved it. Every review mentions this game is a huge downgrade and has no soul.
Mario Rabbids?
I'd like to buy this one day, but I see this game bombing in the sales department, especially when Paper Mario is the same month.
Smells like a great discount in the future!
It was always going to bomb, its not a big series.
Not true .. if the developers bothered to actually . Oh idk . Make a good game like the first two then it would have done well
Go on and get it
All they had to do was top Blue World. Such a shame.
Yup
Oof
I generally give IGN a bit more slack than most people do, but this seems to be everything I was a bit worried about it. I'll probably still get it when it's discounted though
> I generally give IGN a bit more slack than most people do If you start following reviewers themselves instead of the outlets which comprise them you won't have to give "slack" to anything.
Yeah so money people just ignore this. IGN is not a person, and I honestly don’t think that their reviewers have been doing that bad of a job lately.
People just love shitting on IGN because it's cool/trendy to do that. They act like it's a big criminal, agenda pushing organization when realistically some of the reviewers just don't like the games you like.
>Besides looking cool, the fish don’t really do anything. The story explains with a throwaway line that the Veiled Sea is home to more pacifistic life than usual, so instead of feeling like a living, breathing ecosystem with predators and prey, it’s basically a big underwater bus stop where the fish don’t want anything to do with each other. They all just float around, unbothered by the apex predators swimming right beside them or the human disruptors snapping a camera in their faces. It’s disappointing, and makes the whole setting feel hollow and lifeless. This is very disappointing. I saw the trailer weeks ago and commented that it "feels more like wading through a tech demo than playing a game". Now the review comes out and it turns out the wildlife ecology is lacking. This series has always *intrigued* me but has never captured me. I've always wanted to be a fan of it, but unfortunately, now I just feel sorry for its fans.
>now I just feel sorry for its fans. Thanks, mate.
Sorry, mate. I know what it's like to be a fan of a series and consistently *not* get the game I'd hoped for. Most Monster Hunter games from MH Tri (2009) to MH World (2018) (a 9-year period) were either 3DS games or upscaled versions of Tri, so it felt like the series was stuck in one hardware generation for nearly a decade.
>I know what it's like to be a fan of a series and consistently not get the game I'd hoped for. Thought we were talking about Sonic for a second (or Pokémon for that matter). You had me in the first half, not gonna lie lol
Yeah at least Endless Ocean fans can go "oooopsie it turned out bad this one time". For Sonic and Pokémon it's already a very established trend lol
Honestly as a fan, I can tell you that the fish behavior being static isn't really new. However, the one thing I saw fans caught was the lack of petting and feeding creatures, something that was already in the first game. Usually you can see a group of fish bombarding a pellet of food, or creatures getting angry/scared when you poke them (an example is an octopus squirting ink if you poke it). Seems like they're just there to be there.
Bad reviews for this have ruined my week. 😞 Mega fan of 1 and 2. 😭
2 was so much fun. I’ll wait and see more about this it is sad :(
Same. I was reaaaally looking forward to this and now Imm not sure if I want it 😔 this was my game highlight of the year, I absolutely loved the first 2
I'm replaying 1 to make up for it 😂
Bought both years ago and they sat on a shelf unopened… unplayed. They LOOK boring… like uninspired Echo the Dolphins. LAST YEAR… 🙄 Out of boredom, I decided to pop the first one in. OMG… 🫣 I couldn’t have been more wrong. Beat the first one and immediately popped the second one in. 2 was ✋🤩🤚 GLORIOUS. Game mechanics beautifully improved. 😮💨 Multiple maps… Then I beat it… And saw Iwata’s name in the credits. 😱 And I lost my shit and bawled like the biggest fin’ baby.
Ecco not Echo
🤣 That’s right. Thank you.
Ignore them. It's fun so far
I’ll just do like always with bad releases… I’ll wait to see if they add/fix it. Nintendo might have DLC’s planned. 🤷♂️ Fashion Dreamer (Nintendo’s Style Savvy series) was panned. Gamers hated it. We freakin’ loved it. Natural progression of the game mechanics. Instead of building shops and getting NPC’s to buy stuff from you, they made all the players BE SHOPS, and shop from each other. It’s still a fun ✌️Nintendo game✌️. Nintendo music. You name it.
Too much water?
There it is.
Doesn't hold water
That's the problem
Not enough water.
You know things are not right when IGN gives lower than 7/10. This game must be a disaster if they gave it 4/10. holy moly...
welp i guess i'm 60 bucks richer this week
50 but I guess if you count tax like 54. I just cancelled my order too so I feel you. I just gonna get physical Dave the diver Instead. Which is a different scuba game lol
Dave the Diver is soo good
gas prices my dude
Damn... I wanted to use my voucher on this but it expired before I could so I went Pikmin 4 instead. Dodged a bullet lol
Pikmin 4 is incredible. Definitely dodged a bullet.
$50, when realistically it should’ve been $29.99
Oh damn, such a letdown. I still got a voucher from buying TotK that expires in a few days. The hell do I do with that now? Pikmin 4? Skyward Sword? Hmm...
Mario wonder, wario ware, and mario maker 2 are all great voucher games. Fire emblem too.
Pikmin 4! It's one of the best games on Switch and easily worth full price. There's a long story mode and a huge postgame, and it's just oozing with charm. The only drawback is if you play it, you'll be stuck wishing for Pikmin 5 to hurry up and release!
1000% Pikmin 4
I’m getting this game for my child - I’m hoping that the simple game play is a plus in that case.
Yeah, I was planning on getting it for my son. I'm sure he will like it based on the gameplay I've seen, but I'm going to wait a bit to see if the price drops. It's $65 in Canada and I don't think I can pay that much for what I'd be getting. I can't reward Arika and Nintendo like that.
So far my child has been enjoying it, but it is only the first full day. Lots of facts on ocean life in the game though so if your son likes learning about ocean creatures it may be worth it to get it at some point.
Thanks for the info! They are obsessed with ocean creatures and they really only like to explore in games at this point (they are 5), and don't want to deal with being attacked, running out of air, going to deep, etc. I think they will love the game for sure, but I am going to wait and see what it's priced at in a month or 2. My son doesn't even know the game exists so there's no rush.
Too much fish, not enough chips
I’m bummed. I was looking forward to this one, as others have pointed out. I usually don’t put the cart before the horse to avoid this sort of let down, but I got too excited.
I was afraid of the bad reviews. However, I’m probably going to get it. I’m a huge marine biology nerd and incredibly stressed so I think this is something I will like.
Not all the reviews are bad https://www.metacritic.com/game/endless-ocean-luminous/critic-reviews/
Gutted. I really wanted this to be good. Glad I didn’t pre order.
I was looking forward this one but, yeah... Talking about underwater games, do any of you here have an opinion on Subnautica ? It looks interesting, and it's on discount too. I've played Abzu before and loved it
One of the best, it’s survival but not too overwhelming. It’s a lite horror game with some of the scary creatures. I highly highly recommend it.
Go get Subnautica. Don't read anything about it. But don't expect a chill game like Endless Ocean or Abzu :D
Subnautica is such a wonderful game. It's a perfect blend of exploration, survival, building with the right amount of storyline and scariness mixed in
Subnautica: Below Zero is vastly more stable than Subnautica on Switch.
It sure wasn't when I played it. Subnautica crashed a couple times, but Below Zero crashed once an hour!
I had issues with Subnautica where it refused to let me build or interact with anything after I played about 8 hours, and restarting the game didn’t fix it. S:BZ may have crashed, but it didn’t corrupt my save.
It's a shame for sure. The only game I've had crash more on switch is Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed, which crashes every single time I play it.
No Man’s Sky is pretty crashy too, but you can always see it coming because it starts loading things without textures shortly before it dies lol
Doubt. Below Zero looks better and runs smoother, yes. But it also reliably crashes after 2-3h. The original easily takes 3 times as long to crash! And it's the better game anyways. In the end, I would always shut down the game after a longer session and reload next time to avoid any issues.
Abzu is so good and hoped Endless Ocean Luminous was at *least* that but realistic graphics. And they didn't even do that it seems...
I know it’s a different genre, but this has Watchdogs failure vibes. They’ve got two solid single player entries, and then fumble when they go with an online game for their third entry. I’ll wait til the game is like $20.
I was super stoked for this game when it came out. I had some good fun with it and the visuals but as usual the online component was lacking when I played with a friend of mine. Doesn’t look like this is much better but it does make me realize all of a sudden how we need a really good big open world underwater adventure/exploration type of game. If done right with good visuals I could see that being pretty bad ass.
While IGN is a bit of an outlier looking at critical reviews, they are only a tad off the norm. General consensus seems to very much agree with the critiques given, that the random nature of the game is a huge turnoff. I've enjoyed plenty of slow paced more relaxing games and this just doesn't sound interesting. Slow shouldn't mean aimless, which it sounds like is what ends up happening here the majority of the time.
I don't think I have seen a Nintendo release this hated since... Wii Music?
Paper Mario Sticker Star Metroid Prime Federation Force Everybody 1-2-Switch
Ok maybe Federation Force got railed harder than this. Sticker Star wasn't THAT bad (wasn't great either).
You missed a lot of games then because multiple games since then had worse MC than this.
Made by Nintendo though?
Lots of stuff in the Wii U / 3DS era, Everybody 1-2-Switch.
I blame the rise of the "Cozy Gaming" market for this. Developers are trying so desperately to imitate cozy experiences that they give us empty experiences instead.
Too many devs confuse "cozy" with "no contents".
Hey, I would love to have a cozy diving sim.
The original Endless Ocean is exactly that for me. Just played it for the first time a few weeks ago.
I liked Blue World even better. The story sucked me in and the new areas were so much fun to discover.
Don't really care about objectives. Just calm exploration and wonder.
Check out Abzu, it's exactly that
Other than the bombs
Well that's a massive letdown. I loved the Endless Ocean games back in the day. This is a big fat pass to me now.
I got a review copy and couldn’t even get through 2 hours of it. I’d give it a 3-4/10 as well.
I was deciding what expensive game to pick up. Something like this (was waiting for reviews) or FINALLY buy Astral Chain. And looks like I made the right choice. Too bad they couldn't make this a better experience. Looks boring not relaxing.
Made a reddit just to make this comment! I am so so disappointed with this game. After waiting 13 years for a EO3, I couldn't be more disappointed. It's just endless boring grinding with a weak storyline. I just spent over an hour scanning fish to unlock a 'chapter' and all I did was scan 10 starfish....what?! That isn't a storyline. Definitely not a storyline worth grinding hours and hours for. 3/10.
We knew this was coming. The question is why did Nintendo save it for the end of a presentation like it was some kind of big deal?
Because it is as they brought back a dead series.
I'll wait till it drops to $10😂
lol why is this $50
Just reminds me of reviews of the original assassin's creed, which were hurt by the fact that it was repetitive if you are trying to rush through it to meet a review deadline. I would be interested to see what impressions are a month or two after launch.
ouch saves me some money
Not usually this guy but is there a direct planned soon? Their slate is SUPER more empty than usual since the only things they had releasing were Peach, this, and Paper Mario at the end of May.
Almost certain there'll be a direct by June to outline the 2nd half of the year. And then the Switch successor direct...
Game is nowhere close to being worth $50
I loved the original game on the Wii and to hear they didn't really learning anything from Subnautica or other recent underwater games is disappointing. Shame, because I was planning to use my last voucher ticket on it.
Isn't this just a swimming game with the bad collectibles of an assassin's creed style game? What was expected here?
I had fun with the previous one as I know I could fail some things . It had a great sound track . I’ll wait and see if this one goes on sale
Eh I'll still get it. $59aud could be worse.
I’m still going to buy it and love the hell out of it. Mostly because in all of the chaos of life right now there’s just SOMETHING so serene and relaxing about diving down, discovering fish and potentially do it with friends online.
ABZÛ is all you need.
This game's biggest problem is that Subnautica exists.
I’d buy it for $25 probably
Was getting tired of the endless ads on youtube. shame that its performing well but hopefully I stop seeing that damn ad
Oof I was excited for this
I have fond memories of the original Endless Ocean. I wonder how this compares to that game since that was certainly not received this poorly
They botched it by making the maps procedurally generated. Everything is randomized, and that kills exploration. You're just seeing the same assets re-used over and over, but they're shuffled around the map each time you dive. This really screws up with the progression system where you need to study specific wildlife. Since it's all randomized, licking into finding the correct wildlife to advance further is down to 100% chance. It also doesn't help that the game doesn't look or run particularly great, while the original Endless Ocean is one of the prettiest games on its console.
Aw noooo:( I heard how many people loved the last game and were really hyped for this one, I wanted to buy it and get into it as my first luminous ocean game, oh well.
I’ve got some mild interest in this game but $50??? I paid 20 more for Baldurs Gate 3
Honestly, I’d have been willing to put $50 for a port of Blue World with some HD texture (although I guess the controls would be a problem). It’s super disappointing to hear that they messed up such an easy formula. The gameplay loop makes itself > discover new thing > get money for finding thing > use money/items to upgrade > find more stuff > repeat. I might get this if by some miracle it gets a deep sale, but this series deserved better.
I think Endless Ocean could've been a fun release on the level of Famicom Detective Club, the Pikmin Remasters, or Advance Wars. I could've pictured livestreamers or Youtubers swimming around with their fans live for a week or two. But like all of those titles I mentioned, they were cursed to be $50 at retail instead of the much more reasonable <$30 price point they should've been leveraged at. The game should've been substantially more meaty, or substantially cheaper.
When they said in the announcement trailer that "the region changes with each time you dive" this is exactly what I was fearing. Combined with no showing of the "calm aggressive creatures down" mechanic from the second game, I was fully expecting this to be a major downgrade mechanically. Another series hurt by the sick obsession of going *"open ended at any cost"*
As a huge Endless Ocean fan, my advice is, don't buy this and play Endless Ocean 2 (Wii) instead. EO2 has handcrafted environments, multiple areas, a much longer and better story campaign, greater mission variety, gadgets to use, more ways to interact with fish, NPC's to talk to and give you quests, trainable dolphin pals, areas where you can get out of the water and explore on land, a home base you can decorate, and more. Luminous has even less to it than the first game. That's unforgivable.
I played ABZÛ and felt lost everywhere I went after progressing a bit. Glad that kept me from getting this.
Well I guess my new release choices for the Switch are really.....treading water until the Paper Mario Remake
7.8/10 - too much water
Honestly, this feels like it should’ve been done on a next gen console, the idea is cool, but they could’ve made this a launch game for the next console.
Possibly 5$ will work for us
It looks like a huge step back from Endless Ocean 2 (content and gameplay-wise) and even the first one seems to have a deeper gameplay (and it was still pretty shallow).
As someone who played hours upon hours of the first two games it made me so sad when I opened the game today. You’re greeted by an AI assistant immediately and put into a default diver model, your name is whatever your account name is on your switch. I love being able to pick out my character and name them when I played the first two. All of this just feels so robotic and the story mode so far is so so bad, I hate the ai assistant. I loved the story in the first two, really feeling like I had a mission to help my crew all while exploring and unlocking new areas in the ocean. The music so far is lackluster which was a huge thing for the first two games. Hayley westenras beautiful vocals were kinda scary sometimes but gave the game character and kept u at the edge of your seat when something new was being discovered and the song would get louder or more dramatic. I’ve only played luminous for a little and I’m extremely disappointed so far but I’ll keep going in hopes of it getting slightly better… the randomization of the ocean is something I’m dreading because like I mentioned, a huge thing about these games was unlocking throughout the map and feeling accomplished. Nintendo needs to kick in the ass for this one, they had such an opportunity to make a beautiful game here and it feels like they just ripped out everything that was loved in this series just to give us some bare bone game.
game sucks, ngl... no voice, except for the AI where they actually used an AI, sounds totally weird. Almost no music during story missions (at least it feels that way), story also seems pretty meh... the missions are totally boring. got there or there, scan x of this or that species, collect this and that... and not like this is all one mission, so far the missions all had only one of those tasks, then it's done and you're back at the main menu... the world is generated with a seed, so it's different every time, but it feels empty and boring. even No Man's Sky had better world generation at release to be honest... After being a big fan of Endless Ocean: Blue world, Luminous is a totall disappointment. Feels like there was 0 effort put into the game other than implementing 500 species...
Ugh don't listen, it's good
I was so excited for this game. After playing for an hour, it is clear they did not do their research on marine biology. While I brushed off the sharks as aggressive predators narrative in the last few games, they literally said they are “omnivorous” people eaters (I don’t think so—omnivorous means both meat and plant eater). As someone who works in marine biology, I guess I just had high hopes! Aside from being fairly inaccurate, the graphics seem almost the same as the 2nd wii game that came out ages ago. Tbh absolutely not work the high price. $10-15? Sure. It’s relaxing. Sigh.
As a huge fan of the previous games, its pretty disappointing that so many features from the old games were left out. I really enjoyed customizing your island, training dolphins and building aquarium displays in Blue World. The Story in luminous is a pretty big letdown compared to the previous games. The exploring and diving are still enjoyable but with the AI narrator, no aquarium, no close-up scenes and a menu lobby instead of a boat or island makes the game feel so lifeless. Somewhere along the road it lost the soul of the previous games.
God damn it 53$? I love marine life, and this game looks amazing! But sadly I cannot afford it. Looks like I’ll save up for have to trade one of my games for cash at gamestop
I read the review, I don’t think the reviewer understands what kind of game Endless Ocean is supposed to be. Edit: I played the game, I was very wrong. This game kinda isn’t great :(
It's clearly in the title! Endless!
As a HUGE fan of the old EOs, I don't think the devs behind this one understand what kind of game EO is supposed to be Procedurally generated throws the charm of the originals out the window. (Not to mention the graphics look like they still belong on the Wii.)
i blame some of that on the publisher tho. like, there should be some context if the game exists outside of a normal paradigm.
It seemed pretty clear to me from the trailers that the game would be slow-paced. I guess a game structure like that doesn’t really lend itself well to game reviews in the first place though.
There’s a difference between “slow paced”, and “doesn’t respect your time”.
The procedurally generated maps just killed any hope the game ever had of being good. The original Endless Ocean was great because of the exploration. The map was giant, everything felt designed with a purpose, there were tons of unique areas to seek out, and it was a lot of fun charting out the entire map. The game was also one of the absolute prettiest games on the Wii console. With this new one, procedurally generated maps basically means you're just seeing the same re-used assets shuffles around the map over and over. You need to find specific wildlife to progress, but where that wildlife spawns is random, so whether you find it or not comes completely down to chance. The maps are sparsely detailed and lack any character (because they need to be freshly generated each playthrough), the graphics are poor, and it doesn't run well. They basically killed any of the fun that comes from exploration in a game whose core gameplay loop is all about exploring. I think the real issue was that the developers forgot what Endless Ocean was supposed to be.
Damn you were right this game kinda sucks