Nintendo chose the end of its Feb. 21 Partner Showcase to reveal an unexpected sequel to a half-forgotten series of Wii scuba-diving games. It might have seemed an odd choice, but Endless Ocean Luminous brings back a gameplay style — and, more importantly, a pure vibe — that we haven’t seen in nearly 15 years.
Published by Nintendo and developed by Arika — which presumably made this new game as well, though that’s not confirmed — 2007’s Endless Ocean and its 2009 sequel Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep are games about encountering and logging marine life under the waves, and… that’s about it. With gently silly new-age plots, relaxing gameplay, soothing music, and gorgeously modeled and animated undersea creatures, these were perhaps the ultimate chill-out games of their generation. (Arika had form, though, having previously made the Everblue games for PS2.)
Endless Ocean Luminous looks like it will modernize the formula in some unexpected ways. The undersea environment, called the Veiled Sea, now changes with each dive, in an apparent roguelike-style randomization. And Luminous surprisingly adds support for up to 30 divers in online multiplayer, for communal vibe sessions of a previously unimagined scale. Divers will be able to share their discoveries of all sorts of rare sea life, including some extinct creatures — there’s a monster plesiosaur, or undersea dinosaur, to be seen in the trailer — and perhaps some fantastical ones, too.
Endless Ocean Luminous will be released exclusively for Switch on May 2nd.
