History VideoGame / EndlessOcean

* CosmeticAward: "Titles" in ''Blue World''.

** The second game is titled Adventures of the Deep for PAL, Blue World for NTSC; and Forever Blue: Call of the Ocean in Japan.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The [[spoiler:Ancient Mother]] is foreshadowed by such things as the skeleton at the bottom of the Abyss, and Kat's comments when you assemble the Whale God Mirror. Mo'ia Atoll is also mentioned in passing during the Great Aqua Cave's backstory.

* MouthFlaps: Despite there not being any actual voice work in the game. Even [[HeroicMime your character]] MouthFlaps without even having textual dialogue.

* NotSoExtinct: In ''Blue World'', at least three animals, [[spoiler:the plesiosaur, the ''Anomalocaris'', and the orthocone]] are supposed to have been extinct for millions of years, but they're found alive and well. They're encountered in cutscenes, but can't really be interacted with.

** ''Blue World'' also makes sure that, in the event that an animal ''does'' show up where it shouldn't, the characters [[LampshadeHanging point it out]] and puzzle over how it might have gotten there. One sidequest actually has you rescuing some saltwater fish who've wandered into a freshwater river and have become very sick as a result, and the first time you go there you find a ''minke whale'' trapped upstream.

** [[spoiler: The Okenaides and the Mo'ia Atoll people could control cetaceans through songs, and formed the first world-wide civilization with their help.]]

** [[spoiler: The Grave Keeper is about twice the size of its already enormous friends.]]

** The [[spoiler: Ancient Mother]], named in the NTSC release, is referred to as the [[spoiler:White Mother]] in the PAL release. The [[spoiler:Black Harbinger]] found in ''Blue World'' ends up matching up better as a counterpart to the latter name.

* InterfaceSpoiler: The Marine Encyclopedia contains silhouettes of each of the creatures. Only the legendary creatures are exempted with [[spoiler: Magu Tapa and the Ancient Mother's entries]] only being added once you find them. ''Blue World'' spoils its legendaries off the bat, although it repeats the omissions with [[spoiler:the Anomalocaris, Cameroceras, and Sea Serpent]].

** The main plot in ''Blue World'' is centered around the mysterious Song of Dragons, said to bring misfortune to those who hear it, and its relation to a mythical treasure connected to an ancient civilization. [[spoiler: This does end up going more into the mundane territory, with (mostly) realistic explanations for the strange occurrences. That's okay, though, the rest of the game has plenty of stuff that leans more towards magic!]]
** The vast majority of the legendary creatures and their implied backgrounds lean more towards magic. A jet-black manta ray implied to be [[spoiler: a ghost of a long-dead prince]], a massive great white shark that's theorized to be [[spoiler: a full on reincarnation of a vengeful, angry deity]], an albino spectacled caiman thought to be [[spoiler: a spirit of wind that can be merciful or vicious]], it goes on and on.

** All your dolphin pals except for the tropical ones get misplaced once they follow you home to sunny Nineball Island. Particularly the river dolphin. [[spoiler: The river dolphin that you get by taking along a '''narwhal''' from the ''Arctic.'']] Granted, that last bit [[JustifiedTrope does have an explanation]]. The animals are male and female in their respective stories, you see...

** It's hinted that some of the legendary animals are more than just animals. Thanatos [[spoiler: and the Ancient Mother]] are the prime examples of this [[spoiler:but the Blue Bird also seems to be more than it appears.]]

* NotSoExtinct: In ''Blue World'', at least three animals, [[spoiler: the plesiosaur, the ''Anomalocaris'', and the orthocone]] are supposed to have been extinct for millions of years, but they're found alive and well. They're encountered in cutscenes, but can't really be interacted with.

* SeaMonster: The Ancient Mother. She returns along with a whole slew of Legendary Beasts [[spoiler: including an actual plesiosaurus]] in Blue World.

* TurtleIsland: After [[spoiler: you rescue the dog, you can find him barking at an island during the day, but the island suddenly disappears. When you go diving near the area, you will eventually find a Legendary Creature: A giant Leatherback Turtle named Cacao Maharaja whose shell is easily mistaken for a small island.]]

* WhereItAllBegan: The Great Aqua Cave is one of the first places you go in the first game, but you return to it later on and enter the [[spoiler: White Room]].

* TurtleIsland: After [[spoiler: you rescue the dog, you can find him barking at an island during the day, but the island suddenly disappears. When you go diving near the area, you will eventually find a Legendary Creature: A giant Leatherback Turtle whose shell is easily mistaken for a small island.]]

** With the exception of a few plot-related sequences, you can always go back to the boat, no matter the circumstances; even when on threshold of running out of air, surrounded by aggressive creatures, or underground. Real-life divers cannot take that kind of liberty with their air, especially as surfacing too quickly has its own problems.

* TheCatfish: [[spoiler:Magu Tapah and the Ancient Mother]] in the first game; ''Blue World'' has '''many''', including an actual catfish that has [[AmazingTechnicolorWildlife turned golden in color]].

* DerelictGraveyard: The Ship's Rest area in the first game, a hidden shipyard guarded by [[spoiler:Magu Tapah]], and most of Ciceros Strait in the second, guarded by whirlpools and a whole lot of sharks (including Thanatos).

* InterfaceSpoiler: The Marine Encyclopedia contains silhouettes of each of the creatures. Only the legendary creatures are exempted with [[spoiler: Magu Tapah and the Ancient Mother's entries]] only being added once you find them. ''Blue World'' spoils its legendaries off the bat, although it repeats the omissions with [[spoiler:the Anomalocaris, Cameroceras, and Sea Serpent]].

* SealedEvilInACan: The [[spoiler:Magu Tapah]], which you [[spoiler:have effectively released by befriending the orca that was guarding said can, and bringing it away from Ship's Rest.]]

* TailorMadePrison: Ship's Rest turns out to be this for [[spoiler:the Magu Tapah]].

** [[spoiler:Magu Tapah, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Thanatos]], and the [[FinalBoss Okeanos Guardian]]]] say hi. With their huge, tooth-lined, bloodied mouths.

** Mo'ia Atoll vaguely fits this, being an underwater structure, though the possibility of it being a natural structure similar to the Yonaguni Monument is tossed around, something the player has to prove otherwise via finding all the stone tablets hidden in the ruins.

* {{Atlantis}}: Mo'ia Atoll vaguely fits this, being an underwater structure, though the possibility of it being a natural structure similar to the Yonaguni Monument is tossed around, something the player has to prove otherwise via finding all the stone tablets hidden in the ruins. Okeanides in ''Blue World'' is unambigously shown to be a sunken city, courtesy of being both hidden away underwater and [[spoiler:being where the whales used by the Okeanides culture, the Singing Dragons, are found]].

* TheGhost: Alfred Thorman, your benefactor in the first game, only ever communicates with you via e-mail. Other characters like Audrey Thorman and Doug also only appear in this way.

* FriendlyPlayfulDolphin: The games naturally feature dolphins and larger cetaceans from various locations. You can befriend certain dolphins. When players get to Nineball Island in ''Endless Ocean: Blue World'' they can teach tricks to a dolphin.
* FrigidWaterIsHarmless: Two dive locations of ''Blue World'' are in the Arctic and the Antarctic. There is a handwave about body gel that helps with cold weather, and special air tanks or something, and only a mention of a dry suit, albeit with no visual changes. Considering the character's costume can be changed to a bikini (for women) or just a pair of trunks (for men), you can very well go diving in those places thusly garbed and suffer no ill effects.

* TheGhost: Alfred Thorman, your benefactor in the first game, only ever communicates with you via e-mail.
* GhostShip: The large brown vessel which transports you to and from Ship's Rest, which you enter via ''the big gaping hole in its hull below the water line.'' In Ship's Rest itself, you can see the wreckage of the exact same boat right in the sand below where it's floating. It's actually really eerie, especially at night.

* ImplacableMan: Or shark, rather. Thanatos is completely immune to the pulsar gun, and he will not stop attacking until you leave his turf. Exploring his territory in Ciceros Strait is a royal pain.

* LyricalDissonance: The title screen theme for ''Blue World'', [[https://youtu.be/AyB98SG1SNg "Carrickfergus"]], is a beautiful, peaceful theme fitting for a game like this, but near the end, [[spoiler:the narrator tells that she is the only surviving person out of everyone she ever knew, and the final part of the song seems to be narrated days before her death.]]

** The sequel fixes the MisplacedWildlife aspect and the main plot is more AlternateHistory than magic, but the side quests include chasing a magic blue bird that can appear anywhere in the world, fetching items for a tiki idol, and "The Voice of the Night Sky" rewarding you for finding constellation coins scattered all over the world.

* PolarBearsAndPenguins: Played straight in the first game as part of the MisplacedWildlife; averted to hell and back in ''Blue World''.

* SeriesMascot: The bottlenose dolphin. There are also people who claim that the emperor angelfish or bicolor parrotfish are the game's mascots, due to their both being extremely common.

* SoundtrackDissonance: Each theme was specifically crafted for one area, and can sound rather silly if you choose to play it somewhere else -- for example, filling the cheery little Coral Forest with OminousLatinChanting.

* SuperNotDrowningSkills: There actually ''is'' an air meter, but it expires too slowly to really matter. In the sequel, however, the air gauge is more realistically timed, but can still be lengthened by improving Diving Skill and buying regulators and support tanks (the tanks that say "support" in the name, preceded by a capacity; all the others are just cosmetic and only otherwise good for getting the title for having all the tanks).

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Ironically, Kat is severely aquaphobic. [[spoiler:Her father Patrick]] died while on a dive when he got tangled up in kelp and eventually drowned. Seems fairly reasonable that she might have an aversion to diving after that.

* {{Atlantis}}: Mo'ia Atoll, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane maybe]]. Okeanides in ''Blue World''.
* AwesomeYetImpractical: In the first game, dolphin partners were cool and all, but had no real use -- they tended not to follow you very well unless you blew the whistle every few yards (and took forever to come to you from across an area if you let them alone for a while before calling them), and riding them was neat, but couldn't be controlled, so you just go to watch yourself go in circles until you let go. They were made much more useful in the sequel.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Ichiro Enoshima/Ken Kaimoto from ''Blue World'', who has an introduction that makes him seem fairly important before he disappears from the rest of the game. It seems that he was originally planned to have a much larger role, but Hayako apparently took most of it over.

* CoolBoat: The ''Gabbiano'' in the first game, which the loading screens are quick to remind you is Italian for "seagull". It functions as your base of operations and can set up anywhere with sufficient space in Manoa Lai.

* DerelictGraveyard: The Ship's Rest area in the first game and most of Ciceros Strait in the second.

* AmazingFreakingGrace: One of the songs in the original.

* ButThouMust: In ''Blue World'', after you and Oceana find [[spoiler:the plesiosaur]], Oceana decides she's not going to publicize this discovery, and asks if you agree. You can say "I do" or "No I don't," but if you pick no, Oceana will just say "Really?" and ask you the question again. And again. And again.

* InterfaceSpoiler: The Marine Encyclopedia contains silhouettes of each of the creatures. Only the legendary creatures are exempted with [[spoiler: Magu Tapah and the Ancient Mother's entries]]] only being added once you find them. ''Blue World'' spoils its legendaries off the bat, although it repeats the omissions with [[spoiler:the Anomalocaris, Cameroceras, and Sea Serpent]].

* LyricalDissonance: The title screen theme for ''Blue World'', [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IijKg8p3LMs Carrickfergus]], is a beautiful, peaceful theme fitting for a game like this, but near the end, [[spoiler:the narrator tells that she is the only surviving person out of everyone she ever knew, and the final part of the song seems to be narrated days before her death.]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the ''Everblue'' games.

* PictorialLetterSubstitution: The "O" in ''Endless Ocean'' is partially formed from a wave.