Welcome to the Veiled Sea.
Endless Ocean: Luminous is the third installment in the Endless Ocean series created by Arika, releasing on May 2nd, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch.
In this installment, players are taken to the mysterious, unexplored Veiled Sea; a place left mostly isolated from the rest of the world. As such, it's your job to explore it, learn about the wildlife that lives there, and unravel the mysteries of the ocean.
Much like the previous entry, Blue World, Luminous features an in-depth multi-player mode that allows for up to thirty players to explore at once and document their findings with one another. However, there is also a single-player story campaign with a goal of saving the "World Coral" in various locales.
Trailers: Announcement Trailer
, "Sounds of the Sea", Overview Trailer
What will you find in these tropes?
- Achievement System: The updated store page for the game shows off the "Mystery Board", a series of 99 icons which track various challenges met during play.
- Albinos Are Freaks: An albino great white shark appears as a creature variant in the overview trailer.
- ASMR Video: The "Sounds of the Sea" trailer is edited to be similar to one, just showing off the game's ambience.
- Character Customization: As demonstrated on the store page, money earned can be spent on color patterns for your diver's ensemble, as well as additional stickers and emotes.
- Continuity Nod:
- The first Not So Extinct creature shown in the reveal trailer is the Anomalocaris, which was first seen in Blue World, where it was theorized to have been scientifically brought back to life and somehow released into the seas. Later trailers and screenshots also show the other two prehistoric creatures from Blue World, the plesiosaur and Cameroceras.
- A giant squid is seen in shallow waters near the end of the reveal trailer, but looks much smaller than an adult, suggesting it is a juvenile. Blue World had previously explored this concept with Kraken Jr., another juvenile giant squid in the Cavern of the Gods.
- The trailer mentions the existence of mythical creatures (i.e. the legendary creature system from previous games) while the player is looking at a giant, ghostly-white fish, a nod to the series's frequent use of inverting Albinos Are Freaks (the Ancient Mother, Ailuros Pearl, Leviathan, and Singing Dragon all come to mind, as does King Gigide and Snowball.)
- The overview trailer reveals Cacao Maharaja has since traveled to the Veiled Sea following the events of Blue World.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: The reveal trailer shows that up to thirty players can explore a region at once at the same time, in a massive step up from Blue World's two-player co-op.
- Downloadable Content: The eShop listing for the game has confirmed that it will support paid DLC, although what exactly that will entail has not been mentioned.
- Drop-In-Drop-Out Multiplayer: The store page explains that using a player's session ID, friends can be invited to a game in progress, and up to ten strangers have a chance of being matched into the session until hitting the 30 player cap.
- Eldritch Ocean Abyss: Deep, dark regions of the ocean with otherworldly creatures make a return in this entry, as shown in the reveal trailer.
- Large Runt: The juvenile giant squid in the reveal trailer, compared to the previous game's specimen, Kraken Jr. Still quite large, but not as big as an adult, nor as special or isolated as Junior, who was the son of the only adult giant squid in Blue World and had taken residence in the Cavern of the Gods.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The trailer for Luminous uses the Anomalocaris as the first example of how the game will be handling legendary creatures, almost certainly ribbing on how the second game handled its introduction as a cutscene-only encounter.
- Loyal Animal Companion: Stepping up from the previous games' cetacean partners, Luminous now allows you a much wider variety of fish to swim with, although your diver level must be high enough in order to bring larger creatures with you. The overview trailer shows this in action by bringing not only a dolphin like in the previous games, but also a school of tuna, a lobster, and an entire Pacific right whale.
- Misplaced Wildlife: A koolasuchus appears in the "Sounds of the Sea" trailer deep within an enclosed underwater ruin. However, it's believed by general scientific consensus that the species occupied surface streams within Australia when they were still around. The only accurate thing about their placement is the likely temperature at that depth and location, as Cretaceous-era Australia was within the Antarctic Circle at the time.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: A large Threatening Shark briefly shows up in some parts of the reveal trailer. This is actually an updated version of Thanatos's model that was used in a cameo for the Arika-developed mobile game Sakana Collection, though it's unknown whether this shark is meant to be a returning Thanatos or a Suspiciously Similar Substitute (which would mirror Thanatos replacing the Magu Tapa).
- Not So Extinct:
- The reveal trailer shows that the player can find several animals that are thought to be extinct, such as Mosasaurus and Anomalocaris. A promotional image also shows a plesiosaur, after it had previously appeared in Blue World as a secret creature.
- In the "Sounds of the Sea" trailer, the player character swims through an ancient ruin which is positively crawling with different types of ammonites. The classic nautiloid variant shows up, as well as its more eccentric cousins like the diplomoceras and ancyloceras.
- Randomly Generated Levels: According to the reveal trailer, every time you dive into the Veiled Sea it'll be a completely different area. Later updates confirm that the maps are seed-based and can be revisited by exploring at least 80% of the area.
- Ribcage Ridge: One of the locations on the sea floor shown in the reveal trailer is of a large mammalian skeleton with fish surviving in and around it. This is in fact Truth in Television; Whale carcasses can function as miniature ecosystems due to their size.
- Sea Monster: The reveal trailer notes that, much like the previous entries, many creatures that you can find are mythical ones that are surrounded by legends.
- Stealthy Cephalopod: The player character in the "Sounds of the Sea" trailer finds themselves diving into a ruin with no natural lighting. It turns out to be a reserve for a large amount of prehistoric creatures, most of them ammonites hiding in the darkness.
- The World Is Just Awesome: In grand series tradition, Luminous is all about showing you the beauty of the Earth's oceans and the wildlife that thrives within them. In the reveal trailer, there are shots of vibrant coral reefs, icebergs, kelp forests, and various species of fish of every possible shape, size, and color.
