Endless Ocean Luminous’ Vibey Promo Video Is the Best Way to Advertise A Game
I’m ready to dive in.
Endless Ocean Luminous first made a splash (sorry) at a Nintendo Direct in February, introducing new players to the Endless Ocean series, which began on the Wii. Nintendo revealed a 30-player online mode and showed off some of the wild biodiversity swimming through the game’s oceans. Now, Nintendo has released an update on a few of Endless Ocean Luminous’ key features, and more importantly, its vibes.
The initial Endless Ocean Luminous announcement showed off its deep-sea diving gameplay, which lets players explore the ocean and encounter more than 500 different species living there — including some more fantastical options you won’t find on a real-world diving trip. By all appearances, it’s an utterly chill experience about enjoying the beauty of its marine world with other players.
As relaxing as that sounds, it’s only recently that we saw how the game will actually play. The Japanese site for Endless Ocean Luminous updated with more information on the game this week, as spotted by Tokyo Game Life on social media, followed by the English site shortly after. Among the more interesting details are the ability to share a code that lets other players explore your specific ocean, since the environment rearranges itself each time you set off on an expedition.
Extensive diver customization, including coloring your diving suit and unlocking emotes, suggests that the game will focus heavily on its multiplayer component with a real hangout vibe. And apparently you can take selfies with fish, which is frankly all it takes to convince me to play this game. The update also clarifies Endless Ocean Luminous’ massive 30-player online mode. Up to 10 random divers can join any online game, with the rest of the slots reserved for friends, though the logistics involved in getting 20 to 30 people to join an online game session at the same time sound as stressful as the game sounds relaxing.
For solo players, there’s also a story mode that revolves around saving the “World Coral,” whatever that might entail. It’s not clear how much there will be to do in single-player, but with how much effort has gone into making the game’s multiplayer aspect sing, it’s a fair bet that it will be more limited than something like Abzu’s otherworldly ocean exploration.
Getting a closer look at what’s included in the game is great, but the best update doesn’t come from Endless Ocean Luminous’ website. Instead, it’s a short video released by Nintendo that doesn’t reveal a single new thing about the game. Titled “Sounds of the Sea,” the new video on Nintendo’s YouTube channel is basically deep-sea ASMR. It’s about four minutes simply of footage of the game’s sea creatures, complete with a soothing bubbling sound and relaxing music that sounds like it’s about to kick into a guided meditation at any point. If you put it on loop, it could easily lull you to sleep.
Despite the video not containing a single spoken word, I do feel like I have a better grasp on Endless Ocean Luminous after watching it. There’s a good chunk to exploring sunken ruins, which is apparently a big part of the game, and seeing what those look like makes it clear how the experience will be more than just swimming aimlessly around a big, ever-changing ocean.
But that’s not why I love it. More than any of its individual features or landscapes, Endless Ocean Luminous looks like a game about vibes. Sure, it’s technically about saving the ocean and cataloging its inhabitants, but the feeling of exploration seems to be more important than what you’ll actually uncover, and above even that, its aesthetics and slow pace are the real draw.
Endless Ocean Luminous’ ASMR video is a tactic I’d actually love to see more. Imagine a Dragon’s Dogma 2 promo that’s nothing but a crackling campfire and bird calls interrupted by the shrieks of raiding goblins and Pawns scrambling to their feet to fight them off. Okay, that might not be quite as relaxing, but it certainly sums up a lot of my experience with the game. I can read all day about a game’s high-level features and granular details of its setting, but none of that actually tells me how it will feel to play. By comparison, “Sounds of the Sea” makes me feel like I’m ready to jump in and explore the ocean with my friends after just under four minutes of wordless vibes.
