Developer Arika Publisher Nintendo Format Switch Release Out now

Arika has been working with Nintendo for two decades now, but even the Shinagawa-based studio must have been surprised when it got the call to make a new entry in its genteel scuba-diving series. It has, after all, been 17 years since the Wii original and 14 since follow-up Adventures Of The Deep.

Perhaps, though, its resurrection is about more than just a trawl through the archives, the delay to Switch’s successor having left Nintendo – keeping its biggest guns in reserve for its arrival – with an empty release calendar to fill. An audience that looks back on their Wii with nostalgic fondness is reasonably well catered for here – albeit in some ways more than others.

Luminous’s central conceit seems to stem from a desire to live up to the series’ name. On Wii, its oceans were never really close to being endless; rather, you would explore several relatively compact bodies of water. But the fictional Veiled Sea you’re tasked with charting this time is, essentially, boundless. Sure, during any given dive the explorable area is limited to a 10x10 grid, with invisible barriers at its edges – though if you’re alone you’ll be swimming for hours before you cover every nautical inch of it, let alone scanning and documenting its occupants. But this is just a single procedurally generated instance, given a unique 16-digit code. On your next dive, the layout will have changed, likewise the marine life you’ll encounter. Yes, Endless Ocean, after a fashion, is now a Roguelike, too.