The Other Worlds Shrine

Your place for discussion about RPGs, gaming, music, movies, anime, computers, sports, and any other stuff we care to talk about... 

  • Endless Ocean released for $29.99, opinions

  • Because playing them is not enough, we have to bitch about them daily, too. We had a Gameplay forum, but it got replaced by GameFAQs.
Because playing them is not enough, we have to bitch about them daily, too. We had a Gameplay forum, but it got replaced by GameFAQs.
 #116931  by Julius Seeker
 Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:29 am
Think Animal Crossing meets Jacques Cousteau. It is a essentialy a marine biology game where you perform tasks similar to Animal Crossing, or you just freely explore the sea. The more tasks/missions you complete, the more stuff you add to your inventory. I have screwed around a ton with this game so far, so all I have really received is an Email device, a radio, and an underwater pen that is allowing me to vandalize the Ocean.

I bought this game more on a whim than anything, I had read a lot about it and had an interest, but it wasn't exactly on my buy list; but when the price showed up as half of what I expected it to be, I figured "why not"?

I must say I am largely impressed with the game, we put a soundtrack onto it (My radio plays one mp3 looped, I have no idea why), the Vice City Soundtrack, Wave 103 and Flash FM =P Of course, there's a lot of other music that can be unlocked within the game, and I felt the music would be very suitable of a game like Xenosaga.

The major portion of the game is the study of marine life, adding more and more to a growing encyclopedia; I was pretty drunk for a lot of it (as we were playing it before heading out) but from what I gather there are several different levels of knowledge about the marine life, like bronze, silver, and gold; and you gain more and more info to your encyclopedia for it. There are certain missions available such as guide another diver down to observe life, sometimes he/she'll be interested in finding a certain sort of sea creature; missions are acquired and chosen through Email. In addition, there is online multiplayer, so if anyone else here gets the game, then it is diving time.

All in all, it is a very relaxing game, like animal crossing you can't die, you can swim directly over a stingray and you won't die. The most impressive lifeform I have come across so far is a big whale, it kind of scares the **** out of me when it sneaks up on me, but I realize this is hardly a survival and horror game. There's a lot to explore, certain places that are too deep for regular equipment (with the starting stuff you can dive down about 150 feet). I like the game, certainly worth the 29.99 I paid for it.



I actually originally went to get No More Heroes, but didn't bother. Instead I bought Endless Ocean and Hotel Dusk for DS; I also got the new Advance Wars for DS (though Advance Wars is going to be a gift for someone, someone who I will be able to borrow from this summer of course), and a THIRD PSX memory card (this time Sony brand, since my last two won't work with my new PS2).

 #116936  by bovine
 Sun Jan 27, 2008 12:57 pm
did you find No More Heroes? I think it got delayed in Canada because of the required french documentation.

 #116937  by Julius Seeker
 Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:29 pm
bovine wrote:did you find No More Heroes? I think it got delayed in Canada because of the required french documentation.
I didn't really look for it once I picked up Endless Ocean. It might have been there it might not have been. Though it is published by Ubisoft so I would think French documentation would have been priority.

 #116938  by Julius Seeker
 Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:49 pm
Oh yeah, just a bit more to add about Endless Ocean.

The controls for swimming are excellent, all that is required is the remote, you point and click the direction you want to go, you can spin around and do all sorts of things. Everything flows very smoothly. It makes me wonder why Nintendo didn't include similar controls with Mario Galaxy, I understand the pointer is required for the star bits, but it could have been used for both swimming and firing starbits while underwater. The typical analog control is just no good for underwater navgation in a full 3D environment, this has been known since Mario 64, and Nintendo designed the bloody controller to improve controls for things just as that.

Controls in Endless Ocean are flawless, there isn't much more one could ask for in this department.