Forever Blue Luminous, a soothing ocean exploration adventure Review A relaxing and free diving experience in beautiful waters!

The setting is the mysterious "Veiled Sea!　Dive in the mysterious sea that changes its appearance every time you dive!

Forever Blue Luminous" is the latest title in the "Forever Blue" series of diving adventure games, two of which were released for the Wii. The previous title, "Forever Blue: The Call of the Sea," was released in 2009, making this the first new title in 15 years, and its announcement at the aforementioned Nintendo Direct surprised many fans of the series.

Forever Blue Luminous" is a diving adventure game in which you take on the role of a diver and explore the mysterious ocean at your leisure. The game takes place in the mysterious "Veiled Sea," an area of the ocean that changes its appearance each time it is dived. In the Baird Sea, players will observe more than 500 species of marine life and discover treasures.

There are three basic game modes in this title: "Diving with Others" for online multiplayer play, "Diving Alone" for solo play, and "Investigation Headquarters" for learning game controls and enjoying the storyline. At the beginning of the game, it is recommended to play the "Investigation Headquarters," which also serves as a tutorial. In the Investigation Division, you will work as a member of Project Aegis to stop the unexplained blackening of the giant coral "Sekaiju," which is the source of the sea.

The player's objective in each chapter of the "Investigation Headquarters" is to complete the missions presented to them with the support of the navigation AI "SerA" and the help of the senior diver "Daniel". The chapters also serve as a tutorial on how to navigate in the ocean, how to spot fish, and how to salvage the treasure shining on the ocean floor, and each chapter can be completed in a few minutes. Each chapter has its own release conditions, so players must fulfill them by playing "Diving Together" and "Diving Alone" to unlock the chapters.

Observe marine life, explore the map, and search for treasure at ....... You can enjoy a lot of fun at your own pace!

In Diving, you will investigate the ocean area while swimming freely.
Diving games tend to be associated with thrilling elements such as remaining oxygen levels or being attacked by ferocious marine life, but this title has no such elements that limit your actions, allowing you to literally dive freely at your own pace. Furthermore, there are no set objectives or clear conditions to meet in diving, so you can enjoy a leisurely pace of play without being restricted in any way. The controls are simple and do not require complicated maneuvers, which is another point that makes it easy to play.

Even though there are no game objectives or goals, there are plenty of things to do in this game. For example, you can observe marine life, try to complete 100% of the map, and search for treasures and traces of ancient civilizations that are rarely found at the bottom of the ocean. Of course, you can also simply swim around aimlessly in the ocean. This overwhelming degree of freedom is the real appeal of this title. Combined with the crystal clear background music, ambient sounds, and the occasional cries of creatures in the sea, you can enjoy a very relaxing and " chill" time.

The Baird Sea, a special sea area, is home to a wide variety of creatures, including not only sea creatures, but also river creatures, deep-sea creatures, extinct ancient creatures such as ammonites, and original creatures that do not exist in reality but are unique to this work. Players can investigate these creatures simply by pressing and holding the L button and focusing on the creature they wish to examine.

This action is called "unveiling " in this title, and the data of unveiled creatures is registered in the illustrated book. The excitement of encountering undiscovered creatures makes you want to explore and unveil more and more creatures one after another. Incidentally, it is possible to unveil multiple creatures at once in areas where there is a high concentration of creatures, such as a school of fish. The unique and addictive sensation of the light emitted from the creatures being absorbed by the screen is also a good thing.

The data of unveiled creatures is registered in a picture book, which is quite detailed and worth reading. It contains a variety of information that is appropriate for an illustrated book, such as the creature's habitat, physical characteristics, what it eats, and so on, which will satisfy your appetite for knowledge and stimulate your desire to collect data on all creatures. The total number of creatures found in the game, as well as the maximum and minimum sizes found, are also recorded, making it a challenging element of the game.

One element during the diving is called "companion swimming. As the name suggests, this means that you can swim around with the creature you have discovered. While this does not give you any advantage in the game, it is simply fun to walk around in the sea with beautiful fishes and huge creatures, and you can attract the attention of other players in online multiplayer, which will be discussed later in this article. However, you cannot take all kinds of creatures with you from the start, but only those within your "swimming cost. The "swimming cost" gradually increases as the player progresses through the investigation and raises his or her rank, so it seems to function as motivation to play the game over and over again.

During a dive, "urgent missions" may occur. These can be accomplished by unveiling a certain number of specific organisms, and are like mini-games that provide stimulation for freewheeling diving. However, it is not necessary to place the highest priority on mission accomplishment, and there is no problem if you just "do it if you want to" or "do it if you can just take a walk underwater. There are many things you can do, but you are never forced to do them. This loose feeling of freedom is very comfortable and is a major attraction of this work.

The "Diving with Everyone" feature, which allows players to loosely connect with other divers around the world online, is very comfortable!

As mentioned earlier, this title offers two modes: "Diving with Friends" and "Diving Alone. While "Diving alone," in which you explore a large area of ocean solo, is fun, I recommend "Diving with others," in which you can enjoy online multiplayer play.

The game is basically the same in both solo and multiplayer modes: free exploration of the sea area and investigation of living creatures. However, as the name suggests, "Minna de Diving" allows divers to enjoy diving together with up to 10 other divers (up to 30 divers by sharing a session code) in the same ocean area. In this "Diving Together," all divers, including yourself, will start their exploration from different locations. As divers move around, the record is shared on the map, so that you can feel the solid presence of players other than yourself, even if they are not in front of you.

When divers approach each other during exploration, light travels back and forth from each other's characters, automatically establishing a "sharer" relationship. A sharer is like a temporary friend registration, so to speak. The sharer's location is displayed on the map, and the diver can instantly move to the other's location, which is useful when the diver wants to go to a distant place. Sharers can dive together with other sharers, or they can continue to dive freely even after becoming sharers. This loose connection, which does not necessarily mean that they have to do something together just because it is multiplayer, is very comfortable and matches the overall game design and atmosphere.

When you discover a huge or unusual creature, or a treasure lying on the ocean floor while diving, you can add an "emote tag," which looks like a small icon, to let the sharer know about it. The more people share the emote tags, the more they will be able to share their discoveries with others. Of course, it is not mandatory to add a tag to something just because you have found it, so it is nice to be able to enjoy it in the way you want to.

For example, if you find a mysterious place such as a sunken ship or ruins, or if you want to explore a place with someone, you can use gestures to communicate with nearby players. This game does not have voice chat or text chat functions, so these gestures and the aforementioned emoticons are the only way to communicate with other players. However, this game has a very relaxed communication element, so players can enjoy the game at their own pace without feeling burdened by the fact that it is an online multiplayer game. In addition, I think this game can be played with peace of mind by families with children, even if their own children play the game.

In addition to the aforementioned gestures, there are character customization elements such as diver coloring and stickers that can be used to decorate the body, each of which can be purchased using points earned from surveys. It will be fun to accumulate points and purchase various items as you play through the game, and then show off your skills to other divers in online multiplayer.

The ocean areas in this title are randomly generated and change each time you dive, but once 80% of the ocean area is revealed, a 16-digit "Ocean ID" is assigned to you. The Ocean ID can also be shared to relive someone else's ocean, or to have someone else experience your ocean.

In addition, there is a wealth of play available, such as "event tours" that can be held for limited periods of time to head to special ocean areas, and online rankings based on points earned. All in all, this is a title that allows players to continue playing for a long and leisurely period of time.

Let's enjoy leisurely and chill diving with "Forever Blue Luminous!

So, that's our review of "Forever Blue Luminous. While there are plenty of things to do, such as observing marine life, exploring the waters, and playing online multiplayer, we felt that the game offers a high degree of freedom to "do or not do anything," which is comfortable and allows you to enjoy a relaxing time. It is a game where you can relax and enjoy your time. The game is also suitable for relaxing and taking a break from the hardcore, concentrated play of competitive games, RPGs, etc. If you are interested in this game, please play it and let us know what you think. If you are interested in this game, we hope you will play it and go on a chill dive in the Veld Sea.

• Title Information
• Forever Blue Luminous" (Nintendo)
• Genre: Adventure
• Release date: May 2, 2024
• Price: Package version: 5,478 yen (tax included) Download version: 5,400 yen (tax included)
• # c Nintendo / ARIKA

c Nintendo / ARIKA