Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep

Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep
European cover art
Developer(s)	Arika
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Akira Kurabayashi Masaki Tawara
Producer(s)	Ichirou Muhara Hitoshi Yamagami
Designer(s)	Ichirou Mihara Masaki Tawara
Platforms	Wii
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Adventure, simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player multiplayer

Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep, known in North America as Endless Ocean: Blue World, and known in Japan as Forever Blue: Call of the Ocean (FOREVER BLUE 海の呼び声, Forever Blue: Umi no Yobigoe) is a scuba diving video game for Wii and the sequel to Endless Ocean, previously released for Wii in 2007. It was first revealed at a Nintendo conference held on October 2, 2008. The game was released as part of the Touch! Generations series of games in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Gameplay

The player encounters a hostile caiman.

Adventures of the Deep features improved and more realistic graphics and larger explorable areas than the previous game. Adventures of the Deep allows players to travel to twelve different diving spots around the globe, including new polar and freshwater locations.

The ability to dive with a dolphin as a companion returns from the first game, and players will now also be able to ride them to move quickly through the water. Players can also now sell salvaged treasure, including legendary artifacts for money that can be used to buy items such as new styles of diving suits, items used to decorate their island and private reef, and to help the player to be capable of diving for a longer time and with less risk of receiving damage from hostile creatures, running out of oxygen, or getting lost, among others. The aquarium returns and the player can now walk outside the tanks. Several new areas are introduced, for example with the Marine Life Annex, you can put shore species such as penguins, shorebirds and seals. Another new area is the Small World, where smaller fish and invertebrates can be displayed. Potentially dangerous creatures such as sharks, crocodiles, and electric eels will now elicit a warning for players and may even attack them; players will be able to drive them off using a new tranquilizer-like tool called the Pulsar that can shoot electric charges which calms them down. The Pulsar can also be used to heal any creatures the player finds that are sick or injured.

Adventures of the Deep features a variety of animals, including dolphins, whales, sea lions, penguins, manatees, sharks, sea turtles, and more, with around 400 different species of fish, mammals, birds, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians. There are also 30 legendary creatures to be found in various regions of the game: a select few play a role in the game's storyline and can be interacted with at any time afterwards, but most require a special condition to be met before they can be found.

Adventures of the Deep features online cooperative multiplayer that allows players to communicate using the Wii Speak peripheral, with which the game will also come bundled for a short time. As with the first game, players will also be able to take pictures during their dives; the pictures can now be saved to an SD card.

Plot

The story begins in the fictional Paoul Republic in the South Pacific, where the player (who may choose either a male or female character), currently studying folklore and marine biology at a university, takes a break to find out more about the "Song of Dragons" and becomes employed by R&R Diving Service, whose aims range from collecting lost cargo to taking photographs of rare species of fish. The plot centers around a young woman called Océane Rouvier, whose grandfather, Jean-Eric Rouvier, is the head of the service, and who will serve as the player's diving partner through the course of the game. Océane lives with her grandfather in the South Pacific following the death of her father, Matthieu, who founded the R&R Diving Service alongside Jean-Eric and who was investigating the existence of the Song of Dragons before his death. The player is then initiated by interacting with the fauna in a shallow cove. When Océane and the player reunite a humpback whale calf with its mother, her pendant makes a strange high-pitched noise that provokes the mother into charging at the player, fortunately dodging the attack at the last second. After getting to the boat, Jean-Eric explains that there's another pendant at Deep Hole that Océane lost there years ago. Furious that her grandfather won't let her retrieve it, Océane steals a jet ski and sneaks off the boat while the player and Jean-Eric are asleep and goes to Deep Hole. The next morning they find Océane's jet ski near the atoll. The player dives in and finds Océane trapped at the bottom of the hole, due to a tiger shark in which the player must defeat, afterwards finding her pendant and observing pinecone fish (Monocentris japonica).

The group heads of to the Aegean Sea, in search of Valka Castle. They meet Gaston Gray, or GG, a famous American salvager. The trio makes a bet with him to see who finds Valka Castle first. They find several pieces of lapis lazuli, but their progress is slowed down due to the infamous Ciceros Undines and hostile sharks in the region. The player finds a lapis lazuli ring that tells them to visit at night when the Undines are dormant. The player and Océane travel to a sunken ruin at night and find GG looking for the castle. GG leaves them suddenly, only for Océane to spot the legendary great white Thanatos. The player attempts to battle Thanatos, only to find out the Pulsar's electric charges are too weak to tranquilize the shark. In order to escape Thanatos, Océane and the player hide in a well only to discover the lost Valka Castle, which supposedly sunk under the waves, dodging luna lionfish. They find a centuries-old map showing the known world at the time and are caught by a booby-trap. They free themselves, find a tablet made of lapis lazuli in a hidden vault and travel to Japan to take it to the aquarium professor Dr. Hayako Sakurai, who offers to translate it for them if they go to the ice flows of Northern Canada to help study polar bears. When they get to the Arctic, they spot the polar bear, and the player sets off to swim to its location. With the help of the player's dolphin partner, while swimming the player uses their dolphin's speed to avoid a Greenland Shark. After completing the research, Dr. Sakurai deciphers the tablet and explains that the tablet contained the history of an ancient people who controlled dragons using instruments made of lapis lazuli led the Okeanides, and how during their extinction their treasure was sunk along with their last known temple. Jean-Eric gets discouraged and declares that he doesn't want Océane and the player to die trying to find the truth; but the duo convince and reassure him. After Sakurai joins the team, They head back to the Aquarium to spruce it up for the grand opening, while Sakurai deciphers the tablet. Hayako finds that in addition to the tablet found in Valka Castle, there are other tablets located in several locations around the world that correspond with the Okeanides. They do get the aquarium ready before travelling to the Weddell Sea in Antarctica to investigate reports that the Song of Dragons has been heard from inside a large, hollow iceberg. After coaxing a leopard seal to break through an ice barrier, they swim into a massive cavern in the iceberg. Inside, the group find a lost and tired spectacled porpoise, which helps to guide them out of an oncoming blizzard. After they escape, Jean-Eric snaps and declares that the search for the Pacifica treasure and the Song's truth is over, saying that every time that the Song of Dragons occurs, a horrible event happens and they almost get killed. Océane tries to fight back, but Jean-Eric says it's too dangerous for her and the player to continue and declares the argument over. They head back to Nineball Island, where Jean-Eric calms down and apologizes to everyone, and declares the search back on. The group (now the player, Océane, Dr. Sakurai, and GG) travel to the Amazon River to find the other tablet. The player and GG dive into the fictional Cortica tributary and travel through treacherous waters, fending off electric eels, caimans, and piranhas, and find an ancient temple underneath a sacred waterfall. Inside, the pair fends off a caiman and find a minke whale strangely upriver, as well as the second tablet, leading to the Red Sea, where Océane's father's submarine broke down, leading to his death. The player and Océane dive into a trench, where they find a mysterious cave in which the entrance is blocked by a giant squid. The player must then coax a sperm whale into attack the squid. Inside the cave, the final piece of the Dragon Flute is found. Jean-Eric also finds and reads aloud a goodbye letter from Matthieu, in which his son states that his death was not in vain; causing Jean-Eric to join Ocèane in her search for the truth. The next morning they wake up to an enormous mass gathering of cetaceans of various species, which helps the group to discover an underwater Egyptian temple. After some investigation, the group come face to face with a duo of Goblin sharks, accompanied by a single, large goblin Shark, which they must calm down in order to continue on. After inserting the Dragon Flute into four statues, a door opens and a whale by the name of the Singing Dragon appears, scaring away the Goblin sharks. It destroys a door in the area which allows the team to collectively enter a huge vault containing the Pacifica Treasure.

In the aftermath of this, more Singing Dragons and the whales out in the ocean start destroying the temple. The group is left with less than ten minutes to escape from the temple before it is destroyed. Following this, the Singing Dragons and the whales stop attacking the temple, leaving it badly damaged but still intact. Once outside and back on the boat, after everyone thanks Jean-Eric for guiding them through the temple, he says that he lost all connection with them from the start. With everyone confused, Océane remarks that her father can finally rest in peace, thinking it was him who helped them escape. However, the group must leave without any of the treasure and have to pay 1, 000, 000 (pauols, which is the game's currency) for the excavation of the Cavern of the Gods.

The North American version of the game includes a number of varying translations: the Paoul Republic is instead the Pelago Commonwealth; the game currency is referred to as pelagos, some of the animal's common names are changed, the R&R Diving Service is the L&L Diving Service; Océane and Jean-Eric Rouvier are called Oceana and Jean-Eric Louviere; and Océane's late father, Matthieu, is referred to as Matthias.

After the main plot, players can still play with multiple quests, complete the encyclopedia, solve puzzles, train their dolphin partners to perform shows, raise the aquarium's popularity, give tours to clients, and go on salvaging adventures.

Music

Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep features a soundtrack by the musical ensemble Celtic Woman, including Andrea Corr. Unlike its predecessor, however, Adventures of the Deep does not allow players to create a custom soundtrack using the music on an SD card.

Soundtrack

• Ave Maria
• Carrickfergus
• Dúlamán
• Isle of Innisfree
• Nella Fantasia
• One World
• The Last Rose of Summer
• The Prayer
• The Soft Goodbye

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score Aggregator Score GameRankings 78.86% Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com A Edge 7 out of 10 Eurogamer 7 out of 10 Famitsu 36 out of 40 Game Informer 7.5 out of 10 Game Revolution C GamesMaster 80 out of 100 GameSpot 8.0 out of 10 IGN 7.0 out of 10 Nintendo Life 8 out of 10 Nintendo Power 7.5 out of 10 Nintendo World Report 9 out of 10 ONM 74% VideoGamer.com 7 out of 10 Cubed3 9 out of 10 IGN UK 8.0 out of 10

Famitsu magazine was the first media outlet to review Adventures of the Deep, doing so shortly before its release in Japan. They gave the game a score 36 out of 40, one point higher than Endless Ocean, with all four reviewers giving the game nine points each. Eurogamer called it a "genuinely peaceful and relaxing experience", though comparing it to "a cool adventure holiday for all ages." Official Nintendo Magazine was slightly more critical of the game, calling the game "batty ... but hardly enthralling" but also "truly fun, but not entirely action-packed". They also gave good reports of thrill and graphics involved in the game, which resulted in the game getting a slightly higher score than its predecessor.

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Endless Ocean: Blue World at Nintendo.com
• Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep at Nintendo.co.uk
• Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep at Nintendo.com.au