The Manoa Lai Sea, also known as the Manaurai Sea, is the area in which Endless Ocean takes place.
Flora, Fauna, and Geography
Local Life
This sea has a massive array of marine life, both fish and land animals.
The Manoa Lai Sea is also home to two creatures that are considered mythological in the region, one of which is the main focus of the game's storyline:
The White Mother is a massive whale, very similar in appearance to a blue whale but larger, entirely white, and with a slightly different DNA makeup; this implies that she may be a new, undiscovered subspecies of whale. She makes an appearance in the second game as well, but in an entirely different kind of habitat. As opposed to the tropical waters that she inhabits in the first game, she appears in Endless Ocean: Blue World off of the North Coast of Canada, under the Ice Mosaic.
Magu Tapa is a big and aggressive Great White lookalike. This oversized shark is said to embody a destructive god who was locked away in the sea with a mischievous god assigned to guard him. He does not harm the player (the dangerous animals mechanic was not implemented until the second game), but he does thrash around a bit if they poke him. He did not make an appearance in Endless Ocean: Blue World, although that game does introduce a very similar creature: the violent and easily-aggravated shark known as Thanatos.
Location and Geography
The Manoa Lai Sea is located in the Pelago Commonwealth, a fictional setting in the South Pacific - this, however, was only confirmed in the second game. It has a greatly varying terrain, from forests of coral formations to giant crevasses over 500 feet deep.
There are just under 50 treasures to be salvaged in the first Endless Ocean, found in many different locations and some even in multiple pieces, a list of which can be found here, along with their locations. There is the occasional reward for finding a treasure, like suits, hairstyles, or even just an interesting bit of information.
There is a wide array of landmarks and sub-locations in the Manoa Lai Sea, a list of which can be found here.
Notes
- Manoa Lai holds the record in the entire series for the largest number of sub-maps, at a total of four.
- According to Jean-Eric, a character from the second game, Manoa Lai is a neighboring region to Gatama Atoll.
