I do know that the Ancient Mother from the first Endless Ocean game has some relation to a Polynesian myth on a giant whale. The Thanatos (sp?) I think is from a Grecian (Greek) story about a shark, but I forget the details. I had a book about a Grecian shark when I was younger, but I don't remember what happened to it. I do remember that that shark was massive, though, and a fisherman had to deal with it.

It's Thanatos in this game... but the boig evil great white in the first game was called Magu Tapah.

I only just picked up the Ancient Mother quest in this game, so I'll thank you for not spoiling the details of that one for me. The made-up critter I was referring to in that post are the Singing Dragons at the end of the story. How do they breathe, what do they eat?

I do understand that most, if not all, of the legendary creatures in this game have some basis in folklore and I appreciate that fact.

I'm working hard to train dolphins and raise a million pelagos. It just burns in my soul that I can't access all the areas in the game right now.

Well, from what I have seen, I have only scratched the sufrace with this game. It's amazing to see how many side stories you can do. Now, I am on full time training. I don't enjoy it much. How long do you have to train your dolphins before they go up? When does the famous person comes and visit me? Please answer. THanks!

If all you want is to get all the other dolphins, then you only need to train 1 of them.... you should be able to get up to level 1 within 5-10 minutes, as soon as Oceane says something like: 'getting really good at this trick now' for each of the 6 tricks, you should be able to go to hayako and ask her to test the dolphin.

Thanks for the help. God! I am now addicted to this training thing. So far, only three dolphins, but it's going good. How many hours am I going to put in this game? It is the most addictive game I have ever played before.

And I am still amazed by the diving experience. It never gets old.

I am getting into the training now myself (I have played the game 115-120 hours so far... it has just passed the original in total playtime)

The training can be boring though, and the music is annoying for it too (and you can't choose your own from the jukebox for training, it only works for normal diving) I think if anyone else finds the training boring this is the way to do it:

The first dolphin needs training manually up to level 2 anyway, this probably takes about 15-20 minutes of training in total (best to do it in 3-4 chunks though as the dolphins can only improve so much in one go)

Once you have trained it to that level you don't "need" to train it any more, as you can use it for shows and get all the other dolphins, however if you want to train them all to the max:

from untrained, open the first three tricks manually (takes about 5 minutes) then put them on auto train for 5 minutes and they should unlock at least 2 of the remaining 3, then do those 2 (or 3) manually, and if that still hasn't unlocked the final one (tail walking) then put it on auto train for another couple of minutes. From then on you can pretty much use auto train (I think it's actually called "free training" in the game).

Personally as I now have all the dolphins, I just tonight decided to get them all up to this point so they can use all the (types of) tricks... then what I am going to do is cycle through them using auto train for the 10-15 minutes of a program on TV, then when the adverts are on, cancel the auto train, feed the dolphin and switch to the next one. I imagine 2-3 lots of 10-15 minutes of auto train should be enough for it to unlock and pass Hayako's tests and level up to level 2. Once on level 2 do a bit of manual training to unlock the new tricks (so far all level 2 tricks are for the 3 jumps, and singing.... waving and tail walking don't seem to have advanced versions) then do the same thing of cycling auto train while watching a program to get up to level 3. Then finally a little more manual training to unlock the really advanced tricks (I think these will only ever be for the 3 jumps, with 2 of them being faster versions of the level 2 tricks, and one of them being a special one.... though the Beluga could be an anomaly as it is mentioned a number of times about it's sining skills, so it may have a level 3 singing trick unlike all other dolphins)

Man I you right about the music. My girlfriend shared with me how much she cannot stand it anymore. I just turn the sound off. Well, it is a very long and boring process to train your dolphins in the end. I mean, it's fun to have a purpose, but the guy told me to do 20 shows or 100 training sessions. Good one! 100 training sessions. Can the narwhale help me in the cortica river? I want to bash trough the branches there.

You need the river dolphin for the Cortica river blockage.... you can't get that till after 20 shows.