Aquaria

Yay, Aquaria.

The good:
Beautiful graphics, music and the overall atmosphere. A great example of how 2D gaming unfairly lost its battle with the 3D offensive, especially when it comes to mainstream games. Also, you can feel the game is a work of love and enthusiasm. The game is huge and the attention to detail is astonishing - there is plenty of things to find, discover and it seems the game holds a nice little story to tell as well.

The bad:
To be honest, the actual gameplay is a little bit boring - the game world is huge yet all those water caves feel oddly similar. Not having a clear clue what to do and where to go should be a good thing, but oddly it kinda isn't. Furthermore, while I usually oppose quicksaving concept with a vengeance and embrace the concept of savepoints because it adds a nice dimension of challenge, in Aquaria they seem a little bit too sparse and since exploring in itself is not THAT interesting, re-exploring can get downright painful. I'm also not a big fun of the mouse-only controls (the game does over alternatives, though) and overall Naija isn't really as nimble as I'd like her to be. Finally, I think 30$ is a little bit steep (as a counter-example, the Untitled Story, a game which I find superior gameplay-wise to Aquaria costs only 1$).

If not a true hit in itself, Aquaria is at least a ray of hope that 2D gaming still lives and will probably thrive in indie games community for years to come.

I've been really excited about this game for a while, but I am not sure if I should just wait for the Macintosh version to come out, or go for the PC version. I enjoy being on my Mac more... but this game looks amazing. If anyone has any idea how soon this is coming out on Mac and could let me know, I would be MUCH obliged.

progress on the mac os x version here:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=112570

Absolutely fantastic game, well worth my $30. I'll admit I used a guide from the game's forums to find a few of the more secretive treasures littering the world.

I never found myself getting lost. The various areas are very diverse, and exploring some of the more foreboding waters really made me feel uneasy about what lay ahead.

The entire game can be controlled with only the mouse, keyboard, 360 gamepad, or whatever mix of the three you find most comfortable. The designers are pushing for weekly patches too, so any remaining bugs are being quickly stamped out.

Is there any way in the demo to move enter the blocked passages (move rocks or plants?) Not sure what else I can do.

Never mind, found it. But still not sure of what else I can still do in demo. I got chased by scary things already.

I have:

Song for shielding and song for moving rocks and plants, and some recipes/ingredients for what seems to be only for healing and speed.

Is there a clear "you may go no further" point?

slgalt:

There is a point at which the game stops and you get a screen saying "Demo End".

Now that you have the Bind song, explore more thoroughly. You can play the entire first dungeon in the demo.

I bought this at around the same time it was featured here in a Weekend Download about two weeks ago. I didn't first hear about it here, though. I just beat it not an hour ago. All I'll say about the "true" ending is that I can't wait for the sequel. ;)

Very, very worth the $30. The custom music, engaging story, and massive world to explore were huge pluses in my book.

I grant it's beautiful, and what I've seen so far of the plot is fascinating. I also love the song interface -- it reminds me a little of a game I think was reviewed here called Tork, and a little of one I played a long, long time ago called Loom, and a little something completely new. Very cool.

That said, it seems like there's an awful lot of tunnels for the sake of having tunnels, which, coupled with the speed of movement, is reeeeeally annoying really quickly. The minimap helps, but partly because the glowing blue lines have tendency to blur into eachother, suggesting connections between tunnels where there are none, it's easy to get lost. And this is a HUGE world to explore, so getting lost is bad. If the scenery were any less lovely, it'd be unbearable.

The game, at least in my opinion, really needs two things:
1) The ability to make notes on the map
2) NOT shadowing out the caves outside current "sector"

It also reminded me of Tork, although that game was engaging in a totally different way.

P.S. It's interesting how the game experience differs from player to player. My girlfriend was enjoying the game right until Naija found her "energy" form, upon which she gave up saying "the game turned from a beautiful underwater exploration thing to a space-shooter". I on the other hand didn't really dig the whole swimming-singing-to-flowers shtick and relished in fact I can now shoot stuff at poor helpless underwater creatures. Go figure.

Re: baba's comments on the different takes --

I prefer the singing-to-flowers part, but I do like that there's variety, and that there are times when you need both forms "working together" as it were. The energy form was difficult to get the hang of managing, though; I got killed a few times before I trained myself to right-click shoot and learned how to shoot and dodge simultaneously. Very nearly gave it up myself, then it clicked. Now I kill things happily... although I

can't quite bring myself to shoot the harmless big blue jellyfish just to get the health boosts

More even than Knytt or Metroid, this game is a modern revitalization of Ecco the dolphin, to which it owes many gameplay and design elements... Nice to see that good game design never gets old.

For some reason no matter what resolution I pick, what options I change and whether it's in windowed or fullscreen mode, the game runs horribly from the intro, I have to wait two minutes just for the Bit Blot logo to go away. My computer isn't THAT crappy, any idea what might fix this? :/

I finally played through a small portion of the game - the atmosphere s is soothing and beautiful, and the sounds are amazing. I am not sure though it is worth 30$ to me - I need to play it a little longer (I've only played a little over 30 minutes.) Can anyone tell me how much the actual gameplay speeds up as the game progresses? As of right now, although the exploration is wonderful, the slowness of the game makes me unsure of how much longer I would be entertained. Regardless, the game is quite an accomplishment!

The demo lasts quite a long time, and although I'm sure it took me much longer to find the half way point, it kicks into fire shooting boss fighting high gear. There was an entirely different feel to the game, which you get a glimpse of in the "flash forward" at the start of the game. If you haven't found three songs, you haven't really even started.

This is the most impressive demo I've played, they really give you what feels like a full game time wise. I assume paying for the game is well worth it.

I had to look at one of the video walkthroughs linked on their site to figure out that there was a whole other part of the game I hadn't seen (after 3rd song).

Quite easily one of the best $30 investments I've made. I bought the full version shortly after it came out (after beating the demo naturally) and even though I went back and played the first area again, I still managed to discover things I hadn't before. The stunning artwork is great enough that your eyes will often wander away from Naija and end up having you swin into tiny alcoves and such just to have a closer look. Don't feel sidetracked however, quite often, you may find that that alcove, which ends on the map, has a secret inside of it waiting for you. With many treasure troves hiding mini bosses, costumes, and treasures for your cave, exploring every inch of the map is worth it.

While swimming, I did find that these new areas were getting larger and larger per every page of the map I uncovered, It seemed that Naija's small fins couldn't make the journey. Often, I was relieved to find a friendly seahorse waiting on the next map to carry my along when I was tired. Seahorses became even easier to use once I acquired the seahorse costume. Eventually, Naija was granted yet another remarkable gift, one from her people's old god that allowed Naija a new shape. One that I found was built for speed, the beast form.

Even before the beast form, when Naija's top speed was lower, I found no problems with her mobility. Even using the original mouse control, a timed kick or a flick of the mouse easily made Naija clear of danger coming her way. Being a small target to hit as well, I often found her slipping in between barrages of incoming attacks. The best tricks, I found, were quite easy to do if you only remember not to panic. I don't feel the mouse controls are at all clunky, in fact, I feel as though the reaction speed I have with the mouse has saved me quite a bit of trouble. One thing I never do in a fight, especially against overwhelming fire, is let go of the left mouse button, unless it is to thrust or other action. (I admit, sometimes it is plumb necessary to stop, especially against bosses.)

I've gone across the surface of the entire veil, discovered most the sun temple (through vigorous wall jumping), and taken Li down to the depths of the abyss to open the sunken city. I've also lead him other places to look for cookies or neat things, though I was upset to find there was no special interaction with him while in Naija's home, though there is a second helmet there to leave him. In the abyss I'm having trouble getting the flower girl up to the boy, I can lead her as far as the pipes with the nature form, but I cant get her to go up through the second one. I must say the faceless boys were quite creepy, but I couldn't manage to progress any further here. In the sun temple, I know there is something I need, or need to do before I can navigate the rest of it, and even though I climbed the pipe with the scarabs going up it, the only other path I could get into lead me back down, at least I got a trasure out of it. I've gotten the urchin costume in the turtle cave, as well as was surprised by the enormous turtle there. I know theres another cave in the veil I need to take, I'll be heading there next. Those great turtles sure are a blessing.

Teonis, did you find that the later stages of the game were more -- not linear, precisely, but directed? I've been trying to decide if I like the game enough to pay the $30, and the biggest thing holding me back is that I spent so much of the demo crossing and recrossing ground I'd already covered. With the slow swim speed and the sheer length of tunnels, it got frustrating, particularly as I couldn't simply save and come back to it later -- I had to go find a save point first. I understand there are ways to travel faster later on, but if I'm still going to spend ages going back over ground because I've been swimming down a tunnel for 15 minutes only to have it dead-end due to lack of ability... It's really my only gripe about the game. :(

LS - I assume you have done this but just in case you didn't, double click on the map in the lower right corner to see where you are.

Unfortunately, LS, the demo maps, aka: the first zone, is the smallest of them all. All those tunnels combines in the demo equal about 2 maps in the rest of Aquaria. Though, there are plenty of spaces and paths that make traveling a little more like exploring, like finding little nooks of treasure. Also, unlike the first area, there is a wider abundance of sea creatures that are aggressive, so you'll probably not feel so bored whole swimming about when you are combating things.

As for back tracking over areas, there is a bit of it, but if you hit up the right areas first, you can minimize that. Though, to get secrets and such, you'll have to go back to area's you've been once you've acquired new powers. For example,

the nature form lets you open those blue globes, like the one in Naija's home, which are tunnels to other areas. Or the beast for to swin into strong currents you could not before.

Luckily, backtracking later in the game wont be as much a pain once you start uncovering the ancient turtles. In any of the major areas you will ever end up going back to there is a turtle hidden on the map, allowing you to travel all the way form the veil down to the depths of the abyss instantly.

Lastly, I know how you feel with the saving thing, when I first started venturing out I felt like I had to swim maps away to go back to a save point, however, as I explored the nooks and alternate paths more, I found that nearly every map in the game has its own save. In at least two dungeons I can think of there are two save points, one at the start and one before the boss. Admitably some maps don't have saves, but they are usually maps in between larger locations. I'd recommend, that if you are playing in a limited time slot where you might have to get off before you can find a save, When it gets to about 5 - 10 minutes to your deadline, and you have nto found a new save point, you might want to consider taking that time to swim back.

When in doubt, follow the red blip on the radar. You might be close to one and don't even know it. even if you don't want to save at that time, at least swim across it to add it to your map for later.

A few useful tips (if someone perhaps needs them). I'll spoilerize them just in case.

You can change forms with the hotkeys 1 through 9. MUCH more convenient then using songs. Why is this not officially documented, I don't know. Using WASD together with the numbers makes a much tighter and less frustrating control scheme then the pure-mouse one.

Often, what Naija says is not meant to be taken literally, but more likely as some sort of character development, her insecurity or whatnot. So when she says at one time something on the lines that "she is scared", "she should not be there" or "she could go explore somewhere else and come back here later", she isn't actually hinting you that you should go somewhere else and get some new ability before you get back - this can actually throw you off track, because the game IS a bit linear at some points and if you turn back there you will not be able to proceed very far.

When Naija says "it would take a lot of courage to go into the Abyss without some sort of light source" she does NOT mean the little twinkling fish that conveniently swims towards you while she's saying this, even though the fish starts following you around if you sing. The gotcha is that you CAN use the fish to find your way through the caves, but once it dies or you move on to the next game area you might just as well restart because you'll be left with a pitch black screen and no way of going back. Sure if you got what you should have gotten before this will not be a problem, but I was unlucky enough to explore all the "wrong" areas first.

To open the door at the palace, you need not only to put a coin, you need to SIT on the throne. Perhaps this will be obvious to some, but it caused me around three hours additional wandering around trying to figure out what the heck am I supposed to do next.

There. Also, as a comment, I'd like to point out that the game gets much more interesting once you invest some effort and gaming hours into it. Too bad it starts out so slow and makes you believe the entire game is about swimming, watching pretty fishes and singing to flowers - I guess this will needlessly throw many people off who wanted a much more action-oriented experience (which is basically just around the corner).

Aquaria for Best of Casual Gameplay 2007: Download (other)!!!

Those are good tips Baba,

though I didn't have a problem with the throne, I found you can sit on it before I ever even got the coin.

I don't like the ending. I think it has plenty to do with

me absolutely hating the character of Li. This ugly dude with bad hair and no fighting skills whatsoever comes along out of nowhere, starts following Naija around (or at least tries to since he gets stuck on every second part of the scenery) and what's the worst he starts groping Naija whenever he gets a chance which is not only irritating, but positively frustrating since seemingly there is no easy way to untangle them once they get all touchy-feely. This is especially fun when you try to solve the secret melody memorization game with Li around. Try it and you'll see what I mean. Anyways, the last boss fight ruled but the ending... blah. The secret extended ending (a.k.a. a sequel setup) was a little bit better, though, even though I dread the possibility of having to deal with Li's offspring in the next game. But I DO hope there will be a next game, however.

P.S. If you like the game, make an effort and map out the "secret" alphabet using the main menu as the key. It is quite fun to decipher all those hidden messages around Aquaria.

Unlocking Li from Naija is just a simple right click on the pair of them. Besides, if you let it zoom in, she's just as happy about it as he is. besides, if you had that much trouble moving Li around, you could have just left him at home or not summon him when he gets lost. Personally, between having him and the blaster pet around, I always have plenty of firepower, even when not in a fighting form.

I never even considered the feminine nature of Naija until Li appeared.

Can anyone help me unlock the first form besides Energy? i can't get through any small niches or even get the Nature Form cuz i can't get through the small places.

rather, I just need to know what is the next metamorphosis after Energy and how to get it. Can anyone please help?

I don't really remember, but I don't think you need the Fish Form to get the Nature form. But in case I'm wrong, the fish form can be found...

in the far left end of the kep forest where the rock monsters pop up. What looks like a dead end in the bottom left of that map, might not be. In fact, its the door to the Fish cave. Theres a bit of a puzzle in there, but I'm sure you can figure it out. If not...

Each of the four stones corresponds to a note you can sing, the four different colored fish respond to the same note, lead at least three of each fish to the respective stone to get the Fish form.

Nope, you do not need a Fish form to get the Nature form. In fact, I think it's possible to finish the game without ever getting the Fish form.

What you DO need, however, is the Moving Song..

the Bind song, you mean? you have to get that to do ANYTHING, you cant even get into the energy temple without it.

BTW, I found a wall with notes on it and a picture of a whale, singing the notes seems to do nothing and I have not yet found a whale.

Oh man, what a gyp. Peggle beat us in the voting. Thats bogus, my mother plays a thousand games just like it online every day. I have Peggle Extreme on my Steam account. Its just another one of the same.

Beat "us" in the voting? Are you affiliated with Bit Blot, Teonis?

Hi, to every one.

To Baba44713, Whale is in the Abyss, the right one, in the low-left corner. u need spirit form to get to him.

I have some questions:
1) in the whale there is an octopus singing and there is a door with the white ball. I need the ball, how do I open the door and for what the octopus singing?

2) In the ice area there is a boss, how do I kill him?

thanks in advance

"Us" Is everyone who voted for Aquaria and all the fans who support it.

Why are you telling ME about the whale? I know where it is. :)

Also, for your first question, the bottles are the key. For the second, can you elaborate which boss do you mean?

I just got to the open waters, and I had the misfortune of swimming into a pitch-black cave. Normally, this wouldn't be so bad, but I noticed myself slowing down as I was trying to get out, and ended up with a swarm of leech things on my face. I can't seem to get them off no matter what I do, and I can only (barely) move by power kicking.
How, exactly, do I get out of this situation?

How do you get through the Sun temple. I can only get through the right side and cannot get to the left side of the temple.

And to get those leechy things of you have to spin anround really fast over and over. They'll get off for a second, but come back. So you need to go to energy form and blast them.

So i finished the game with not real bonuses. Found no whale, never got spirit form, Never got to use those blue crystals, Never found a use for Sun form other than to look at the map (and that one part with the ghost.) never found an ice area, never found a pitch black cave that required light. I feel like i missed a lot. heh.

Thanks, Shanna. You've saved me from countless hours of aggravation from searching and multiple deaths by nautilus. Those things are nasty.

Well, I can tell you Teonis that the Spirit form is at the very top of the part of the cave where you get the beast form. There's hot steam keeping you from going from the bottom up, but if you go from the left side (and sinse you know have the beast form, and can swim up currents) then you can get through. Still, if anyone did figure out the sun temple, it would be greatly appreciated.

ok, went to youtube to find the Spirit form, went in the whale

Lit the lamps in the whale in the right order, as sung by the octopus

anyway, a few more treasures and one more Egg for life, as well as the Piranha pet to go to get everything. Now that I found that blasted spirit form, in the one place i completely overlooked after getting beast form, I suppose getting those things should be simpler.

As for the sun temple

There are gears allover the place, however, some don't move. There must be some way to "spin" them

once I find the ice area, I'll kill this boss and tell you how i did it, then all these questions and more will be answered.

Ok, got the ice boss, and he has my last life egg anyway. To beat him:

First of all, you have to get him off the ceiling. This can be done with a full charge seed from the nature form, as he apparently does not like thorns in his bum. He'll fall into the first bubble, but I never got him to go any further than that. Shortly you'll find he is invincible to all your attacks. however, his only attack is to spew the blast filled pods himself. This next part I discovered quite by accident, but the pods hurt him just as much as they do you, if you can get them to explode. Ironically, after I had already won by crashing into the bombs next to him then using the jellyfish suit to heal, I considered the idea of using the Bind song to pull the pods, which are about the size to all the other round object which you drag around in the game. After some time the pods explode on their own, so I assume, while dragging one you can leave it by him as it detonates.

All thats left for me is treasure hunting and the last pet.

So, I had figured out the spinning gears, but I seem to have gotten stuck on trying to go from there. There doesn't seem to be any way to the left side of the temple. It's probably something real obvious that I've overlooked, but I can't seem to get past it. Also I've tried to get through at the bottom, on the map it shows that you can get through that way, but I can't get through and something keeps getting me. I can't see what it is though because it's pitch black.

I still have no clue what everyone is talking about pitch black. I never found any pitch black areas, least of all in the Sun Temple. It may have something to do with that extra button in the video controls when setting up the game, I found I could not play with it on; all i got was a black screen.

perhaps you could try that until you get the sun form. Fo me it was just go to the bottom, and go left into the next vertical shaft, going left again lead out, going up then left lead forward.

anyone beat the game already? any idea how to beat the last boss for the real ending?

It's not the boss, it's what you do before beating the boss.

Find three hidden memories.

I need help. I helped the ghost travel further in the sunken city until we reached closed door and song symbols on the wall. I'm stuck here! I think I tried everything. Please help!

theres actually a complicated part to singing that song. the notes would be easier to understand if they were lined up, but it's the same song the boy's mother is singing.

If you listen, the first 3 notes are always the same and the 4th note varies. if the notes are 1 - 8 starting at the lowest, green. The song is 2-4-5-6; 2-4-5-3; 2-4-5-1.

you might have found out his eye is his weakness, however, you cant hurt it, but a bright light will make it vulnerable. After flashing the sun form, shoot the eye until you cant do anything more to it. (it will be black) then you have to pull his eye out to free Li. With Li freed you can use the dual form again. His stomach is his new weakness, but you can only hit it when it opens to shoot.

Oh come on, don't spoil the final boss fight, it's the best part of the game... :)

hey, is the mac verison avalible ?
if so can you give me the link ...

sara: Aquaria for OS X should be entering beta pretty soon. You can stay up-to-date by keeping an eye on Ambrosia's Aquaria Progress Log.

Where do i get the beast form?! I've been drifting for ages.

Thanks Turias (:

Hi,
I find a secret room in the abyss but I've a problem:

In the whale room, on the left there is a dark way to take with fish form, and I arrive in a secret room with two strange fishes. Each fish have a glowing bowl in front of it.

Beast form is in Mithala, you have to beat the boss there.

In the secret room; thanks for pointing it out; its actually the 2 developers of the game, a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, them staring into 'bright orbs' (computer screens) going on without rest. Naija calls them silly. The fish are intentionally made to look like Derek Yu and Alec Holowka

OK, I have just seen them in google image, that's right, they are the fishes! Thanks ;)
Aquaria is a wonderful game!

Help! Help! I love the game but I can't find where to get the beast form. Please help me get the beast form.

man... three months after first seeing, then buying the game, i'm playing through it a third time! This game is just wonderfully deep and beautiful!

Thanks Teonis for helping. I beat the boss in Mithala but didn't get the beast form. Was there something else I needed to do?

Proper Big Boss found. Now to get Beast form.

I did the gotta catch 'em all shtick with the four spirits. How do I put them to use freeing whatshisname?

Skarmory - you need to sing.

Please help, i'm in need f assistance how do i kill the beast form boss?? it seems no matter how much i attack nothing happens?? his head flashes and thats it...???

How to beat the beast form boss, for Sarah:

Move the small creature, blast the boss back so he'll use the suck attack. Release creature and grab a wall. Do this 3 times and then it's a matter of brute firepower.

How do we spin around the wheel in the sun temple????
Or how can we go on top of the sun temple???????

But first thing first why is there a sun temple?

HELPZ! Thankz..

I am so slow I can't even figure out how to kill the Energy Temple boss, please help!