Aquaria

Great little Metroidvania with a unique "Verse" singing mechanic to activate your powers

This game is amazing, its like Castlevania but underwater. It deserves more recognition. Just a tip, this game does not have Steam Cloud, so [b]backup your save manually before unistall[/b] (the save file is inside the game folder).

Loved this game as a teen but never finished it. Finally went back to replay and get the true ending. Good soundtrack, rewarding exploration. Story was hit or miss for me, and a few of the bosses are pretty unintuitive. Definitely a product of its time, but still fun with some neat mechanics.

It's certainly a unique experience. The music is great, and even though the gameplay felt a bit basic, it grew on me. I tried to get into this 3 times throughout the years and I guess the 3rd time was the charm.

однозначно рекомендую, для того року випуску досить цікава історія, хоч автори явно планували продовження, його нажаль немає. досить цікавий світ зі своїми різними персонажами, живими і не дуже, лор розкривається поступово і інтрига тримається до кінця. особливо хочеться приділити увагу музичному супроводженню, Алек Холовка, композитор, явно постарався, у нього в авторстві є ще одна топова гра, там трохи впізнаються нотки х) візуал також досить непоганий, 8/10 тверда якщо додадуть українську то ще тричі перепройду ;)

It's dated at this point. No decent map, and a savepoint-only save system make this hard to play today.

Proof that games that tone down the violence don't have to be inferior. I got this game a long time ago as part of one of the OG Humble Bundles. But it might've been the last of that bundle that I tried because it kind of looked like those old NES/SNES games they made for girls like The Little Mermaid, Barbie, etc. At the time of release, that was kind of all they made when you combine non-violence, a female protagonist, and cutesy graphics. Because of the stark contrast between games that were targeted toward boys and girls, it often felt that the games targeted toward girls were just boy games without the shooting and such. But this game was one of the originals that proved that gaming could have all of those elements and still be as interesting gameplay wise as any other game. There were predecessors like Ecco the Dolphin, The Oregon Trail, etc. that made non-violent gameplay interesting, but this one went all-in on feminine aspects that had historically meant the game wasn't interesting to a male audience as much. But they made a great game, which was wonderful for gaming history. If only more modern games learned from this one and not every female protagonist had to be a skin-swapped man or a girl boss, gaming would be a little more interesting. The Positives: -The visuals are beautiful. They still hold up, as you can find similar games like Hollow Knight and its sequel that have that beautiful blend of Metroidvania gameplay with colorful, world-building visuals. Unfortunately, mobile games kind of ripped off this near-exact visual style for some of their titles, cheapening this in retrospect, but please don't let modern bad games affect how great this was (apply this rule to any modern ensloppification of your beloved classic IPs). -It took me an hour or two to get into it, but once I did, I liked the environment and the story. I have a weakness of not being able to get into games right away if I don't get to do something, and that applied here where I was waiting for something to "happen"—but once I got some things to do and reasons to explore, I got into it. It really comes into its own and rewards exploration and continuing the story with new creatures and new pieces of story. -All of the alternatives to just moving around and shooting everything that most games do were great. Explore, discover, enjoy the game...and it's not boring. Definitely one of the predecessors to modern games that are all about exploration and storytelling and eliminated all combat-type gameplay elements. The Negatives: -Only a negative because it hits on my weakness, but I did find that it took a while to get into things. Unfortunately, I can say that about a lot of games that aren't Sim City-style monitor-everything-24-7 kinds of games, but you need to give it some time and not let your social-media-caused-attention-deficit ruin you here. -As I mentioned, you might notice that the visuals got ripped off by cheap mobile games, so don't let that ruin it for you. I love the Langrisser series, and they did a remake that had "mobile-quality" graphics. It really was hard not to feel like it was "cheapened" by that, as the original Genesis versions were unique and beautiful, and I would say the same thing here: appreciate the game, anyway, as this was great back in the day and caused the modern art style that is now cliché. -I played it through and enjoyed it, but I didn't feel any great need to cover every inch of the game or anything like an old Zelda game or a Resident Evil game where I played it a bunch of times (though, to be fair, RE is replayable because you play once in total fear and a second time with infinite weapons to shoot everything that scared you). I liked it a lot but am glad that I played through once and didn't try to play it into the ground. Overall, this was the biggest surprise from that bundle back in the day. I think it was in the same bundle as like Gish and such, and I thought I'd like that and not care for this...surprisingly, it was the other way around (Gish's controls made it annoying to play, and this was fluid and beautiful and I ended up liking it a lot). Whether or not you play it, you'll see the influence it had on modern gaming with a lot of its bold decisions that, at the time, would've meant it had no chance. But some bold decisions and a world-changing Humble Bundle model later, and it's a classic that will have its place in gaming history. It might not be your thing, but it definitely left its mark on multiple genres in the years since its release.

ОЦЕНКА: 3 / 5 Если хотите кратко, то посмотрите на процент выполнения сюжетных ачивок. Это 10-12% буквально на начальных локациях. Я не преувеличиваю. Казалось бы, красивая метроидвания про морской народец с интригующим сюжетом и интересными боссфайтами. Есть абилки и секреты, есть даже озвучка. Что могло пойти не так? Всё. Всё не так. Отвратительная циклопических масштабов карта: где-то слишком мелкая и без возможности приблизить, где-то локации тупо наложены друг на друга. Куда и зачем плыть непонятно ни на третьем часу, ни на десятом. Огромные пустые локации, на которых можно лишь очень и очень редко найти что-то сюжетное или хотя бы полезное. Омерзительное управление, при котором проще управлять персонажем через wasd, чем с мыши, как, видимо, было задумано. Раздражающие прилипания к стенам вообще непонятно на кой черт были сделаны. Прикрученный крафт ради крафта поражает своей бессмысленностью. Самое главное - игра в это не только неудобно, но и скучно. Я дал игре целых два шанса и терпел её очень долго, чтобы в итоге всё же сгореть на очередном витке безумного бэктрегинга. Оно того не стоило.

Всё ещё мастерпис спустя 15 лет после релиза. Продолжаем ждать вторую часть.

highly nostalgic for me the graphics are charming if simple and has a fun eldritch monster element to the bosses