Messages

1

General / Re: should I get it?

« on: February 21, 2009, 05:11:20 pm »

Aquaria is definitely not a shmup. It's an adventure game in the classic Zelda sense with fantastic art and an interesting story. It's true the basic play elements are shmupy to some extent, but only as far as having to use energy form to blast some things. If I recall correctly the only time you're required to shoot an enemy are the bosses, which generally require a bit of problem solving anyway.

There's not a lot of frantic blast-everything action in Aquaria, unless you're paranoid or just like fried fish. Mostly it's serene coasting through the water with occasional bouts of aquabatics to dodge a pesky nautilus or shark. The harmless sea creatures outnumber the dangerous ones by a pretty good margin.

2

Off-Topic / Re: Lesson = Learn to tolerate the torrenters

« on: February 18, 2009, 02:59:52 pm »

If the sum of all the peers is a complete file then you don't need a seed. However given the dynamics of the Bittorrent protocol a situation like that won't last long as eventually each peer will acquire the entire file and become a seed (if they aren't leeches and remove the file )

Basically, if there are chunks of the file that aren't available on the network then you'll never get the whole file. As for speed a seeder functions the same as a peer, it just has the entire file. Peers are sending and recieving chuncks at the same time, seeds are only sending chunks.

Back to the point though, maybe Alec has an old version hanging around?

3

Gameplay / Re: Please help, I'm stuck in whale, I have the pearl now what?

« on: February 17, 2009, 05:15:54 pm »

If you're stuck in the whale cave, the blue crystal to get back out can be hard to find. If I recall correctly it's on the top of the cave, just past the edge of the screen. Try lighting the place up with Sun form and using the 'look' function to find the crystal before switching to Spirit form. Remember that it doesn't hurt anything that I know of to get forced out of Spirit by exploring too far, so don't worry about that.

I think the look button is the middle button? I forget, sorry.

4

General / Re: Weird Underwater Creatures

« on: February 16, 2009, 11:32:27 am »

Those are adorable.

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General / Re: Weird Underwater Creatures

« on: February 16, 2009, 11:29:33 am »

That recipe sounds a lot like what my family calls dirt pie. I suspect it's nearly the same; I don't think they'd use pistachio but whatever. Either way, it's damned tasty and a fine way to top off a big meal. Sweet without being heavy on your stomach.

6

Gameplay / Re: Beginner's Guide to Energy Form Combat

« on: February 15, 2009, 04:58:29 am »

Aah. I've never been comfortable typing like that, and I can't use a proper wheel mouse without a desk anyway.

7

General / Re: So whens the sequel? :p

« on: February 15, 2009, 04:57:04 am »

True, but I don't recall song ever being mentioned as being a significant part of any of the other races. Even about Mithalans. The opposite side of the coin you propose is that anyone can sing, but only a few people can wield power with it. Some people are natural singers and can touch your soul with it, some like me can't even keep the same tone through an entire whole note.

8

Gameplay / Re: Beginner's Guide to Energy Form Combat

« on: February 15, 2009, 04:30:36 am »

Actually no. All I have to do is tap this pad once and it counts as a click (it's an older Dell, maybe the new ones don't do that). It also has a double-tap-drag function that's equally annoying if I were to actually try to use it as a mouse instead of a place to hold my M&Ms.

9

General / Re: So whens the sequel? :p

« on: February 15, 2009, 04:26:46 am »

Also, you don't use your energy powers to kill the god directly, you use them to activate the laser-thingy (although, that was probably made with his power too). Although I don't see a reason for that thing to be there, besides providing Naija with a way to kill the god. I don't think any of the Krotites would have tried to use it on him. Oh well, minor inconsistency. One of the challenges of creating a game based on exploration is making a world created solely for the player appear like it isn't.

Ignore the man behind the curtain.

You're right about using the pearl rather than direct fire, and yet you have to use energy bolts to charge the pearl so in the end I think it's the same.
Your interpretation of the statue is also a good point, I've always thought of it (at least after I finished the temple the first time) as being a manifestation of the god himself. Although I don't think it's ever mentioned that the Krotites are singers, and the fact that you can't sing in energy form further suggests that they aren't. Leaving me to question the use of song in a Krotite testing ground.

10

Gameplay / Re: Do armor effects still apply when in other forms?

« on: February 15, 2009, 04:17:51 am »

I think the Krotite armor is purely cosmetic. I wish the suits were more useful.

Alpha, does the Arnassi suit actually do anything? The description says so, but I never noticed any difference and neither have you apparently. Looks like you've been digging through the scripts for these things?

11

Gameplay / Re: Beginner's Guide to Energy Form Combat

« on: February 15, 2009, 04:13:03 am »

I disable touchpads in the BIOS. Whoever thought of putting a touch-activated surface that generates mouse click events right next to the space where your thumbs are supposed to rest when at 'home' position was an idiot. I'm always 'clicking' outside of the window I'm typing in. Stupid touchpads.

12

General / Re: So whens the sequel? :p

« on: February 15, 2009, 04:08:06 am »

Hmm ,looks like this is what later became Mithala (or at least a part of his backstory) This would have been interesting to see in the game, although it's basically:
-I was a god but now im not
-I can kill you but i wont cause i want you to kill me

Actually, this is sort of in there. Parts of it as Mithalas' backstory yes. But also, have you forgotten that the energy god essentially gives you the song to slay him? When you enter the temple the statue teaches it to you. Of course there's the obligatory follow the leader chase with the glowing light which triggers a fireball dodging 'fight', but even then you're pretty much given the notes required to win. The whole sequence drips with 'use this to destroy me,' especially with that bit of discarded dialogue exposed. Even more to the point, you are required to use energy form to defeat the god-boss, the very form that the statue of said god teaches you before you're allowed into the rest of the temple. Oh, it made it into the game alright, they just made it more subtle. I suspect if that scene had made it into the game it would have felt a lot more like being hit over the head with a hammer, and probably wouldn't have played out as well.

I was pretty unhappy with those ghost-priest things, it just didn't seem to fit in with everything else.

I can agree with that. Those bosses felt like a 'we need a boss for this form, quick think of something.' I'm sure they weren't and the whole spirit business is hinted at in other parts of Mithalas dialogues, but it just felt a bit forced to me.

13

Modding / Re: Aquaria: Lost Treasures Mod

« on: February 14, 2009, 03:04:36 pm »

Ack! Don't start that again.

14

General / Re: So whens the sequel? :p

« on: February 14, 2009, 03:03:51 pm »

Aquaria is still a game, there has to be gameplay, not scenes with interaction like the oh-so-lacking Kingdom Hearts.

Well, some sort of cutscene is necessary if the developers want to tell their own story rather than let the players make their own.

If you want to make your own story then buy a sandbox game. I've gotten the impression that Saint's Row is decent. Oblivion is another option in a different theme.

Aquaria is a more traditional game of the sort that tells a story. A pretty good story imo, though that's entirely subjective. Half the point of Aquaria as I perceive it is to tell that story; allowing room for the player to make their own story would at best emasculate that intent.

The two aims are different and divergent. It's technically possible to do both, Oblivion makes a decent stab at that, but it requires a massive amount of content to pull off and because you have to allow a player off your story rails they'll almost invariably end up playing in the sandbox more than following your story, which leads (at least for me) to the feeling that the story was sort of tacked on at the end to satisfy a checklist item.

15

General / Re: So whens the sequel? :p

« on: February 13, 2009, 02:43:33 pm »

I do think there was some cheesiness in the voice acting. Over-dramatic in places.
I think voices in games are a lot more demanding than text. With text you can imagine the voice in your head however you think it would be most appropriate. When you hear a voice, it's no longer tailored to you. It's just more difficult to get voices right than text,  I think. There's just a lot more variation.

I thought the dramatics were a good fit with the overall style of the game. The entire game is very artistic and striking, it suits the mood to have dramatic somewhat stylized voiceover.

Also iirc the narrative is spoken in first person past tense, in other words Naija is speaking as if recalling from memory a very important event in her history. I think this perspective is lost somewhere at or near the end, I'd have to go play again to confirm that (what a shame!). My point though is that very emotional memories tend to be overdramatized as well.