Hellos!
This is a new Aquaria aficionado from Germany signing on, who would like to share his experience of discovering the game with you.
Sometimes, you get great new games right after they're published. And sometimes, it takes five years for you to discover them. And often, those games are the real gems. And then you ask yourself, "how is it possible that you've missed out on this gem for so long?"
The latter definitely holds true for me concerning the discovery of Aquaria. I got it about half a year ago as part of the "humble introversion bundle" on Steam.
To be honest, I wasn't even initially interested in Aquaria - I bought the bundle for some other games. But then, about two weeks ago, when I went through my Steam list in a fit of boredom, looking for something to play, I saw this game right on the top of the list with that cute bluish fin-eared face, apparently asleep, for an icon. So I thought, what the heck, I feel like falling asleep myself, so let's give it a try.
The screenshots looked promising. Having grown up in the 8-bit era, I'm quite fond of "backwards" gaming style like metroidvania sidescrollers. So I skipped the trailer and downloaded the game right away.
The intro sequence had an air of functional simplicity about it, composing and moving static graphics to tell a kind of background story, mostly like I had expected from an indie game (the one I previously played was "Limbo", which is even more simplistic). Then the main menu came up, bringing along a first glimpse of what makes about 50% of the game's beauty for me: The music.
Really, I've rarely seen... well, heard... such utterly beautiful and perfectly fitting music in a game. No big orchestra with a hundred musicians, no choir... Just heartwarmingly simple.
The musician really understood what is most important about making good music: emotional melodies and fitting harmonics. And to skip ahead a bit: After I completed the game for the first time, I immediately went ahead and bought the download version of the soundtrack. They wanted $5 for it. I gave them $10. And it's on my car MP3 player since.
Here are some noteworthy moments for me while playing the game, in order of appearance:
1. As already mentioned, first contact with the music in the main menu, and subsequently the verse cave.
2. The opening narration. What a beautiful voice. So calming and melancholic. Way to go Jenna!
"The verse flows throughout Aquaria." Okay, their version of the Force apparently. Let's see what they make of it.
3. Yay! I'm controlling a mermaid! Well, a kinda mermaid. When the 3D version of "Ecco the Dolphin" was on consoles, I always wanted to play that. Unfortunately I don't have a console, and they didn't make a PC version of that game, at least not in time. Now, finally, I get to control a sea creature. And a cute one at that too. Without the need to constantly surface for air even.
4. Entering "Open Waters". Just listen to that music! And Naija's narration about leaving her home for the first time. Awwww.
5. WTH? I'm riding a sea horse, and am controlling it through singing verse notes? How cool an idea is that.
6. "Not ANOTHER sea loaf!" Potion-making at its finest. Professor Snape would be so proud.
7. Riding "ancient turtles", now that's the epic Finding Nemo style of warp points.
I had hoped though that once you found more than two of these, you could choose to which location to go when you use them, instead of auto-cycling through locations.
8. Entering the Kelp Forest. Just. That. Music. Definitely my favorite piece in the soundtrack. With "Sun Temple" and "Above" close runner-ups.
Also, "forest" and "kelp" hold some special meaning for me. For one, I used to be part of an online roleplaying group, mostly assuming dolphin characters, and we often played with kelp stuff. We even had kelp pillows.
And the "forest" part is related to my fanfic activities, which I'll get to later.
9. "My veins hardened into vines. Bark encased my skin, and moss sprouted from my back and head." Very cool.
And another strong reminder for me of that "forest" related fanfic I mentioned...
10. Probably the most noteworthy moment, as it surely was for many players: Crossing through the veil. From early on in the game I had wondered if the maps would include an ocean surface, and if so, what it would be like. I had not expected though how she lept out of the water, and enjoyed breathing air and feeling the warm sun. I think the trope for this scene is called "epic moment of awesomeness".
Also, it has some interesting implications: Obviously her body is not solely aquatic, which is of course rather obvious considering her humanoid shape. It will be very interesting to elaborate on this further.
11. "Sun Temple". No way.
You see, one chapter in that fanfic I mentioned is actually also called that. No kidding. And considering the gears and mechanical stuff and "sun energy" topic found in Aquaria, its Sun Temple has a lot of similarities with what that "temple" in my fic was about.
12. A racing mini-game. Now that's fun. Time for some hot soup!
13. Entering the belly of the whale. Classic!
14. Floating in "aquatic space" for the end boss. An epic battle deserves an epic location.
15. The closing narration, particularly the part with the "verse" being a part of the lullaby his mother always sang to Eric, and which inadvertently made it into all his creations. Definitely a MUCH better idea than the Force! :-D
Alright, I really can't help but also mention two things that REALLY disappointed me about this game.
First: When I saw "Aquarian language" in the end credits, I was like "WHOOO!" And later I read on the web that it's actually just a font, replacing English letters with symbols. Awwwww.
Hehe, just kidding. The font looks cool! For a moment though I really had hoped that there actually was an actual "aquarian language" beyond just a font. This is something that, if my idea and plans bear fruit, can certainly be implemented.
Second: "TO BE CONTINUED". Alright, so, where is the continuation? WE WANT MORE! We want to know what happened to Naija, what adventures Eric embarks on, and who that mysterious sleeping female in the end cutscene was.
To sum up: The gameplay is great fun, despite being intentionally simplistic. Heck, back on the C64 we played even much more simplistic games, and had just as much fun.
But to me, even more importantly, the combination of visuals, music, voice acting and plot has something that is just deeply touching.
This game is a perfect example that you don't need a crew of hundreds of people, a credits list that looks like a Hollywood blockbuster, and a several hundred million dollar budget, to make a truly great game. It's not just all about graphics and technical execution and stuff. It's about the the feelings it creates and the lasting impact it makes. The impression that lasts even long after you finish the actual game.
I guess you can say a game has fulfilled its purpose when the player feels compelled afterwards to write fanfics about its plot and characters.
Neither Skyrim or L.A.Noire or Portal have managed to do that for me, even though those were great games as well.
But Aquaria did, and I'll write more details about this in another thread.
I just love the indie gaming scene, and Alec and Derek are textbook examples of what makes the indie gaming scene so great.
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