Hi there, I just finished the game and figured I'd throw in my 2 cents for discussion and maybe to help the designers. I really enjoyed the game, which is why I cared enough to come to these forums and sign up, and it's also nice that the developers seem to be involved in the community.
Anyways, I'll start out by mentioning what I think were Aquaria's real strengths. There are two main things which I believe set Aquaria apart even from the big-franchise "Metroidvania" games:
- The environments: I'm sure there has been a ton of praise for the imaginative and lush environments which Aquaria features, and I have to concur here. It's hard to explain what exactly was so great about them, it just seems like some games "have it" and some games don't, and this one definitely did. I think my favorite places would have been the Kelp Forest and the Abyss, I would've loved to see more of the Abyss with creepy lighting effects from the glow~y plants, but maybe that's just me. The Sunken City was also really cool at first, although unfortunately there wasn't much to it. My least favorite area probably would have been the Body, the whole "fight inside the alien enemy" thing is somewhat overdone and it was kinda dark. The Sun Temple was also a bit bland given how much potential it had, but nevertheless... overall, the environments are a very, very strong selling point for Aquaria.
One small thing which I liked which a lot of games of this type lack is the fact that you don't get access to new areas through dumb gimmicks like "you got the plasma beam, now you can open red doors" or "you got power bombs, now you can destroy power bomb blocks." In Aquaria, you get new abilities and these abilities are used in intuitive ways to access new areas... pick up rocks, swim against currents, float through steam, swim through small passages. It really helps the immersion... though the one drawback I noticed was that a lot of the forms were basically gimmicks that could only be used to pass these barriers. Fish form was pretty much just for those small passages, spirit form was only for moving through steam, etc. It would've been nice to see all the forms have more uses in normal gameplay at various times.
Also, of course, the soundtrack contributed greatly to the immersion. There are some awesome tracks and I hope the same composer is involved in future Bit-Blot works, although my main concern was the fact that most of the tracks were only 1-2 minutes long, which could lead to their becoming repetitive pretty quickly when you're swimming around and don't have much else to focus on.
- The gameplay: Obviously this counts for a lot, and I was very impressed by how smooth Aquaria's gameplay was. Naija's movement is extremely graceful, and the enviroments and characters were delightfully "non-blocky" in their design - you could travel in any direction, fire in any direction, your shots would curve and you could quickly dodge about like a good bullet hell game... it was more or less perfect, really. The control scheme was very original and the song system worked well, although this game made me wish I had 2 mice or something to use, one for movement and one for targeting. The default control system could become annoying at times, as sometimes I'd accidentally click of Naija's energy form while trying to move about and fire, or some encounters were much more difficult due to not being able to swim in one direction and fire in another. The octopus boss was the only place in the game where I used WASD to move because it seemed almost impossible to hit it without getting grabbed unless you fire backwards while running away from it, something you can't do with the default setup. It'd be pretty interesting to try playing the game with a Dual Shock controller, just using the two analog sticks and their clicking functions (L3/R3)...
Oh, and the out-of-water gameplay. I mean, I can understand how programming it in would have been too much work to be worthwhile, but having to jump up and down 15 feet into the air and hoping to land on the Rukh egg (which I never found a recipe for..) was pretty silly. But I gotta admit that all the walljumping puzzles were pretty cool. I especially liked the floating bubbles in the air, Aquaria sure is an exotic place..
Here are some other random thoughts I had:
- I thought the recipe system worked really well, though I kinda wish there was a better was to discover recipes than finding a certain item or guessing - I ended up with a lot of materials that I never used because I had no discovered recipes for them. I was also surprised the first time I got one of those full healing items... the fact that you can carry up to 8 of them, among with other powerful items, means that you'll be able to brute force pretty much any boss if you come well-prepared. It would've been really neat to see a secret boss which assumed you had this kind of power...
- I really liked the treasure system (Naija's home became really cool), but for a Metroidvania-type game it seemed like there weren't many real powerups that are acquired throughout. You get the pets to assist you and some health upgrades, and some of the armors have uses although you only benefit from them in the rarely-used normal form (Jellyfish armor is totally overpowered though), but overall you don't feel that much more powerful at the end of the game than you did at the beginning. It's not exactly a huge deal, but it would've been nice to see some weapon or defense upgrades throughout. Doesn't have to be a full-blown Castlevania-style armor and exp system, but a steady progression in power is always rewarding. You guys put a ton of effort into programming in items that I never used that much (leadership roll, +beast form damage, +sunform effectiveness, etc. etc.), it's a shame these weren't permanent upgrades somehow. And as I already mentioned, it was somewhat disappointing that several of the forms had very situational uses.
- The map. I know that there have been plenty of complaints about this, that Aquaria is huge and it's really hard to keep track of all the places you want to visit when you get a new ability. All I would like to see, personally, is the ability to annotate the map. Maybe have a bunch of icons you can choose from, and be able to place them on the map and add a comment. That would solve everything in my eyes.
- Intuitiveness. I actually started two games... the first one I quit because I just missed so much stuff that I felt it would be easier to start over. Not that you get locked out of anything permanently, but I made it to the Frozen Veil in my first game without Fish and Spirit forms. The reason I missed the former was because I didn't realize that the passage to the Fish Cave actually lead to a new area (just looked like another dead end), and I missed Spirit form because I didn't realize you could go inside some of the homes in Mithrala. This grated on me a bit, the fact that there were several points where I got stuck because of things which I felt weren't safe to assume I'd know. For example, on the Mithrala fight, there's no way I would have realized on my own that kiting the mermen through the poison clouds turns them into those creatures (I suppose there's a point or two earlier on where they pass through the poison clouds, but I was probably too busy trying to kill everything to make this association), let alone that I could bind them. There were a lot of puzzles that seemed to work well without explicit explanation (I liked the Sunken City and Fish Caves ones, as well as the one inside the Whale), but there were several that didn't and it seems safer to err on the side of caution here in order to make sure the player can reasonably understand what needs to be done.
- Pacing. The game seemed a bit rushed from the Sunken City onwards... as I said above, I was disappointed that the Sunken City wasn't as fleshed-out as other areas, but I could live. Entering the Body in order to fight the Creator seemed a bit sudden, there wasn't much leading up to the game's climax other than Li's being kidnapped. It just kinda felt like, "okay, that's all we've planned out for Aquaria, now go fight the Creator". The ending alleviated a lot of my concerns about the plot (sequel, yay), but nevertheless.
Also, Naija's voice actress was great. The other voice acting wasn't so great, but Naija has 90% of the lines, thankfully.
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Well, I guess that's all I have to say. I tried not to get too whimsical in my feedback and turn it into a wishlist, but I may have crossed that line at times. In any case, I really enjoyed Aquaria and hope that its sequel builds on the solid fundamentals which have been laid down here - exciting free-form gameplay in immersive and original environments. I'll be keeping up with the news. Thanks for the great game!
