Recently, I completed Aquaria (both with and without memories). A friend and I were discussing various aspects of the game when he brought up the lost city. Naturally, I assumed he was talking about Mithala, but he went on to describe a golem and something about having Li open a door. The problem was that I NEVER did this. These events simply did not occur.
After some tracking around, I found out that I had essentially bypassed a chunk of near-end game. At a location in the abyss where there's a purple (I believe) plant blocking your way, I had simply used my nature form and slid along the left side of the spikes down to "The Body". Li mysteriously disappeared at this point and eventually after the spirit bits, I recovered him. I really didn't think much of it as the ending gave closure to the identity of those involved.
This does beg some interesting questions, however. I hear that Li is taken at the end of this "lost city" (which I've yet to find). What if I now go back and have Li taken? Would he still be featured properly in the end-game fights/cinematic? Additionally, what if I'd never gotten Li at all? Imagine the surprise to the player to find an underwater humanoid to which the protagonist has such a radical attraction. One might think the general perspective / tone of the story would alter significantly under these circumstances.
One other particular event that I found interesting was in the Sun Temple. After realizing that the dark area was necessary to be traversed to progress, I continually darted in and tried all sorts of combinations before eventually managing to get through the corridor blindly in fish form. Upon returning to this area later with a light source, I realized that a door actually exists here and that a verse pattern was necessary to open it. I suppose this (and the other instance) were just examples of some clipping / collision malfunctions, but I do wonder now on the latter part what the intended method for bypassing the door was.
I realize that these issues both have VERY likely been reported and likely fixed in a patch, but I was unable to find any direct information concerning this from the search queries I performed. One might consider them as unintended bugs in the highest regard, but I'd like to imagine them in the light of being of creative alternatives that subside linearity. After all, Aquaria does insist itself in the realms of open-ended, exploratory designs.
