*SPOILERS* This game is too f*ckin hard!!!

[Mavor]

This game is too fuckin hard so early....The maps are big, no pointers or clue on what to do next....The enemies ( small & big) are so agressive and suck your health down quite fast...The whole mouse clicking thing is kinda achy and not so synchronized (hell not everyone has an X360 pad thingy), I went to Mithalas and tried taking down that one-horned Dragon freakshow, but for health reasons, I couldn't take him out , so I figured that I wasn't supposed to be there yet ( If there were pointers, I would know that before-hand wouldn't I?), Now I'm in Kelp forest, but I have no idea where to go, the place is huge and I keep getting killed. Naija's voice acting is cool (that Jenna chick is hot), but I must say that she leaves the gamers clueless on the next course of action after each monologue....Don't get me wrong, this game is freakin awesome...love the score a lot, but there's a lot left to be desired...I hope this can be fixed in upcoming installments...I don't see a patch fixing this problem...It's looking like I'm gonna need a god damn walkthrough...Talk about taking a little joy from the whole thing. I need directions guys....I've got the energy form and I'm in Kelp forest....what to do next? Thanks.

[shinygerbil]

Umm, you sound like you're doing just fine to me... If you really want somebody to hold your hand, just go and read up on the spoilers littered around these forums.

[Xiagan]

If you tink this is hard, play Eternal Daughter (freeware, partly made by Derek Yu too).

No seriously, I was first in Kelp Forest but died to often, then I went to Mithalas and after that in the Kelp Forest and then it was okay. I play with mouse and my fingers haven't hurt until the very last part of the game. Did you have the right tactic to kill the boss in Mithalas? Because shooting alone won't help...

[mand0]

If you're into using the keyboard for games like I am, then you might want to try using the WASD keys for movement; I've found I can maneuver/dodge much better. It might help you stay alive longer.

The whole point is to not know what to do; just wonder around until you figure it out. That's how gaming originally was anyways. What do you do next? Keep exploring!  If you really are stuck on the Mithalas boss then take a look around at other threads which explain how to beat him (hint: it doesn't involve shooting his head).

[Xiagan]

It does involve shooting his head, but that won't kill him. That only makes him step back to the left side...

[mand0]

aye, well said.

[Alphasoldier]

Actually, I believe the hint was the big statue, if you went all the way to the right then, taking a few turns and heading back on path, you'd end up at Mythalas.

[Jamespie]

Home Waters <Mithalas City/Cath < Kelp Forest < The Veil < The Abyss < The ice veil < Sunken City < The body.

That was the order i did and it went perfectly. I have all the treasures and 12/13 recipies. The Cathedral boss isnt hard once you learn his strategy. None of the bosses are really hard. Just takes some time.

[eric monk]

I don't get it... why the hell is everybody complaining about no given directions...
I mean - this game is an exploring game... it was said 2 years before that it's going to be an exploring
adventure and that exploring is very important and so on and so on...
Now tell me where is the sense in an exploring game if you get directions or clues...
That wouldn't be exploring. And It's bull that mithalas is too hard in the beginning. I did it before I entered kelp forest
and the veil... and I had no probs ( except the boss... but after 1 hour of brute force and many aggressions later, when I realized he's not to beat with only shooting - it was very satisfying to see that son of a UnicornT-RexMutant die )

what I wanted to say: this is an exploring game...
so if you don't like exploring on youre own, ask youre mommy to help ya or don't download this game.
To complain about a not existing finger that tells you where to go next in a FREE exploring game would be like complaining about a missing love story in DOOM.

by the way - I love that you have absolutely no clue where to go to next, if anybody didn't notice
It's just like back than on planet Zebes, there weren't any clues either

[Mull]

...

On principle, I agree with your point that bitching about having to search for stuff in a game about exploration is not very thought-through, there is some merit to the argument.

The solutions aren't always very intuitive. I personally got stuck on the sitting-on-the-throne- part and the diver - seeing as both of those obstacles prevented me from getting features required to keep going, I spent a total of at least 5-6 hours searching every pixel of areas I'd already explored (I beat almost the entire abyss before even entering the cathedral). While it is a very nice game, this gets very tiresome after awhile. This would all have been easier if there existed some (possibly optional like in the Metroid Prime games) hint system that provided a less subtle clue of where you needed to look after you got stuck for awhile - figuring out the diver and throne thing wouldn't have been as hard if I at least had known where to look.

This doesn't make Aquaria bad, by any standards - a lot of other games do it (and while I do think that Game Design has generally improved since the original Metroid, there are more modern games with the same problems). You can just go to GameFAQs if you get stuck in mainstream games.

[2muchcomputer]

[size=12pt]I found out quite by accident:

If you are on the map screen, the wheel on your mouse will zoom in and out (much like mapquest) and I think if you hold down the right mouse button, you can drag the map (also like mapquest.)[/size]

[Terry]

Couldn't agree more, Mull. It's my only real complaint about the game, actually - there's not enough feedback given to tell you what to in certain points, as a result, you spend too much time lost without any idea what to do. Free exploration is only really fun if you feel comfortable in your environment (see Knytt Stories), if you don't know what you're doing you start to worry that you're in the wrong place or that you've missed something.

Then again, maybe I'm just bitter because I hit the Time Paradox bug 

Anyway, to be fair it didn't happen to me that often. I wish I'd known about Li though.

[Mavor]

If you tink this is hard, play Eternal Daughter (freeware, partly made by Derek Yu too).

No seriously, I was first in Kelp Forest but died to often, then I went to Mithalas and after that in the Kelp Forest and then it was okay. I play with mouse and my fingers haven't hurt until the very last part of the game. Did you have the right tactic to kill the boss in Mithalas? Because shooting alone won't help...

I know the procedure to take him out...using the bloated frogmen and the move song so when he sucks he inhales them, I do that 3 times, the problem is after he inhales the 3rd time, when he becomes very angry and looks sort of blind then he starts shooting all those monstrous heavy-duty bolts that hone in one me...Dodging without a health soup ain't easy.

[Mavor]

If you're into using the keyboard for games like I am, then you might want to try using the WASD keys for movement; I've found I can maneuver/dodge much better. It might help you stay alive longer.

The whole point is to not know what to do; just wonder around until you figure it out. That's how gaming originally was anyways. What do you do next? Keep exploring!  If you really are stuck on the Mithalas boss then take a look around at other threads which explain how to beat him (hint: it doesn't involve shooting his head).

I was never a fan of WASD, is there a way to configure direction on keyboard using the arrow buttons?

Another thing that pisses me off is the fact that some difficult fast-moving enemies keep re-spawning when you visit the same area over again....even after you defeated them before...Kinda cumbersome rewriting the wheel if you ask me...Fun game though....just a tad bit frustrating at the moment..

[lukich]

I know the procedure to take him out...using the bloated frogmen and the move song so when he sucks he inhales them, I do that 3 times, the problem is after he inhales the 3rd time, when he becomes very angry and looks sort of blind then he starts shooting all those monstrous heavy-duty bolts that hone in one me...Dodging without a health soup ain't easy.

I actually found it quite easy to dodge all those shots.  If you just pick one corner (of the available space of course) and SLOWLY move to the opposite corner, you should dodge all the bullets and they should all hit a wall, before you run out of space to move.  Piece of cake