Not Buying and Here's Why

[alzapatero]

I think this thread starter got the whole concept of games like Aquaria wrong in my opinion.

What made games like this unforgettable was not only the gameplay, gprahics and sound, but the exploration.

Remember Super Metroid for the Supernes? I remember that game wreaking havoc and picking up 9.5 reviews when it was released.  A big part of the game was as i recall exploring the planet Zebes.

Remember the original Castlevania Symphony of the Night for the PS1?  What made that game great was exploring the castle dracula.

This guy completely missed the point of Aquaria...

[billyea]

I don't think he missed the point, I Just think he doesn't like the exploration aspect. (kind of like some people didn't like exploration in LOZ:Windwaker, except windwaker didn't have a lot happening)

[Zedd]

I don't know, why didn't someone mentioned it already,
but if you need to travel fast in Aquaria,  just drink any soup with speed boost and then you can swim throught two  maps in 30 seconds.
*spoiler* When you get beast form, it is even faster.*spoiler*

Somewhere on the forum has someone mentioned, that you have to shoot all the time in game, because there are enemies at every step, but you can swim past them in a few seconds.

Anyway, I am surprised  on how many things people complain in some threads. Most of the game elements, which are for someone painful and wrong,....? I didn't noticed any of these to be wrong (save system, some problems with boss, boring? monotous?,thread next time make it easier ?!? what?!, ...)

Maybe it is because the Aquaria look like a never-dying-just-swiming-and-jumping-and-singing-with-fishes-enjoing-the-bright-side-of-life=> danger is none just underwater visual extasy
,...so it attracts people, who maybe (just maybe) don't play that often, and then they think its difficult, but in fact Aquaria is game made on hard basic stones of expernice from good old-fashioned game gems and it can't be both  Old-Fashioned Game Gem and Relaxating Screensaver at the same time.

Conclusion  :
I think, that for a player, who play games for quite a long time, It is not boring and not difficult and it has exactly these game elements, that hook us to play it (collecting ingrediens, boss  fights, upgradeable home!, costumes!, places, which you can't visit right now, but after getting the right form (CSOTN bat,double jump),.... companions,....)

[thYme]

I don't know, why didn't someone mentioned it already,
but if you need to travel fast in Aquaria,  just drink any soup with speed boost and then you can swim throught two  maps in 30 seconds.
*spoiler* When you get beast form, it is even faster.*spoiler*

I think fish form is faster than beast form. But agreed, travelling is quite fast if you do it right.

Conclusion  :
I think, that for a player, who play games for quite a long time, It is not boring and not difficult and it has exactly these game elements, that hook us to play it (collecting ingrediens, boss  fights, upgradeable home!, costumes!, places, which you can't visit right now, but after getting the right form (CSOTN bat,double jump),.... companions,....)

I'd sign that...

[shinygerbil]

Hmm now.

Sea Cucumber MkULTRA, you sound like precisely the sort of person who would not like Aquaria. So is it any surprise that you don't? It's like a ten-year-old girl going on the Halo 3 forums and saying, 'needs moar ponies' or perhaps, a so-called "hardcore" gamer buying Pippa Funnel's Wonderful Fun Happy Horse Racing And Looking After Horses Game: Horsey Challenge! and complaining that there isn't enough variety in the weapons, and some of the controls are a bit twitchy. When making the game, the designers have surely taken on board that no game will ever be 100% accessible, nor will it ever appeal to anywhere near 100% of the current market for games.

Alec and Derek have clearly made their own game. It barely even matters what their core audience thinks about the game, let alone a guy who doesn't share similar tastes with them.

If they wanted to sell 2*X copies of Aquaria, they would have already implemented all the suggestions you bring to the table, and they'd have made a game that they didn't like. I'm trying to avoid saying the phrase "sell out", because I hate it, but you'll understand what I mean if I do.

/

(When I grow up, I'm gonna wield dual monocles.)

[Glamador]

It's like a ten-year-old girl going on the Halo 3 forums and saying, 'needs moar ponies' or perhaps, a so-called "hardcore" gamer buying Pippa Funnel's Wonderful Fun Happy Horse Racing And Looking After Horses Game: Horsey Challenge! and complaining that there isn't enough variety in the weapons, and some of the controls are a bit twitchy.

Quoted for added effect!  That is precisely what this thread is!  Comparing a game with ponies to an FPS!  Come to think of it...that sounds pretty fun...I've just had an idea!

[westlake]

I have the agree that the vast size of Aquaria is a HUGE part of what makes the game so damn good.  Can you imagine how lame it would be if everywhere Naija explored was within like a 2 minute swim of her home?  Give me a break.  I remember being blown away at the start of the game but also vaguely worried that the world itself wouldn't be all that large since it was an "indie game" or whatever... wow, was I wrong.  It delivered.

Like others have said, games like Wind Waker and San Andreas and Shadow of the Colossus benefit greatly from a sense of scale, something a lot of games (even good ones) don't really bother to create.  It's fine for the topic creator to not care for that particular aspect of the game, but that's an issue with him, not Aquaria itself.  Exploration is practically the point of the entire game, so that would be like me saying I hated Call of Duty 4 for having too much shooting or Mass Effect for having too many characters and too much backstory -- sorry, that's how they're supposed to be.

[Eris]

Aquaria is one of those games that you can judge a person by what they think of it.

[DSProgrammer]

The problem with this thread is, the OP for some weird reason thinks he is giving constructive criticism, when in fact he's saying "I don't like that genre, please redesign the entire game".  Because the genre (shared with the Metroid, the recent Castlevania series', and Zelda to a certain extent) is ALL about exploration and backtracking.  That's the gameplay.  It's good you enjoyed the graphics, sound, and swimming/fighting mechanics, but the game is about exploring.  You mention that you are spending most of your time going from point A to point B, but it's not that kind of game.  You generally do NOT have a point B to go to.  You are exploring, and trying to find new places to go to, new things you can do.  New plants you can pluck, new creatures you can harvest for ingredients.  New treasures to find, new abilities.  If you are following a Walkthrough, then yes, I guess it would be really boring sitting there swimming from point A to B following it.

Also, the game *does* deal with travelling to places you've been to before, speeding up travel.  For example, you say you finished the demo - did you note that it gave you a nice shortcut from the end of the temple where the boss was back to the beginning?  That way you didn't have to travel back through the entire temple to get out.  There are a number of those shortcuts throughout the game, and more of them as you progress.  For example, the game world really opens up and becomes HUGE after you finish the demo area - but the game starts giving methods of "warping" around the world from extreme places.  And as has been mentioned, there are foods which temporarily increase swimming speed, some which combine that with extra defenses and stuff, and there are a couple new abilities you get (not too far into the game past the demo) which allow you to travel faster anytime you want.

[Upthorn]

The other problem with the thread is that for some reason, the original poster did not take Alec saying "okay, bye bye" to mean that Alec was, in fact, perfectly accepting whatever sales may be lost due to not considering that particular opinion.

[IceD]

I have to say this, dangit.

Mind, that Bit-blot isn't a mainstream game company, and what they do is rather a hobby and a way to spend some free time than normal game developing oriented mainly to get profit from the products, which doesn't mean they aren't doing stuff in a professional way and they aren't trying to earn some cash for future projects and living. It's obvious, that reactions and expectations to bit-Blot should be quite different. Be more polite to those people. What they were trying to do was to give fun and enjoyment, both to themselves and us all. It's painful to see after so many successful years of indie game advantage, most of people still don't even bother to understand the pure essence of independent game creation 

This discussion is starting to get really annoying, so stop the criticism and enjoy what so far we got. Peace 

[Upthorn]

I was in no way criticising Alec. What I was referring to was, to summarize.

Sea Cucumber: I don't like you're game, its dumb and takes too long.
Alec: Okay. Bye bye then.
Sea Cucumber (Angry now): YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT SOME PEOPLE WON'T LIKE THIS KIND OF GAME!!!!!!!

See, Alec had been perfectly accepting of the fact that Sea Cucumber didn't like the game, but sea cucumber refused to see that, and continued to lecture Alec about how he would have to accept that not everyone likes this type of game, far beyond the point where Alec had already demonstrated that he does accept it.

[Cruxx]

Hmm now.

Sea Cucumber MkULTRA, you sound like precisely the sort of person who would not like Aquaria. So is it any surprise that you don't? It's like a ten-year-old girl going on the Halo 3 forums and saying, 'needs moar ponies' or perhaps, a so-called "hardcore" gamer buying Pippa Funnel's Wonderful Fun Happy Horse Racing And Looking After Horses Game: Horsey Challenge! and complaining that there isn't enough variety in the weapons, and some of the controls are a bit twitchy. When making the game, the designers have surely taken on board that no game will ever be 100% accessible, nor will it ever appeal to anywhere near 100% of the current market for games.

Alec and Derek have clearly made their own game. It barely even matters what their core audience thinks about the game, let alone a guy who doesn't share similar tastes with them.

If they wanted to sell 2*X copies of Aquaria, they would have already implemented all the suggestions you bring to the table, and they'd have made a game that they didn't like. I'm trying to avoid saying the phrase "sell out", because I hate it, but you'll understand what I mean if I do.

/

(When I grow up, I'm gonna wield dual monocles.)

  Thats the most stupidest thing that one can say. Your saying that they create a game, only for them? That they don't cater to their audience? Why on earth would they sell it in the first place then? They don't want to sell double their games? Thats just crazy. I honestly think that the guy was offering constructive criticism and in no way did he hate the game at all. Grow up, you create games for OTHERS to play, whats the point in keeping it to yourself and say haha i've created an awesome game. The guy did say he loved the music, art, and main character didn't he? He played the game, might have enjoyed, didn't like a small bit in it and thought he would come back and just give his feedback? So if you don't like one aspect in aquaria, you should walk off rather then have people piss on you? I dont think so. He certainly didn't troll his opinion then back out by not giving justification right..?

  But anyway..if Alec or Derek thought this would appeal to most gamers..then there it is.

[Xocrates]

  Thats the most stupidest thing that one can say. Your saying that they create a game, only for them? That they don't cater to their audience? Why on earth would they sell it in the first place then? They don't want to sell double their games? Thats just crazy.

Actually, Alec said pretty directly that they made Aquaria as a game they could enjoy. He also said equally directly that if you didn't like the game he is not going to change it for you.

[Lambchops]

Regarding what I expected the game to be: Well, here's the big one, I suppose. Everyone who has stated that this game probably isn't for me are correct. It isn't. Aquaria is similar to a JRPG and my attitude to JRPGs is much like Yahtzee's: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2563-Zero-Punctuation-Super-Paper-Mario.

I understand perfectly that that is not the general attitude of people on this forum - after all, if you didn't like the game, you wouldn't have bought it and played it and be here talking about it.

Oddly enough I HATE JRPG's with a passion but loved Aquaria. I'm not sure if I entirely agree with the comparison. Or maybe I should try playing JRPG's again?