I'm guessing the game gets more interesting, but I played for an hour and got no direction of what to do, no indication of what I'm supposed to be doing, and I mainly just swam around the whole time waiting for something to happen that never did. The game also has, without a doubt, the stupidest controller layout by default. Map is L2, menu is R2, X and R1 open up songs, and Square boosts you to swim. I tried mouse first, but the mouse controls made even less sense. My cursor was basically stuck right next to my character unless I pressed a key on the keyboard first, then all I could do was boost in a direction, I couldn't maintain swimming without clicking repeatedly to boost. So the mouse was unusable for controls. The tutorials don't stay on the screen long enough to learn what its asking me to do and translate from keyboard and mouse to controller. So all in all, I didn't enjoy anything aside from the relaxing music, and I can get that anywhere. So this one wasn't for me. Wish I tried it when I bought it instead of waiting who knows how many years, but oh well

The game is charming but the boss fights are tedious. Liberal use of energy + food will make your time with this game much more enjoyable.

An old game, and it shows at points, but nontheless a fun time to be had. Just keep a walkthrough handy for the more head scratching moments.

This is the game that got me started on Youtube lets plays. It's got beautiful music, beautiful animation, challenging puzzle elements, and hidden goodies to be found all across the ocean!

It's a charming underwater game with simple controls and nice music

It's an rpg with almost no dialogue and little narration. The game focuses on exploring the different water planes and solving simple puzzles to uncover the final mystery
You can collect different trinkets hidden through the entire world as well as collect recipes for cooking.
The battle system is simple and has some variation depending on the boss but it's not too challenging.

I recommend this game to people who enjoy underwater worlds and like both exploring in peace and fighting occassionally.
The game is also rather short and can be finished quickly if one ignores "mini bosses" and "side quests"

i give up, 4 hours into it expecting to get somehow more enjoyable but it doesnt, way too boring for me, there's nothing fun or interesting on just swimming around most of the time

One of the most wnderful and immersive indie games of the last years, this kind of Metroid meets Ecco the Dolphin is a piece of art that excels in every aspect a game could, design, art, music, story... a must have for every lovers of the genre, and also for those who aren't yet.

Awesome game. Great design & one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard.

Aquaria is a game that invites you to explore a vast and stunning underwater world. The game features a side-scrolling perspective, a fluid control system, and a soothing soundtrack. The game’s main appeal lies in its exploration and discovery, as you encounter various creatures, secrets, and puzzles. However, the game also suffers from some drawbacks, such as a slow-paced action, a lack of clear objectives, and repetitive gameplay. Aquaria is a game that will appeal to fans of atmospheric and artistic games, but may frustrate those hoping for a Metroidvania.

Aquaria is the first metroidvania that had me wanting the map to be smaller, a LOT smaller, which is odd as i'm a massive metroidvania addict. The feeling of going back to that upgrade you couldn't reach before, or slowly filling in the map is addictive AF to me. However most metroidvania's in which i adore doing this also have entertaining gameplay and not just a large map. Those maps are also filled with interesting rewards, fun obstacles to overcome or unique gimmicks. Aquaria didn't really have any of this...

Most of the map is filled with empty corridors that frankly all kinda look the same. To further sour the exploration when entering a new part of the map the game instantly gives you the full map of that area. This takes away that satisfying feeling of gradually mapping out the place and being baffled how the shortcut brought you back here. There is this fog of war to indicate where you haven't been yet but the range for clearing this is super small. So if you have mapping completionist-OCD like me you'll have to zigzag constantly throughout most of the game's wide corridors. This probably padded several hours of extra playtime that was hardly fun, even on the verge of being annoying.

What was actually completely annoying was the save system. Aquaria uses the super old school saving system where dying actually fully resets your progress back to that point. This was especially infuriating when i just zigzagged through an entire area to fill out the map. The fact that things kill you super quickly without much warning made this a lot worse as well. Fighting enemies quickly becomes a chore as there's no real reward and you want to save your healing consumables aka food for the bosses to just tank & spank them. They are more of a puzzle than a full fight anyways but fighting the janky controls to 'solve' the boss puzzles makes you take a lot of damage.

Speaking of janky controls aquaria is adequate for an underwater game most of the time but when you have to make jumps on land it's an excruciating experience. Also casting spell with the akward symbol wheel, especially on a timer or while dodging attacks is not a fun time. Luckily you can use the number keys as hotkeys to circumvent this. And you'll have to switch often, although your combat mode is what you'll be in most of the time. Combat in this game is mind numbingly dull, the missiles are auto lock-on and things are very tanky. You just spam your mouse all game long untill your hands start to cramp and you have to take a break.

The different forms i alluded to earlier are also your metroidvania movement upgrades, and i have to give credit where it's due. Some of these are very unique or creative, and the ability gatting aspect of the game is very well done. It's just too spread out and too clunky to fully capitalize on its strongest mechanics. It's also a shame that using said upgrades to find new secrets is unrewarding, as the rewards are very lackluster. There's only very few times when a reward is worthwhile, mostly health upgrades as those reduce the chance of having to respawn as quickly.

At least the game runs well but that's self explanatory as it was made in 2007 and i'm playing this on a 2017 rig. The game isn't the most graphically intense, and sometimes it's even quite ugly. Many areas look the same but sometimes the beauty does shine through. Especially the surface was beautiful and memorable. What was consistently good though was the music. There were tracks that reminded me of legend of spyro, others that gave me subnautica vibes and at one point even a hint of Ori. No single track was a masterpiece like the games mentioned, but it's a good solid whole. As is the voice acting, unfortunately the story wasn't up to par and the 'true ending' especially left me dissatisfied.

Saying the whole game left me dissatisfied would be an exageration, but i was glad when it finally came to an end. Especially with the last level being an absolute hell to play through. There's many modern metroidvania's that are as a whole much more enjoyable than this. But if you really want a huge map to fill out, and have no issue with less than ideal controls, then this can be a good time for you. I generally prefer platformers with 'gravity' aka not underwater, as they can bring out the movement much more, but it does the underwater spiel moderately well. Not nearly as good as pronty, but better than insanely twisted shadow planet.