Aquaria

89%
Game Brain Score Based on 433 reviews
  • music
  • story
  • gameplay
Aquaria Game Cover
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Aquaria is a single-player Fantasy Platformer game with an intriguing story and phenomenal game mechanics. Immerse yourself in a dense atmosphere filled with ancient secrets and explore a beautiful, massive underwater world. Interact with unique creatures, do battle, discover hidden treasures, and unlock all Steam Achievements, all while enjoying excellent visuals, wonderful music, and voice-overs.

  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Mac OS
  • PC
  • Phone
  • Windows
  • Android
  • Linux
  • Mobile Platform
  • Tablet
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

89%
Audience ScoreBased on 433 reviews
music146 positive mentions
grinding21 negative mentions
  • Aquaria features stunning hand-drawn graphics and a beautiful soundtrack that enhances the immersive experience.
  • The game encourages exploration with a non-linear structure, rewarding players with hidden treasures and lore.
  • The storytelling is captivating, focusing on themes of self-discovery and connection with the ocean, making players emotionally invested in Naija's journey.
  • The game can feel slow and tedious at times, with long backtracking and a lack of clear direction, leading to frustration.
  • Combat can become repetitive and unchallenging, with some boss fights feeling tedious rather than engaging.
  • The controls can be awkward, especially when transitioning between forms and navigating the environment, which may detract from the overall experience.
  • music251 mentions

    The music in the game is widely acclaimed for its beauty and atmospheric quality, enhancing the immersive experience of exploration and gameplay. Composed by Alec Holowka, the soundtrack dynamically adapts to player actions and locations, creating a captivating auditory backdrop that many players find memorable and emotionally resonant. While some critiques mention repetitiveness, the overall consensus is that the music significantly contributes to the game's charm and appeal, making it a standout feature.

    • “The game's soundtrack, composed by Alec Holowka, complements the visuals perfectly, enhancing the immersive experience.”
    • “The atmosphere is unlike anything I've ever played before; the soundtrack is phenomenal & the story is uniquely poignant.”
    • “From relaxing tunes during the exploratory sections to epic electric guitars during boss battles, Aquaria has an excellent, top-notch soundtrack that really sells the game and keeps you motivated to keep on exploring.”
    • “The game's music is annoying, the maps are absurdly huge and your swim speed through them is quite slow, which makes the experience really feel like a drag.”
    • “Its music is too short and too repetitive; it's driving me crazy.”
    • “The much touted song system is just a gimmick, but you don't need to use much of it at all apart from gathering items, so it's not too bad.”
  • story178 mentions

    The story of Aquaria is characterized by its subtlety and environmental storytelling, which some players find engaging while others feel it lacks depth and emotional stakes. While many appreciate the beautiful atmosphere and music that enhance the narrative, opinions vary on the execution, with some criticizing the writing and pacing, leading to a mixed reception overall. Despite its flaws, the game offers a compelling exploration of identity and mystery, appealing to those who enjoy atmospheric storytelling in a metroidvania format.

    • “The atmosphere is downright soothing, the music is great and evokes both calm and danger in proper proportion, and the narration really draws you into the story.”
    • “The story is touching and unravels in such a way that it never feels like the game is pushing you to continue; you want to continue.”
    • “What seems at first to be an overly slow start turns into a breathtaking 2D adventure of massive size and scope with a fresh story and potent music.”
    • “Not a whole lot of emotions or stakes to the story.”
    • “The story is very weak and the lore barely supports it.”
    • “The story is boring, cliched (amnesia, really?), and forced in between the boring one-way zones and frustrating bullet-hell mazes of monsters.”
  • gameplay159 mentions

    The gameplay of Aquaria is characterized by its unique song mechanics and exploration-driven metroidvania style, which some players find engaging and atmospheric. However, many reviews highlight issues such as slow traversal, tedious combat, and awkward controls that detract from the overall experience. While the game features beautiful visuals and a captivating soundtrack, the execution of its gameplay mechanics often feels clunky and underdeveloped, leading to mixed opinions on its overall enjoyment.

    • “Aquaria is a beautifully crafted game that stands out for its artistic presentation and engaging gameplay.”
    • “Gameplay is driven by exploration of a vast underwater world, acquiring new abilities to access deeper realms, collecting materials to craft boosts, and simply enjoying the beautiful artwork and music as you do it.”
    • “The gameplay is excellent, and the world is huge.”
    • “It's just too spread out and too clunky to fully capitalize on its strongest mechanics.”
    • “In reality, though, Aquaria's combat mechanics are lazy and only ever result in 'let's spam the attack button, chug health items and hope the enemy dies before you do' situations.”
    • “The sun form, the extremely slow movement, the lack of form synergy, having to cook every single item, the slow UIs and saving, the repetitive gameplay, the unfair damage, all start grating on you after you've been playing for a few hours.”
  • graphics81 mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising its beautiful hand-drawn art style and vibrant visuals that enhance the immersive experience. However, some critics note that certain design choices can make the graphics appear dated or reminiscent of early 2000s flash games. Overall, while the visuals are often described as stunning and atmospheric, there are inconsistencies that detract from the overall graphical quality.

    • “The hand-drawn graphics are stunning, with each area of the ocean offering a distinct visual style.”
    • “An absolutely beautifully made game-- gorgeous graphics, gorgeous music, amazing boss design, just really a beautiful experience to play through.”
    • “The graphics are beautiful and serene, as well as the music.”
    • “The game isn't the most graphically intense, and sometimes it's even quite ugly.”
    • “The only thing is the graphics that seem to come out of a PopCap game from the mid-2000s.”
    • “The graphics look like something someone made on Photoshop in the early 2000s without any experience.”
  • atmosphere47 mentions

    The game's atmosphere is widely celebrated for its stunning hand-drawn art style, dynamic and emotive soundtrack, and immersive worldbuilding, which together create a captivating experience. Players appreciate the varied emotional tones of the environment, from serene to harrowing, enhancing exploration and storytelling. Overall, the atmosphere is described as a standout feature that elevates the gameplay, making it a memorable journey for fans of atmospheric adventures.

    • “The atmosphere is unlike anything I've ever played before; the soundtrack is phenomenal and the story is uniquely poignant.”
    • “The final act is where the art design and atmosphere truly shine, and the soundtrack hits its peak; everything comes together to create an incredibly memorable experience.”
    • “Unique underwater adventure, amazing and well-detailed oceanic atmosphere, great metroid-esque puzzles to solve, intimidating gigantic bosses, and an intriguing plot... this game has it all.”
    • “The atmosphere is downright soothing, the music is great and evokes both calm and danger in proper proportion, and the narration really draws you into the story.”
    • “Aquaria's atmosphere exudes despair, hope, and the sense that not all is as it once was, or should be...”
    • “The final act is where the art design and atmosphere truly shines, and the soundtrack hits its peak; everything coming together to create an incredibly memorable experience.”
  • emotional22 mentions

    The emotional aspect of the game is highly praised, with players becoming deeply invested in the protagonist Naija's journey of self-discovery and belonging. The heartfelt narrative, complemented by stunning visuals and a beautiful soundtrack, evokes a range of emotions, from joy to sadness, making it a memorable experience. Many players find themselves moved to tears, highlighting the game's ability to resonate on a personal level while encouraging exploration and connection with its world.

    • “As Naija uncovers her past and the mysteries of her world, players become emotionally invested in her journey.”
    • “The story is touching and unravels in such a way that it never feels like the game is pushing you to continue; you want to continue.”
    • “This game is emotional for the protagonist as she discovers the richness of life and love after a lifetime of complacency and loneliness, in a destroyed world where none else cares.”
  • grinding21 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game has been widely criticized for its tedious and slow-paced gameplay, with many players finding the farming and backtracking to be frustrating and unengaging. While the game features charming elements like unique storytelling and a captivating atmosphere, the overall experience is marred by a lack of fast travel options and a cumbersome inventory system, leading to a sense of monotony and disinterest. Players often feel compelled to push through the grind but ultimately find it unenjoyable, resulting in many abandoning the game altogether.

    • “In the current year (2024), I don't recommend spending your time on this; there are much more engaging games out there. This one just feels too slow and grindy.”
    • “It's pretty, has some interesting mechanics, and the story is captivating, but the gameplay is very slow and tedious. I never finished it because I was just forcing myself to get through, and it was no fun, so I stopped eventually.”
    • “Enemies fire homing attacks from off-screen, travel is extremely tedious and slow in a large world, save points are far enough apart that saving itself is a chore, and death generally results in a huge loss of time due to travel.”
  • humor3 mentions

    The humor in the game is polarizing, with some players criticizing it as juvenile and lowbrow, particularly in its use of crude jokes, while others appreciate the cleverness found in treasure placements and costume descriptions. Overall, the comedic elements seem to clash with the game's more serious themes, leading to mixed reactions among players.

    • “There's a small bit of humor in the placements and descriptions of treasure and costumes, 9.5/10. The game's animation is primitive, but it's still a stunning piece of art in-game, plus there are turtles!”
  • optimization2 mentions

    The game's optimization has been criticized for poor controller support, particularly for Xbox One, and significant technical issues, including long loading times and severe frame rate drops, especially during specific in-game actions like opening doors.

    • “Technically, the game is pretty bad; it has long loading times and the in-game performance suffers from severe FPS drops. The worst is when some of the doors open, causing my frame rate to drop to around 1 FPS.”
    • “The optimization is terrible; I experience constant lag and stuttering, making it nearly unplayable during intense moments.”
    • “Despite the game's potential, the poor optimization leads to frustrating gameplay, with frequent crashes and unresponsive controls.”
  • replayability1 mentions

    Players appreciate the game's strong replayability due to the presence of numerous optional secrets, encouraging exploration and multiple playthroughs.

    • “There are many optional secrets, which gives the game great replay value.”
    • “The variety of choices and paths keeps me coming back for more.”
    • “Each playthrough feels fresh due to the different outcomes and hidden content.”
  • character development1 mentions

    Character development in the game is considered somewhat lacking, but the stunning visuals, captivating music, and enjoyable gameplay compensate for this shortcoming.

    • “It's a little light on character development, but the absolutely gorgeous visuals and music, along with immensely enjoyable, if occasionally frustrating, gameplay, make up for any other shortcomings.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

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Play time

12hMedian play time
9hAverage play time
3-12hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 3 analyzed playthroughs

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