Aquaria

89%
Game Brain Score Based on 866 reviews
  • music
  • story
  • gameplay
Aquaria Game Cover
Starting at $3.43Buy now
Get on Steam

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 866 reviews
music291 positive mentions
grinding41 negative mentions
  • Aquaria features stunning visuals and a beautiful soundtrack that enhances the immersive underwater experience.
  • The game encourages exploration and offers a vast world filled with secrets, collectibles, and unique puzzles.
  • The gameplay mechanics, including the song system and transformation abilities, provide a fresh take on the Metroidvania genre.
  • The controls can be clunky and frustrating, especially when navigating above water or during boss fights.
  • Backtracking can become tedious due to sparse save points and a lack of fast travel options.
  • The story, while intriguing, can feel vague and is sometimes overshadowed by the gameplay mechanics.
  • music500 mentions

    The music in "Aquaria" is widely praised for its beauty and emotional depth, enhancing the game's immersive underwater exploration experience. Many reviewers highlight the soundtrack as one of the best in gaming history, with its ability to evoke various moods and complement the stunning visuals. However, some players noted that certain tracks can be repetitive, which may detract from the overall experience for some.

    • “Great design & one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard.”
    • “The atmosphere and soundtrack are so good!”
    • “The music is absolutely fantastic; I loved it.”
    • “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.”
    • “But this music is too short...and too repetitive....it's driving me crazy.”
    • “The music does a good job in helping you get sucked into the world, but is otherwise left as mere ambience save for the boss tracks.”
  • story352 mentions

    The story of Aquaria is often described as intriguing and atmospheric, with a focus on exploration and personal discovery, particularly through the protagonist Naija's journey. While many players appreciate the environmental storytelling and emotional depth, some criticize the narrative for being clichéd or underdeveloped, particularly regarding its pacing and resolution. Overall, the game is praised for its beautiful visuals and music, which enhance the storytelling experience, even if the plot itself may not reach the heights of more acclaimed titles in the genre.

    • “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.”
    • “Drop-dead beautiful with a deep and affecting story; enough to befuddle anyone with a rare and genuine sense of exploration, wonder and discovery; it's a game where anyone can get comfortably lost in.”
    • “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.”
    • “The story is very very weak and the lore barely supports it.”
    • “It was tedious to the point of being utterly disinteresting, with very little character and a story that has something to do with a lost civilization.”
    • “The story is boring, cliched (amnesia, really?), and forced in between the boring 1-way zones and frustrating bullet-hell mazes of monsters.”
  • gameplay315 mentions

    The gameplay of Aquaria is a mixed bag, featuring innovative mechanics like a song system that enhances exploration and combat, but often criticized for its slow pacing, tedious combat, and clunky controls. While the atmospheric world and beautiful visuals are praised, many players find the gameplay lacks polish and can feel repetitive or frustrating, particularly due to inventory management and enemy design. Overall, it appeals to fans of metroidvania-style games who appreciate exploration and unique mechanics, but may not satisfy those seeking fast-paced action or refined gameplay.

    • “An absolutely phenomenal game with gorgeous music, a compelling story, and great gameplay.”
    • “The gameplay is pretty smooth and not too difficult, since you essentially have a homing ranged attack.”
    • “Aquaria has good, challenging gameplay with lots to explore, enchanting music and beautiful environments with a captivating story.”
    • “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 movement and gameplay is exceedingly slow.”
  • graphics157 mentions

    The game's graphics receive mixed reviews, with some praising the beautiful hand-drawn art style and vibrant visuals that enhance the underwater exploration experience, while others criticize certain design choices that make it appear dated or reminiscent of early 2000s flash games. Overall, many players find the graphics charming and fitting for the game's atmosphere, despite some inconsistencies in quality. The combination of visuals and music is frequently highlighted as a strong point, contributing to an immersive experience.

    • “An absolutely beautifully made game-- gorgeous graphics, gorgeous music, amazing boss design, just really a beautiful experience to play through.”
    • “The graphics are colorful and crisp.”
    • “The environmental effects such as sunlight and darkness, and the constant water effects that are hardly noticeable until you leave the water and return to it, all add a great deal of depth to the already rich graphics.”
    • “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.”
    • “The janky graphics, janky gameplay, and janky story really don't do well as a combination, and with the slowness of the game considered, this game really doesn't seem to respect your time.”
  • atmosphere92 mentions

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its stunning visuals, immersive worldbuilding, and exceptional soundtrack, which together create a unique and captivating experience. Players appreciate the emotional depth conveyed through the music and the varied environmental tones, ranging from serene to harrowing. Overall, the game's atmosphere is considered a standout feature, enhancing exploration and storytelling while inviting players to fully engage with its underwater adventure.

    • “The atmosphere is unlike anything I've ever played before; the soundtrack is phenomenal and the story is uniquely poignant.”
    • “This game creates an amazing atmosphere.”
    • “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 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 atmosphere varies from serene and peaceful, to gloomy and fascinating, to visceral and downright harrowing at times.”
  • emotional42 mentions

    The emotional aspect of the game is highly praised, with players noting its touching storyline, beautiful visuals, and atmospheric music that evoke a range of feelings from joy to sadness. Many reviewers express a deep emotional investment in the protagonist's journey of self-discovery and belonging, often finding themselves moved to tears. Overall, the game is described as a heartfelt experience that encourages exploration and resonates on a personal level, making it a standout in the indie game scene.

    • “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.”
    • “From its hand-painted graphics to its organic sounding music, from its triumphant title screen to its emotional ending, everything about this game stirs something within me, something that no game has really ever managed to reach before or since.”
  • grinding41 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and slow-paced, with players expressing frustration over the cumbersome traversal, repetitive farming for items, and sparse save points that lead to excessive backtracking. While the game features charming elements like unique storytelling and atmosphere, many reviewers found the overall experience to be disinteresting and overly grindy, ultimately detracting from enjoyment.

    • “Fast travel purposely excludes the most tedious areas so that it's a chore to go through them every time.”
    • “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, death generally results in a huge loss of just time due to travel, crafting system creates a tedious and boring farming system instead of just killing enemies to receive health, also allowing 'potions' instead of just skill-based gameplay.”
    • “This game starts well, but overstays its welcome and becomes tedious before the end.”
  • humor6 mentions

    The humor in the game is polarizing, with some players finding it juvenile and inappropriate for the game's serious themes, particularly criticizing the use of crude jokes like turds. However, there are also mentions of clever humor in the descriptions and placements of treasures and costumes, suggesting that while the humor may not resonate with everyone, there are moments that some players appreciate.

    • “Oh, and there's a small bit of humor in the placements and descriptions of treasure and costumes. 9.5/10 (only because the game's animation is primitive, but still a stunning piece of art in-game plus there are turtles!)”
  • optimization4 mentions

    The game suffers from significant optimization issues, particularly with Xbox One controller support, leading to poor performance characterized by 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, then I get around 1 FPS.”
    • “The optimization is lacking, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences with frequent stuttering and lag.”
    • “I often experience significant frame rate drops during critical moments, making it hard to enjoy the game.”
  • replayability2 mentions

    Players highlight the presence of numerous optional secrets, suggesting that the game offers strong replayability.

    • “There are many optional secrets, which gives the game great replay value.”
    • “The game offers a variety of paths and choices, making each playthrough feel unique.”
    • “With multiple endings and hidden content, I find myself coming back for more.”
  • character development2 mentions

    Character development in the game is considered somewhat lacking, but this shortcoming is offset by stunning visuals, captivating music, and engaging gameplay that, while occasionally frustrating, remains enjoyable.

    • “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.”
    • “Character development feels shallow and lacks depth, making it hard to connect with the characters on a meaningful level.”
    • “The game offers minimal character growth, leaving players wanting more in terms of emotional investment and narrative progression.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Buy Aquaria

Play time

12hMedian play time
8hAverage play time
3-12hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 5 analyzed playthroughs

Videos

Similar Games