Aquaria

For most of November, I was chipping away at Aquaria, an award winning indie game that was released several years ago. I played it a few years back but never got very far. This time, I decided to play it through to the end. I made it very close to the end over a week ago. However, I decided to take a break before tackling the final boss battle.

The visuals in the game are very well done. The artwork is cartoonish yet beautiful. The music is equally gratifying and provides a soothing backdrop to the onscreen action. There is a lot of exploration in Aquaria. Thankfully, there is an automap feature. It is a bit of adventure with some puzzle elements. Along the way, there is quite a bit of 2D combat action as the protagonist, Naija, battles with creatures of the deep. Naija possesses the ability to sing songs, which transform her into different forms or provide her with various benefits. The songs and forms must be learned. Over the course of the game Naija learns the following forms: song, energy, beast, nature, sun, fish, spirit, and dual. Another interesting aspect of the game was cooking items. Naija collects materials and learns recipes to combine them into many useful items. There were also hidden treasures to be found; I found 27 out of 32.

In total, I put over 25 hours into Aquaria. The final boss encounter was a multi-stage battle. It frustrated me but I finally conquered it on my fourth try. There was a lengthy cut scene presented as an epilogue.