What would you change about Aquaria?

[CrowbarSka]

If you could change any one thing about it, what would it be?

[Kailieann]

The true ending

[johnnythewolf]

Originally Posted by Kailieann

The true ending

I totally second that. I can understand bit.blot not wanting to move on to other projects, but teasing the player like that is just mean.

[Sweetz]

The ability to save anywhere and/or auto-saves when you enter a new zone. The exploritory nature of the game makes it easy to forget to save (or find a nearby save site) as you wander around. I've too often lost significant chunks of play time, and had to repeat areas as a result of dying.

[B-diggity]

This game absolutely needs to give more direction and guidance when it comes to moving on to a new zone. Having to revisit every little cave and grotto since the beginning of the game to find the one little piece you missed (and didn't understand the importance of at the time) is not fun.

Originally Posted by Sweetz

The ability to save anywhere and/or auto-saves when you enter a new zone. The exploratory nature of the game makes it easy to forget to save (or find a nearby save site) as you wander around. I've too often lost significant chunks of play time, and had to repeat areas as a result of dying.

Man do I agree with this. I've been spoiled by games with Auto-saves. The save system in Aquaria can be punishing if you don't use all the save crystals, which isn't always a top priority if you're exploring a new zone or just floating around.

At least the markers you leave on your map should be saved instantly. It was very frustrating to see all of my map markers disappear when I finally reached Open Waters (and knew how important it was to mark special sites), messed around a little too much and died, then lost all of that progress and my map notes.

[serieus1]

Originally Posted by B-diggity

This game absolutely needs to give more direction and guidance when it comes to moving on to a new zone. Having to revisit every little cave and grotto since the beginning of the game to find the one little piece you missed (and didn't understand the importance of at the time) is not fun.

No I think the guidance is pretty obvious. If you can't move the rock, then you can't go in this direction and accomplish the goal of that cave. So look somewhere else and eventually you'll reach a cave that you can go in.

Originally Posted by B-diggity

Man do I agree with this. I've been spoiled by games with Auto-saves. The save system in Aquaria can be punishing if you don't use all the save crystals, which isn't always a top priority if you're exploring a new zone or just floating around.

I think the saved system plays well into the games pace and style. The saved game spacing creates a portion of the difficulty in the game. There is no easy or hard more. It is set by the developers and that's it. So they had to make it challenging in order to present you with a reason to care for your character.

If there's anything I would change it's to shorten the beginning so you don't go through such long tunnels with nothing to do. Until you get the ability to move rocks or open up plants and leaves or the energy form then it's kind of slow. This made me at first quit playing the game. I wonder how many others did the same.

Shorten the first levels so that you can obtain the fun stuff quickly then keep the same pace as before for the middle and later levels.

[howdoidesu]

A quick save system in the way that GBA games would use it could be a good addition. You could save at any point in the game to keep your progress if you had to go do something else, but after you reloaded the quick save it'd be gone and you'd have to use your last real save if you didn't quick save again. I would not want the normal type of quick saving in PC games to be in Aquaria.

I'd add being able to cook in bulk though, that's my only real complaint and I wish they'd add that in, though at this point I doubt they'd ever do that. Or or the ability to have more raw ingredients, even if the same restrictions were left in for cooked items. Basically rework the food system in some way.

[CrowbarSka]

Originally Posted by howdoidesu

A quick save system in the way that GBA games would use it could be a good addition. You could save at any point in the game to keep your progress if you had to go do something else, but after you reloaded the quick save it'd be gone and you'd have to use your last real save if you didn't quick save again. I would not want the normal type of quick saving in PC games to be in Aquaria.

I know the kind you mean. Personally I think all games should have this feature! While having a 'save any time' feature can ruin a game's difficulty, the developer needs to acknowledge that players have real lives and sometimes you have to stop playing right now.

[in.meinem.turm.]

I would finally release a sequel.

[P.M.]

The story. Remove the intro. Remove Li. Remove the "real" ending.

Now we're getting somewhere...

[Elenoe]

Originally Posted by P.M.

The story. Remove the intro. Remove Li. Remove the "real" ending.

for further generations I need to say I was really scared about the ending (and story) after reading this. And I need to say I consider it wrong.

The ending is not bad, nothing to worry about. I liked it. The only problem (mentioned in previous posts I guess) is that one story ends but another begins and with no sequel coming... So the end could be more... ended.

What would I change are enemies respawning every time I leave map. No-respawn, or worse time-respawn would be more ok. I was always so much stucked in specific map, not able to leave it for a while (to save, to take a way around). And then it all respawned just for visiting some small location with boss/cave.

[Zaliqai]

Not having finished the game means I can't comment on the ending, but the comments here have me a bit worried about it.

I'm not too happy about the save system though. While I don't think this game needs a quicksave (and I'm usually a lover of the quicksave), I do wish there were more save points. Or at the very least that your progress was saved when you die. As mentioned before you need to redo everything which certainly doesn't add to the difficulty, it just adds an extremely tedious element.

Right now I've decided I'll redo the whole boring swimming and fighting (i.e. right-click fest) thing to get back to that boss battle tomorrow.

I'm also regularly at a loss as to what I'm supposed to do and where I'm supposed to go. I don't need my hand held but even a vague goal and/or direction at times would help.

[Elenoe]

Originally Posted by Zaliqai

Right now I've decided I'll redo the whole boring swimming and fighting (i.e. right-click fest) thing to get back to that boss battle tomorrow.

I'm also regularly at a loss as to what I'm supposed to do and where I'm supposed to go. I don't need my hand held but even a vague goal and/or direction at times would help.

right click fest: used that too until I switch that to Space key. A lot better since then. Also realized I can change forms by number keys by that time.

I dont know what I was doing different, but I was never lost. At first you need to find all forms and they were glowing for me at map. And meantime I just explored every place I was not before. Custom marks on maps are very important here. Mark every place where you cannot go due to obstacle, mark everything looking special somehow and it was easy.

i haven't finished it yet, so don't know about story. but i like the save system, i think it works for this style of game. i'd make it so you can see the name of your enemy. when i curse at them (out loud of course), it sounds silly. "damn you crab thingy!" or w/e.

[MithranArkanere]

I would make it longer, with a "new game+".