This game employs the so called "metroidvania" style of gameplay. That means you are free to roam around, but full exploration is only possible through finding upgrades that will allow you to get through certain obstacles that you couldn't before. The world is immense and there's a lot of backtracking to be done but the gorgeous graphics and different themed locations, not to mention the masterfully crafted soundtrack, do a great job at minimizing the tediousness. The upgrades themselves are pretty cool, though their usefulness vary and some feel underwhelming compared to others, even though the same can be said about the parent games of this genre. The controls are very responsive and all of the character's moves can be done with just the mouse if the player so desires. The combat is very energetic and being underwater allows for a ton of dodging, which you will have to become proficient at to get through this game since the screen can get quite busy with projectiles and enemies at times and your character can't take a lot of beating. This difficulty can be severely mitigated by the ability to cook many kinds of food, as several of them heal your character, increase her defense capabilities, or even both depending on the kind of food itself. There is a plethora of secrets to find (some useful like cooking recipes and pets that will fight for you, some just aesthetic like costumes), the rarest of them often protected by optional bosses, all of which will very well push the playtime past 15 hours if pursued at a normal pace.
Overall it's an excellent game in my opinion; It hits the right notes in all technical aspects, has an interesting story and a very satisfying amount of exploration and content. Greatly recommended!

A rare gem of a game, rarely have I played a game that left such a lasting impression on me. You can feel the passion and dedication of the developers.

* Compelling story with interesting twists
* Great gameplay
* Well-tuned difficulty, never felt too easy nor too hard
* Beautiful graphics

I haven't even mentioned the best part yet: I find the soundtrack of this game breathtaking. It perfectly manages to capture the mood of the game. At the same time the music is warm, refreshingly cool, relaxing if not soothing, passionate and melancholic.
The rest of the audio is great as well. In particular, Jenna Sharpe does a great job voicing Naija. I don't remember whether it's part of the game or the independently released Aquaria sountrack, but Jenna's singing in the song "Fear the Dark" is worth mentioning.

One aspect of the game I didn't like is the cooking system, it didn't seem to quite fit with the rest, but it's just a minor issue.

In unison; story, gameplay, visuals, sound and music combined; this is one of the best games I've ever played.

One of the best soundtracks, and the gameplay's pretty good as well. Go for it, because it's definitely worth it.

Aquaria's an absolutely astounding game. Novel gameplay and absolutely stunning graphics, the world is really brought to life and the areas feel really ♥♥♥♥in' huge! It also helps that the protagonist is super cute.

What is the reason we fall in love with a game? Is it the visuals that are aesthetically pleasant and utilize some original style? Or is it the world, the story, the characters? Maybe the biggest thing is gameplay mechanics, or if we speak about metroidvania genre in particular the complexity of the vast map and its clever design, which makes nearly every path valid and interesting? That matters a lot if a developer can not only make a bunch of interesting locations separated by obstacles that require special abilities or items to pass them, but also performs a miracle of guiding you through it without showing direction with a giant red arrow on the map. Feeling not lost, but intrigued like a true discoverer traversing unknown grounds — that matters a lot. And Aquaria has all of that and more. It has voice and sound. Beautiful and soothing voice of the protagonist narrating events throughout the game being as clueless as the player. And a truly amazing soundtrack, which is not just some “accompanying music”, but a masterpiece on its own. It stands out like a pearl lying on the ocean’s floor shining against the background of dull sand.
And it has one fatal truly hurting me flaw, which makes me love this game even more. That must be stupid — to love something because of the defect, one might think. But this one is special. Aquaria ends on a high note with a cliffhanger of such enormous proportions, that the fact that sequel most probably wouldn’t happen ever makes me sad ‘till the present day. A craftsmanship of just two guys, it came out in 2007, and it has been 7 years since then. Bit Blot studio is effectively defunct. Derek Yu created wonderful Spelunky, and Alec Holowka composed a lot of wonderful soundtracks for a number of games and collaborated on various projects, ultimately launching the successful Kickstarter campaign for a Night in the Woods, which looks very promising. To tell you the truth, the story of an underwater journey is still very much satisfying, it closes script arch in a wonderful way, with a proper resolution and sensible ending. It’s just that final little itty-bitty glimpse, that promises more of Aquaria to come, that sticks to my brain. And I can’t let go. Among hundreds of games that I played it’s the one I easily can name as one of the most beloved.
But obviously that moment in the end wouldn’t irritate me if the game itself was mediocre. So let’s talk about it for a moment, instead of grieving the never-happening-sequel. You play as Naija. You can call her a mermaid, I suppose; except she doesn’t really have that fish-like scale tail and looks more like a green-skinned girl with flippers and strange ears. So, she breathes underwater and even is able to “sing”. This is actually the main form of interaction with the world. For the most part the heroine can’t affect game objects directly. Different tunes perform different actions like lifting or shielding. But they all change “form” of Naija giving her offensive, defensive and various other abilities. In order to perform a melody the player has to select the right order of color-coded tones. Technically you are bound to do it only once, when learning it for the first time. After that you can use it with a hotkey, but then you’ll miss the one tiny detail: tones actually change depending on the region you are in. And that may not be the exact detail that makes Aquaria so great, but it is a great example of how vast the game is. Honestly: you can’t just point a finger at a single thing here and say, that it’s the most important — they all are. From the glorious warm waters of near-surface areas to the chilling thrills of deepest abyss this game just doesn’t stop to surprise. A very simplistic beginning that reflects Naija’s life as “a simple creature” in her own words transforms and grows like an underwater life itself becoming more and more complex, throwing in more mechanics, more songs, more pieces of backstory. It simply isn’t possible to draw a line here. Where does the story end and the gameplay begin? Where does the world transform into a form of a narrative? It’s just one whole engaging thing. I guess this is the best possible result for metroidvania, especially the one which starts with a phrase “The Verse binds us, narrator and explorer; my story will become your own, and yours will become mine.”
But you don’t know what The Verse is yet, do you? That is the force that runs through all the Aquaria (yes, game’s world has the same name as the game itself), every living being contains small part of this power, and it can be guided with rhythms and music. This seemingly peaceful concept can deceive you in the beginning into the feeling that all of the game would be careless joy and swimming around looking at the beautiful scenery. Well, in a way it is, but as you path goes down into the darkness closer to the ocean bed the grim secrets of game’s world become uncovered. What starts as seemingly aimless journey started out of curiosity turns out to be an epic tale about extinct races, gods gone mad and ultimately finding out what this all was about… except that last tiny bit, of course, but you already know that, and it shouldn’t bother you for now. Because there’s a whole world ahead of you, don’t miss an opportunity to visit it.

Incredible, atmospheric experience and a work of art.

from the design standpoint Aquaria is a Metroidvania 2D game with big underwater world to explore. Those ideas aren't that special on paper, but the strange mix of climactic locations, fitting music and hand-drawn graphics makes this title not only joy to look and hear, but makes so much impact on the player that after you finish the game you will know that is one of the best indie games out there yet to be recognized by most of gaming community.

The story is simple, but it is told extremely well by the voice of the main protagonist as you play the game. It starts out interesting, but it ends up strongly heart-touching. The plot is slowly revealed through the game and the next surprise around the corner will be bigger than the former. Also, in my opinion, Naija is one of the best written female characters in video game industry up to date.

Aquaria is an open world and you must figure out most of the gameplay mechanics all by yourself. Some tactics for beating some bosses are kind of tricky, so this isn't the game for people that are not so fond of the more exploration-oriented games. The start of this game isn't as fast as you would want to, but if you will give it some time you will be hooked straight to the finish. Game is around 12-20 hours long and there are lots of non-mandatory things to find. This is not a small game by any means.

Aquaria had a bad luck that it came before the Braid's indie games boom. Don't miss this one. It's a powerful gem hidden in the sea.