HOW IS IT POSSIBLE, that one of the pioneers of indie games, one of the most beautiful games I've EVER played, has fallen into obscurity so hard???

Aquaria is an underwater exploration metroidvania with a huge world and a variety of places to discover. Made by the same people who made Night In The Woods, it has some of the best soundtracks and atmosphere building I have ever experienced. Aquaria succeeds in making exploration and puzzle solving very rewarding. No hand-holding, the hints are subtle enough. Most of the bosses are also not about just wailing on them, you need to figure out how to beat them, and even those solutions are usually foreshadowed.

The game is so, so beautiful... exploring the many underwater worlds, and slowly uncovering the mysteries, the history and fate of different biomes and ruined ancient civilizations... The atmosphere varies from serene and peaceful, to gloomy and fascinating, to visceral and downright harrowing at times. A wonderful combination of visuals, sounds and music.

I'm not much better when it comes to the obscurity, Aquaria has been on my backlog for years. But I hopelessly fell in love with it. It's a new love and a temporary obsession that I'm gonna be thinking about for a long while.

I may have found out some reasons why it never became the same kinda legend that Braid is (coincidentally one of my favorite games ever). It starts rather slowly, for example you unlock combat options later, so some people get bored. It's a real shame though, I was fascinated immediately. I feel that the slow start can sorta emphasize the main characters journey and change. I've also read complaints about the controls, while I personally didn't have an issue with them. Maybe they've been improved later? A VERY useful tip for controls is that the songs have quick hotkeys in numbers 0-9, and you can roll with R and look with E.

There is one big, fat sin that the devs committed with Aquaria, though. It has a very unfortunate way of teasing a larger picture, a sequel, and a continuation of this story, which will never come. There is a "true" ending to unlock, but it would've suited better as the start of the sequel instead of the ending of this game. I actually feel that it's not worth unlocking for this reason. Despite this all, Aquaria can definitely hold on its own too with its beauty. It was so worth playing that heck, I immediately just replayed it again.

The game also has a DEMO on its official site if you want to get a feel for it. Please, help yourselves!