An independent video game developed by Bit-Blot, consisting of Alec Holowka (Night in the Woods) and Derek Yu (Spelunky). Aquaria follows the story of Naija, an amnesiac aquatic Fish Girl who has been living in a cave and eating fish for as long as she can remember. Eventually, wanderlust forces her to leave and explore the ocean around her. Not five minutes after she leaves her cave, she encounters a mysterious robed entity, whose touch gives Naija a vision that brings back some of her memories. The entity disappears and Naija follows, leading her on a grand adventure in which Naija discovers more about her homeland than she could have ever imagined.
Aquaria was released in December of 2007, winning numerous awards from the independent gaming community as well as widespread praise from gamers.
Gameplay is mostly focused around exploration and puzzles, though there is plenty of combat.
Following the success of the "Humble Indie Bundle" charity drive, Bit-Blot, the developers of the game, have released its source code. (Info here.
) Keep in mind that the game's content will remain closed, so you will still have to buy the game in order to play anything more than the demo version.
Naija is also an unlockable character in Super Meat Boy.
Not to be confused with the online game Aquaria, the Brazilian metal band Aquaria, or the formerly reigning Next Drag Superstar.
Tropes:
- 100% Completion: There are 52 recipes, 32 treasures, 4 pets, and 5 Verse eggs to collect, not to mention 56 maps to explore, and 26 "achievements" ranging from the inevitable to the esoteric. What makes it harder is that one of the ingredients (Red Bulb) is only available in finite, small, quantities, while others (Special Bulb, Rukh Egg) are closely limited. Good luck experimenting with those! For the Red Bulbs, you don't even get the recipes specific to them until the endgame... but from the beginning, you do have recipes which can waste them. There are also a couple of recipes which don't appear in the game at all unless you make them yourself: Vedha's Cure-All and Vedha Sea Crisp, both of which require ingredients that no other recipe uses (including the aforementioned Sea Loaves).
- Ability Required to Proceed: Various areas are can only be reached with use of the appropriate form. This is even mirrored inside Naija's home. Pearl-bearing statues need Energy form, strong currents need Beast form, darkened areas need Sun form, Blue Portals need Nature form, narrow passages need Fish form, steam vents need Spirit Form.
- Action Girl: Averted at first by Naija until you unlock the Energy Form. Then she becomes this.
- After the End: Hints of numerous ends, to the point Naija fears she may be the only person left alive.
- Alliterative Family: For a parent and their child, they both start with the same letter, as revealed in the game files: Li and Lucien.
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The absolute last boss battle of the game appears to take place in space. Even though you're still underwater. When Naija leaves in the cutscene afterward, the tunnel out even has stars in the walls.
- And the Adventure Continues: Exploited trope: In the secret ending, Mia intentionally wipes Naija's memory so Naija will gain a thirst for adventure and leave her family for the surface. Mia plans to use Naija's ambition to extend the powers Naija, and as a result, she, obtains.
- And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: Most of Naija's trophies go to fill out out her home. The rooms of the home will mirror her conquest of the game world.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Songs will still activate, even if you make a mistake while singing them, as long as you sing the relevant notes in their proper order. You can hit up to two "extra" notes in between each proper note without aborting the song.
- Apparently Human Merfolk: Naija makes Li, whose name is too short for spoiler tags into one of these. At least while he's near her: Li puts his old diving helmet back on if Naija decides to leave him behind somewhere. Their son Lucien might also count.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: The last area before the final boss. Nothing but Dual Form combat against some of the toughest enemies in the game, set to an epic guitar track. The music track itself can be found Here.
- Arm Cannon: While Naija's energy blasts resemble this, the better example is Li's shooter.
- Babies Ever After: Naija and Li have a son named Lucien during the endings. In the perfect ending, he sets out to rescue Naija from Mia.
- Background Magic Field: The Verse. Naija can channel its power by singing. It is named thus because the Creator could not remember the chorus to his mother's song, but held on to the verse so much that it leaked into everything he made. So in a sense, it is what remains of the Creator's mother.
- Batman Gambit: Naija's mother wiped her memory and counted on her daughter's natural curiosity to cause her to grow in power.
- Beautiful Void: Aside from the occasional Physical God and Naija's narration, nobody speaks. The only other mortal Naija comes across is Li, whose name is far too short for conventional spoilers, and while it's stated that the two talk, none of it is voiced.
- Bittersweet Ending: The spirits may be freed from The Creator's imprisonment, but each of them is the last of their kind.
- Blackout Basement: The Abyss is the most obvious. While there is only one physical barrier to getting through the place, the Light Form is needed to see where you're going and access the map. Most regions have at least a few areas that are also like this, having no physical barriers to getting through, but being pitch-dark. Even Naija's home has one where she keeps treasures from the Abyss.
- Boss Corridor: All of the boss rooms have these leading up to them. All contain save points, though some are in the same map as the Boss Room itself while others are separate. The only dangerous one is the Sun Worm's, which is full of spikes and has a constantly-changing tide, requiring Nature Form to traverse safely.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the start of the game, Naija directly addresses the player, claiming to be binding herself to the player. "My story is your story."
- The Playable Epilogue can be read as explaining why she did this. Naija's mother knocks Naija out to prevent anyone from "tracing your memories". Later, Naija's son touches a spirit crystal, and apparently discovers what happened to his mother. How did the crystal have this information? Because you, the player who was bound to Naija, observed Naija's kidnapping.
- Cat Folk: An underwater version: the Krotites were aquatic cat-people with jaguar-like features.
- Charged Attack: Several forms have this: Energy form charges from a basic fire blast to a stronger multiblast and Nature form charges from an almost-useless flower to a rather impressive cactusoid. Sun form doesn't have an attack, but charging her "aura" lights up the area for several seconds, which is helpful in the Abyss. Both sides of the Dual form have only a charged attack, and one is furthermore dependent on the other.
- Chest Blaster: The Creator's final form has a set of jaws in its chest that act as a Wave-Motion Gun.
- Chest Monster: The common plants that give you food supplies sometimes release monsters instead. Happily, these are always monsters likely to leave a good health drop.
- Collector of Forms: The game, being a Metroidvania, involves the player gathering new abilities along the way - in this case via the learning of new songs. And in many cases, these songs don't simply enact some transitory effect, but instead transform the player, thus granting them new powers or properties. Thus the player's collection of songs, growing as they advance through the game, becomes in large part a collection of forms.
- Collision Damage: In addition to being vulnerable to it herself, Naija can also cause it by equipping the Urchin costume. That's not just defensive, as she can grab onto some of the larger enemies.
- Concept Art Gallery: In the credits.
- Cosmetic Award: See Virtual Paper Doll, And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating.
- Critical Annoyance: A rather minor example — the edges of the screen simply glow red (impeding vision), rather than making an annoying beeping sound.
- Crystal Prison: The main menu shows Naija inside a crystal, resembling those from which she gains memories and frees various spirits.
- Deity of Human Origin: A little boy who fell into the ocean somehow became the creator of all Aquaria. And then he gets slain by Naija.
- Developer's Room: Hidden in the back of the cave with the whale."Two odd creatures floated nearby, each staring into a glowing orb. They seemed inexorably tied to their fate, caught up in whatever they thought they were accomplishing by staying in one place for long periods of time without rest. I found the whole thing rather silly."
- Diabolus ex Machina: What happens in the extended ending.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the course of her travels, Naija will kill or finish off at least 6, and up to 12, "lesser gods" of her world (including gods of battle energy, a personification of nature, the former god of a ruined city, a huge sun worm, and several "species bosses"), then top this off by slaying the creator of Aquaria. But not her mother, the Creator's 13th creation, and the game's true puppetmaster. Too bad.
- Disconnected Side Area: The area containing Simon Says is a section of the Kelp Forest that can only be accessed by a special Ancient Turtle in a different area altogether.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Naija piercing "the Veil" for the first time.
- The Creator's tentacle grab attack. He grabs Naija, holds her in place under himself, and poisons her for an agonizingly long time. "And you will love me", indeed!
- Naija piercing "the Veil" for the first time.
- Early Game Hell: At first you have absolutely no means of attacking the enemies and can only create a defensive shield that will fade away pretty quickly. Only after defeating the first mini-boss in the Energy Temple do you obtain the Energy Form that lets you fight back.
- Earn Your Bad Ending: While the regular ending leaves Naija on a happy note, the 100% Completion ending shows Mia stealing Naija away from her family for her own plans.
- Easter Egg:
- Elephant Graveyard: An underwater version. There's a cave in the Open Waters full of bones from various creatures, some seemingly too large to fit into the cave.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: The Dual Form is only acquired in the second-to-last dungeon.
- Enigmatic Empowering Entity: Also a Greater-Scope Villain. The entity who bestowed power to Eric at the beginning of the game remains a mystery.
- Escape Sequence: Before leaving the Verse Cave, Naija is accosted by Mia and treated to a flashback of escaping a horde of creatures from the Body that ends if Naija loses all her health or gets to the exit. Also counts as A Taste of Power since she's in Energy Form for that sequence and it is possible to defeat all of the creatures before escaping if one is very, very careful.
- Eternal Engine: The Sun Temple is full of gears and mechanical contraptions that are still running after who knows how long. It's implied that the place is solar-powered.
- Ethereal Choir: Most of the background music contains choral elements; it's fitting for how much of the game revolves around singing.
- Evil Laugh: At various points in the Song Cave and Open Waters, a deep voice can be heard laughing. It's an early sign that the Creator has his eyes on Naija.
- Evil Matriarch: Naija's mother in the extra ending, wiping her memories again and spiriting her away to make war against the land.
- Family Theme Naming: Ending with the same letter, Mia and her daughter, Naija.
- Feed It a Bomb: Mithala's first phase requires you to ensure that multiple bloated mutants get pulled in by his suction and eaten before you get within biting range.
- Fiery Salamander: Several of these appear in the Energy Temple. They're large, pink salamanders that shoot fireballs from their tails.
- First Time in the Sun: The game takes a moment to show off the first time Naija goes above-water in The Veil.
- Fish People: Pretty much every ancient ruined civilization was composed of these sort of people. The Mithalans and Naija herself tend more toward the "people" end of this trope. While they were still more or less humanoid, the Erulians and the Lumerians were much more fish-like. The Arnassi were anthropomorphic sea horses. The only ones that didn't fit this aesthetic were the Krotites, who looked more like aquatic Cat Folk.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Quite literally. All varieties of crabs and lobsters are at least Naija's size and deal Collision Damage. Most also drop crab meat. The only truly hostile ones are the mechanical ones in the Sun Temple which pack a nasty Magic Missile Storm attack and don't drop anything.
- Taken further with the giant crab boss, which is roughly three or four times Naija's height.
- Glowing Flora: A few varieties of this appear in the Abyss to go with all the bioluminescent critters. You can even take them home with you by finding the right treasure.
- G-Rated Sex: Happens during the ending between Naija and Li, whose name remains too short for spoiler tags, as they are siphoned up vertically through a tunnel while underwater. A crystal spire is visible in the background as another hint at what's going on.
- Greater-Scope Villain: It is hinted, both within the game and developer statements, that something caused Eric to become the Creator.
- Guide Dang It!:
- Many of the puzzles in the Sunken City.
- Some of the boss fights have particularly obscure dances needed to win.
- The cooking, too, if you're trying to find recipes by trial-and-error instead of finding the completed dish hidden somewhere. The developers clearly expected people to try doing the former instead of the latter, because after every third failed attempt or so, Naija will let out a frustrated cry of, "Not another Sea Loaf!"
- Eel singing. You can sing to eels to consistently get at least two eel oils per eel, where killing the eels would get one oil if you're lucky.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Naija and Li have a son named Lucien who mostly takes after his father, but has a few of Naija's features as well.
- Heart Container: The Verse Eggs increase Naija's maximum health.
- He Who Fights Monsters: One of the things that worries Naija about the energy form is that she's starting to enjoy its destructive power, and fears she'll lose her sense of self if she succumbs completely to this. It's not just something she's saying, either; if you fire off a prolonged salvo (fighting something big and tough, like a leafy dragon, for example), she giggles.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Mithala, the Golem/Priest as a pair, and The Creator. All of them are more-or-less Mook Makers, and the creatures they create are all essential to defeating them. The King Mantis doesn't create Mooks as such, but you need to turn his energy balls against him.
- Homing Projectile: Most ranged attacks will home in on their targets, and most of the rest will at least arc toward Naija.
- Horse of a Different Color: Naija can ride sea horses in Song form and direct them by singing. There's even an outfit she can win to make them faster.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: The game's protagonist, Naija, is able to eat food to instantly heal, cure status ailments, and/or apply an assortment of buffs.
- Ice Crystals: The cave leading to the Frozen Veil is full of these, forming obstacles on the walls. A few are transparent foreground objects instead.
- Interface Screw:
- If you don't move around for too long, the view zooms in on you, which can be rather inconvenient.
- The result of ingesting Rainbow Soup.
- Getting blinded by squid or octopus ink.
- Interspecies Romance: Naija and Li.
- Item Crafting: Naija can cook a multinational restaurant's menu's worth of food items at any time on the pause screen, as well as consume them there before resuming gameplay (see Hyperactive Metabolism, above and on the actual page).
Thankfully. Unlike your forms and other songs, recipes are not locked before discovery. This makes replays a lot easier, as some of the recipes are too simple not to remember, even without cheat sheets. - James Bondage: Li gets put into stasis toward the end of the game. Twice.
- Just Add Water: All recipes have two or three ingredients, though there are some non-useful intermediate stages. Incorrect combinations produce a near-useless Sea Loaf or similar, but even these can be used in other recipes.
- Kaizo Trap: During the playable epilogue that appears if you get all the memories, you can take damage from swimming into the thorns, and if you die you will be taken to the last save, which at the very least is before the final boss. However, it is extremely difficult for the player to die at this point unless they are trying to do so.
- Large and in Charge: Every single boss is at least 3 times as big as Naija, the protagonist. Most are a lot bigger. It's also carried to its logical conclusion — the [humanoid] Final Boss, The Creator, is so gigantic that his eye is almost as big as Naija herself. With one exception, which also happens to be fast and hard to hit.
- Last of Her Kind: What Naija fears. The loneliness that results from this is her motivation for venturing out into the world.
- Level Editor: Built directly into the game, so you can test your levels on the fly.
- Little Did I Know: The early stages of the game are narrated by Naija expressing just how ignorant of the world around her she was at the time.
- Love Makes You Evil: Familial, non-romantic variation. The Creator created the denizens of Aquaria to make a substitute for his mother, before destroying them when he realized they would not love him unconditionally.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Naija's Energy Form can do a minor form of this with a wall-jump-to-flourish charged blast with a lock-on (or a single enemy present sans lock-on), firing six energy bolts at one foe. Some bosses can do this, as well, especially when they go critical.
- Mad God: All of them, with the possible exception of Naija's mother. Mithala, the Krotite God, and the Sun Worm are the most so, having been essentially reduced to beasts since their respective civilizations' demise. The Creator is also a case of (non-romantic) Love Makes You Evil.
- Magic Missile Storm: Many enemies can pull these off with their Homing Projectiles, especially when there are several of them in the same area. Naija can also do this by spamming Energy Form's attack.
- Magic Music: Naija sings (or the players can use hotkeys) to switch to different forms, pull certain objects, attract fish, etc.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: One half of Dual Form's power, whose damage output is dependent on the number of enemies killed by the other half's Wave-Motion Gun attack.
- Mechanical Monster: The Sun Temple is full of mechanical versions of various sea life.
- Metroidvania: A unique, underwater version, nonetheless. There are some above-water exploration portions, which don't just include, but require, wall jumping. It's still 98% underwater, though.
- Mood Whiplash: In the extended ending, we find out that after living some well-deserved happy (if adventure-yearning) years with Li and raising a family, Naija's mother finally reveals herself to her, reveals she was the one who wiped her memory, knowing she'd do what she did during the course of the game, tries to convince her daughter to join her in her scheme to Take Over the World, and finally incapacitates and kidnaps her.
Alec said he "was interested in making the statement that there are no happy endings". The game explicitly does say 'to be continued', yet the game developers have split and moved on to other projects. - Mook Maker: Numerous. From the Moneye Squid nests to the Bigmaul Forest Goddess to Mithala to The Creator's second and final forms.
- Multi Form Balance: Dual Form has Li Mode, which launches a fairly powerful Charged Attack, and Naija Mode, which emits a screen-blasting scream but must be charged first by destroying enemies in Li mode.
- Multi-Stage Battle: The final boss, which starts in a shrine, travels to a dark pit, continues to a circular room (with a creepy infant doll in the center) and finishes with a wide open area containing a colossus.
- Mushroom Samba: The Rainbow Soup.
- A much more "realistic" samba than most examples of the trope; first you get the standard tripping out, with all its pretty swirling colors and all that, and then comes the crash, when the color scheme goes dark red, the screen shakes, and Naija makes painful grunting noises until it wears off. Fortunately her health bar doesn't actually drop during the crash; it's just alarming and ensures you'll never do that again.
- Musical Spoiler: Done brilliantly toward the beginning of the game, when Naija first enters the Song Cave to open an ancient door. The song she needs, though it is written elsewhere in the cave, can also be heard repeated and remixed in the background.
- Noob Cave: Naija's initial cave, Home Waters. This area remains useful for resource-gathering throughout the game.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: Plenty. For example, the boss theme, the music for Mithala's Cathedral, the first two parts of the Final Boss theme...
- One-Hit Kill: Made possible by a late-game powerup.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The leafy sea dragon. In reality, a harmless fish related to seahorses. In-game, an enormous monster that roars and breathes green flame.
- Palmtree Panic: The Veil is the ocean's surface. Above it is a series of tropical islands that require wall-jumping and moving up waterfalls to get around.
- Parental Substitute: Why the Creator created the other gods in the first place. He destroyed them and their respective civilizations when they would not love him unconditionally like his mother did.
- Physical God: Almost all of the non-optional bosses. Or even the optional ones, if you count non-sentients as worshipers.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: The Dual Form switches between these depending on whose abilities are needed.
- Playable Epilogue: The reward for finding all of Naija's lost memories.
- Power at a Price: Zuuna's Perogi grants the greatest Status Buff to Energy Form's attacks at the cost of inflicting poison.
- Power Copying:
- Major abilities are acquired from defeating bosses throughout the world, ranging from attack forms to utility forms. Some forms also allow access to new areas.
- Eating certain enemies in Beast form allows you to copy their projectile attacks. In some cases, such as that of the Moneye Squid, copies of the enemy itself are the projectiles.
- Power-Up Food: Naija can cook a staggering array of these using nothing but the Verse, with effects ranging from healing to granting and upgrading various abilities.
- Puzzle Boss: Most of the bosses in the game, but the Simon Says creature is notable for being a non-combat puzzle. It's easier to list the exceptions: Sun Worm, Nautilus Prime, Mermog, Blaster Prime, King Jellyfish, and the first couple of forms of the final boss are all just straight slugfests.
- Quest for the Rest: Naija's starting motivation.
- Recurring Riff: The plot-centric 12-note tune. It's easiest to hear in this track, which plays when you enter Open Waters. It also makes up the melody of Boss Fraught (played for every non-story boss), it's used in a puzzle in the Sunken City, the first four notes are used to activate Dual Form, and several other times.
- It's implied that this tune is the magical "Verse" that Naija taps into in order to do all her neat stuff.
- Replacement Goldfish: The lesser gods created by the Creator are meant to replace his mother, who died in the opening scene of the game.
- Romantic Fusion: The Dual Form, which has a different appearance depending on whether Naija or Li, whose name continues to be too short for spoiler tags is in control of the form. One side has a Wave-Motion Gun attack that empowers the other's scream; the two can switch sides by spinning.
- Sanity Slippage: After killing the last miniboss in Mithalas Cathedral, Naija starts worrying about slipping into dementia or worse.
- Satellite Character: Li, whose name is still too short for regular spoilers. Naija can leave him at either his home or hers, but there are a couple of places where he must be present to continue in the game.
- Scenery Porn: Everywhere you go, but the Veil deserves a special mention on the virtue that it's essentially the Bahamas and associated reefs as seen from underwater, and occasionally on land. Also, there's monkeys!
- Seahorse Steed: Naija can ride seahorses for a boost in speed. There is a mini-game and a corresponding achievement for running a race on a seahorse.
- Sequel Hook: In the extended ending, Naija is abducted by her mother to fuel her plans to Take Over the World. Afterwards, Naija and Li's grown son leaves Aquaria in an airship, presumably to find her, while the words "To be continued..." appear on the screen. Years later, with both devs having moved on to (separate) other projects, it appears this has resulted in the story being Left Hanging.
- Sequence Breaking:
- The Kelp Forest *should* be inaccessible without the Beast Form, gained by completing Mithalas. However, it's possible, even easy, to just force your way through the currents without even noticing you did something wrong.
- In earlier versions of the game, it was possible to use Nature Form to bypass the "tongue" leading to The Body, even before one has found Li. This had the unfortunate result of completely breaking the game: if you did this, you couldn't reach the end.
- Careful application of wall jumping can, at least in earlier versions, allow one to enter the Sun Temple through the roof, leading straight to the boss. Since one of Naija's memories is only accessible from inside, though, you miss out on the Good Ending.
- Sequential Boss: The final boss, the Creator, has five forms:
- The first of which is a humanoid figure on a white throne, who occasionally sprays fireballs from his hand.
- His second form is similar to his first, but loses his mask revealing a black void; and his legs, replaced by purple tentacles.
- His third form is a large crustacean, but with the body of a human infant.
- His fourth form resembles a human child with Barbie Doll Anatomy and Li's hairstyle.
- His fifth form is a gargantuan humanoid figure with visible muscles, eyes and brain, as well as a stomach which opens up to reveal a baby's head which shoots a huge laser from its mouth for massive damage.
- The game's data files contain evidence of at least one more worm-like form that was cut.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Frozen Veil and Ice Cavern, though they're not actually slippery.
- Stripperiffic: Practically all of Naija's wardrobe including both her alternate forms and the alternate costumes for her primary form. However, some elements — goofy helmets, or the claw-gloves of the Crab Armor — could be considered Fetish Retardant. (Yes, there's a "nude mod" available.) Then there's the costume that Naija herself describes as "rather revealing". We'd call it a bikini. In the post-game scenes and stinger, she and Li, the spoiler of spoiler tags wear even less....
- Swiss-Army Hero: Naija, who gains multiple different forms used for traveling through and fighting in the world of Aquaria.
- 13 Is Unlucky: The Creator of Aquaria created 12 gods, and dismissed each as imperfect. The thirteenth, Naija's mother Mia, he declared perfect. She ran away and set up Naija to destroy him.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Ha ha. No, seriously: Li is mainly along to offer a bit of extra firepower, but only he can open the metal door in the Abyss.
- Threatening Shark: Averted. The tiger and leopard sharks aren't much of a threat at all, though they do move quickly and use Foe-Tossing Charge attacks.
- Turns Red: Almost every single boss, and some of the other monsters as well. In some cases, this forfeits a boss's prior invulnerability, trading their "kill dance" for a straight slugfest.
- The Forest Goddess has a dual usage: She starts with three cyclic stages, one of which lets you turn her red and shootable for a few seconds. After a few rounds of that, she goes "critical" and starts hammering you continuously, but also stays vulnerable.
- Similarly, "Father" cannot be injured for the first part of the fight unless his controller is stunned, but loses the invulnerability after taking a certain amount of damage.
- After you damage Mithala enough, the entire battlefield turns red and he starts spamming powerful fireballs.
- Underwater Kiss: How Naija and Li, whose short name still complicates spoiler tags meet. Happens partly because Naija doesn't understand the concept of scuba gear. The kiss gives him Super Not-Drowning Skills thanks to infusing him with the Verse.
- Under the Sea: (Almost) the entire game.
- Underwater Ruins: The Krotite temple, the Mithalan city and cathedral, the Sun Temple, and the Sunken City.
- Unscaled Merfolk: Naija and various other characters appear to be this.
- Unwitting Pawn: Naija is revealed to have been one for Mia in the extended ending.
- Vicious Cycle: Naija eventually discovers that, in an attempt to create companions for himself, The Creator made numerous creatures, including sub-deities, then destroyed their civilizations when he deemed them imperfect.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: As this video shows, Naija gets a lot of various ways to attack things throughout the course of the game. And nearly anything can be killed in some way. Between dropping rocks on things, shooting things, eating things, impaling things on thorny spikes, and using a Wave-Motion Gun to power a super sonic scream, there's a lot of ways to inflict suffering on Naija's fellow creatures.
- Using a giant thorny plant to fling a monkey from its tree into the middle of the sea isn't particularly useful, but doing it gets you an achievement.
- It helps somewhat that, barring small fish, the odd eel, macaws, and the aforementioned monkeys, pretty much everything hates you and wishes to feast upon your juicy corpse.
- Virtual Paper Doll: You can find 8 new costumes for Naija's default form. Four of them have legitimate uses in the game, the rest are just for show.
- Voice Clip Song: In the game's files, there is a remix ("superflyremix.ogg") of the dummied out line, "Quit your jibba jabba and get out of the water!"
- Wall Jump: Though not as useful underwater, it's still there. Granted, it can help you speed along if you wish, is used in Energy Form's fiercest charge blast, and allows you to hold still and open a song plant within a current by sticking you to the wall in Beast Form first. Out of the water, however, it works much the same way as normal, and is in fact the only way you can move.
- Warp Whistle: Ancient Turtles, which move you between the areas of Aquaria in a set pattern. There is also a special pair that will take you to and from the Disconnected Side Area where Simon Says resides.
- Was Once a Man: Two examples:
- Mithala. He was originally a humanoid resembling the creatures he created, but was turned into a gargantuan beast by the machinations of a Path of Inspiration that sacrificed/force-fed his own followers to him.
- The Creator, meanwhile, provides a more literal example. He was once a young boy whose (flying) city was destroyed and somehow gained godlike powers.
- What Measure Is A Nonhuman: Reversed in the stinger. "One could hardly call a human a real person."
- Wingdinglish: The runic text scattered throughout Aquaria is just a different font. Substituting the letters there for English ones can occasionally give a useful hint, such as at the end of the Mithala Cathedral. An alphabet and translations are available online... or if you're feeling lazy, you can just go into the 'gfx' folder and swap the 'aquarian.png' and 'aquarian_alt.png' images, which will replace all the Aquarian text with (bright orange) English in-game.
- Womb Level: Not one, but two. Mithalas Cathedral has the player destroying gargantuan body parts, and then there's The Body, complete with giant blood cells.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Big Bad is a young boy who fell into the sea and somehow gained godlike powers. He created the entire world of Aquaria in attempts to replace his lost mother. Of course, he destroys all his creations when he discovers that they don't love him like his mother did.
- You Shouldn't Know This Already: Technically, you can use the Shield Song before you learn it (a few minutes into the game), but the rest of the Songs are only available after finding them.
- You Will Not Evade Me: Mithala, the Sun Worm, the Creator's second form, and a few regular enemies have a suction ability that will pull Naija into biting or melee range.
