Aquarist Review

Aquarist is an aquarium-building sim which was released on the 10th of October, 2022, for the Nintendo Switch. It was developed by FreeMind Games and published by PlayWay, while Ultimate Games handled the publishing for the game's PC release, where it was released on the 8th of October, 2022. The goal of the game is very simple: Aquarist allows you to decorate, run, and manage your own aquarium in a virtual career pet simulation. This all starts off in your bedroom on your 16th birthday, where you’re introduced to your dad, and you’ve already been given a name and gender, so don’t expect any character customisation. There are only fish and tanks to customise here, people.

Before we get into the main part of this review, I’ve got to admit I did not know how this game would turn out, as it immediately felt janky to control. Due to the developers having to port their title over to a console that doesn’t have the benefit of a mouse, some difficulties are expected. But when I can tell the controls are going to be this bad right from the start, and it continues through my entire playthrough, that’s when it goes too far. There were several instances of me overshooting my input and selecting the wrong tool or having to be super precise in my action because there was no way to adjust the sensitivity at all.

Plus, the entire point of this game is building and maintaining your family's aquarium, so when that feels cumbersome, the whole experience falls apart. The development team should’ve focused more on this aspect because I would argue it’s a botched port, and I wouldn’t be saying that if the controls felt better. I understand all the hurdles and rules developers must go through to get their games on Switch, but maybe just don’t even bother. I’m not saying this game doesn’t have value, it definitely does, but someone interested in it is going to buy it unaware of the superior PC version and have a worse time because of it. So that just sucks.

Unfortunately, there are other issues with Aquarist outside of the two paragraphs' worth of control problems. Specifically, how it looks and how the player has no idea of their purpose other than a vague message from the father. Let’s start with the graphics first, though. For research, I looked up some footage of the game running on a PC, which looked great. It didn’t look amazing, but it looked like something that was released in the year 2022. The Nintendo Switch version, on the other hand, looks gross. I don’t know how to properly describe it because Aquarist’s graphics are hard to pin down to a concrete definition. Muddy might be the best way to describe them, I guess? I don’t know; they just don’t look good, and what really sucks about that is how this feels like a rushed job, as there have been several titles released on the Nintendo Switch by smaller teams that look significantly better than this.

As for the plot issue, I’m not looking for much, but I at least want an overarching plot to make me want to keep playing and see the game to the end, which I did, but I can imagine the lack of context would be a turn-off for other players. Since you just wake up and your dad is right in front of you, the potential for a story is thrown out the window, and you’re essentially just going from mission to mission. I am by no means asking for Red Dead Redemption 2 levels of plot, but at least give me something to go off of, you know? One of my main problems with Aquarist is a lack of substance.

The music isn’t much better, either. It’s just a constant saxophone playing in the background, which sounds nice, but it can get exhausting when you’re under pressure to save your fish, and it in no way enhances the gameplay other than making the vibes feel a little more relaxed. I’m not sure what went wrong here because if the developers had the budget for a saxophonist, why not go a little further? Why not get a whole band? Why not make the game look better? Why not add more context for the player to prevent it from becoming tiresome? This game is so weird to me.

I know it’s starting to sound like I hate this title, but I did have a good time with it despite all its problems. Cleaning the aquariums and helping out your family members is very satisfying, and customising the tanks to your heart's content is really fun. To be honest, it also was a nice change of pace playing something as chill as Aquarist. I usually play fast-paced platformers and adventure games, so sitting back on the couch with a tasty drink and helping my virtual dad clean his dirty fish tank was enjoyable, and I think it might be for many other people, too. I just wish the Switch version didn’t feel like it was an afterthought.