belleshade
BACKER
Trapped in the haunted clone console in your basement.
I do not believe in rating systems.
Badges
Famous
Gained 100+ followers
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
Adored
Gained 300+ total review likes
Epic Gamer
Played 1000+ games
Trend Setter
Gained 50+ followers
Gone Gold
Received 5+ likes on a review while featured on the front page
GOTY '22
Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event
Loved
Gained 100+ total review likes
Roadtrip
Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap
Well Written
Gained 10+ likes on a single review
Elite Gamer
Played 500+ games
Busy Day
Journaled 5+ games in a single day
Listed
Created 10+ public lists
Best Friends
Become mutual friends with at least 3 others
Donor
Liked 50+ reviews / lists
3 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 3 years
Popular
Gained 15+ followers
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
On Schedule
Journaled games once a day for a week straight
Gamer
Played 250+ games
N00b
Played 100+ games
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
Favorite Games
1261
Total Games Played
001
Played in 2024
1590
Games Backloggd
Recently Played See More
Recently Reviewed See More
Rarely though, do we speak of the games of the era that found something deeply beautiful in the form. I don't mean to say that the majorly known FMV games aren't beautiful; rather, that throughout the 90's there was a style of New Age FMV that tapped into a specific beauty of presenting images through the utopian ideals of the era's technology that needs to be recognized specifically aside from FMV at large.
I'm talking about CD-I Tetris. I'm talking about the Angel Paradise series. I'm talking about Aqua World: Umi Monogatari.
Aqua World: Umi Monogatari is a game about experiencing fish. You look at fish, you read about fish, you watch fish swim. That's pretty much the entire game, there's no walking around, no mechanics, you click a button and just watch fish. It's an absolutely breathtaking experience.
Part of the game's enjoyment is similar to that of watching a nature documentary. You get to see creatures moving around their ecosystem and doing their thing. What sets Aqua World: Umi Monogatari apart from nature documentary though is that it doesn't have any film of real fish, all of them are CGI videos of fish rendered in CDROM video. Their animations are repetitive, stiff, and float around in empty blue skyboxes which the camera occasionally teases as a real world space with reflections above. The models are lowpoly and just slightly cartoonish in the lack of details in which they are rendered. At times, they simply hover in space, motionless. And yet, this is where the beauty of the game lies.
Turning on Electric Blue mode, which is a rad name for your fish viewing game mode by the way, the player can choose from a variety of bouncing bubbles that determine a viewing order of fish videos. Upon playing, these CGI fish wander around on screen, each species with a different song to represent their personality. A haunting distorted synth wobbles as the Cresthead Flounder creeps on the ocean floor. A playful little tune sings as the Spotfin Frogfish wanders around curiously. If you have ever stopped in a moment of a videogame to look at the way the virtual ecosystem presents beauty to you then you have experienced a similar bliss as this one.
Aqua World is a game for enjoying the bliss of the videogame image. It is a game for finding peace that resides in the videogame image. It's in this embrace of bliss in the videogame image that I consider it to be "New Age FMV".
There aren't many interactions asked of the player in Aqua World: Umi Monogatari outside of this mode. On the menu there are two other options outside of Electric Blue; Data Fish, and Mermaid. Each of these modes essentially give the player different ways to experience the various species that the game presents. Data Fish presents encyclopedia entries, photographs, and 3D model inspections on the fish. Mermaid lets the player fill an aquarium with the game's included species and swim around to look at them.
It's easy to imagine Aqua World: Umi Monogatari gaining the reputation of being a "non-game" for the lack of deep mechanics for the player to engage in. However, I would argue that to play a videogame is to simply make an emotional connection with an intermix of hardware and software technologies. That can mean that simply moving your fish sprite around a virtual aquarium for the joy of seeing and hearing the ecosystem presented. It can mean reading through the encyclopedia entries of fish and seeing all the little photos and models included. It can mean choosing a selection of fish species clips to view on repeat and fall asleep to.
And what more could we ask for in videogames, than to find something which resonates with ourselves so deeply?
I wish I could give the game a lower rating.