XBOX REVIEW | NAIAD

Every so often, a game swims along that justmakes your eyes water with how stunningly gorgeous it is. NAIAD has been one of those titles every single time I’ve seen clips of it on social media. Imagine my surprise when one of those posts was about how the game had released, on all platforms no less. So I dropped whatever I was doing and started playing this indie game and decided it could use a little more coverage to hopefully convince more people to test the waters.

NAIAD is a game made by a single developer, making it all the more impressive. Every nook and cranny has received a ton of attention and there are tons of secrets to be found. So many even, that I had to resort to calling in help from the developer just to collect all the achievements.

Let’s dive in!

Things I liked!

• It’s flipping gorgeous | NAIAD is the prettiest indiegame I’ve played all year, even beating the likes of NEVA. while the top-down view is somewhat limiting, what’s done here with that perspective is stunning. You swim from river to river, exploring secrets along the way and even though the levels are mostly tiny in scope, they feel so alive thanks to all the visual elements coming together. Wind will sway the shadows of trees, the water has bubbles and particles moving along with the stream, Naiad’s hair flows along with the current. There is just so much attention to detail here and ever screenshot I took was ready to go on a frame. This becomes even more impressive when you discover that some levels are shaped like a dragon, or mother earth cradling her child.

• The music soothes me | The musical score in Naiad isn’t exactly what I’d add to my spotify playlist, but it matches the relaxing vibe of the game extremely well. Especially set-piece moments like the ending (which I won’t spoil) or the various musical interactions like giving a flute to a human, or playing along with the 16 guitar players hidden throughout the levels. Even moments like lumberjacks cutting trees all feels in sync with the flow of the game and has a rhythm so enchanting I almost didn’t want to interrupt their tree-chopping.

• It’s calming, almost therapeutic | I have two kids who struggle to find a moment of peace and quiet. They are always playing, shouting, making a mess or in an argument with each other over some trivial thing. And then I just start up Naiad, start playing, and after about 5 minutes or so, the fighting has quieted down and they are both sitting next to me and watching along. That makes this game worth its price of admission tenfold, if you ask me!

• Tons of secrets to discover | You could play Naiad and ignore almost all of the content. There are VERY few forced interactions needed to progress the story, other than making it to the next screen. But you’d be doing yourself a disservice by speedswimming through it, because there is so much hidden. If you pay close attention to the edges of the river, you’ll spot small channels that you can swim through and discover entire new and secret regions. You can find fish to bring alongside you to the next screen, musicians to sing along with, completely option fauna to interact with, and essences and poems that are mostly there for completionists looking for that satisfying achievement ping!

• Controls are fluid | Controlling Naiad is easy, you pretty much just need a single analog stick and the occasional dive or singing prompt to interact with various puzzles. You can also do a frog-like dive, but I rarely used it. Naiad also stays close to the center of the screen at all times, making it difficult to lose track of her among all the details. Outside of the annoying oil spills that slow you down (they are intended to be obnoxious) I was rarely frustrated about the controls.

Mixed & disliked!

• Those damn Frogs! | Usually the gameplay loop requires you to sing near some fauna and lure them along to a specific location. This can be guiding little ducklings back to their mother, something that becomes a lot easier near the end of the game as the new unlocks you find will allow you to pull logs out of the way. But getting the various creatures to follow you exactly where you need them to be feels like a chore sometimes, especially the frogs. When you spot a few frogs, you usually have to bring them to a cluster of lilypads. Getting them all there usually reveals a hidden path, but sometimes it’s also used to unlock other things. But those damn amphibians have a mind of their own and seem intent on jumping on anything BUT the lilypads. Very annoying!
  *Note: the way frogs interact with you and the lilypads has been recently patched and feels a lot better already.

• Interactions aren’t always clear | This is mostly a continuation of the above, but sometimes it wasn’t clear to me at all how I needed to interact with the environment. A few examples: early on in the game, I found some tree logs floating around, and nearby bunnies seemed keen on hopping onto them. my puzzle-solving brain assumed I needed to bring all bunnies together, or to a specific location and I think I spent 10-15 minutes trying several solutions, only to discover there wasn’t any trigger there at all and no puzzle to solve. Later on in the game, after using either the singing or the dive to pull objects alongside me for every other puzzle in the game, I need to closely swim next to [REDACTED] just to progress the story. But that “do nothing” approach didn’t really dawn on me and I was lost at what to do next. I’m afraid I’m not the only person struggling with some of these, because for such a short game, very few people have obtained the final story-related achievements.

• A little more completionist-handholding would be welcome | While you can restart any chapter with your current upgrades (this makes it sound like a Metroidvania, which it absolutely isn’t), it always starts at the very beginning of one, even though they have sub-levels. And it’s not always clear where you’re missing a specific poem, or other collectable. only the order of them is somewhat hinted at, but without a guide, you’ll be replaying levels over and over, not knowing exactly where to look. This can get mildly frustrating, especially if you get dragged into the next level by the current and have to restart the entire chapter again.

How long did I play the review before publishing? 13 hours
How long to beat the story? ~2-3 hours if you rush to the end without exploring too much
How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 53/53 (1000G)
How long to achieve 1000G | about 10 hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | Journey, ABZÛ, Flower

CONCLUSION

Score: 85/100 – Naiad is a relaxing, soothing game that will swim warm circles around your heart if you let it. It’s an extremely satisfying game to just explore at your own pace, with the only frustrations coming from my own completionist urges and some design decisions that feel like they are going against the stream of such a playthrough. The gorgeous visuals and enchanting music alone makes this a recommended play. The fact that it actually calms down my children is a bonus side-effect!

Do you prefer to see the game in action? here is the first hour of gameplay on Xbox Series X: