I am going to take it down a few notches this week and play one of the most comfy, cozy games I have ever played. Think lazy river with a story that will make you almost sob at the end. It’s hard to take things slow and relax while playing a game when most of my games involve people dying. I finally grabbed some wine, put my feet up, and played this game, intending to relax… It almost worked. I was pretty relaxed. Play as a river nymph trying to save the world from the plague of humans.

This week is Naiad.

Naiad is an adventure game from Hiwarp. The game was released for the PC and modern consoles in December. The game retails for $20.

You play as Naiad, a water nymph just born into this world, to navigate mysterious sets of winding rivers, creeks, lakes, and ponds. At your side is a cloud that speaks in minimal words, instructing you on how to swim and interact with the world around you. As the story progresses, it becomes a story about loss, hope, and how humans interact with the world around them. As it swims towards the end, it becomes all too real with these tones, impacting me far more than I thought it would.

Using the analog stick, this cloud entity teaches you how to swim like a duck. Holding X can make you swim like a frog, bypassing obstructions like logs and debris on the water’s surface. The swimming is unique, and it really feels like Naiad is swimming with the water resisting, and the turning of corners requires a little more anticipation. Holding down B lets Naiad sing, a feature that becomes central to the gameplay. Singing is integral to Naiad, From corralling fish and those pesky frogs to growing plants, breaking rocks, and collecting baby ducks.

Collecting the baby ducks is my favorite aspect of Naiad, while the frogs are the worst aspect of Naiad.

Naiad is quite relaxing because it does not make the player do everything mentioned above, and you can just swim through the whole game, ignoring everything. It does not grade your performance or penalize you in any way, which is great, and you can interact with the world in any way.

I really like the purple flower mini-games

While every area has animal round-em-up, the puzzles differ in various ways. Though not at all difficult, Naiad narratively makes use of the puzzles. Opening waterways to help navigate a new area for the sake of the story and messing with electronics to break a machine are intertwined and make good use of the puzzles. Outside the story, the puzzles are just as simple, requiring just a small amount of observing the environment to succeed. I never really got stuck or frustrated with Naiad‘s puzzles.

Naiad is in a world of its own, a master class in how to make a beautiful-looking video game. The top-down perspective gives the player a full glimpse of Naiad’s world. The environment looks like it was cut from construction paper. The water is crystal clear with a matte blue on the river floor to give the bubbles left in your wake as you expertly swim through *chef’s kiss*. The pastel colors of Naiad‘s world are nothing short of magical.

Naiad is probably one of the best-looking games I have ever played in recent times.

The sound design on Naiad is superb. The singing is perfectly pitched with a synthesizer feel. The swimming gives off that perfect swish, and swimming through the debris in the water gives off a little melody that never gets old. The wild animals that you meet all have perfectly captured audio. The hawk flying through the sky squawks with such verbosity, and the baby ducks quack with a youthful pitch while the parent sounds older and lower pitched. All of this, mixed with the consistent cozy and sometimes urgent soundtrack, makes for a symphony for the ears that is welcomed for the three hours plus adventure.

Naiad is a conflicting game for me. I found it incredibly cozy for more than 90% of the game but that remaining 10% was a mix of frustration and boredom. I love everything about Naiad, but it overstayed its welcome. When I thought it was over, the game continued on, and I had that feeling three times.

That being said, I love everything about Naiad and how it executes its game plan. The visuals are absolutely beautiful, the gameplay is cozy, though a little repetitive, and the sound design has to be some of the best. Undoubtedly, I would recommend Naiad at every turn because it is a phemonial feat for a solo developer and it is cozy and a blast to play.

7/10