ANIMAL WELL

Very unique visuals, big fan

Definitely gives off major Rain World vibes (just definitely perhaps a lot slightly less difficult) with general ~vibes~ and it very much just throwing you into a world with little info on where to go or what to do

This did kind of start to grate on me when doing secrets and what not, given it doesn't even really give you a rough estimate (like what part of the map to look in), and there were a few things/one item i didn't really feel like i got taught about organically (This only really comes in to play if you care for 100% or further completionism, though)

The items you can unlock are utilized well over a playthrough though, definite plus on that front, sometimes there are multiple solutions to getting through areas depending on what you have unlocked or use

If you're not the type to care for completionism, the full price for this game might not be worth it for the amount of time you'll be playing it (Up to your discretion, i've just seen other folk complain about this, so i thought i'd mention it)

Definitely not for everyone, but a good game nonetheless, very impressive to be made by one developer

I've never played a Metroid or Castlevania game, they just look like something I would find more frustrating than fun, so despite the critical acclaim being showered onto Animal Well, I'd not bothered to pick it up until yesterday night. And I can barely put it down.

Firstly, the art style and aesthetic are fantastic, love the color palette. I also love the slick lighting and fog effects in contrast to the pixelart style, it's like the perfect blend of old and new.

The sound design is excellent; I could happily vibe in the forest ambiance area all day, and the characters' sounds fit their look perfectly, whether menacing or cute or eerie. Plus, I've watched Emily Hopkins' YT video interviewing Billy Basso, and hearing where some of the sounds originate is absolutely hilarious.

The gameplay is also great; the puzzles and "bosses" are intriguing enough to keep you engaged but not so difficult that you get frustrated or need a break. I usually found myself laughing at failure from pure absurdity, either because I had accidentally done the same stupid thing I did when dying last time, or just because a lil squishy guy getting yoinked into a chameleon's mouth is inherently funny.

I have a real soft spot for games with exploration and discovery, and Animal Well is one of those rare gems that can make you feel like a kid again. The moments of wonder when stumbling upon the unexpected are my favorite parts of gaming. Each item you acquire is more inventive than the last, and I would bet money that you will smile or laugh when using at least one of them.

This is the kind of game that quickly built my trust to the point where, if I'm struggling for more than a minute or two in an area, I know I'm probably not properly prepared to tackle it yet and can rest assured that there is somewhere more fun for me to find first.

If you're like me and have been eyeing Animal Well, but assumed it wasn't for you, I recommend going for it. Do I know what an "animal well" is, or what my end goal is supposed to be? Not really. But I bet I'll uncover that puzzle along the way too, and have a blast doing it.

This is a beautiful game. :)

It has stunning visuals and engaging gameplay in most sections, though a few enemies are quite annoying to win against sometimes. The sound design is also great, with the music often being used to set the mood really well. The puzzles are challenging, but not frustrating.

My only real wish is that the controls could be rebound, as having so many buttons so close together can be quite tricky, especially with all the item switching.

Overall, I would recommend. It's worth its price.

You can tell a game is so good when even a cute sausage dog scares you👍

But for real though, this is actually the first time where I am both at awe and hooked at a metroidvania (or is it a metroidbrania? 🤔) of a game till the very “true end”. I really liked how it tries to be different or unique in a way that it literally tries to reinvent the wheel of skills that one usually gets in a metroidvania like with a double jump, dash, wall jumps, and gliding abilities by replacing those “boring” or “overused” skills with stuff like a literal bubble toy, a yoyo, a remote control, a frisbee, and so much more. And I remembered every time that I managed to unlock these new “skills” and subsequently trying it out (and also rediscovering that it has a hidden mechanic later down the line), it always give me the “WOAHHH, WAIT WHAT???!?!?” reaction from me when I’m trying to solve one of the room’s puzzle. Which is something not a lot of games (especially from other metroidvanias) have managed to deliver that type of surprise factor for me, I’d say.

On the other hand, The puzzles in this game is (well at least on the normal route and not the typical OCD completionist route) quite engaging as in that they’re “challenging” but quite solvable on their own without the need for me to rage alt+tab out of the game and search up for a walkthrough of that said puzzle on the internet, well at least for me, that is. It also goes to show how some puzzles can be quite rewarding when you later discovered that it is solvable after realising that the skills you already have has a feature that you never knew it existed to help you solve those puzzles that you couldn’t have done before. Though, one thing that I kinda have a gripe on throughout my time playing this game is how the “bosses” in this game are kinda… “Stale”. Like, it only has ONE type of gameplay which is more or less along the lines of “try to solve the room’s puzzles while running away from that creepy boss who’s desperately trying to touch you at all costs”. So, yea, wish the “battles” could’ve been more unique and memorable, but ehh… What we have is fine on its own, I guess, for a typical metroidvania…

However, let that not fool you on the level of horror that this game has to offer. Cause, personally, I really liked how the game manages to make horror on things that aren’t exactly “horrifying” in real life. Expect a tonne of these horror moments ranging from the likes of getting jumpscared by a penguin, get a sense of suspense when a cat ghosts you, panicking when getting jumped by a kangaroo, and feel dread when you see a pack of dogs, to name a few. Safe to say, there’s gonna be a lot of times where you are going to be “horrified” when you least expected it.

Long story short, if you’re a fan of metroidvanias that’s filled with tons of puzzles, platforming, and quirky abilities, are into the horror-genre, but are also looking for something that “isn’t quite like the others” like that one typical girl/boy would tell you to entice you to date/bang them, then I would highly recommend you to immediately stop reading these reviews, buy this game, and play it for yourself… Cause I can guarantee you that it’s actually a really enticing game to experience!

Metroidbrainia at its finest. Unique twists on itemization, challenging platforming, and more secrets than you can shake a tail at. Also, extra atmosphere, old school vibes, and lots of fun but subtle references to the classics.

This game is great! A very peaceful take on the Metroidvania genre. It feels very unique in its mechanics and the art is beautiful as well.

Animal Well is a very intricate and impressive game. I didn't expect it to have as many hidden secrets as it did, and all the little details just make it all the more unique. The guy who made this game straight up made his own custom game engine for it too. This really isn't the first time I've seen an indie game that was made by mostly one person that turned out to be very creative and pretty. It's almost perfect. I guess my only personal gripe is some of the puzzles ARE too difficult, but thankfully this mainly applies to optional hidden elements that you can find. To get the main "ending" you probably don't need help as long as you're patient and okay with backtracking a lot.
Awesome game, but if you want to 100% it to it's fullest or get all achievements, you WILL need a guide. Just as an example, one of the more later game puzzles took 50 individual people to solve, to be vague.
I'm willing to bet that we haven't even found all the secrets yet at this point in time and really impressed at the people who found some of them first.

A genuinely really fun metroidvania with a uniquely beautiful art style. The game has so much to offer for those wanting to go beyond the required puzzles and platforming sections and while completing absolutely everything isn't for everybody (including me), it really is incredible how much the devs put into this game. Also the sound design is just delightful. What a wonderful game.

Cannot recommend this game enough. Even replaying it is as amazing as the first time. Beautiful animations/art and sounds, I could spend hours just observing the game without progressing at all. Just buy it, you'll become addicted to the mystery and the puzzles that will drive you slightly mad. Try your hardest not to look up answers unless you Genuinely cannot progress anywhere in the map. Sometimes you just have to give up on a puzzle and that's okay you'll loop back.

I never write reviews, but this game truly deserves the most love Ever. Don't rush it, don't stress over it -- just enjoy it.

Great game but it's really challenging. Definitely recommend, but not for the faint of heart. I like that you don't memorize controls because the game teaches them to you as you progress. All new concepts are taught through practice. You'll become really good at bouncing on bubbles :)

It's such a masterpiece especially consider its compact size.
Recommend to whom like puzzles, and enjoy the feeling once you solve the puzzle.

The game design is so damn impressive.

Neat game, Very unique puzzle mechanics with cool movement strats.
Just wish they had focused more of their effort on having more puzzles rather than secrets, or gave you an option of markers to tell you where to go to see the rest of the game's content.
The "secret you need to travel all over the map and try to find hidden codes, which you will look up in a guide to save yourself the time anyway" is tedious, not a puzzle, and most importantly not fun. I like puzzles and platforming, not easter egg hunts with no hints at all for what i'm supposed to look for. Complete missed opportunity to make this an more of a puzzle rather than a community wiki page; TUNIC did it better with the whole guide book thing and subtle nudges in the direction of where to look.

It was fun learning how to use all the tools the game provides you, but it barely lets you fully explore potential puzzles with them (sure they may exist somewhere in the game, but that's after you travel back and forth across the map, looking at guides and entering button combinations); My experience was sorta like "here's a new mechanic, okay that's enough, moving on" and i'm left with a sense of disappointment of never being able to fully experience the potential this game has to offer.
Literally just add some more content with harder puzzles and it would be a 10/10 game. Right now it's a 7.8, fun but shallow in this specific sense, it's bordering a demo and a full game.
I'd say wait for a sale or buy it to support the devs if they plan on making a sequel that builds off of the existing material.

Great atmosphere, aesthetics and game play. You just want to keep exploring and finding secrets.

Best to go into this game blind. The amount of polish in this game makes that first play-through feel amazing. Some of the later puzzles are brutal and some even require cooperation with other players. However, even the base game and post game are just plain excellent. I highly recommend it.

Fantastic. The game really gets you over time after you realize how much detail and care went into it. Some puzzles/secrets are too hidden for my taste, but they're optional.

Just absolutely amazing, from level design, through various mechanics to the art style.

Fun puzzles and platforming. Tons of secrets to find. I found myself more surprised when there wasn't a hidden path within a room. I loved the atmosphere and pixel art. My favorite "Open Well" type game.

Animal Well is beautiful retro metroidvania game. It's filled with so many secrets that I willingly had to stop myself from 100%. Every room I went in, I was suspicious of every little wall that could be hiding something. I finished the game thinking everything was done but how wrong I was.
The atmosphere of this game is immaculate, you really get the feel of being in a long abandoned temple/well filled with its own ecosystem, where you are only a little insignificant part of it.
It's easily noticeable that the dev had a lot of passion when making this game, the attention to detail is amazing.
If you liked this game and are looking for something similar, I highly recommend trying out Rain World. It's not really a metroidvania, but you're a little creature that's part of a larger ecosystem with a big map to explore.

This game is underrated for how creative the puzzles are, how big the game is for a 2D world and how peaceful the atmosphere is. Also love how there are horror elements through out the game play, they make some animals genuinely terrifying. If you're a collector, puzzle solver, secret finder and like a good challenge this game is for you.

Fantastic metroidvania. Clever level design. Immaculate atmosphere. Great theming and progression. Just a stand out job.

OMG LOVEEEEEEE. This game is amazing if you love exploring and seeing fantastic pixle visuals!!!

Animal Well is an atmospheric platformer which is filled to the brim with secrets. The gameplay feels amazing and the puzzles/items make me feel really clever. On top of that, the entire game is like 30 MB or something ridiculous. I definitely recommend that everyone plays this.

Great metroidvania type game, if you enjoy that genre of video game you'll love Animal Well. Great vibes, unique artstyle, fun for me as someone who doesn't normally play these types of games.

Animal Well is an absolute gem for fans of metroidvania games, effortlessly blending nostalgic retro gaming elements with modern, innovative gameplay. From the moment I started exploring its beautifully crafted world, I was transported back to the golden age of gaming, where exploration, discovery, and puzzle-solving were at the heart of the experience.

The game’s pixel art is a stunning throwback to classic titles, with every environment meticulously designed to evoke feelings of nostalgia while still feeling fresh and exciting. The soundtrack complements the visuals perfectly, setting the mood with eerie, atmospheric tones that enhance the sense of mystery and wonder throughout your journey.

The gameplay itself is a love letter to metroidvania enthusiasts. The world of Animal Well is interconnected, and the sense of freedom in how you approach puzzles and challenges is incredible. There's always a new area to uncover, a hidden secret to find, or a clever environmental puzzle to solve. The world feels alive, with every corner holding the potential for something new and surprising.

What truly sets Animal Well apart is its sense of discovery. It doesn't hold your hand, allowing players to dive deep into its world and uncover its secrets at their own pace. This sense of exploration, combined with the satisfaction of solving intricate puzzles and gaining new abilities, makes for a truly rewarding experience.

Overall, Animal Well is a fantastic blend of nostalgic retro gaming and modern design. It's a must-play for anyone who loves the thrill of exploration, the joy of uncovering secrets, and the satisfaction of solving clever puzzles.

∞/10 recommend

I had fun overall but the trial and error aspect made it frustrating at times

It's pretty, its metroid-like, its got good ambient music, its got pretty crazy secrets, it has everything you'd probably want when looking at it. Its probably the 'metroidvania' that will make some people like them, because the level design and puzzle philosophy seems fair more Zelda and man, what a charming set of tools. So yeah, give it a shot. Its a treat.

Animal Well is easily the most unique Metroidvania I’ve played. The game revolves almost entirely around exploration and platforming with combat being extremely minimal (if you can even call it combat at all. And it's a good thing too because they’re easily the areas where Animal Well excels compared to its peers. It's a very distinctive style with the low-resolution CRT-style visuals and luminescent textures. It makes the map both visually appealing and unsettling at the same time. And the effect is further complemented by the sound design, consisting largely of artificial-sounding electronic static, whirs, and humming, really pushing the old low-tech vibe that the visuals are trying to convey. The lack of combat makes it easy to get immersed in the world since you can focus your full attention on your surroundings rather than getting distracted by enemies and other miscellaneous features.

But what’s especially impressive is the game’s overarching design. So far as Metroidvanias go, the map is extremely amenable to non-linear exploration. You can go through the game in just about any order you wish with minimal obstacles even when you lack the items you obtain elsewhere (though having those items still unlocks plenty of secrets and shortcuts). The items themselves are also very unique. You don’t get the Metroidvania staples like a double jump or grappling hook. Instead you get stuff like a yo-yo, slinky, bubble wand, frisbee, among various others. Both the map and how you interact with it give Animal Well a very distinctive feel compared to similar games and contribute a lot to the novelty that helps make its short runtime feel a lot more substantial. And of course, the constant search around the environment for traversal methods and hidden secrets draws even more attention to the visual design.

While Animal Well’s unique design helps make its simplicity a lot easier to bear, I still have a few problems with it. I don’t oppose the decision to strip the game of combat but what remains of the ‘gameplay’ isn’t much. The platforming is pretty simple and doesn’t take long to master while the few puzzles aren’t that hard to figure out. Even the boss ‘fights’ are painfully brief and end up feeling like an anticlimax to all the actions you had done before. The game’s lore is minimal enough that there isn’t much narrative satisfaction to making progress either as it's never especially clear what the point of anything was. There are some deep secrets and ARG stuff but that's really not an aspect I have any interest in so it doesn’t impact my appraisal of the game.

Overall, I had a great time playing Animal Well. Especially for a one-man studio, it's impressive just how much the game manages to do. And while the short runtime and simple gameplay hold it back from greatness, they don’t detract from the stuff it manages to do well.

Great puzzles, clever mechanics and insane atmosphere, loved it!

Playing this game is an incredible experience that i highly reccomend you play without a guide, there has been so many times where things have blown my mind. There is always another layer to everything and the game keeps going 10/10

One of the best puzzle and exploration platformers I've ever played. It reminds me a lot of a less punishing Rain World with much better platforming controls and some minor puzzles thrown in. I thoroughly enjoyed it as it gives you the option of solving situations in a number of ways and allowing you to come up with your own tricks for reaching areas. Highly recommend even at full price.

This game is awesome. The amount of secrets waiting to be revealed and solved is insane. This game is a love hate relationship as the puzzles are difficult but fun and interesting. Easily one of my favorite metroidvanias to date.

You can buy, install and play this game in it's entirety before Black Ops 6 installs, fails installation, scans files, loads shaders and then crashes all for 1/4 of the price. Would recommend!

What can I say, this is an extremely well made puzzle metroidvania (metroidbrainia?) that deserves your game time. The controls are competent, the puzzles are VERY well made, and it's accessible even for those players who don't normally play puzzle games. It presents itself in layers - you don't necessarily have to go deeper into the next layer to finish the game, but digging deeper into the game is almost always rewarding.

A 2D "Puzzle Metroidvanias" where you explore a large map, slowly get more items to do things and can do the ending while only having done 25% of the game. Similar to FEZ.

+ Very cool pixel artwork.
+ Surprisingly good sound design.
+ Unique puzzles and items.
+ Unique bosses and battles.
+ Sprawling map with excellent manual marking options.

- Scanline shader (can be disabled!).
- One or two puzzles really do need a guide, like the barcode puzzle.
- Inventory gets a bit clunky.

It took me about 12 hours to get all achievements, but that's not 100% of the game.

Great example of the genre and a fun puzzle game, worth getting. It's bigger than you think!

This and Tunic are the only 2 games worth playing in the last 20 years. Every single drop of this game reeks of pure love and detail. It is one of the best aesthetic experiences in modern history and the quality of the gameplay equally rivals it. Tons of secrets and things for the player to discover on their own, it's the exact opposite of the cutscene-heavy menu-laden hand-holding games that plague the industry. A true return to what made gaming good in the first place. I truly wish Billy the best.

An absolute must-play if you enjoyed games like Outer Wilds or Tunic. Captured my attention for days straight until I had it figured out. I am in love.

There are animals. And there is also a well. The best description I can give I guess.

Just play this already, it can run even on your Smart Fridge so dont go whining about how your computer is not good enough.

game looks beautiful except for a few things like the goofy looking dogs, and its really fun, really nothing much more to say, its simple but super well made, the mechanics are unique and cute. yoyo

A really fun metroidvania puzzle type game. The game starts you off with no direction then vaguely kind of points you towards collecting four things and then leaves you to it.

You have to explore. You have to find the items that enable you to overcome obstacles, and you have to figure out how they even work. The game has a nice (if low res) map that lets you place stamps and even freeform draw on it to mark places you think are secrets or that you should come back to. Shortcuts and secret walls abound. There's friendly and hostile animals to surmount, but they're more like puzzles than enemies. You don't fight them as much as find a way to neutralize them.

I quite like how a lot of the gear you find has a basic use but also more advanced uses that can interact with map elements in interesting ways, or allow you to do movement skills that seem like you're cheating the game. With advanced use of things you can seemingly trivialize puzzles or sequence break sections.

But the game has hidden its most advanced puzzles behind the scenes, and it expects you to use every ability at your disposal to find and solve them.

The game does go too far though. Regrettably the true secret ultimate endings can't be achieved on your own, literally you cannot get all pieces of information with just your copy of the game. So you have to look up a guide, and then you find out that there's even multiple levels of this secret ending stuff. I didn't like it when Tunic put this "out of the game" puzzle stuff at the end of a wonderful game and I don't like it here either.

Otherwise a wonderful game though!

animal well is a "good" game which i wouldn't recommend to most people, its strength lie in its presentation - the environment, spritework, sound design, soundtrack are all top notch, and yet i found myself struggling to have fun in it. the constant backtracking and the no hand-holding approach of this game might appeal to some people, but not all as demonstrated by the achievement statistics of this game, less than 50% of players got the achievement for finding 16 secrets eggs, something that would be accomplished in the first 2-3 hours of this game. a lot of people say that the 2nd layer is when the game gets really good, but i don't have much motivation to keep on playing, most of this game felt like a chore and by the end i was just glad it was over.

The game is atmospheric, pretty to look at and has some clever puzzles, but for every moment I spent enthused with the game I spent several more dealing with annoying tedious backtracking, and obtuse puzzles that pretty much expect you to look at a guide.

The moment that I put the game down was dog town, the game expects you to clear a very large area and hits you with a shrine at the end that requires an item you were forced to part with at the start of the area, it then forces you to backtrack to grab the item. then return while being chased by an enemy with wall hax all the way back to the shrine. Oh but don't worry, there's a secret button input you can use for the entirely optional flute item you get for collecting entirely optional easter eggs that allows you to teleport, get distance from the enemy and then you have a few seconds to complete the puzzles you already completed unmolestered. If you fail, you're backtracking to the beginning and starting this process all over again. There are many puzzles like this, with failure conditions that have a ton of mandatory backtracking to retry.

The people claiming that this game is some masterpiece are high on nostalgia, metroidvania's have improved since, and for good reason. Animal Well is a technical achievement, but that means little to the end user if the gameplay is tedious.

Amazing Metroidbrainia!

Although, near the end of the game, there's a certain "Lite Brite" puzzle which requires you to google the solution which is unfortunate, would have preferred to be able to beat the game solo.

Most of the puzzles are straight forward and very fun.

Highly recommend if you like Tunic

Atmospheric, clever, and endlessly captivating. A pure indie gem!

/!\ Perfect fit for the Deck. "GOLD" on ProtonDB
https://www.protondb.com/app/813230

Two hours into this game, I didn't know if I wanted to continue. Not because the game was bad, but because I didn't feel like I was good at it. This isn't the type of game that I usually play, so I set it aside for two weeks. Coming back to it with a clear head and with the want of an open adventure, I set off. What a wonderful 15 hours to obtain 100% of achievements; this isn't even the end-goal. There were plenty of secrets that I know I missed. Even though the game is over, I want to go back and start over and that doesn't happen very often. BIGMODE and Billy Basso have a bright future ahead, I cannot wait to see what they do next.

SUPER MARIO BROS 2 is still best game though :D

Easy recommendation for anyone interested in a puzzle metroidvania. Absolute must-play if you love finding secrets or feeling a sense of discovery when playing games.

Really Fun and Really cute. I love the art and visuals. The choices of colors used really spoke to me. Loved almost everything about this game.

A beautifully weird indie game that mixes exploration, puzzles, and platforming in a neon-lit underground world. Love it!

amazing game with insane aesthetic and puzzles but the map layout will give you a stroke

LOVED the atmosphere and the unique abstract darkness of Animal Well. I thought it was a really well paced and intelligently designed metroidvania / puzzle platformer with a plethora of cool collectibles and odd ingenious tools that you must be creative with in order to delve deeper into the mystery of the well. This is the only game I have played that felt to me strikingly similar in style to Undertale, along the way encountering many adorable (some not) wild creatures that roam this surreal almost nightmarish overgrown jungle of a dungeon.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3400461858
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3395672073
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3396532068

I saw the term "metroidbrainia" thrown around and in an attempt to find something similar to Outer Wilds (almost purely knowledge-gated exploration) I decided to give it a go. Bad mistake. If it reminds me of anything, it's Fez, with it's overabundance of obscure puzzles designed to be solved by half the internet working together, and I did not fancy that one either.