ANIMAL WELL

wow i was NOT confident on getting this game
this is REALLY good
only 1 regret
not wanting to get it sooner

It's obvious that a lot of care went into this game. For example, when playing with a DualSense controller, the sounds your character makes when moving and using items come through the onboard speaker, and the lights on the controller change color depending on which tool you have equipped.
Loved the art direction and sound design, good platforming and great puzzles, and packed full of hidden nooks and crannies to search for.
One of the best Metroidvanias I've played. Not quite on the level of Hollow Knight, but it's pretty close.

Beautiful game created by puzzle lunatic

As someone that really tries but is unable to like metroidvanias, this is one of the most creative gaming experiences I had in a while.

Highly recommended to anyone that is just curious, is worth your while

Too much pixel perfect puzzles + timing and who knows what. I refunded.
BUT It's probably AMAZING to people who like this level of platforming difficulty.
and i'll watch a whole play-though of it because it charmed me with it's secrets.

In 11+ hours, I was able to "beat" the main game (around the first 5-6 hours), and after, during the "post-game" content, I kept exploring and although I made additional discoveries, at some point I just started feeling the tediousness of the exploration and post-game puzzles.

The game has a fantastic art direction, sound, and music. It boasts some nifty puzzles and does quite well at gently pushing the player throughout the "main game" content without holding their hand at any moment.

However:

1. The game costs $24.99, and although I know there is more content, the fact that a single-player game has puzzles that require "community effort" to solve because the puzzle "hint" that you receive is purposely incomplete, to me, is unappealing.

2. As a $24.99 game I expected the game to be more fleshed out and "exposed" to the player, but quite honestly after the initial post-game content, most other content continues to become more and more obscure, again, to the point that realistically a person alone wouldn't be able to beat the game without looking up this or that at some point. I stumbled upon content and new discoveries at times by mere accident, which in some instances became a frustrating revelation when I realized that no one would ever discover something like what I had just stumbled upon by actual logic/thinking because there was absolutely no clue/hint for the player to follow.

3. The game has a lot of evocative moments, yet it lacks any sense of true meaning or purpose, aside from serving perhaps as a meta-commentary on "going deeper" and the "sheer willingness" of any given player to keep going in order to discover and "beat" the game just for the sake of it.

4. For a game that relies so heavily on the use of its environment and map, the map feels very cluttered and doesn't provide enough visibility to help the player find missing paths or secret areas. The map actually works against you by showing pixelated lines that are not clear enough to the player to help them determine if the area is closed off or an actual unexplored area.

In the end, I think the game has some fantastic strengths, yet it's crippled by a number of glaring issues when taking a step back to consider them. I have seen people compare this game to games like Fez, Tunic, or Outer Wilds, and I couldn't disagree more. The puzzles, exploration, and payoff in those games are entirely different experiences.

I don't really understand why this game's overall reception was so positive (currently holding at 90 in Metacritic). I enjoyed what I played, and I know I left more on the table, but I quickly ran tired of the experience so I didn't really see it worth pursuing. I don't think it's a bad game, but for the price, it really takes a certain type of person to take the game as is and enjoy it fully.

Gorgeous, fantastic metroidvania. Unparalleled sense of discovery. A genuine joy to play.

The Balatro clown told me to try this out.

Super fun so far, a great metroidvania to scratch the itch. The more puzzle based aspect instead of combat oriented is refreshing. Visuals are both creepy and fun at the same time. A really neat game.

Secrets on secrets. I looked up a tutorial once. I realised I would have solved it myself if I just used the things that are given to me. Everything is there most of the time. The signs are there. it isn't completely hidden. Patience is a well needed. Also, sometimes you get stuck, if you've played the game for more than 10 hours, it probably means that you should focus on something else in the game.
Go watch videos about the making of the game. The story of the solo dev is great.

What a lovely game this was, would recommend for anyone that likes puzzley kinda games and/or metroidvanias. Fantastic exploration and learning what you can do with the tools you find.

If you wanna relive those days from your childhood when you had no idea what was going on in the game but you'd come back everyday knowing that you'd find something new, this is the game for you.

I have a love hate relationship with this game

I think it does one thing very very well in particular. That thing is how well it makes you feel like you're lost. The game lacks a central story, or at least a clear one. It also doesn't explain literally anything to you. I do really love the way it forces you to think and explore on your own, solving puzzles with the weird items you get, however I think it's also really easy to get too lost and the lack of a story can make it hard to follow what's happening.

Overall, if you can survive playing only for gameplay and the lack of a story doesn't bother you, you should play this game.
8/10

Great 2D puzzle game. As someone who loves puzzle games like Outer Wilds and Tunic, the puzzles here feel similarly rewarding. Some of the puzzles do feel a bit too overwhelming, some of the endgame puzzles I still don't fully comprehend. Also the flute sucks sometimes. Diagonals can be so hard to hit consistently.

The pixel art, music, and whole atmosphere of the game are very well done. Puzzles are relatively simple and get decently hard without being especially frustrating, except for the ghost dog part. There is a lot of hidden stuff. What I like is that it's not trying to be anything more than what it is, if that makes sense.

I really wish there was a "meh" option. I wanted to like this game a lot, but playing it felt more like a chore than anything. While a lot of the puzzles can be cool and rewarding when figured out, many sections feel frustrating just for frustrations sake. And really, frustration is a lot of the game. The controls to switch items - which often has to be done quickly and in specific patterns, will cause more deaths than the platforming itself. The map is a slog to get through and traversal feels more like a chore than entertaining. That being said, the graphics are charming, the puzzles CAN be entertaining, and there are some deep deep puzzles that will reward those who are into combing through every pixel of a game. That being said, the gameplay itself didn't make me want to do that level of investigation.

it's wild how deceitful this game truly is, had to stop myself at 14 hours before going insane

Animal Well is very atmospheric and confusing, but in a good way. Highly recommend for anyone interested in Metroidvanias, the platforming in the game is simple but you can do some insane tricks as well. Idk anything about the story though lol none of it really made sense to me, however, the game was interesting enough to keep me engaged to 100%

I waffled on whether or not to recommend this, considering I bounced off it pretty hard but can still see the quality of a lot of the game. In the end, I decided to give it a thumbs down so that anyone looking at the negative reviews will be able to see the issues I had, rather than having my review lost in the thousands of recommendations.

I had two or three big issues. The first is that a lot of the movement tech using the items you find is very finicky. It's not a huge problem when you only need to do two or three bits of tech in a row, but you frequently have to do dozens. It gets old very quickly.

Second, why is there even death in this game? There's no real combat, although there are some "bosses" that you puzzle out how to get rid of. But overall, death is super annoying for no real benefit to the game. Plenty of things don't even damage you, like falling in water, instead just warping you back to last touched safe ground. Meanwhile, spikes and normal enemies do one damage (out of 4, with seemingly no way to increase your HP), but some special "super fun" enemies are straight up one hit kills, sending you back to the last save point, and not even fully filling your HP when you respawn. As a bonus, death also drops all your fireworks, so you get to hunt those down if you need them. It's not fun.

Finally, while I appreciate that there's lots of cool secrets... there's not much compelling me to find them. Secrets for their own sake are only so interesting, and most of the secrets you'll find before diving into the super deep stuff is just more eggs. It's dull.

Now, if you like secret hunting just for the sake of secret hunting, and you can deal with the obnoxious deaths and finicky movement tech, then you'll probably have a spectacular time with this. I can certainly see why so many people like it, but I just couldn't tolerate the annoyances, and I need more than secret after secret to motivate me in a game.

Best puzzle metroidvania game EVER created, imo.

Back in the day I was amazed by such titles as FEZ / Tunic,
but these are not even close to quantity & quality of puzzles Animal Well has.

- Search every single wall for hidden paths & check map borders for disintegrity
- Look around for some useful codes hidden in the environment
- How about skill based platforming? Some areas sure require being concentrated
- The game gives you tools to proceed, how to use them it's up to you to decide
- AH. AND THE GAME AIN'T GIVE YOU ANY HINT OF HOW ANYTHING WORKS. FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF

If you love exploration and experments this game is totally for you!
God bless this developer, 11/10

P.S. the game starts after you see the credits

Animal Well feels quite perfect in a sense there isn't anything more or differently I wish it does. Play it on steamdeck if you can, it is made for that kind of setup, I started it on a trip, and even after I got home I still play it on my steamdeck instead of monitor or TV.

I'm not a Metroidvania fan and only really gave animal well a chance cause of its reputation and that dunkey said it's an easy game in his video...
The difficulty feels...fair, like I said, pretty perfect level for me. And I probably agree it's an easy game.

I really love the aesthetic and therefore can't really get mad when I revisit an old zone or running around looking for clues. So yeah actually really recommend for people who don't play traditional Metroidvania or don't enjoy 2D platform combat. The exploration of animal well is so rewarding.

It's a fine short platforming game with nice atmosphere and items that are used in interesting ways. The music is a bit lacking. Finding all the hidden collectibles increases the playtime a lot, but unfortunately it didn't feel rewarding enough. There's an optional puzzle that requires looking up the solution on the internet, and one puzzle that didn't work as intended for me. Overall the game is still fun, but I recommend waiting for a deeper discount.

The crux of Animal Well lies in its densely layered exploration and experimentation complemented by an alluring atmosphere. This synergy between discovery and mood heavily contributes to its excellence. Knowledge is often the reward for succeeding, and it vastly expands the depth of interactions with each item, animal, and puzzle solution. The stylized color palette and immersive sound effects add to the tension and wonder of the world. There are so many layers to this game, and yet the base content is accessible to everyone. It can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. This is a passion project worth experiencing!

Ok, so I've played all the way from the main boss manticore blue, to the giant god bunny giving me my moth metamorphosis, and what i thought was gonna be a fun and fair challenge slowly became a tedious grind. The game is good, aside from the obviously nice graphics and sound, the gameplay and challenge is also fun and engaging, at first. Inconsistancies and straight up unfair or extremely convoluted puzzle decisions grind enjoyment to a near complete stop, even if you are not looking to do the post-main campaign stuff.

It first started after beating the wolf, seahorse, and chameleon's second phase, i was stuck on the underground entrance and didn't know that the rat in the wheel(or the dog too) could be controlled by the yo-yo, as yo-yo's only effected otters and chinchilla's, and there was no in game implications that yo-yo's effected more than those two, so i had to find a walkthrough.
Then once i unlocked and beat the underground area and manticore blue, i tried to get the rest of the eggs on my own, but at a certain point it became nearly impossible to find the last 15 or so, and i had to use youtube and the practically abandoned wiki to help me through. Pair that with the ARG crap it expects you to dig through to get the bunnies moth form, and this is my issue.

Doing the post-blue manticore egg hunt sapped out most of the fun left to get from this game, and the only thing that somewhat redeemed it was the manticore red boss fight's end and finding bunny island. I hoped that doing the bunny hunt would give something more than a shallow new area unlock and more annoying puzzles, maybe lore to explain the cool world and its circumstances, or a new biome areas in the map, anything really, but all i found was conveluted puzzle after conveluted puzzle and so much ARG nonsense that forces the player at some point to look for answer tutorials. Unlike the eggs, i could barely find any bunnies on my own, and after finding out all these hyper-complex things you had to do to find most of the rabbits, I gave up and just followed tutorials and 2 helpful teleport exploits for the 3 dog room bunny that was nearly impossible to do the intended way. Puzzles should be fun, fair, and reasonably intuitive, especially if most of your gameplay pre and post-base campaign consists of them, and having a large section of them be so near-impossibly hard to find alone or straight up force the player to look for help is not good game design or very enjoyable at that level.

I had high hopes for this game when i wishlisted and bought it, and the main trailers seemed to show it all, a fair but challenging puzzle platformer with a beautiful setting and deep story to tell, i wasn't looking for perfection, but i was looking for something better than what i, and other players for that matter got. The achievement states tell me enough with less than 40% of players actually beating the main manticore, roughly 17% beating manticore red, and likely much less evolving to the moth(though there is strangely no achievement for it), weirdly most of the recent negative reviews had the highest number of thumbs up compared to most positive ones, and even the highest positive commenter was hesitant about giving this a positive review and actually addressed this game's biggest flaws while others rarely mention them.
I wanted to like this game, and while i still like the concept, the potential for improvements such as a good in-game story and character development/world building in place of excessive ARG to motivate the player and some needed tweaks to later puzzles and areas make it impossible for me to excuse, and based on some of the things i've seen while looking for resources to finish the game(wiki, reddit, hell even in the reviews) it seems like the remaining people are either obsessive ARG addicts that are defending the worst parts of the game or the typical "pretty graphics" people who only bought and inflate the game's ratings based on the graphics, soundtrack, and the hype-train; yet likely never finished it in the first place :C
Hopefully Billy/BIGMODE make some better games, because while this still a good game with alot of potential, especially for a first time game developer, i wouldn't recommend this to anyone who actually likes games for their gameplay and story.


6.5/10:
Looking past the pretty colors and interesting atmosphere, fun is slowly taken out of experience post-blue manticore, with the annoying inconsistancy when looking for the last of the 64 eggs, to the straight CHORE of finding all the 16 bunnies and getting to the god bunny to get your wings due to the infection of ARG post-manticore red, the game's intriug slows to a stop as areas become annoying to navigate, repetative be in, and the world as a whole has no meaningful way of motivating player beyond even beating manticore red. A good first game but with very poor late-game design decisions; if you must buy it wait for a sale like i did(it's lowest is %25 off/22-ish dollars from what i've last seen).

Astounding game, profoundly shocked me that whilst I had been playing, there are too many mechanics and from start to ending game I have felt the area of gaming, I have felt the olda days when I used to playing mario and packman in childhood times.

You can feel the vibe with soundtracks which are going to play when you passed , for instances, among of from forest to arctic areas.

Nevertheless, it does not change the game to be challenging with boss fighting specifically in Cat fighting whose is chasing you to corner of map.

You have to be passionate and must to collect pieces to use, in order to open some ways where firstly is closed.

There are some bugs that can be fixed by Billy. When you crashed the game some outstanding advandures not going to happen.

The Rabbits, classifiedly they are hiding and the most hardest stuff to find them in game

Long story shortly, in the end of day you will have been feeling in sweet home yourselves.

The Game is 8/10 from my side. I would like to find cheater ring and I would like to do %100 achievment.

Greetings.

Not much is explained here. Everything (I've discovered so far) has been found through experimentation, observation, and backtracking through areas I've already been to. The level of depth seems to be as deep as players are willing to go. I'm having a lot of fun so far and would recommend this to anyone who likes secrets and discovery... and animals!

I enjoy how the animals are represented. They feel like they were created from a sense of purity and authenticity. From the animations, to the sounds, to their actions within the game, the animals feel real. I want to pet a cat now. They've been through a lot.

It's good, but the other reviews and marketing made this seem like some wholly unique transformative game. It's not. It's a pretty standard puzzle platformer... but with some exceptionally good presentation and tone.

personally i prefer the tunic style of grand puzzles to uncover where its more self contained, instead of this game where its grand puzzles involve bar codes and having a printer connected to your pc. but you can ignore that stuff entirely and still get all achievements and beat the game. personally tunic > animal well. personally, i would say tunic on top. personally shout out tunic, good game. animal well is kinda cool too some cool puzzles and a pretty style and cool items. but personally wellcels seething over tunic chads.

I played enough to get to the first *main* ending where the map is unlocked and credits roll. Apparently there's a bunch more to the game where you have to properly, actually, Easter Egg hunt but there's no direction other than "go look" or looking up a guide (not doing that).

So the main game is *fine* it's a metroidvania but with more unique movement abilities (even if their uniqueness makes them a bit of a faff and fiddle-y. I never felt 'stuck' or found the game too hard, and it was over fairly quick, but I did feel lost more often than I liked. The visuals are really nice but kinda...painful? Like I could never really appreciate what I was looking at because of the effects.

5/10 - unless you're going for 100% don't buy for more than like a tenner

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.