ANIMAL WELL

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.

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.

Animal Well: 5/5

This is a banger. There is no text in the game, apart from "game saved" basically. It's a metroidvania for sure, brilliantly teaching you rules via context clues. Lots of little moments like that make you feel smart.

The game is not perfect - pacing is sometimes annoying. It's not always clear that you can't solve certain puzzles yet, or that some puzzles reward an item that is a prerequisite you didn't know existed. Sometimes the platforming is hard and a fall means you have to jump back through four screens of precise jumps to attempt it again. The game overstayed it's welcome a bit - "whoa, here's even MORE puzzles to do!" (but that was certainly just my vibe and will be a selling point for others)

AND it's still a 5/5. It puts you into flow state where you "just lemme resolve this little thing over here before I save and quit" and then it's 45 minutes later. Deffo worth a try

It's probably just not for me. It's undeniable that it is a well-made game, but Animal Well failed to make me want to continue into "Layer 2". While there is a sense of wonder and curiosity present from the start, any wanderlust that I had wore off by the end of "Layer 1". Traveling throughout the map became tedious and the thought of traversing it all again for a collect-a-thon did not appeal to me. The game is too obtuse to create any story related drive for me to do so, and the mechanics, while creative, are not fun enough.

I felt no motivation to continue sticking my yo-yo in damp and dark places.

What a wonderful game! Animal Well is beautiful, haunting, and mystifying all at the same time. But don't get too distracted by the stunning artwork, every corner of this game holds new secrets and challenges that will push you to re-imagine what your tools are capable of. If you love platforming and puzzle solving, pick this up!

I barely can recommend this game. The developer ruined a great experience by putting one of the most annoying "bosses" in. The kind where you are scrambling to do something while something is trying to interrupt you. This big thing that floats through walls and there is absolutely no way to fight back. If you mess up, you have to start all over again. I couldn't finish this game because that one part made me want to punch a hole in the wall. Otherwise up until that part, it was fun. Way to ruin a game.

Usually, platformers/metroidvanias are typically similar in nature. This one isn't - it's very different from everything else and it's insanely good.

A game about solving puzzles and exploring that makes both feel like an exhausting chore. The backtracking, thanks to what I can only describe as calculator graphics on the map, is as fun as finding your car in a mall parking lot. Some of the puzzles require a bizarre amount of dexterity for what this game is and put you on a timer. It's like doing your taxes using a pair of chopsticks before the garage door crushes your small child.

Metroidvania is my favorite genre and this game is making me question why I even play videogames.

An exceptional metroidvania with a focus on exploration and discovery. While some of the puzzles are far too obscure, overall this is a master class in level design. When playing, look for small details and use your map to mark potential interests for later. You will be back if it stands out. Sound design is great. The game needs proper HDR support as it already pops on OLED screens, but a further color mastering would easily put this on one of the most beautiful pixel art games.

haven't finished the game yet, infact barely started but holy the puzzles are fun to do
normally this wouldn't be my type of game but the atmosphere pulled me in and the puzzles kept me in

Fun strange game with really cool atmosphere and design, a bit confusing at first but you will get the hang of it.
i expected a masterpiece but the game was just good and that's it, really short as well ( took me just 10 hours, including the parts where i got lost and didn't know what to do lol )
game encourages you to think outside the box to solve some puzzles and reach new areas, no you did not find an exploit to reach that place, that's just how you meant to do it :D
I still recommend it as i had fun playing it,

ehh, felt like if Rain World was watered down a ton. I am kind of afraid that playing this would make RW feel less raw, so if you like no directions and exploration, and can handle unfair difficulty, I recommend RW over this

Fantastic! It reminds me of Fez and Outer WIlds in that the game is constantly teaching you new mechanics and ways to interact with the game world and its puzzles, all smartly designed to keep you on your toes with your eyes peeled to find all manner of cool lore, atmosphere, and of course, more interesting puzzles. I "beat" the game, but feel like I've only scratched the surface at the same time.

I understand why so many people love this game, it just didn't do it for me.
Moody, atmospheric metroidvania puzzler, but without combat.
I just found the checkpointing and pickiness around jumping to be too frustrating that I couldn't lose myself in the game, and so I didn't want to spend more time in it unravelling the extra layers of hidden puzzles and challenges. Missing a jump in some areas means you start again 2 or 3 screens back, redoing your travel each time. I dunno, I must not be godgamer enough.

This game is indeed a well.

Presented with a weird, misterious art, Animal well paints itself as a classic metroidvania, with a big map segmented by zones that you can only access by using specific items, which quickly unveils as something else by obscuring big parts of the game under a layer of alluring complexity and challenging misteries.

The good part of this presentation is that you can decide how deep you sink into the well. There is a "basic" path that will take you to an ending, and if you have enough, that's ok. But also, the first ending is only the beginning and, for those who like to go neck deep into things, there is a lot to be discovered and experimented.

So yeah, put yourself into the well, and then see how deep you can go. You could easily find yourself obsessed by it and, if it's not the case, you have a more than nice metroidvania to play anyway

It's just an incredible game that has to be experienced firsthand. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good video game.

A hesitant recommendation. By all accounts, Animal Well accomplishes its goal and does it very well. I just don't feel that goal was clearly marketed. This has Metroidvania trappings, but it doesn't belong to that genre. This is a community-driven ARG, meaning it's full of puzzles that are intentionally cryptic and largely solved outside of the game. Many can't be solved by a single person due to large sets of randomized outputs. These have their audience, but they're not for me --- particularly not when the ARG elements are as tedious as in Animal Well. If these comments haven't discouraged you from playing the game, then you'll probably love it.

Animal Well is a strange game.

On a technical level, it's excellent. The spritework is charming, the music is atmospheric, and the controls are tight and responsive. As a near-solo project, it’s very impressive, and it definitely makes me interested in the dev’s future work. The game's mechanics, though simple, are profound in combination, and their discovery and application in the game's world are genuinely enjoyable-- but even with all those positives I'm not sure I can truly say I like it.

While streaming it to one of my friends, they commented that it feels more like a ‘toy’ than a game, per-se-- and upon reflection I can’t help but think it a cogent enough criticism to warrant mentioning here. Like the many tools which make up the inventory system, such as a spinning top, Frisbee, Yo-yo and bubble wand Animal Well seems to view play as a reward in itself. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but because the game has no real narrative to tie it together and gives minimal instruction at the best of times, the gameplay is all it has going for it. If it doesn’t grab you immediately, the laissez-faire approach to its design can make it wear out its welcome, even considering its short length.

Contrary to most Metroidvanias, a lot of upgrades (even those offering massive quality-of-life improvements) are entirely optional because you don’t need them to progress most of the time. There’s no incentive to hunt them down beyond the general desire to explore the map, and you still might miss them if your observation, note taking, and lateral-thinking skills aren’t up to snuff. Likewise, some tools are woefully underdeveloped and are used only a few times; of the 12 main' items, I would say that the bouncy rubber ball and UV lamp stand out as examples where a tighter focus and fewer items would've served the experience better.

True to its name, Animal Well has a lot of depth, but I would argue it verges on being too much. The player’s enjoyment can only last as long as their patience for puzzling through the game’s deliberate attempts to be obtuse does-- and there are secrets in spades, with varying degrees of reward. Towards the end of “Layer 2” (collecting all the eggs and getting the True Ending), scouring the world can start to feel like a bit of a slog, even with all the items and traversal methods unlocked-- nor would anyone operating in good faith fault you for getting frustrated and looking things up.

Animal Well feels like it was built with speedrunners, dataminers, and obsessive secret hunters in mind (sometimes at the expense of normal players), so it should be no surprise to anyone that that’s who it’s most attractive to. There is a palpable and almost perverse glee on display in the inclusion of puzzles that are basically impossible to solve through legitimate means, or that maybe one-in-a-thousand people will even perceive, a-la Forbidden Siren. Hello, barcode-in-the-grass . I personally don’t find this level of engagement to be fun or rewarding, but I do respect the hustle (on both the developer’s and community’s part) even if it’s not for me.

At a price-point of $25 (at time of writing), the game doesn’t really give that much bang-for-your-buck. It’s not hard to see ~100% of it in 15-20 hours, or to beat it even quicker if you just want to see the end, or have trouble picking up on the subtler mechanics. Furthermore, I don’t think there is much replay value because most of the fun is in the initial discovery, rather than the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Still, for all my grousing, I don’t dislike Animal Well, and I enjoyed my time with it enough to both 100% it and write a review. It ultimately has a lot of heart, and I can’t fault it for being what it is. There is a strong creative vision behind it, and I’d much rather games like this be made than the endless litany of subpar nostalgia-bait remakes or corporate slop that the games industry loves churning out for a quick buck Hello Silent Hill 2 Remake . Consider picking it up on sale, if you can.

A game i wish i could replay all over as if it was the first time, enjoyed every second of it. <3
Also made me realize how fucking dumb my singular braincell i had left was :3

It's an okay game. There's no option to rate this game as indifferent, but I'll choose positive review since the gripes I have with this game isn't a deal breaker.

The goods:
1. art style is gorgeous
2. a lot of puzzles to solve and finding the right item to complete the puzzles gives me the dopamine hit
3. I love when knowledge is the key to solving the puzzle; not just items.

The somewhat bad:
1. Not a fan of puzzles requiring work outside the game. there's a puzzle that literally requires you to collab with other players on the internet, while another puzzle requires you to apparently scan bar code
2. There's barely any story. I don't even know why I'm in a well full of animals other than the title said so
3. a lot of backtracking. During your first playthrough, you'll likely not notice the details in the background and found out they're puzzles/clues later on in the game. If you didn't notice those details, good luck finding your way back to them

I believe half of the game is basically the endgame where all the backtracking problem exists (and puzzle you'll most likely never discover or solve on your own), So if you're not interested in that but still wanna try out the game, get it on sale or better yet deep sale

buen juego, si bien es el mejor metroidvania del año tambien es apto decir que tiene mucho backtracking, ademas que muchas veces vas a tener que buscar en youtube el como hacer ciertos puzzles(opcionales), tiene de lejos las mejores mecanicas q probe en uno de estos juegos.

recomendadisimo

Disclaimer: I expected a bit of a different experience.

Starts out smooth, devolves into blind retrecking.
Puzzle platformer metroidvania with lots of secrets, cool mechanics, cool styalistic choices. There were perhaps 2 gameplay moments I really liked. I mostly didn't care about the world building and lore. I mean yeah it's nice when the mysteries come together but it's mostly unsatisfying.

First off, I'm not going to explain what Animal Well or it's “layers” are, because 99% of reviews already do that. I'm going to focus on the reason I picked this game up, in hopes that if someone else is looking to do so for the same reasons as me, they skip this waste of time.

I got this game because a lot of comments put it in the same vein of titles like Outer Wilds, Tunic, and Rain World; which are all games I absolutely adore. All great games that manage to meld gameplay, world building, and lore into that hard to describe feeling of completeness that leaves you feeling fulfilled for having played it. If you've played one of them, you know what I mean. So I had high hopes for Animal Well to be similar.

Especially because Animal Well is a “once in a generation game” Reddit told me. It was getting 9 and 10's across the board from everyone. Raving reviews. I was told to “go in blind” and its an experience “you can only have once”; so I figured it had to be something amazing . Well after getting through both layers 1 and 2 on my own, getting fed up and looking up layers 3 and 4, I can say this game doesn't even come close to living up to the hype it had. In fact, I kind of hate it.

Animal Well is a competent Metroidvania game, but my main issue with it is the lore surrounding the game world, in that there is absolutely none. I initially thought, as is normal with these kinds of games, and especially with it being compared to the likes of Outer Wilds and such, that there would be some kind of lore to uncover within the well. Maybe not a full on narrative story, but lore clues that lead to a deeper understanding of the world and our place in it; so we can piece together the rest from there. You'd expect to eventually uncover at least some basics. Like what the Well is, why is it filled with animals, and who is our little blob guy. Uncovering things like that is the typical drive behind puzzle games like this. So imagine my disappointment to realize that none of that is in this game, not even a tiny bit. After researching a bit, turns out the dev didn't have any sort of narrative or lore in mind at all. So the only lore anyone can come up with is come up with 100% made up headcannon.

I put up with this slog of pixel hunting collect-a-thons because I was assured that “the post game will blow my mind”, and I was searching for that one moment that ties everything together; thinking layer 2 would be it. If that's what you want out of this game, don't. The moment never comes. There's no Outer Wilds style revelation, no Rain World giving your first pearl to moon, no Tunic book, nothing of the sort. Just disappointment.

Every “layer” deeper you go just makes less and less sense until the game breaks the 4th wall entirely. This game might as well be an empty shell for puzzles to exist in, where your only reward for solving puzzles are more obtuse puzzles.

It's a shame because the atmosphere and world are set up nicely. Animal Well has a very unique style going for it, with a world that is genuinely intriguing to discover. However if you're looking to uncover any sort of lore here, don't be fooled as I was. All the intrigue and wonder is all surface lev. Completely devoid of any meaning beyond the developer's whims to add some random scenery; with no thought into how it relates to the game world as a whole. There is nothing in the game that gives the lore any competent direction, no point to any of it, its all random garbage with no greater meaning.

I really don't know how else to explain my immense disappointment any further without giving specific examples, and others have also expressed this same thought, so take our word for it. If you're looking for even a crumb of reasoning or reward behind the puzzle solving, don't bother with this game.

As a side note, how on earth did this game get 9-10/10's from every review site? The base game (layer 1) is a 7/10 “solid but nothing amazing” at most. Layer 2 is just a pixel hunting collect-a-thon for the eggs that is standard post game “now go collect all the things for the 'true' ending” nonsense; without the satisfaction of a good ending. And layer 3 is both far too much for any reviewer to ever do, and literally impossible at the time due to needing community effort to solve a puzzle. So what gives?

Looking back at the reviews, its like people were amazed at the very basic routine in these games of having a “normal” ending, and “true” ending for 100% collecting the collectibles. Like collecting eggs was a mind blowing experience. It's kind of fishy, like they were grasping at straws for a reason to give it a high score.

Картошка-на-розовых-ножках исполняет сомнительные, но (порой) очень захватывающие трюки! Этакая наследница FEZ и VVVVVV, намного менее снисходительная к игроку (иногда — к сожалению). Могу от души её порекомендовать, ведь где ещё 33 мб могут вместить столько красивенных цветов и фетишных предметов из 90-х, используемых в столь загадочных целях?!

Clever puzzle platformer with a ton of charm that got me hooked. Fun and refreshing game mechanics.
Backtracking can get annoying when you get stuck, but the map gives you just enough hints to keep you going.
There's no fighting and the main puzzles never get super hard, but there are a few sections that can get frustrating.

Recommended for fans of Tunic, Braid, Ori & the Blind Forest.

Fun, if a little short. It felt fresh, not like a lot of other side scrollers because the tools were so interesting and unique. The art style is very charming, and i enjoyed finding the secret areas. Definitely worth playing,

If you have ever met someone who has played video games for a long time, you have probably experienced them describing how a game they played when they were young was "so amazing" during their time. Then you play that game only to realize how underwhelming it compares to everything else you've played. Animal Well is the opposite of this: a small, well-polished game that still amazes you despite its shortcomings.

The game is very short, taking only about 5-7 hours to beat and about 10-20 hours if you want to 100% the game. Furthermore, in terms of graphics, this game isn't groundbreaking. However, gameplaywise this game is perfect. The mechanics are fun and interesting, the enemies and obstacles are unique, and despite giving you no instructions I could understand everything this game was trying to communicate to me. Everything about the game felt new and fresh, combining familiar video game puzzles with its own unique and charming flair.

I don't often write reviews, and usually, when I do it's for a small joke. But honestly, you need to play this game. If you are thinking of getting it, don't look up anything about it. Don't even worry if you think your computer can't run this game it's so small a calculator could probably run Animal Well. Just trust me. It's that good.

Sights & Sounds

Through the screen door

• Usually, when playing a game built by a sole developer, you expect a corner or two to be cut. It's sort of the payoff: one aspect of the game suffers from lack of expertise (e.g. gameplay, artwork, stability, optimization, etc), but the dev doesn't have to compromise their vision for the concerns of others
  
• Well, except the publisher, in most cases
  
• I think that's why the pixel art feels all the more appealing in Animal Well. The "Lite Brite" visuals with their bright palettes against black backgrounds aren't unique in the platforming space, but some rooms sport incredibly impressive backgrounds. I would have accepted less eye candy from a single dev, but didn't have to
  
• I usually turn off CRT filters. I distinctly remember playing Yoshi's Island in the glow of 19" RCA and thinking about how much better life would be if it didn't always feel like I was playing games through a window screen
  
• And yet, this game actually looks worse without it. It almost feels naked. Shading doesn't look right, animations feel wrong, and the overall brighter look kinda kills the mood. Wound up leaving it on the whole time
  
• While not the best soundtrack I've heard all year, the music is serviceable. I'm fairly certain there's some additional puzzle clues in the OST that are flying right over my head due to my lack of musical training
  

Story & Vibes

No story, no problem

• Of all the things I appreciate about Animal Well, the choice not to shoehorn a clumsy narrative into the mystery is chief among them
  
• Don't get me wrong; I love a good narrative. Most of my favorite games are story-focused. But after delving into this title's multilayred mystery mille feuille, I don't really know that it would benefit
  
• Sure, some games like Outer Wilds manage to do both aspects well, with the story and secrets working hand-in-hand. But Animal Well is cut from a different cloth. That is to say, the mysteries and secrets are the entire point of the game
  
• You've heard enough people say "go into this game knowing nothing and just experience it for yourself", but after going into this game blind, I actually think that's terrible advice
  
• That doesn't mean I'm about to spoil everything; that would be rude. But here are three pieces of actual advice. 1) This game is best played in a group all tackling the game at the same time, and 2) There's more content after the credits than before it 3) After seeing the credits roll again, ask yourself how much fun you're actually having
  
• I played this solo (I was late to the party again), so I couldn't follow my own advice. And because of that, I think my experience was cheapened somewhat. Do your best to see the credits roll on your own abilities, but don't feel bad about cracking open a guide afterwards if you don't have a bunch of friends also delving into the game
  
• I wasn't only being pretentious with the pastry reference earlier. There are actually layers to this game. I got through the first 2, but after seeing the challenge of the remaining ones, I decided enough was enough
  
• I love the mysterious vibes and the fact that the world demands so much of your powers of observation and dedication to exploration. But if you don't know anyone who's playing it and don't want to make new friends who are, just know that your enjoyment of this game has a ceiling
  

Playability & Replayability

Search action, emphasis on searching

• If you somehow fail to stumble upon or willfully ignore all of Animal Well's secrets and hidden depths, you still have a competent metroidvania/search action title left over
  
• By that token, you sort of know what to expect from the moment-to-moment gameplay. You start off with no abilities and several inaccessible locations on a large map, then chip away at it by progressively beating bosses and finding hidden locations to make yourself more powerful and mobile
  
• Mechanically, it's a fine enough platformer with tight controls and good jump physics, but the mobility options offered by the tools/abilities you locate are how you really make progress
  
• The bubble wand (especially after you upgrade it) and the disc were personal favorites. They're intuitive to use and can be combined early-game to help you get into some places you're not supposed to be yet
  
• Beyond items, you're also likely to stumble upon a chest here or there containing a unique egg. Finding enough of them can unlock some great abilities like fast travel that will make exploring much simpler
  
• Some of them are particularly devious to find. By the time the credits rolled the first time, I had found 40 of them on my own and certainly don't feel bad about using a guide to find the rest afterwards
  
• It's true that there's no combat in this game, but that doesn't mean that everything isn't out to kill you. Especially that dog. He's a jerk. Be clever, be evasive, and be quick to stay alive
  
• As far as replayability goes, I think I'm done with the game. I didn't see all of the secrets and mysteries, but that's mostly because some of the most interesting ones are best left to amateur cryptographers
  

Overall Impressions & Performance

Time, effort, and friends

• I always found calling a game "demanding" to be a little silly because you're always free to put it down and do literally anything else with your time. But I think this is a game that a lot of people would call demanding
  
• I think it's because it's not merely a difficult multilayered puzzle in a vacuum; this isn't Baba Is You. You play a game like that on your own time and your own pace and learn to twist the game's rules on itself to find new stuff. Animal Well asks more of you
  
• Beyond the second credits sequence, you'll need a sharp pair of eyes, a few clever friends (or at least some friendly strangers) who are playing concurrently, and a lot of time to devote to finding bunnies
  
• It's kind of a high barrier to entry for all but the biggest of fans. It's nice to know it's there for those who want it. For my own part, it makes me respect the game far more than I enjoy it
  
[*] Great game for a handheld format. Not like you're going to lose anything by playing it on a larger screen, but you won't gain much either. Perfect Steam Deck experience

Final Verdict