10/10
Please release cats from cages. Their meowing makes me sad ;(

If you enjoyed Environmental Station Alpha, you will like this even more. It's a high quality Metroidvania that gives you an absolute boatload of unorthodox post-game puzzles.

The base platforming is as simple as it can get (you can't even control the height of your jump), but it gets exponentially more interesting as you find items. Animal Well is at its absolute best when you're discovering niche side effects of the items and start applying them in ways you didn't previously think to.

Because of its open nature, it's really exciting to theorycraft routes and think about different potential ways of beating the game. Most of the ways of acquiring items/flames quickly end up involving carrying the disc around without the mock disc in place, which puts you into a challenge run reminiscent of Green Demon challenges in Super Mario 64.

If you're aiming for full completion, you will see the game at its weakest, as a good chunk of it just comes down to sweeping over the same areas without any new challenges and checking vacant pixels on the map.

Out of everything, I found the eggs to be the least compelling part of the game - the enjoyment factor in collecting them comes from the stand-out examples where you gambol through a gargantuan gauntlet or piece together a particularly perplexing puzzle in order to obtain one. Unfortunately, the majority are just hidden behind a vine blocking sight.

Generally, I would recommend this game to pretty much anybody except for completionists. If you like challenge runs, this game is for you. If you like experimenting with routing, this game is for you. If you like solving weird and ridiculous puzzles, this game is for you. If you just want a good Metroidvania to blast through, this game is for you. But if you want a game that is fun to 100% front-to-back, Animal Well is probably not it.

No, you’re not overthinking it. Yes it’s a puzzle. Buy this game.

I'd only recommend if you *really* like easter egg hunts, otherwise it'll feel a bit short

I really like puzzle games and metroidvania's, so both should be great and they usually mesh with each other pretty well and makes for a lot of aha! moments which makes you feel smart for figuring it out.

Animal well does not do that. There have been two instances now of the game just forcing me to guess how to progress. I was stuck in a dead end loop for way longer than I should have cause the game wanted me to do something its never even hinted at being possible. I get they want you to experiment and see what works, but the solution was just dumb. I didn't feel good figuring it out, I triggered it on accident and I'm glad I did because there was no way I was going to purposely do what I did. It's entirely possible I missed a clue on how to do it and wasn't very observant in a room I was supposed to be, but it was definitely a "how was I supposed to know I could do that" moment.

The world is very interesting and I want to explore all of it, however traversing the map get tedious with the amount of backtracking there is and they lock fast travel behind finding secrets. Find enough secrets and you unlock a hub for fast travel. Why is this locked behind an optional objective? Some of those secrets are really hard to find too. I guess they figure you'll stumble upon enough of them to unlock it since you don't need very many, but still, its such a basic gameplay mechanic.

I do really like the items in this game, they offer some fun traversal skills and you can do some pretty cool tech with them and get into areas early. That is a big plus though I do wish the first item you get could be set up easier to use to make traveling faster, but its very satisfying in rooms that allow for it.

Overall its an okay metroidvania, the progression pushes you into a really specific way of going, so its not very metroidvania-y, but still fun. Just a few really annoying things, but if you don't care about that, fire away.

If you are a fan of games like Hollow Knight or platformer puzzle games, you will LOVE this game. But anyone with a pair of working eyeballs and ears will, at the very least, appreciate the beauty of all the art and sound design. No really, let me double down on the sound design. It's beautiful and masterful. Every time I came across an enemy, new or reoccurring, I got goosebumps. The sound effects are so damn creepy and unnerving.

Everything is so meticulously crafted, top to bottom. All the details of EVERYTHING are mind-boggling, especially considering it's all been made by ONE DUDE.

Truly wonderful game. Worth 20 bucks for sure.

It really makes you *feel* like Animal Well

Animal Well... As many others probably have, I got this game because of Dunkey hyping it up, given this is his publishing company's first game. This is a lot more than just a "I liked it because dunkey funny" review, though, I genuinely enjoyed this game and was constantly surprised by how clever the puzzles could be. The game all being made by one developer, Billy Basso, is both extremely impressive and realistic. The game's scope and usage of its mechanics is all very simple in practice. As a game developer myself, it's inspiring to see one developer make something this complete and clean. Billy did a great job with this game and it also shows how serious Dunkey is about Big Mode and its goal to push small developers into the spotlight.

If you LOVE FEZ and HATE Phil Fish, this game is for you
If you LOVE FEZ and LOVE Phil Fish, fair enough, this game is also for you
If you HATE FEZ and LOVE Phil Fish... Wait are you Phil Fish ??
If you HATE FEZ and HATE Phil Fish... Well what else you want me to say ?

Generally, give it a try. It's such a cool game. I think a lot of people would love it for so many reasons anyways .

There's not just, like, one layer of puzzles, nor two, or THREE
BUT FOUR LAYERS (or five if you count cheating lol)
Insane how such a game like this is such a rarity. But it probably took a lot of time to be made. And Billy Basso is such a nice fellow too.

there's capybara statues, 10/10