Animal Well |OT| Well, Well, Well

[ShellFoyer]

Took me 7 1/2 to credits. I got 38 eggs a little bit after that… what now? I don't know how much I want to discuss other people's discoveries versus trying to find stuff for myself. I s'pose there must be a few more things I can figure out, then I can check in perhaps.

Great game too! I don't adore it (so far, let's wait and see), but a fun and engaging time, as good Metroidvanias are.

 

[Brat-Sampson]

A couple of hours in and it's... really good. Style and graphics are great, love the visual effects. Items are imaginative and rooms so far are minor challenges in terms of what to do but a bit stricter in terms of how. It's definitely smart in how it breaks new items in and teaches you some different use cases.

Negatives would be yeah, the check point system kinda hurts sometimes when you fail a room with enemies and have to do a runback. Just doesn't feel necessary when they could just reset you outside where you died etc. Also there was one room where I thought I was softlocked, turned out the jump I needed to do to get out wa the one I was sure I'd tried 3-4 times before and failed. Probably won't affect many other people.

I will say it pulled a couple of very fun tricks just before I stopped playing, which have given me a couple of ideas for what to be on the lookout for next time I drop in.

Definitely worth the price for me so far, and I'm interested to see how it continues.

 

[PlayBee]

This game is cool as fuck

 

[Janus]

It feels totally at odds with the puzzle aspect. I want to feel out my environment and try a bunch of things and I'm often punished for it. Not a good feeling after the first 90 minutes! It's an extra burden because of the opaque nature of the game. Sometimes you need to try the same specific action multiple times because you aren't sure if it's right or not, and if that specific action happens to be in a boss fight you'll be doing the hop of shame through the same puzzle boxes repeatedly only to have to retry yet again.

An autosave outside puzzle fields would have served the game better imo. I don't think the save system ruins it but it feels like unnecessary friction. It only takes away from the game.

In a Metroid game, you die through combat or dead end environmental hazards. Dead ends teach you to go elsewhere, and combat deaths teach you how to better engage with enemies. Animal Well is different because many puzzles are unique and its requirements are intentionally unclear. Which means you *need* to experiment. The punishing save mechanics really bother me.

Maybe there is some brilliant twist on the save mechanic later on that makes the tedium worthwhile…

Click to shrink...

The checkpoints are awful and kind of go against what the game is / wants from the player. I died from some platforming section and respawned miles away because I was exploring without finding a telephone, game got turned off for now.

It's also weird that you can fall into water and drown and it puts you right back to where you jumped, but if you get squashed you instantly die and have to respawn.

Click to shrink...

I've only played the game for a bit, but the checkpoint system is a huge negative for me right now. Runbacks for tricky platforming sections feel completely unnecessary and affect the flow of the game negatively.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

Most of the map covered, game does a lot of cool things but the checkpointing and backtracking get to me. Platforming is also sometimes more annoying than fun (and that map screen is not pretty). This year has been swimming in 8/10's for me this included. Prince of Persia already burned me out on backtracking/weird checkpointing.

 

[parski]

Click to shrink...

Does it look glorious on OLED?

 

[amara]

The bubble wand is one of the last power ups I got. I could have got this at the very beginning smh

 

[stopmrdomino]

this game is a fucking photo-sensitivity nightmare and i am SUPER glad i'm not epileptic

even with reduced flashing and the scanlines off it gets to be a... lot

 

[Agni Kai]

Sell me on this game in 2 sentences.

 

[AppleKid]

Damn, the items in this game are top notch. I've been complaining about Metroid having largely the same upgrades for decades now and this is exactly what I've been looking for: new, unique, and genuinely fun items that seem simple on the surface but have a variety of traversal and puzzle-solving applications.

I think I'd still place Tunic above it so far but I really wish Tunic had the same variety in items as Animal Well. That was the main thing keeping it from a 10/10 for me.

 

[Zekes]

Just dropping in to say this game is cool as fuck. Usually I don't care too much about spoilers but I haven't looked at any posts I'm bouncing until I beat the game

 

[Palette Swap]

As I progress and get more stuff, I want to come back here and post about it, but I don't want to because there are a lot of small yet cool "aha" moments.

 

[Danielsan]

Just got the 4th

Spoiler

flame.

I was stuck for a bit. I missed some obvious ways forward and probably ended up doing the hardest

Spoiler

flames (ostrich and dog)

first.

Haven't looked anything up yet, thankfully. Game is cool as hell.

 

[Odinsmana]

I like puzzle games in general, but really did not care for FEZ. Based on this thread is seems like the game is not for me then? Puzzles that punish failure by wasting your time also sounds like it would be controller breakingly frustrating. The game looked really cool and I have access to it through Playstation plus is it worth it to give it a shot?

 

[TheGummyBear]

I like puzzle games in general, but really did not care for FEZ. Based on this thread is seems like the game is not for me then? Puzzles that punish failure by wasting your time also sounds like it would be controller breakingly frustrating. The game looked really cool and I have access to it through Playstation plus is it worth it to give it a shot?

Click to shrink...

If you've got it on playstation plus then it's worth giving it a go to see how well you get on with it. The game is only 100mb, so you wouldn't even be spending time downloading it.

 

[Odinsmana]

If you've got it on playstation plus then it's worth giving it a go to see how well you get on with it. The game is only 100mb, so you wouldn't even be spending time downloading it.

Click to shrink...

I mostly ask to check if I would be wasting my time. There as so many great games currently that I want to play and haven`t got around to yet, so playing a game if I am most likely going to dislike it feels like a waste.

 

[TheGummyBear]

I mostly ask to check if I would be wasting my time. There as so many great games currently that I want to play and haven`t got around to yet, so playing a game if I am most likely going to dislike it feels like a waste.

Click to shrink...

Well I never played Fez so not sure how puzzle focused it is, but Animal Well is more focused on platforming puzzles and how to use the toolkit that you build up to get past a screen. Outside of a couple frustrating screens that rely on hidden passages, I personally haven't found anything too frustrating, as most dead ends I ran into were solved by going down a different path.

 

[Odinsmana]

Well I never played Fez so not sure how puzzle focused it is, but Animal Well is more focused on platforming puzzles and how to use the toolkit that you build up to get past a screen. Outside of a couple frustrating screens that rely on hidden passages, I personally haven't found anything too frustrating, as most dead ends I ran into were solved by going down a different path.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Jonnykong]

I've got three out of the four flames so far, but now I've got to go back to work for another 8 hours arghh

So far I haven't found it TOO difficult puzzle wise, and I'm somebody who's normally quite stupid when it comes to puzzle games. I've only had to look up one thing so far which I feel a bit embarrassed about because the solution was stupidly obvious.

 

[Boclfon479]

I played for maybe an hour yesterday, game is simple but pretty fun so far.

Also the bubble wand is super broken, I discovered shortly after getting it that you can press jump and the bubble button to place a bubble and jump at the same time, which means you can be standing on a bubble, and then create a new one and jump to it while in the air, effectively being able to skip parts of puzzles.

 

[Khanimus]

Played like an hour or two. The aesthetic is really nice and the moment-to-moment exploration feels good, but I'm not feeling the intense draw towards it

 

[ShellFoyer]

I played for maybe an hour yesterday, game is simple but pretty fun so far.

Also the bubble wand is super broken, I discovered shortly after getting it that you can press jump and the bubble button to place a bubble and jump at the same time, which means you can be standing on a bubble, and then create a new one and jump to it while in the air, effectively being able to skip parts of puzzles.

Click to shrink...

That's intentional, though. The "intended" route is there in case you haven't figured that out.

 

[Boclfon479]

That's intentional, though. The "intended" route is there in case you haven't figured that out.

Click to shrink...

Ooooh that's cool.

And here I was feeling smart 😂

 

[JODOROWSKY51]

Sell me on this game in 2 sentences.

Click to shrink...

Only played an hour, but so far it feels like the alien atmosphere of NES Metroid with the surreality of Limbo/Inside.

 

[Cebrudras]

I think the game is playing a bit loose with coyote time. I have only played for an hour but already had like two jumps I didn't manage until I deliberately started them too late.

 

[OnanieBomb]

Ooooh that's cool.

And here I was feeling smart 😂

Click to shrink...

Well you're smarter than me because I didn't think of doing that but wish I did lol

 

[Kadzork]

Credits rolling.

Outside of a slightly frustrating checkpoint system this was absolutely wonderful.

Now to start playing the real game 😅

 

[beezer]

Stopped playing yesterday around puzzle with caged cats, it was late, I was getting sleepy and stuck a bit, also all this meowing was driving me nuts, lol. Also was shocked a little by the traversal mechanics via bubbles and tubes, will go at it again now, I have to get I guess two more buttons, those pure souls must be saved!

 

[AIan]

Just figured out what those numbered pillars are for and feel so smart right now.

 

[Kadzork]

Just been over my map and there are at least 26 spots that look like they lead somewhere 😬

Going to come back to this after Crow Country and start to pick at these spots.

 

[Wyatt+]

Any comments on Switch performance? Trying to decide between Switch OLED and Steam Deck LCD.

 

[TM_]

how much precision platforming is there (if any)? love the vibe but i don't want to buy a game that's too difficult to complete.

 

[SuperOctopus]

who knew a dachshund could be so freaking scary?

Click to shrink...

The weenie dog actually scared the shit out of me lol

Click to shrink...

In the 90 minutes I played yesterday, this is the one single thing that really creeped me out. It was just so unsettling for me.

The bubble wand is one of the last power ups I got. I could have got this at the very beginning smh

Click to shrink...

This is the very first power up I got and it has been super useful. Especially when I figured out that you can press square and X at the same time to jump freely in areas

 

[Azuos]

This game opens SO MUCH after every power, it's insane.

It feels like you get cheat codes every time you open a golden chest.

how much precision platforming is there (if any)? love the vibe but i don't want to buy a game that's too difficult to complete.

Click to shrink...

Not much. At least when comparing to something like celeste. The difficulty lies in knowing what to do.

 

[Sonicbug]

Unlocking fast travel in this made me feel smart even though it's not that difficult.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

OK I'm gonna be honest, the manual save points coupled with how easy to die it is and lose 10-15 minutes of puzzle/platforming progress are REALLY starting to piss me off.

Please tell me I unlock a feature that makes the checkpointing less aggressively mean. Redoing multiple whole rooms of puzzles because I died due to contact damage isn't fun.

 

[Danielsan]

Just saw credits after about 7,5 hours, and I'm 34 eggs in. I'm going to keep scratching at this thing. I at least want to try to get all the eggs.
I just found

Spoiler

two new usable items

post-credits...

 

[Kadzork]

I am away from my PS5 all weekend but I just want to explore all those gaps in the map 😭

 

[Agni Kai]

Only played an hour, but so far it feels like the alien atmosphere of NES Metroid with the surreality of Limbo/Inside.

Click to shrink...

I'm beyond sold.

 

[Merton]

FU-UCK that big ass

Spoiler: creature

BAT!

 

[raspberrymousse]

This game is insanely good so far, won't interact with this thread until I'm done I think because it's so special in terms of discovery

 

[Cudpug]

Unfortunate to see so many issues around infrequent save points. Have so little time to game nowadays I hate losing progress. Puts me off purchasing at the moment sadly.

 

[GJ]

Unfortunate to see so many issues around infrequent save points. Have so little time to game nowadays I hate losing progress. Puts me off purchasing at the moment sadly.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, there's no real "losing progress" to speak of. Even if you find a collectible or something and you manage to die, you'll respawn at your last save point but you'll still have the thing you found and the pieces of the map you explored opened up. I also never felt that save points were too far away (they are marked on your map and often easy to get to) and never felt like there weren't enough of them. You're almost always at a maximum of 4-5 screens away from one (maybe not literally) and you can travel through most screens within seconds if you've done them before.

I see I'm in the minority here, but it never felt to me like I wasted time, and it took me short of 8 hours for the credits to roll with about 20 eggs, which is on the longer side.

 

[JT_77]

This game looooks incredible

 

[oatmeal]

I'm lost...

(EARLY ON)

Spoiler

Got the mock disk and got through the stuff without that damn cat following me and then got whatever was in that overhanging chest. But now I'm totally confused as to where to go. Been exploring everywhere and can't find anything.

 

[Danielsan]

This game rules. I just found two

Spoiler

inputs for the flute,

which I've used to save

Spoiler

two cats.

Guess I'm hunting for more of those now. I still have three more to go.

Also at 39 eggs now.

Finding all of this stuff on my own is so rewarding.

 

[Confused Cheeseburger]

Idk how this game will hold up over hours but in just 15 minutes, I can already tell how well designed it is.

 

[More_Badass]

As someone who adores Rain World, how does this compare?

 

[PlayBee]

Rolled credits after about 4 hours with around 35 eggs. Really creative and fun game. Probably gonna try to get all the achievements, but idk about this level 3 stuff.

 

[Mushlikeahusky]

This feels like a lost psvita game