Animal Well was an absolute pleasure to play, it stands out in the field of metroidvanias and excels in the creativity of its mechanics. The setting and art style were stylish the whole way through and the process of exploring the map was on par with some of my favourites in the genre. I finished the game and have seen a fair amount of the side content but it seems like there is a lot more still to discover and I intend to keep playing. My views on the game are unlikely to change too much unless there is substantially more than just collectibles remaining (which there might be).
Something I value super highly in metroidvanias is the design of the mechanics which enable exploration. I really like when the tools/abilities take you by surprise, whether that be something unbelievably creative, something that enables more enjoyable movement and general map traversal, puzzles where it's difficult to infer the future mechanic that will solve it or seemingly innocuous parts of the environment being of later importance. Animal Well succeeds on all these fronts and culminates with some very memorable moments of unlocking an ability and figuring out a subtle use to reach a new area. Similarly there are some ways of using your items which you can more or less stumble onto and then have a eureka moment. Supraland was probably my favourite in the genre for its mechanics, with things like unlocking the magnetic power and realising every hammer, nail etc. strewn across the map is now important. This game might have surpassed it, for its design and for the creativity that the items permit - you often get to feel like you're sort of breaking the game as you learn new movements techniques.
There was always some part of the map I was curious to explore and you will definitely be rewarded in terms of the entire map coming together, in the same vein as you might expect from games in the genre. The overall polish is very high; aside from a few enemy hitboxes which felt off, the quality was amazing overall. There were a couple of moments where I thought something was slow or not implemented, and then immediately realised there was a button that could solve my problem.
I think the game is really, really good, but outside of the mechanics I was so fond of, I don't think that it crosses over into amazing or special. There weren't any bad puzzles but nor were there any really memorable puzzles (again this is in my experience so far). The enemy encounters are what you'd expect with a game with no combat and didn't have the spectacle that something like Ori could achieve. The art style often lent itself to make each biome feel fairly similar and they were nowhere near as distinct as something like Hollow Knight. There weren't that many major platforming elements, although there were some things you could do across multiple screens which were awesome. I assume there is some environmental storytelling that I missed, regardless any narrative that is there seems to take a back seat to the ambient setting and feel of the game.
I can definitely recommend the game and believe there is a lot to enjoy, but my current opinion is that it's nothing crazy. Despite the stellar mechanics, the overall package isn't that special to me, although I imagine it will be to some people. Maybe I'll find what I'm looking for in the rest of the game as I continue playing.
Update: the post-game content is fantastic, the map is way cooler than I realised and the puzzles have improved a lot, changing from 8/10 to 9/10.
Something I value super highly in metroidvanias is the design of the mechanics which enable exploration. I really like when the tools/abilities take you by surprise, whether that be something unbelievably creative, something that enables more enjoyable movement and general map traversal, puzzles where it's difficult to infer the future mechanic that will solve it or seemingly innocuous parts of the environment being of later importance. Animal Well succeeds on all these fronts and culminates with some very memorable moments of unlocking an ability and figuring out a subtle use to reach a new area. Similarly there are some ways of using your items which you can more or less stumble onto and then have a eureka moment. Supraland was probably my favourite in the genre for its mechanics, with things like unlocking the magnetic power and realising every hammer, nail etc. strewn across the map is now important. This game might have surpassed it, for its design and for the creativity that the items permit - you often get to feel like you're sort of breaking the game as you learn new movements techniques.
There was always some part of the map I was curious to explore and you will definitely be rewarded in terms of the entire map coming together, in the same vein as you might expect from games in the genre. The overall polish is very high; aside from a few enemy hitboxes which felt off, the quality was amazing overall. There were a couple of moments where I thought something was slow or not implemented, and then immediately realised there was a button that could solve my problem.
I think the game is really, really good, but outside of the mechanics I was so fond of, I don't think that it crosses over into amazing or special. There weren't any bad puzzles but nor were there any really memorable puzzles (again this is in my experience so far). The enemy encounters are what you'd expect with a game with no combat and didn't have the spectacle that something like Ori could achieve. The art style often lent itself to make each biome feel fairly similar and they were nowhere near as distinct as something like Hollow Knight. There weren't that many major platforming elements, although there were some things you could do across multiple screens which were awesome. I assume there is some environmental storytelling that I missed, regardless any narrative that is there seems to take a back seat to the ambient setting and feel of the game.
I can definitely recommend the game and believe there is a lot to enjoy, but my current opinion is that it's nothing crazy. Despite the stellar mechanics, the overall package isn't that special to me, although I imagine it will be to some people. Maybe I'll find what I'm looking for in the rest of the game as I continue playing.
Update: the post-game content is fantastic, the map is way cooler than I realised and the puzzles have improved a lot, changing from 8/10 to 9/10.