This game is a visual novel in spirit, and a fantastic one at that. It's a cleverly executed sci-fi mystery story, with a controversial (but in my opinion quite good) gameplay segment that's strongly decoupled from the narrative sections.

The narrative is neither linear nor chronological, being largely split between the thirteen playable characters' individual stories, which themselves are often not chronological or feature large gaps that can only be pieced together by revisiting the same event from another character's point of view.
The each of these thirteen scenarios are quite different in tone and structure, ranging from typical linear narratives to groundhog day scenarios, and from whodunits to shojo romance.
Overall, the story is very good but not flawless. Piecing together this Rube Goldberg machine of a story is a very unique experience and incredibly satisfying, though like many mysteries of this kind it loses some traction in its third act, as the plot loses its "what the fuck"-ness and struggles to find another strong emotion to drive it. Nevertheless, the twists and revelations never stop coming, and the story sticks the landing with a satisfying ending.
The character writing is worth highlighting as well. The shifting point of view means no character remains in the spotlight for very long, and yet the cast is composed of fleshed out and multidimensional characters, with distinct personalities that leverage tropes quite tastefully.
One specific problem I have with the writing is that most of the female playable characters' narratives rely very heavily on their romantic interests to drive the story, which feels a little uninspired, but each is still distinct enough in style and substance that I can easily look past this.

The combat sections, although disliked by many, were actually very enjoyable for me. The gameplay is difficult to label, as it's fairly unique, but it resembles the "real time with pause" style of combat featured in some CRPGs.
The game's narrative and combat sections are distinctly separate and don't really intermingle, though progression in one is occasionally gated by the other, and you need to complete both to finish the game. The gameplay half has a story of its own, and piecing together where and how it fits into the rest of the story is a fun part of the experience.
Personally, I found the gameplay a little easy, but still good fun. On the highest difficulty I found myself getting S ranks on most missions on my first try, and only one of them took me more than one retry to get that highest ranking. I never failed a mission, or even came close to doing so.

I remember the feeling of being entranced by games like Danganronpa or the Nonary Games when I was younger, with their particular flavour of dramatic mystery and mind-blowing moments of discovery. Whether it's an increased sensitivity to those games' problems or just the passing of time, I've found it difficult to go back to them now and feel even a shadow of that excitement.
To have experienced something like that again all these years later and in a game which I have no real gripes with has been a privilege. I'd recommend this to anyone.

I don't get the hype. It's a good game, I'm glad I played it, but I don't think I'll remember much of it years down the line, like I remember the games it's most commonly compared to.

Without combat or a story, the game relies on the strength of its presentation, puzzles, and platforming; and I just don't think it does any of these things exceptionally well.
The presentation is solid, it's a beautiful looking game and at its peaks the ambience can be gripping. But the lack of story, explicit or environmental, leaves it all feeling meaningless in a way that undermines my engagement.
The puzzles are very varied in nature and in complexity, but they rarely hit the sweet spot of satisfying challenge, and most commonly left me feeling either unfased or frustrated.
The platforming was a recurring pain point for me, with the more difficult platforming sections being a slog to get through, though I can see how this could really just be a me issue.

Of the game's three endings, I only got the first two. My path to the first was relatively straightforward and enjoyable, and included the most memorable moments of my playthrough.
The second ending was a tedious journey. Finding all the required steps to get it involves getting a few new abilities and running through the map trying to find places to use them in, and getting through some very unenjoyable challenges. The tedium only gets worse on the path to the third ending, as far as I could tell.

I think I could've enjoyed my time with Animal Well much more had I avoided the hype. In truth, it's not a bad game at all, but the comparisons to games like Outer Wilds or Tunic had me expecting an experience I didn't find here. Instead I was chasing a high that never came.

I played like two hours of this and couldn't continue.
I've heard the systems here are great, but systems are only accessible by engaging with the core mechanics, the presentation, the content, etc. and what I saw in these brief couple hours was so unpaletable to me that I couldn't be bothered.

It all just feels so inelegant. The dialogue is trite in style and a proper noun soup in content, the animations are janky, the environments are as meticulously crafted as you'd expect from procedural generation. The game's performance mode has screen tearing on consoles, and the menus are hideously uncomfortable to navigate with a controller.

I don't think this is a bad game, people clearly love it. But for as much effort as I'm sure went into making this, there doesn't seem to have been much taste involved in its design. I didn't give this game a chance, truthfully, but I have better things to do.