Had a really fun time with this game! I loved exploring this mysterious world and the puzzles hidden throughout it, it’s probably the smartest i’ve felt while playing a metroidvania. The game isn’t particularly hard, but it was very fun, and some of the postgame puzzles were very fun to figure out. I’m not gonna go in depth with this review because i don’t wanna spoil anything, going in blind was super fun and i don’t wanna ruin that for anyone interested in this game. If you like puzzles, solving things with zero help, and metroidvanias, i’d highly recommend checking out Animal Well.

Had a really fun time with this game! I loved exploring this mysterious world and the puzzles hidden throughout it, it’s probably the smartest i’ve felt while playing a metroidvania. The game isn’t particularly hard, but it was very fun, and some of the postgame puzzles were very fun to figure out. I’m not gonna go in depth with this review because i don’t wanna spoil anything, going in blind was super fun and i don’t wanna ruin that for anyone interested in this game. If you like puzzles, solving things with zero help, and metroidvanias, i’d highly recommend checking out Animal Well.

I’ve had this game for over a decade, getting it back in December 2013 when my family got a Wii U during the holidays. Over the course of that decade, i’ve tried on and off to beat the game, but always got stuck at one part or just got bored of the game. Fast forward to the present, and i’ve finally beaten The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. After playing many action/adventure games that came out after WWHD, this game’s movement and combat took me a while to get fully used to. It feels aged, but at the same time it feels like it fits in with modern Nintendo games just right. The different attacks, traversal items, and puzzle solving items led to a lot of “Ah-ha!” moments throughout the game. Puzzles in the Earth and Wind Temples especially felt satisfying to solve. One of my biggest mixed bags with this game however is the Sea. For a game that takes place entirely at sea, sea traversal felt fine, but super boring after a while. It’s a cycle of find where you want to go, change the wind direction, sail for a few minutes, repeat. There are a lot of things you can obtain to help make this cycle more bearable, such as the song that lets you teleport to select locations, or the Swift Sail which lets you travel faster at sea and automatically changes the wind direction to wherever your boat is pointing towards. These things make exploring the sea significantly easier/simplified, however there’s one big issue with exploring the sea: The goddamn sea charts. At first they’re fun to find in chests and discover a treasure’s location, but very quickly they become tedious and feel like a chore. Some of these charts are special charts, which tell you where certain collectables are located on the map, but some of these charts are also REQUIRED to beat the main story without having a headache searching for underwater chests. It doesn’t help that you have to manually go to every spot on the map and feed a fish in order to fill out your map and find some of these treasures/main story items. I had my fun with treasure charts, but i just wish exploring in this game’s giant sea wasn’t so tedious. Now that the sea rant is out of the way, i’ll talk a little bit about other parts of this game. I liked the art style of this game a lot! It took some time, but it really grew on me, especially once i got to Forest Haven. The sharp lighting, cel shaded look, and vibrant colors were a lot of fun, and made for some very nice cutscenes in the game, especially near the end. As for the game’s story, i thought it was alright. It’s nothing too crazy, but i did like the different side stories that happen on certain islands, and i thought the main story was pretty cool too. Overall, i really did enjoy my time with this game! I may have my gripes with some major parts of it, but overall i loved WWHD, and i’m glad i gave it another chance. If you’re a fan of Zelda games and haven’t played this one yet, i highly recommend checking it out!