Got the second ending ("true" ending?) today so i'm gonna count it as finished for now even if there are couple more things I need. Most fun I've had with a game this year. A metroidvania with a focus entirely on puzzle solving is a welcome novelty to me, especially when the items necessary to solve said puzzles are extremely fun and intuitive to use.

My only gripe here is that Animal Well can feel very "NES-y" in the sense that some of the secrets feel almost impossible to figure out without outside help. In some ways, I kind of like that because it fosters a small sense of community amongst players looking to crack open the game for everything its worth. Other times it bums me out that I can't piece everything together from my own deductive reasoning.

There isn't much for music in this game from what I could hear but Animal Well trades that in for a very somber ambience broken up by some surprising animal encounters. I think the stand out moments specifically were the first Ostrich and kangaroo encounters. There was something about the squawking and stomping as my little guy frantically searched for an escape that just made that memorable.

I have no idea what the lore of this game means right now, but i don't really mind if I never figure it out. For me this is something best experienced, than analyzed.