I find this game incredibly difficult to pin down to a star rating and it might actually inspire me to ditch the stars on BL altogether.
I think I got kinda screwed with this one and my expectations of it. I knew about this game for awhile but I wasn't really interested until I saw all the comparisons to things like Outer Wilds and Tunic. I definitely understand why people make those comparisons but going in to this game thinking of those experiences really put me in the wrong frame of mind. This seriously is just a really good Metroid with some super neat ideas. It's only when you get to the discord study group required sicko third layer that the game becomes something truly mind bending and unfortunately, everyone who got early copies of the game talked about it like that was the entire experience.
The first layer of the game is really fun though! Finding your way through these areas and collecting the four flames is super rewarding, especially because the major items are so esoteric and multifaceted. There were more than a few times that I picked up a new item, thought it was completely worthless, and then realized it was so important in ways I never even considered. On top of that, you can have that sort of discovery multiple times with the same item! It's nuts!!
The main thing held me back from really falling in love with this game though was the save system. For me personally, I think the saving in this game completely fights against what makes it so special. Once you get past the credits the game becomes about collecting hidden eggs throughout the map (which feels extremely similar to collecting missed energy tanks in Metroid). I was pretty excited to dive in to this after getting to the first credits but I quickly came to the conclusion that getting around the map just felt tedious and unexciting. I constantly had the sensation of brain blasting a new idea to try out being undercut by the realization that I had to find my way back to wherever that room is. I think this would immediately be one of my top games of this year if it just had the same screen respawn from Celeste. I know that would completely ruin some bigger parts of the game but I think it could just be temporarily disabled for those sections. Once you've gotten to the egg finding portion it is just so bothersome to mess up a platforming section you've already done and be sent back to some phone that is 20 screens away.
I had a lot of frustration with this game but I always felt like I wanted to be playing it when I was away from it. When I play a game like this I think a huge draw is the narrative mystery behind the puzzles that is being chipped away it. When you play something like Tunic it always feels like you're getting closer to a revelation about its world as you get deeper in to the puzzle web it's made up of. Animal Well feels purely mechanical to me. The atmosphere is truly incredible in this. I especially love the lack of music for a lot of the game. But it took me a bit to realize that the reward for completing all of these puzzles would be more complicated puzzles. There wouldn't be some kind of eye opening moment that made me view the would world differently. It would just be different ways to look at these rooms.
And that's ok!! I want to be clear that this game is incredibly impressive and that I probably am not even capable of having a conversation with Billy Basso and his gigantus style brain. I just think it's not my flavor of whatever this genre of game is and I mostly wanted to share these thoughts because I disagree with so much of the messaging I have been seeing about it. This game is for puzzle freaks ONLY who also can put up with a lot of backtracking. I think that would have been me if there were the promise of something a bit more there along the way.
IDK tho! Part of me loves Animal Well and I think I would like to revisit it some day in the future with the right mindset.
I think I got kinda screwed with this one and my expectations of it. I knew about this game for awhile but I wasn't really interested until I saw all the comparisons to things like Outer Wilds and Tunic. I definitely understand why people make those comparisons but going in to this game thinking of those experiences really put me in the wrong frame of mind. This seriously is just a really good Metroid with some super neat ideas. It's only when you get to the discord study group required sicko third layer that the game becomes something truly mind bending and unfortunately, everyone who got early copies of the game talked about it like that was the entire experience.
The first layer of the game is really fun though! Finding your way through these areas and collecting the four flames is super rewarding, especially because the major items are so esoteric and multifaceted. There were more than a few times that I picked up a new item, thought it was completely worthless, and then realized it was so important in ways I never even considered. On top of that, you can have that sort of discovery multiple times with the same item! It's nuts!!
The main thing held me back from really falling in love with this game though was the save system. For me personally, I think the saving in this game completely fights against what makes it so special. Once you get past the credits the game becomes about collecting hidden eggs throughout the map (which feels extremely similar to collecting missed energy tanks in Metroid). I was pretty excited to dive in to this after getting to the first credits but I quickly came to the conclusion that getting around the map just felt tedious and unexciting. I constantly had the sensation of brain blasting a new idea to try out being undercut by the realization that I had to find my way back to wherever that room is. I think this would immediately be one of my top games of this year if it just had the same screen respawn from Celeste. I know that would completely ruin some bigger parts of the game but I think it could just be temporarily disabled for those sections. Once you've gotten to the egg finding portion it is just so bothersome to mess up a platforming section you've already done and be sent back to some phone that is 20 screens away.
I had a lot of frustration with this game but I always felt like I wanted to be playing it when I was away from it. When I play a game like this I think a huge draw is the narrative mystery behind the puzzles that is being chipped away it. When you play something like Tunic it always feels like you're getting closer to a revelation about its world as you get deeper in to the puzzle web it's made up of. Animal Well feels purely mechanical to me. The atmosphere is truly incredible in this. I especially love the lack of music for a lot of the game. But it took me a bit to realize that the reward for completing all of these puzzles would be more complicated puzzles. There wouldn't be some kind of eye opening moment that made me view the would world differently. It would just be different ways to look at these rooms.
And that's ok!! I want to be clear that this game is incredibly impressive and that I probably am not even capable of having a conversation with Billy Basso and his gigantus style brain. I just think it's not my flavor of whatever this genre of game is and I mostly wanted to share these thoughts because I disagree with so much of the messaging I have been seeing about it. This game is for puzzle freaks ONLY who also can put up with a lot of backtracking. I think that would have been me if there were the promise of something a bit more there along the way.
IDK tho! Part of me loves Animal Well and I think I would like to revisit it some day in the future with the right mindset.