a tranquil puzzle metroidvania filled with emergent gameplay. animal well was something i didnt expect to enjoy so much but the imsim like quality of its tools really brought up my enjoyment by a lot. being able to sequence break with just some intuitive thinking like "oh what if i hug the wall as i fall and use the yoyo to hit all the buttons?" was a continuous joy. while the backtracking is plentiful and can begin to get tiresome, the plethora of secrets hidden throughout the world makes it not as bad as one may think. the world is sometimes desolate, for better or worse, which does hamper the backtracking for me. sometimes i also felt that certain tools were underused in some cases (firecrackers couldve been more than just a combat tool imo). aside from the rare level design mishaps and how tools were so close to being used to the fullest of their capabilities, the game's cool. cryptic in the best way, eerily beautiful, and filled with organic puzzle solutions, animal well succeeds in being a labyrinthine mind worm.

if you fuck with animal well, PLEASE go check out mosa lina. that game's emergent gameplay incarnate.