Animal Well

really glad I picked it up, been just an endless "wait, what?"-a-thon so far

like a less stressful Hollow Knight, which is just fine tbh

Most Metroidvanias already struggle with how hard it is to 100% them once you're down to the last few items or sections of the map. So when you combine this genre with Animal Well's puzzle-filled and cryptic gameplay, the end-game becomes needlessly tedious.

After ~20 hours and a dozen laps around the map, I gave in and looked up the locations of the last few eggs. I'm fine with the post-game/community ARG content being as hidden as the dev wants it to be, but I think there's room for quality-of-life improvements to reduce the amount of aimless meandering and allow more time for actually solving puzzles.

Other than that, this game was a joy (and is responsible for ruining my sleep schedule). Especially impressed with how this was made by a single developer - the art and atmosphere is top notch.

While it doesn't reach the highs of Tunic or Void Stranger, it's still likely to be a GOTY candidate for me.

Good game. Reminds me of old first-wave(?) indie platformers like VVVVVV, Lyle in Cube Sector, Seven Minutes, An Untitled Story andKnytt in the best way.

Also absolutely insane that so many people cheese one of the best parts of the game. Wtf

It's a great and very well designed puzzle-platformer, but for me the main weakness is how much like a "video game" it feels. Since most of the game is mechanical puzzles you have to resolve in a one specific way, it never achieves the sense of a living breathing alien world that Hollow Knight or, especially, Rain World had.

i've never cared for metroidvanias but this instantly clicked with me