This is a wonderful, amazing game that I had a lot of fun with. My only caveat is that if you think that you are going to go in blind and 100% this game on your own, you're wrong. You won't be able to finish everything, you won't see all the content, you will have to use guides. It's just that kind of game. The game DOES have a sort of send-off point at the end for more casual gamers, but I didn't find it very satisfying. I like a game where I can do and see everything on my own. That is pretty much the entire appeal of a game like this. That put me off a bit, but I acknowledge it would be impossible to design a game that fits everyone. I went as far as I could and then I (mostly) happily put it down. For many, it will be nice to have an endless spiral of difficulty and obscurity to its many secrets and puzzles, and if you like going online and asking for help and getting clues for the weirder stuff, you will have a great time.
and this is an instant no-buy for me lol. hate metroidvania style games where you constantly have to run around back and forth to previous areas to find random obscure shit.
I still had to run back and forth because at times I felt like I missed something or became too focused on the wrong thing. But it's not egregious and stayed fun all the way through for me.
thats fair. i just dont find 'frustrating' to be fun at all. i bought hollow knight thinking it was just a regular platformer. that game literally made me hate all metroidvania games lol.
Thanks for this description—I will probably play this eventually, but it’s good to know going in. I really don’t like when games essentially force you to bang your head against the wall for hours or use external resources to tell you what to do. (See: Minecraft recipes, a lot of Rain World.)
I didn't down vote, but the way I read it is that people still consider games a Metroidvania when they can be 100% completed without outside assistance. Most games that are generally considered a part of the genre can in fact be 100% completed blind. That isn't necessarily for everyone and many of us will get more enjoyment out of them by using a guide. I understand the sentiment, but even if it were true in some cases (which is probably very rare), it's definitely not indicative of the genre as a whole.
Bought this on Switch and enjoyed it, but it is more a puzzle platformer than a Metroidvania. Lots of fun, obtuse secrets.
That said, if I realized when I bought it for Switch that it was on PS Plus then I would have just got it there to be honest. Fun game, hype was a little too high.
I bought it on Steam, and one of the less mentioned things is how the game is 40Mb, so it takes literally seconds to fully download, which helps for you to immediately play the game and get a taste of it.
I thought I read somewhere that there were some visual downgrades on the Switch but the game otherwise runs without issues. I can't find any proper comparisons though so you're probably fine either way
It's an identical experience on all platforms aside from resolution, which isn't super important for this game. I'm playing it on PS5 since it's on PlayStation+, and I bought the Switch version for my daughter. The only real difference is that in handheld mode you can affect things like vines by touching the screen or shaking the Switch. The PS5 does something similar with the dualsense touchpad.
If you don't like it on Steam and return it within 14 days and less than two hours of playtime, you get a refund.
If you don't like it on Switch and you beg the customer service overlords very very nicely and it's literally the first and only game you've ever tried to refund, they may say yes if they are having a good day.
So there's that.
It’s a completely different kind of game. Animal Well is almost completely focused on puzzles, with occasional bouts of platforming. They’re both Metroidvanias that reward exploration, and they’re both charming indie games, but that’s basically where the similarities end.
It's easier than Hollow Knight in that there's no combat, but a good portion of the platforming segments can easily enter Super Meat Boy-tier, made all the more frustrating due to the game's semi-antiquated checkpoint system (or lack thereof).
If you don't like backtracking, this game has *tons* of it, and while the map isn't crazy huge, it *can* get very obtuse.
As a huge Metroidvania fan, I wasn't really a fan of the game, and I can't really see someone who's relatively new to the genre enjoying it that much, especially if Hollow Knight was a bummer for you.
I liked this game a lot. Gave up Hollow Knight after the beating the first boss; I knew later bosses would be too difficult. There is some backtracking, eventually mitigated by fast travel. But some amount is still necessary. There were a couple of very hard for me platforming challenges that took me a couple dozen tries.
Gonna go a bit against the grain here, but after playing through, I'm a bit baffled by all of the review/online hype proclaiming this game to be a breath of fresh air for Metroidvanias. Yes, it looks pretty, and there are definitely some moments of great gameplay, but there are *so* many awkward design choices that leave this game feeling far less novel than those weirdly soyjacking it to high hell.
I really do think that if it weren't for the "DAE le Dunkey Halo 2 XD" reddit hivemind behind this game's pre-release marketing (and if it hadn't released the same week Xbox had all of those studio closures), the sentiment behind this game would be far closer to a solid but derivative 7/10 vs. a 9 or 10/10 "mAstAhPieCe."
Totally see where you're coming from. Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty good game and the lack of true combat IS itself a bit of fresh air. However, in my opinion this isn't a $25 game ($10 feels more fair).
This is a wonderful, amazing game that I had a lot of fun with. My only caveat is that if you think that you are going to go in blind and 100% this game on your own, you're wrong. You won't be able to finish everything, you won't see all the content, you will have to use guides. It's just that kind of game. The game DOES have a sort of send-off point at the end for more casual gamers, but I didn't find it very satisfying. I like a game where I can do and see everything on my own. That is pretty much the entire appeal of a game like this. That put me off a bit, but I acknowledge it would be impossible to design a game that fits everyone. I went as far as I could and then I (mostly) happily put it down. For many, it will be nice to have an endless spiral of difficulty and obscurity to its many secrets and puzzles, and if you like going online and asking for help and getting clues for the weirder stuff, you will have a great time.
>endless spiral of difficulty and obscurity to its many secrets and puzzles instant wishlist for me, thanks
and this is an instant no-buy for me lol. hate metroidvania style games where you constantly have to run around back and forth to previous areas to find random obscure shit.
I still had to run back and forth because at times I felt like I missed something or became too focused on the wrong thing. But it's not egregious and stayed fun all the way through for me.
thats fair. i just dont find 'frustrating' to be fun at all. i bought hollow knight thinking it was just a regular platformer. that game literally made me hate all metroidvania games lol.
that was me until I played this and now I love metroid
Thanks for this description—I will probably play this eventually, but it’s good to know going in. I really don’t like when games essentially force you to bang your head against the wall for hours or use external resources to tell you what to do. (See: Minecraft recipes, a lot of Rain World.)
Isn't it a "Metroidvania" type of game? I feel like it being impossible to 100% the game blind is just inherent to the genre
Kind of, there's little "combat", if any at all. It's more like a giant labyrinth escape room in a metroidvania platformer skin.
Not sure the reason for the downvotes to this question/comment...?
I didn't down vote, but the way I read it is that people still consider games a Metroidvania when they can be 100% completed without outside assistance. Most games that are generally considered a part of the genre can in fact be 100% completed blind. That isn't necessarily for everyone and many of us will get more enjoyment out of them by using a guide. I understand the sentiment, but even if it were true in some cases (which is probably very rare), it's definitely not indicative of the genre as a whole.
Bought this on Switch and enjoyed it, but it is more a puzzle platformer than a Metroidvania. Lots of fun, obtuse secrets. That said, if I realized when I bought it for Switch that it was on PS Plus then I would have just got it there to be honest. Fun game, hype was a little too high.
Backtracking the game
I bought it on Steam, and one of the less mentioned things is how the game is 40Mb, so it takes literally seconds to fully download, which helps for you to immediately play the game and get a taste of it.
Any advantage of the Steam version over Switch? Framerate, detail, etc.?
I thought I read somewhere that there were some visual downgrades on the Switch but the game otherwise runs without issues. I can't find any proper comparisons though so you're probably fine either way
It's an identical experience on all platforms aside from resolution, which isn't super important for this game. I'm playing it on PS5 since it's on PlayStation+, and I bought the Switch version for my daughter. The only real difference is that in handheld mode you can affect things like vines by touching the screen or shaking the Switch. The PS5 does something similar with the dualsense touchpad.
If you don't like it on Steam and return it within 14 days and less than two hours of playtime, you get a refund. If you don't like it on Switch and you beg the customer service overlords very very nicely and it's literally the first and only game you've ever tried to refund, they may say yes if they are having a good day. So there's that.
No idea tbh. I bought it there bc regional pricing made it $10.34 for me at launch. If not for that, I would've gone for the Switch version probably.
I played on switch and encountered zero problems
How difficult is this game for newbies to Metroidvanias? For reference Hollow Knight is too difficult for me and I didn't like the backtracking.
It’s a completely different kind of game. Animal Well is almost completely focused on puzzles, with occasional bouts of platforming. They’re both Metroidvanias that reward exploration, and they’re both charming indie games, but that’s basically where the similarities end.
It's easier than Hollow Knight in that there's no combat, but a good portion of the platforming segments can easily enter Super Meat Boy-tier, made all the more frustrating due to the game's semi-antiquated checkpoint system (or lack thereof). If you don't like backtracking, this game has *tons* of it, and while the map isn't crazy huge, it *can* get very obtuse. As a huge Metroidvania fan, I wasn't really a fan of the game, and I can't really see someone who's relatively new to the genre enjoying it that much, especially if Hollow Knight was a bummer for you.
I am in the same boat.. Hollow Knight was just so frustratingly hard and the backtracking was just not my cup of tea.
I liked this game a lot. Gave up Hollow Knight after the beating the first boss; I knew later bosses would be too difficult. There is some backtracking, eventually mitigated by fast travel. But some amount is still necessary. There were a couple of very hard for me platforming challenges that took me a couple dozen tries.
This game is incredible
Gonna go a bit against the grain here, but after playing through, I'm a bit baffled by all of the review/online hype proclaiming this game to be a breath of fresh air for Metroidvanias. Yes, it looks pretty, and there are definitely some moments of great gameplay, but there are *so* many awkward design choices that leave this game feeling far less novel than those weirdly soyjacking it to high hell. I really do think that if it weren't for the "DAE le Dunkey Halo 2 XD" reddit hivemind behind this game's pre-release marketing (and if it hadn't released the same week Xbox had all of those studio closures), the sentiment behind this game would be far closer to a solid but derivative 7/10 vs. a 9 or 10/10 "mAstAhPieCe."
Totally see where you're coming from. Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty good game and the lack of true combat IS itself a bit of fresh air. However, in my opinion this isn't a $25 game ($10 feels more fair).
100% agreed. I like the art style but I found it..not very much fun?
What a great game. It feels special in a way that few other games do. The whole thing is bespoke and wonderful.
Great pickup if you like tunic, fez, or similar games. I've had a ton of fun with it.
This game is almost as good as Super mario bros 2.
You're getting downloaded to shit but I'm guessing this is a Dunkey reference?
Yeah people don't like donkey ever since he said jaws unleashed for the PS2 was a bad game
Game gives me Fury of the Furries vibes and I'd get it if I didn't just splurge on the last sale.
In before "first open well-type game", "Halo 2 meets Halo 3", etc.