In the technical aspects of game design (sound design, graphics, controls, friction of play, difficulty, stability, performance) this game is nearly flawless, I think. The creator is clearly very technically talented. Unfortunately, this is let down by a lack of artistic/creative direction, and probably poor playtesting. As another reviewer said, this game completely lacks any context or narrative. There appears to be no symbolism and no hint at any meaning behind anything. There's no story, and it doesn't provoke any kind of thought or have any artistic spark, which is honestly quite bizarre given how technically competent this game is otherwise, and the strong superficial impression of style afforded by the art style and the trailer clips. The takeaway is that, despite the strong convention for this genre of game to be at least partially story-driven (think Hollow Knight; Ori and the Blind Forest), Animal Well isn't an artistic or narrative-driven game whatsoever. The only appeal is to players who are satisfied by platforming/puzzle dexterity challenges and especially those who are 'completionists' and who like 'achievements' and such.

For some reason, the dev placed a large number of secrets in the game that nobody could ever reasonably figure out on their own. I read a review before playing that warned me of that fact, so I made sure to pay special attention to the surroundings. I also am generally quite good at these metroidvania sorts of games. But even then, I played through the whole game without ever finding out that there were any "warp songs". One of them is relatively easy to find, but it requires the player to stand on one of two specific tiles and wait for a fish to jump out of the water and tell you the tune. This is poorly designed, because the player has no reason to stand on those tiles, and is conditioned throughout the game to believe that all aquatic creatures are hostile anyway, so there's no reason to stick around and watch the creature. In a more professionally designed game, the game would subtly lead the player to do this on their own, through level design and sound/visual design. For example, maybe a conspicuously long pier that looks different to anything else in the game, and serves no clear purpose... then when you stand on the pier, you see the fish and it makes a huge splash, then it gives you the tune. (Also, maybe throw in a reference to the Mamba fish from Link's Awakening, while you're at it.)

For 90% of the game, it's a relatively relaxing experience, interspersed with puzzles and sections of chain-jumping off of bubbles. This requires a high level of dexterity, which many gamers today have, but it needlessly excludes a large potential audience for the game who will be unable to enjoy it. Also, the remaining 10% of the game is chase sequences, which suddenly add an unwelcome tension and pressure and large spike in difficulty to what is otherwise a relaxing experience. I don't like it when a game switches genres half-way through like that.

The game treats secrets as a collectathon, and doesn't really offer the player a substantial reward for finding any given hidden passage. Another issue is that despite the amount of end-game content (which is all filler and figuring out things by giving up and looking them up on wikis etc), there isn't any clear place where you can see what portion of things you've found, or what you've left to find (there's a place where you can see a 3x3 grid of candles. This tells you how many of the game's 9 candles you have lit. But even this "secret tracker" is itself a secret of sorts. The game is annoyingly obtuse.) It feels a bit like the creator got bored of making this game at some point, and started stuffing it with ever-more obtuse secrets for the post-game, and they lost perspective on how obtuse all that content is because they didn't have professional playtesters.

The game lasted me only 7 hours. I unlocked the movement upgrades pretty early, but they're not very complicated and don't interact with each other in any particularly interesting ways. A couple of the upgrades are only for specific situations, and don't help you in a general way with exploration, which makes them pretty lame finds. The second half of the game was trivialised by the fact that I had the movement upgrades, which detracted from my enjoyment of a large portion of the game.

The result is a game that lasted me only 7 hours, and I never really got to unlock any cool or interesting toys to play with. I never found any of the six(!) warp songs, and neither would I have needed them anyway, because the game is too small in scope to make good use of them. There's no discernible artistic vision and no thought provocation from this game. It feels a bit soulless and empty like that, despite how technically competent it is.

Currently, the game is priced at 37 AUD. This is definitely too expensive for the short duration and the lack of any creative/artistic value. There's no narrative, no symbolism, no themes, et cetera. It's just a technically competent platformer, and a very short one at that. I do not recommend this unless it is half-price and you're especially keen on metroidvanias.

In the technical aspects of game design (sound design, graphics, controls, friction of play, difficulty, stability, performance) this game is nearly flawless, I think. The creator is clearly very technically talented. Unfortunately, this is let down by a lack of artistic/creative direction, and probably poor playtesting. As another reviewer said, this game completely lacks any context or narrative. There appears to be no symbolism and no hint at any meaning behind anything. There's no story, and it doesn't provoke any kind of thought or have any artistic spark, which is honestly quite bizarre given how technically competent this game is otherwise, and the strong superficial impression of style afforded by the art style and the trailer clips. The takeaway is that, despite the strong convention for this genre of game to be at least partially story-driven (think Hollow Knight; Ori and the Blind Forest), Animal Well isn't an artistic or narrative-driven game whatsoever. The only appeal is to players who are satisfied by platforming/puzzle dexterity challenges and especially those who are 'completionists' and who like 'achievements' and such. For some reason, the dev placed a large number of secrets in the game that nobody could ever reasonably figure out on their own. I read a review before playing that warned me of that fact, so I made sure to pay special attention to the surroundings. I also am generally quite good at these metroidvania sorts of games. But even then, I played through the whole game without ever finding out that there were any "warp songs". One of them is relatively easy to find, but it requires the player to stand on one of two specific tiles and wait for a fish to jump out of the water and tell you the tune. This is poorly designed, because the player has no reason to stand on those tiles, and is conditioned throughout the game to believe that all aquatic creatures are hostile anyway, so there's no reason to stick around and watch the creature. In a more professionally designed game, the game would subtly lead the player to do this on their own, through level design and sound/visual design. For example, maybe a conspicuously long pier that looks different to anything else in the game, and serves no clear purpose... then when you stand on the pier, you see the fish and it makes a huge splash, then it gives you the tune. (Also, maybe throw in a reference to the Mamba fish from Link's Awakening, while you're at it.) For 90% of the game, it's a relatively relaxing experience, interspersed with puzzles and sections of chain-jumping off of bubbles. This requires a high level of dexterity, which many gamers today have, but it needlessly excludes a large potential audience for the game who will be unable to enjoy it. Also, the remaining 10% of the game is chase sequences, which suddenly add an unwelcome tension and pressure and large spike in difficulty to what is otherwise a relaxing experience. I don't like it when a game switches genres half-way through like that. The game treats secrets as a collectathon, and doesn't really offer the player a substantial reward for finding any given hidden passage. Another issue is that despite the amount of end-game content (which is all filler and figuring out things by giving up and looking them up on wikis etc), there isn't any clear place where you can see what portion of things you've found, or what you've left to find (there's a place where you can see a 3x3 grid of candles. This tells you how many of the game's 9 candles you have lit. But even this "secret tracker" is itself a secret of sorts. The game is annoyingly obtuse.) It feels a bit like the creator got bored of making this game at some point, and started stuffing it with ever-more obtuse secrets for the post-game, and they lost perspective on how obtuse all that content is because they didn't have professional playtesters. The game lasted me only 7 hours. I unlocked the movement upgrades pretty early, but they're not very complicated and don't interact with each other in any particularly interesting ways. A couple of the upgrades are only for specific situations, and don't help you in a general way with exploration, which makes them pretty lame finds. The second half of the game was trivialised by the fact that I had the movement upgrades, which detracted from my enjoyment of a large portion of the game. The result is a game that lasted me only 7 hours, and I never really got to unlock any cool or interesting toys to play with. I never found any of the six(!) warp songs, and neither would I have needed them anyway, because the game is too small in scope to make good use of them. There's no discernible artistic vision and no thought provocation from this game. It feels a bit soulless and empty like that, despite how technically competent it is. Currently, the game is priced at 37 AUD. This is definitely too expensive for the short duration and the lack of any creative/artistic value. There's no narrative, no symbolism, no themes, et cetera. It's just a technically competent platformer, and a very short one at that. I do not recommend this unless it is half-price and you're especially keen on metroidvanias.