Animal Well

⭐ 7.5/10

This was a fun little indie game that I enjoyed.  Any game of this style, where there is an empty map that you explore the edges of as you gain new powers of traversal, is fun for me.  I think story telling done through atmosphere and the world is awesome, and I don't need a plot or storyline to motivate me to explore every nook and cranny of worlds like this.

I think a downside was that the world felt a bit repetitive at times.  Hollow Knight, which is one of my favourite game ever, is the perfect version of this, where the exploration and combat are perfect.  This game has almost no combat, and every region of the map was kind of similar.  It was hard to remember rooms I wanted to revisit because they all kind of blended into one, where as Hollow Knight had such distinct regions. I ended up using stamps all over the map, which helped, but the selection of possible stamps was not intuitive, I have no idea what each stamp was supposed to symbolize, but it did help me unblock myself as I revisited rooms that stumped me previously. A bunch of the puzzles were great, giving me that satisfying feeling all video game joy is based on.

As for the negative things you may have heard, if you are a grown up gamer who knows how to leave puzzles you can't solve and come back later you will be fine.  I think the map issues above were my only frustration, but I never felt super blocked or unsure where/how to progress.  I did intend to keep playing, since there are more secrets I didn't find, but its a hard game to go back to after some time away when the map isn't fresh in your mind.  The fast travel is not as expansive as it could be, so you have to really really dig this world to continue the exploration. And to be clear, I was super into this map for most of the play time, and re-traversing areas with new tools and knowledge felt rewarding when I would find another hidden secret or blow open a section of a wall for a short cut.  I love when these maps feel cohesive and well thought out. A lasting memory of this game will be finding a path, feeling like I was going the wrong way or losing track of my main focus, only to discover an awesome item that unlocked tons of previous rooms for me.

I love the games that are made by a single person with the vision to do the art and the gameplay and the sounds, but this one did feel like it lacked a bit of the polish. The music/sounds are unique but didn't really hook me, and as mentioned the map didn't compel me to continue exploring many hours after I beat the final boss (which was actually a pretty fun boss). Reminded me a bit of The Depths in Tears of the Kingdom, where I was super fascinated for a while and then it became repetitive.  Good thing this game was a tidy sub 10 hour runtime, so I could love it before it wore out its welcome.

Overall I had a lot of fun with this, and it had me dying for more Silksong news.