I feel the exact same way. My biggest problem with Layer 3 is that it bleeds between solutions a person can figure out on their own and stuff that requires outside help. Why stuff like the duck puzzle are in the same layer as the barcode or printer puzzle baffles me. Since I played on console it was exponentially harder to solve those puzzles. Stack that with how UV Light and Top force you to backtrack the WHOLE map (along with the drawing puzzle) and it became clear that layer 3 is far too blurry.
No doubt, which is probably why I was able to get about half the bunnies on my own and the other half I had to look up. That barcode in particular was annoying as even after finding out it was a barcode I couldn't get it to scan with my phone so I just had to look up what the bar code was anyway; kinda kills the vibe man. The more I think about it, the more I think the difficult layer 3 puzzles that require looking stuff up are just poorly designed and could've been just fine, and still cryptic, had their been more in-game hints. The one that requires you to start all three save files and take note of the directions the sparklies fly off in could've been more realistically solved had the in-game hint been a little better like putting a 1 2 and 3 next to each flower pod and maybe a save symbol as well.
I got through most of this thing on my own. Felt really good to figure out the more esoteric stuff, and even solved the mural puzzle with the help of a hint site that compiled all the pieces. But I was real dissapointed to learn the last little bit was basically a part of a wider arg that I would have only even come across with happenstance. I think a game like this shines the most when it's focused on being either single or multiplayer the whole way through. Regardless, I still recommend it to anyone itching for a game with puzzles that don't hold your hand
Some other retro effects are the smoke and flame effects which come directly from the demo scene of the late 90's or early 2000's. And the raster shifting effect of the cat boss that chases you is from pretty much every system of the 90's, but commodore, amiga, and backgrounds for snes. The waterfalls aren't directly, but are very reminiscent of palette shifting scenes. What game is that at 11:43? Also the story telling arc of your video is pretty spot on. Great essay and great presentation!
In the case of those two games I sort of think there's a different problem going on in that most of their fanbases don't actually care all that much about the games themselves, more so just the music, characters, story, and lore; kind of like Touhou fans come to think of it. Personally, I think both Celeste and Undertale are fantastic games (especially love me some Celeste) and each would be great even without their killer soundtracks, but it does worry me that they've seemingly become popular for all the wrong reasons: not because they're great games, but because all of the non-gameplay elements struck a chord with certain groups on the internet who could care less about video games as a medium and only seek to be entertained through video essays and lore videos rather than playing the games themselves, while also holding them up as merely poster children for their own ideology.
celeste's soundtrack is just okay, so is the story. the thing that carries celeste is its gameplay and difficulty, it has amazing level design and extremely fun movement.
Good review. imo I find it confusing that so many called the game a masterpiece even though I really enjoyed it. There's just too many things that seem like normal puzzles which will (probably) be unsolvable unless you look them up (Snail room, half the bunny puzzles, groundhog, skull chest, pedometer, the mural, the clocks). On top of that, solving ending 2 isn't hard but requires tons of tedious backtracking to solve on your own and really isn't fun (ie the top and UV light are basically signs saying "backtrack through the entire game again"). Basically, late game is just poorly designed overall. Too much work went into making it obscure while nothing went into making sure players don't accidentally think it's a normal puzzle (except for layer 4 which is sufficiently hidden) or that it was paced well. Early game is great. Visuals are great. But gameplay after you get most of the eggs ends up being tedious or just frustrating. ARG's as easter eggs are really cool as long as you can't accidentally think they're puzzles that you can solve yourself.
Yeah, finding the UV light and top and realizing that I now have to go back through the whole game was a little daunting and I even put the game down for a couple of days at that point, but the mystery of it all soon drew me back in. And in doing that I ended up finding about half of the bunnies on my own while trying to find the remaining few eggs which further convinced me that it was feasible to figure it all out myself. It wasn't until I seriously started trying to figure out the bunny mural that I began to feel like something was off about this game. Overall I still loved Animal Well, but it does get a bit sloppy at the end and just kinda peters out, ending only when you've had enough, not when you've actually accomplished any major milestone.
I had basically the exact same experience as you. I don't think I've ever had a game consume my every thought as this game did when I was solving the second layer. However i got to a point where I had 3 eggs left, all of which required the bouncy ball. Despite me using the bouncy ball in these areas with the eggs, I just somehow had never had the ball hit any breakable blocks, forcing me to conclude it was either a near useless item, or that I didn't have sufficient info. So I chased what info I had for the bunnies. During this I stumbled across a comment about the game and it requiring community involvement and it just deflated my excitement so much. However, I still put this down as one of my favorite times I've ever had playing a game, being just shy of a 10/10 if not for the ARG components.
Wow that is really similar; I also got stuck on the last three eggs that required the bouncy ball because I couldn't figure out what the hell it did. In chasing the bunnies I accidentally figured it out and felt a bit annoyed that the blocks the ball interacts with are hardly different from several other blocks in the game. That was annoying, but not as annoying as all the ARG stuff. Still a great game overall though.
12:08 You know what? I totally agree with that statement 🤣Granted if the game in question is bugged up the wazoo, it doesn't stop me from having fun utterly breaking it, soundtrack notwithstanding lol. As for Animal Well, I gotta say, the art style definitely grabs your attention real quick. I've never seen scanlines used in that way before. I will say I initially thought UA-cam flipped out and reverted back to 480p but when I realised what it was, wow! I think it's possible for someone to get the true experience if a group of people who never played it all got at the same time and played together. I assume there's no traditional multiplayer so it would really be x amount of single player playthroughs, I think that aspect of the game could work. It is a bit of a clunky way about it though. Plus, I think I'd be in the same boat as you with the reliance on community to fully solve the game. I don't go on forums like Reddit either and I only really use Social media to share pics and talk to close friends (of which I also have relatively few) While I don't think it would've dampened my enjoyment as much as it seemed to for you, I can definitely see how you'd feel a bit cheated by it. The depths it goes to is genius, I can see how not being able to fully complete the game yourself without help from the Internet would be a bit of a turnoff to a lot of people. Great critique Noa.
Very proud to see this channel picking up after following you for so long on your old one, man. You may have less than 400 subs at the time of writing, but half your videos have a few thousand views. Keep up the pace man. You're slowly but surely getting there
Thanks bud; it feels good for sure to finally have some momentum going again, I've also been really fulfilled with the videos I've been making lately and that goes a long way; nice to finally get some decent views again. Cheers dude! :D
20:30 I guess it depends on what kind of person you are. Personally im a very *ill try for a bit but if im stumped I have no issue going to the internet* type. I went straight for the internet for pretty much all the rabbit puzzles. I feel like Billy Basso did a good job though given that *some* of these do require some actual skill in getting to them. Not just finding them. The floor is lava bunny is a great example. But the same applies for the one mentioned in this video.
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Great video, very well made, I agree with most of your points and I found your psychological analysis not pretentious which is an accomplishment in and of itself. As I am grinding through animal well (just got the manticore achievement), its good to know that Im not meant to solve every puzzle on my own rip, Id spend forever trying to figure it out
I also felt a little cheated when I learned that some things in this game are almost impossible or even completely impossible to solve on your own, although it sounds like I didn't spend nearly as much effort as you did before giving up. I'm not even someone who needs to solve everything on my own, but to *know* that there are some things I would not solve on my own no matter what feels very different. Also like you, I dislike the fact that these layers indeed aren't layers, they all exist in the same world at the same time, so when you're trying to solve something, you can't know if it's something that's meant to be realistically solved on your own or not. Another problem I had with the puzzles in Animal Well is the lack of written text, and that's something I actually didn't know about myself before playing this game. I discovered that while I don't mind solving a one-room puzzle where it's just me and my tools, I'm frustrated when the game expects me to solve cryptic puzzles spread across a huge map without giving me a goal in the form of written text. I played this game partially because I was promised a post-game that sounded similar to ESA's post-game or La-Mulana's entire game, but these three issues made this post-game a bit of a disappointment for me and I have no desire to keep going. Once again, let me be clear: I have no problems with using a walkthrough once I've had enough. I had to use a guide for ESA and the La-Mulana games plenty of times, but the thing is, everything in those games is meant to be solvable by an individual with no help, even if it's unlikely you have the patience necessary for everything. The only exceptions to this are the post-games of the La-Mulana games, but those are much more distinct from the main game than the nearly impossible puzzles of Animal Well are from the doable ones. It's entirely possible to finish La-Mulana without even suspecting the existence of the post-game, while La-Mulana 2's post-game is literally a DLC you have to purchase(LM2's post-game is also a lot more reasonable than LM1's post-game even if there's a few bs moments) Meanwhile, in Animal Well, you will walk into a room that contains something you instantly know is a puzzle, but what you can't know is if this puzzle is one of the nearly impossible ones or not. And finally, ESA and the LM games have hints in the form of written text constantly, and like I said, I found out by playing Animal Well that this feature helps me stay motivated. Ironically, while I didn't like the post-game as much as I expected, Animal Well's main game was way better than I thought it would be. I heard and saw so many people say the ''real game'' only begins after the final boss, and I just don't get it. Yes, the main game is too short, but the level of quality it maintains throughout those precious few hours is so high.
Watching this video, I wouldve guessed you were a UA-camr with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Excellent commentary. Among the slew of Animal Well critique videos out there, this is the best one. I loved Animal Well. It helped me work through the passing of my beloved cat. And like you I tried to do as much as I could alone. But I have a busy life and cant spend 100s of hours scouring the well to discover everything on my own. Still, I enjoyed the base game, and got through Level 2 and a little of Level 3 by myself which was wonderful on its own. I think if you try digging too deep by yourself you can get resentful and angry at the wasted time.
Hey, thanks Chris, hopefully someday! Sorry to hear about the passing of your kitty, I lost my cat a few years ago so I know how hard that can be, but I'm glad to hear that Animal Well helped you out a bit. Even though the game can be a bit much at times, I'm glad it exists as there really isn't anything else like it. Cheers!
Tyler 'Aliensrock' Dildobike completed Layer 2 on their own and when hearing there was a Layer 3 said "fuck this, series complete" Pretty much. The problem with requiring external resources is that it is far easier for the answer to just to get spoiled for you. It becomes less about being smart and figuring stuff out and more about having some discord losers telling you the answer.
I really appreciate the dive into CRT pixel graphics, thats always been fascinating to me. As for the game itself, i loved it all the way through the first ending. After that, i got about 30 eggs in before gradually losing interest. It was frustrating when i couldnt tell if i was missing the solution or simply didnt yet have the right tools, and the utter lack of direction the game provides left me disinclined to keep brute forcing secret eggs past a certain point. I can see myself going back to it sometime, and i really love the puzzle design snd gameplay for the basics, but some of the secret eggs were too esoteric for my action-rpg-rotted mind. EDIT: Layers 3 and 4? What??
Ha! And here I was worried that the CRT stuff would turn people off; glad to see I'm not the only one who's interested in that sort of thing! Totally get that with getting stuck on finding the eggs, some of them were really nasty though they're a cake walk compared to the layer 3 and 4 stuff. lol
@@ThusSpokeNoaLeeof course! And your points about forced community effort and the necessary shelf life it imposes on one element of the game experience are also quite salient. It's something I've experienced over and over again as a Fromsoft fanboy - things that were meant as an exciting Easter egg on your 3rd or 4th playthrough instead become a "must-see attraction" on playthrough 1, shared by reddit comments and UA-cam shorts until all the mystery and discovery is stripped away. Another great analysis video on your part, looking forward to whatever you do next.
Lovely review and very well articulated. I think its fair to struggle with how a game is meant to be understood through its release. And I do appreciate you sectioning where you struggled versus where you feel like the game struggles. I do think that games exist as social art because we are social (pause for effect) Animals. This has been a concept from games as early as the Legend of Zelda and as modern as Dark Souls. Part of the early reviews of the game was setting up a discord for people to be able to give each other tips as a group. And similarly i feel like so many people stubbornly play the dark souls games when I truly beleive you are meant to trade tips or find a friend that's already played and ask for hints. Likewise I think honing in on the piece of art in the medium of video games specifically might overlook that its a game. And thay can exist through text subtext and paratext abd even culturally. Point im trying to make here is that this is a medium that thrives on sucess and failure but its also one tjay cannot exist in a vacuum so maybe lean into that and curate your experience with people to play alongside or community. Even after the game is long solved I think the ARG stuff will help make the game feel bigger and more mysterious and those themes are really important to preserve.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! :) Yeah, I see what you're driving at with games being a social art, after all video games are fundamentally an extension of the kinds of games humans have been crafting for thousands of years as well as the concept of play in general, which is typically social in nature; this is why the earliest video games were merely electronic versions of games like Tennis, or Tic-Tac-Toe. But what's always appealed to me is that, unlike nearly every analogue game, as well as the computer/video games that followed after early titles like Space War!, is that you CAN play them alone, and that to me is a key difference between video games and "games." There are a lot of critics and academics that believe that all games, video or not, are of the same medium, but I've never really agreed because of that one key difference. Dark Souls, and all of FromSoft's work post Demon's Souls, is a perfect example of acknowledging this fact while also allowing for the player to leverage the aid of the community should they need/want it. I'm one of those people who banged my head against all of the Souls games until they finally yielded to my will and I'm now an expert player because of that; to a player like me relying on the community would've stolen the magic of these games from me and I never would've become the diehard fan of the series that I am today had I summoned other players or just looked everything up, yet I'm also glad that the community is there for those that don't want to play that way and appreciate the games for different aspects such as the cooperation, the PVP, the discussions of lore, or just simply wanting to see all the game has to offer without having to take the time to "git gud." I think it's possible to design games to accommodate both playstyles and ultimately I feel that's where Animal Well fails as a work of art because it really doesn't allow for that, at least not a good chunk of it. Animal Well's ARG elements only work because the game gained such a huge following, but if it were an unknown title that only a handful of people were playing then all of that, in my opinion, would fall flat. If no one played the Souls series, they would still succeed as works of art because nothing is lost by it not gaining a following or a community; its artistic integrity would remain intact as the point of the games are to overcome challenges that are heavily stacked against you, with or without the community, whereas Animal Well only allows for the latter. In contrast, had Animal Well been entirely a multiplayer experience and solely focused on its ARG elements I think it would be more artistically sound; but then again had that been the case, I never would've played it either. Anyway, sorry for the novel response; you had a good comment that got me thinking so I just had to respond: thanks for that! Cheers!
Emmm no they are not. Only thing that those mean are that the chanell is not popular which has nothing to do with the quality, would it be nice if chanells got popular of quality? Yes of course but the fact is youtube algorithm is no stranger to burrying many good youtube chanells
youtube seems to be going through it's 'boosting criminally undersubbed creators' again! Lovely video, Animal Well looks intriguing. It's reminiscent of rainworld in the inscrutibility and ambience. If you haven't played it, you may be interested in Moonring. It's a very different type of game, and very much under development, but it's a really interesting project. It's an old, old, old-school rpg but with like... modern sensibilties. super-cryptic but so much more approachable than these games tend to be.
Thanks mate! Nice to see I'm not the only one who picked up on a Rain World vibe, that's why I ended up using some of that OST as background music in this game. Good stuff. I'll check out Moonring, always looking for new and creative games to play and that sounds right up my alley.
i think besides the mural the game does pretty fine as a single player puzzle experience, a lot of those bunnies are vague but do feel more feasible than the stuff after them which is way past my brain grade haha
For sure, I ended up getting about half the bunnies on my own without too much trouble, just wish there was a bit more separation between the singleplayer stuff and the ARG stuff.
While I overall enjoyed Animal Well it really didn't live up to the hype. The game was at it's strongest at layer 1 where you have a lot of freedom and are constantly encountering new things and a-ha moments, but layer 2 was where the things I generally don't enjoy in Metroidvanias began to really rear their ugly head (hug every wall to find that one secret passage you've missed, scour the whole map again to find the few places where you can use this new item). I know nothing was forcing me to go beyond layer 1 and the first credits, but as I personally found the experience until that point to be an 8/10 at best I was still looking for that 10/10 that so many reviews and impressions left me to believe was still to be found.
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I'm unfortunately a little disappointed by the game Had it been sold to me as just a good puzzle metroidvania, I'm sure I'd have been more than happy with it But it was sold to me as the best thing since sliced bread, so to find out that it's "just" a good puzzle metroidvania, with an ARG attached, was disappointing. I was constantly waiting for that WOW moment. But it never came
I think the homogeneity of game engines is just an excuse, the issue is more to do with gam design. Lies of P plays like a soulbourne game with a few idiosyncracies but it was made on unreal. gameplay wise it doesn't feel like an unreal engine game. To play devils advocate you could mention maybe the graphics but it has it's own unique art direction. Game engines are not an issue, just game design that isn't unique and samey is.
I would say you're right about lazy design being a bigger issue for sure, but I disagree with that entirely being the case. Lies of P is a great example of a game that hides well its engine idiosyncrasies, but it still has a lot of the hallmarks, particularly in the way the foliage is rendered and how the textures load. It's harder to tell, but it still feels like an Unreal game. The difference, I think, is that Unreal just so happened to be the best engine out there to compliment Lies Of P's aesthetic and gameplay so it isn't as obvious. I'm not sure if Neowiz chose the engine for that purpose of if they just got lucky, but either way it worked in their favor and they ended up using the right tool for the job, exactly the kind of thing I'm arguing for here with the engine issue. But at the same time It doesn't feel like a FromSoft game or something made in their in-house engine though, not to me at least, but that's only a point in its favor as far as I'm concerned.
@enternamehere142 A dev note at the start of the game hinting at how deep it is and how it's meant as a community effort/ARG would've pretty much solved all these problems, but I also can't deny that had one been present I doubt I would've gotten as deep as I did before looking something up which would've killed quite a bit of my enjoyment of the game. Bit of a catch 22 that one.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
💗What do you think of ANIMAL WELL? Masterpiece? Overrated? How about the practice of including ARGs in games? Subscribe I guess.
definitely masterpiece
I personally don’t like community puzzles… wastes hours of my time to find out it was just impossible
I feel the exact same way. My biggest problem with Layer 3 is that it bleeds between solutions a person can figure out on their own and stuff that requires outside help. Why stuff like the duck puzzle are in the same layer as the barcode or printer puzzle baffles me. Since I played on console it was exponentially harder to solve those puzzles.
Stack that with how UV Light and Top force you to backtrack the WHOLE map (along with the drawing puzzle) and it became clear that layer 3 is far too blurry.
No doubt, which is probably why I was able to get about half the bunnies on my own and the other half I had to look up. That barcode in particular was annoying as even after finding out it was a barcode I couldn't get it to scan with my phone so I just had to look up what the bar code was anyway; kinda kills the vibe man. The more I think about it, the more I think the difficult layer 3 puzzles that require looking stuff up are just poorly designed and could've been just fine, and still cryptic, had their been more in-game hints. The one that requires you to start all three save files and take note of the directions the sparklies fly off in could've been more realistically solved had the in-game hint been a little better like putting a 1 2 and 3 next to each flower pod and maybe a save symbol as well.
I got through most of this thing on my own. Felt really good to figure out the more esoteric stuff, and even solved the mural puzzle with the help of a hint site that compiled all the pieces. But I was real dissapointed to learn the last little bit was basically a part of a wider arg that I would have only even come across with happenstance. I think a game like this shines the most when it's focused on being either single or multiplayer the whole way through.
Regardless, I still recommend it to anyone itching for a game with puzzles that don't hold your hand
Some other retro effects are the smoke and flame effects which come directly from the demo scene of the late 90's or early 2000's. And the raster shifting effect of the cat boss that chases you is from pretty much every system of the 90's, but commodore, amiga, and backgrounds for snes. The waterfalls aren't directly, but are very reminiscent of palette shifting scenes.
What game is that at 11:43?
Also the story telling arc of your video is pretty spot on. Great essay and great presentation!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! The game at 11:43 is Dear Esther.
I think a good policy would be to patch in ingame ways to solve the ARG puzzles after enough time has passed and the ARG stops mattering.
12:07 undertale and celeste perhaps fall into this category. Celeste less so obviously but still.
In the case of those two games I sort of think there's a different problem going on in that most of their fanbases don't actually care all that much about the games themselves, more so just the music, characters, story, and lore; kind of like Touhou fans come to think of it. Personally, I think both Celeste and Undertale are fantastic games (especially love me some Celeste) and each would be great even without their killer soundtracks, but it does worry me that they've seemingly become popular for all the wrong reasons: not because they're great games, but because all of the non-gameplay elements struck a chord with certain groups on the internet who could care less about video games as a medium and only seek to be entertained through video essays and lore videos rather than playing the games themselves, while also holding them up as merely poster children for their own ideology.
@@ThusSpokeNoaLee yeah that'd be my take as well more or less. I do like lore but im not fond of the ideology stuff.
celeste's soundtrack is just okay, so is the story. the thing that carries celeste is its gameplay and difficulty, it has amazing level design and extremely fun movement.
Good review. imo I find it confusing that so many called the game a masterpiece even though I really enjoyed it.
There's just too many things that seem like normal puzzles which will (probably) be unsolvable unless you look them up (Snail room, half the bunny puzzles, groundhog, skull chest, pedometer, the mural, the clocks). On top of that, solving ending 2 isn't hard but requires tons of tedious backtracking to solve on your own and really isn't fun (ie the top and UV light are basically signs saying "backtrack through the entire game again").
Basically, late game is just poorly designed overall. Too much work went into making it obscure while nothing went into making sure players don't accidentally think it's a normal puzzle (except for layer 4 which is sufficiently hidden) or that it was paced well. Early game is great. Visuals are great. But gameplay after you get most of the eggs ends up being tedious or just frustrating.
ARG's as easter eggs are really cool as long as you can't accidentally think they're puzzles that you can solve yourself.
Yeah, finding the UV light and top and realizing that I now have to go back through the whole game was a little daunting and I even put the game down for a couple of days at that point, but the mystery of it all soon drew me back in. And in doing that I ended up finding about half of the bunnies on my own while trying to find the remaining few eggs which further convinced me that it was feasible to figure it all out myself. It wasn't until I seriously started trying to figure out the bunny mural that I began to feel like something was off about this game. Overall I still loved Animal Well, but it does get a bit sloppy at the end and just kinda peters out, ending only when you've had enough, not when you've actually accomplished any major milestone.
I had basically the exact same experience as you. I don't think I've ever had a game consume my every thought as this game did when I was solving the second layer. However i got to a point where I had 3 eggs left, all of which required the bouncy ball. Despite me using the bouncy ball in these areas with the eggs, I just somehow had never had the ball hit any breakable blocks, forcing me to conclude it was either a near useless item, or that I didn't have sufficient info. So I chased what info I had for the bunnies. During this I stumbled across a comment about the game and it requiring community involvement and it just deflated my excitement so much. However, I still put this down as one of my favorite times I've ever had playing a game, being just shy of a 10/10 if not for the ARG components.
Wow that is really similar; I also got stuck on the last three eggs that required the bouncy ball because I couldn't figure out what the hell it did. In chasing the bunnies I accidentally figured it out and felt a bit annoyed that the blocks the ball interacts with are hardly different from several other blocks in the game. That was annoying, but not as annoying as all the ARG stuff. Still a great game overall though.
@@ThusSpokeNoaLee"Hardly different"? To me they stood out like a sore thumb. Different levels in perception I suppose.
12:08 You know what? I totally agree with that statement 🤣Granted if the game in question is bugged up the wazoo, it doesn't stop me from having fun utterly breaking it, soundtrack notwithstanding lol.
As for Animal Well, I gotta say, the art style definitely grabs your attention real quick. I've never seen scanlines used in that way before. I will say I initially thought UA-cam flipped out and reverted back to 480p but when I realised what it was, wow!
I think it's possible for someone to get the true experience if a group of people who never played it all got at the same time and played together. I assume there's no traditional multiplayer so it would really be x amount of single player playthroughs, I think that aspect of the game could work. It is a bit of a clunky way about it though. Plus, I think I'd be in the same boat as you with the reliance on community to fully solve the game. I don't go on forums like Reddit either and I only really use Social media to share pics and talk to close friends (of which I also have relatively few) While I don't think it would've dampened my enjoyment as much as it seemed to for you, I can definitely see how you'd feel a bit cheated by it. The depths it goes to is genius, I can see how not being able to fully complete the game yourself without help from the Internet would be a bit of a turnoff to a lot of people.
Great critique Noa.
Thought you'd get a kick out of that. lol
@@ThusSpokeNoaLee Sometimes the best comedy is just raw facts 🤣
Very proud to see this channel picking up after following you for so long on your old one, man. You may have less than 400 subs at the time of writing, but half your videos have a few thousand views. Keep up the pace man. You're slowly but surely getting there
Thanks bud; it feels good for sure to finally have some momentum going again, I've also been really fulfilled with the videos I've been making lately and that goes a long way; nice to finally get some decent views again. Cheers dude! :D
20:30 I guess it depends on what kind of person you are. Personally im a very *ill try for a bit but if im stumped I have no issue going to the internet* type.
I went straight for the internet for pretty much all the rabbit puzzles. I feel like Billy Basso did a good job though given that *some* of these do require some actual skill in getting to them. Not just finding them. The floor is lava bunny is a great example. But the same applies for the one mentioned in this video.
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Great video, very well made, I agree with most of your points and I found your psychological analysis not pretentious which is an accomplishment in and of itself. As I am grinding through animal well (just got the manticore achievement), its good to know that Im not meant to solve every puzzle on my own rip, Id spend forever trying to figure it out
Thanks, I was worried my psychoanalysis might have been a bit too personal; glad to hear it's resonating with others. Cheers mate!
I also felt a little cheated when I learned that some things in this game are almost impossible or even completely impossible to solve on your own, although it sounds like I didn't spend nearly as much effort as you did before giving up. I'm not even someone who needs to solve everything on my own, but to *know* that there are some things I would not solve on my own no matter what feels very different.
Also like you, I dislike the fact that these layers indeed aren't layers, they all exist in the same world at the same time, so when you're trying to solve something, you can't know if it's something that's meant to be realistically solved on your own or not.
Another problem I had with the puzzles in Animal Well is the lack of written text, and that's something I actually didn't know about myself before playing this game. I discovered that while I don't mind solving a one-room puzzle where it's just me and my tools, I'm frustrated when the game expects me to solve cryptic puzzles spread across a huge map without giving me a goal in the form of written text.
I played this game partially because I was promised a post-game that sounded similar to ESA's post-game or La-Mulana's entire game, but these three issues made this post-game a bit of a disappointment for me and I have no desire to keep going. Once again, let me be clear: I have no problems with using a walkthrough once I've had enough. I had to use a guide for ESA and the La-Mulana games plenty of times, but the thing is, everything in those games is meant to be solvable by an individual with no help, even if it's unlikely you have the patience necessary for everything. The only exceptions to this are the post-games of the La-Mulana games, but those are much more distinct from the main game than the nearly impossible puzzles of Animal Well are from the doable ones. It's entirely possible to finish La-Mulana without even suspecting the existence of the post-game, while La-Mulana 2's post-game is literally a DLC you have to purchase(LM2's post-game is also a lot more reasonable than LM1's post-game even if there's a few bs moments)
Meanwhile, in Animal Well, you will walk into a room that contains something you instantly know is a puzzle, but what you can't know is if this puzzle is one of the nearly impossible ones or not. And finally, ESA and the LM games have hints in the form of written text constantly, and like I said, I found out by playing Animal Well that this feature helps me stay motivated.
Ironically, while I didn't like the post-game as much as I expected, Animal Well's main game was way better than I thought it would be. I heard and saw so many people say the ''real game'' only begins after the final boss, and I just don't get it. Yes, the main game is too short, but the level of quality it maintains throughout those precious few hours is so high.
Watching this video, I wouldve guessed you were a UA-camr with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Excellent commentary. Among the slew of Animal Well critique videos out there, this is the best one.
I loved Animal Well. It helped me work through the passing of my beloved cat. And like you I tried to do as much as I could alone. But I have a busy life and cant spend 100s of hours scouring the well to discover everything on my own. Still, I enjoyed the base game, and got through Level 2 and a little of Level 3 by myself which was wonderful on its own. I think if you try digging too deep by yourself you can get resentful and angry at the wasted time.
Hey, thanks Chris, hopefully someday!
Sorry to hear about the passing of your kitty, I lost my cat a few years ago so I know how hard that can be, but I'm glad to hear that Animal Well helped you out a bit. Even though the game can be a bit much at times, I'm glad it exists as there really isn't anything else like it. Cheers!
Tyler 'Aliensrock' Dildobike completed Layer 2 on their own and when hearing there was a Layer 3 said "fuck this, series complete"
Pretty much. The problem with requiring external resources is that it is far easier for the answer to just to get spoiled for you. It becomes less about being smart and figuring stuff out and more about having some discord losers telling you the answer.
I really appreciate the dive into CRT pixel graphics, thats always been fascinating to me.
As for the game itself, i loved it all the way through the first ending. After that, i got about 30 eggs in before gradually losing interest. It was frustrating when i couldnt tell if i was missing the solution or simply didnt yet have the right tools, and the utter lack of direction the game provides left me disinclined to keep brute forcing secret eggs past a certain point.
I can see myself going back to it sometime, and i really love the puzzle design snd gameplay for the basics, but some of the secret eggs were too esoteric for my action-rpg-rotted mind.
EDIT: Layers 3 and 4? What??
Ha! And here I was worried that the CRT stuff would turn people off; glad to see I'm not the only one who's interested in that sort of thing!
Totally get that with getting stuck on finding the eggs, some of them were really nasty though they're a cake walk compared to the layer 3 and 4 stuff. lol
@@ThusSpokeNoaLeeof course! And your points about forced community effort and the necessary shelf life it imposes on one element of the game experience are also quite salient. It's something I've experienced over and over again as a Fromsoft fanboy - things that were meant as an exciting Easter egg on your 3rd or 4th playthrough instead become a "must-see attraction" on playthrough 1, shared by reddit comments and UA-cam shorts until all the mystery and discovery is stripped away.
Another great analysis video on your part, looking forward to whatever you do next.
And layer 5; cheats (they have their own puzzles)
Lovely review and very well articulated. I think its fair to struggle with how a game is meant to be understood through its release. And I do appreciate you sectioning where you struggled versus where you feel like the game struggles. I do think that games exist as social art because we are social (pause for effect) Animals. This has been a concept from games as early as the Legend of Zelda and as modern as Dark Souls. Part of the early reviews of the game was setting up a discord for people to be able to give each other tips as a group. And similarly i feel like so many people stubbornly play the dark souls games when I truly beleive you are meant to trade tips or find a friend that's already played and ask for hints. Likewise I think honing in on the piece of art in the medium of video games specifically might overlook that its a game. And thay can exist through text subtext and paratext abd even culturally. Point im trying to make here is that this is a medium that thrives on sucess and failure but its also one tjay cannot exist in a vacuum so maybe lean into that and curate your experience with people to play alongside or community. Even after the game is long solved I think the ARG stuff will help make the game feel bigger and more mysterious and those themes are really important to preserve.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! :) Yeah, I see what you're driving at with games being a social art, after all video games are fundamentally an extension of the kinds of games humans have been crafting for thousands of years as well as the concept of play in general, which is typically social in nature; this is why the earliest video games were merely electronic versions of games like Tennis, or Tic-Tac-Toe. But what's always appealed to me is that, unlike nearly every analogue game, as well as the computer/video games that followed after early titles like Space War!, is that you CAN play them alone, and that to me is a key difference between video games and "games." There are a lot of critics and academics that believe that all games, video or not, are of the same medium, but I've never really agreed because of that one key difference.
Dark Souls, and all of FromSoft's work post Demon's Souls, is a perfect example of acknowledging this fact while also allowing for the player to leverage the aid of the community should they need/want it. I'm one of those people who banged my head against all of the Souls games until they finally yielded to my will and I'm now an expert player because of that; to a player like me relying on the community would've stolen the magic of these games from me and I never would've become the diehard fan of the series that I am today had I summoned other players or just looked everything up, yet I'm also glad that the community is there for those that don't want to play that way and appreciate the games for different aspects such as the cooperation, the PVP, the discussions of lore, or just simply wanting to see all the game has to offer without having to take the time to "git gud."
I think it's possible to design games to accommodate both playstyles and ultimately I feel that's where Animal Well fails as a work of art because it really doesn't allow for that, at least not a good chunk of it. Animal Well's ARG elements only work because the game gained such a huge following, but if it were an unknown title that only a handful of people were playing then all of that, in my opinion, would fall flat. If no one played the Souls series, they would still succeed as works of art because nothing is lost by it not gaining a following or a community; its artistic integrity would remain intact as the point of the games are to overcome challenges that are heavily stacked against you, with or without the community, whereas Animal Well only allows for the latter. In contrast, had Animal Well been entirely a multiplayer experience and solely focused on its ARG elements I think it would be more artistically sound; but then again had that been the case, I never would've played it either.
Anyway, sorry for the novel response; you had a good comment that got me thinking so I just had to respond: thanks for that! Cheers!
Great critique with actual insight and interesting perspective. Subscribed and will be checking out your other videos.
your content is criminally underrated, keep up the good work man!
Thanks! Will do!
I like these. You got a good production value. Normally low view low sub count are red flags, but it's clear that I'm here early in your career
Emmm no they are not. Only thing that those mean are that the chanell is not popular which has nothing to do with the quality, would it be nice if chanells got popular of quality? Yes of course but the fact is youtube algorithm is no stranger to burrying many good youtube chanells
@gregheffly Actually I've been doing this since 2009, this is just my second channel; I got all the kinks worked on on the first one. lol Thanks! :D
@obitosenju3768 Preach brudda! I've been fighting this fight for so long UA-cam's surprised I'm even still here.
Here before 1k subs. With a litttle bit of luck, this channel can go very far
you would LOVE Fez!
I do love Fez! Though, it never hooked me like Animal Well did. Great game.
@ThusSpokeNoaLee Its quite the opposite for me actually! Im really hooked on Fez but cant really get into Animal Well. Both are masterpieces though!
youtube seems to be going through it's 'boosting criminally undersubbed creators' again! Lovely video, Animal Well looks intriguing. It's reminiscent of rainworld in the inscrutibility and ambience.
If you haven't played it, you may be interested in Moonring. It's a very different type of game, and very much under development, but it's a really interesting project. It's an old, old, old-school rpg but with like... modern sensibilties. super-cryptic but so much more approachable than these games tend to be.
Thanks mate! Nice to see I'm not the only one who picked up on a Rain World vibe, that's why I ended up using some of that OST as background music in this game. Good stuff. I'll check out Moonring, always looking for new and creative games to play and that sounds right up my alley.
i think besides the mural the game does pretty fine as a single player puzzle experience, a lot of those bunnies are vague but do feel more feasible than the stuff after them which is way past my brain grade haha
For sure, I ended up getting about half the bunnies on my own without too much trouble, just wish there was a bit more separation between the singleplayer stuff and the ARG stuff.
While I overall enjoyed Animal Well it really didn't live up to the hype. The game was at it's strongest at layer 1 where you have a lot of freedom and are constantly encountering new things and a-ha moments, but layer 2 was where the things I generally don't enjoy in Metroidvanias began to really rear their ugly head (hug every wall to find that one secret passage you've missed, scour the whole map again to find the few places where you can use this new item).
I know nothing was forcing me to go beyond layer 1 and the first credits, but as I personally found the experience until that point to be an 8/10 at best I was still looking for that 10/10 that so many reviews and impressions left me to believe was still to be found.
Great video dude, you’re very well spoken. Keep it up 🙂
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Was supprized to see how few subscribers you had, great video!
I'm unfortunately a little disappointed by the game
Had it been sold to me as just a good puzzle metroidvania, I'm sure I'd have been more than happy with it
But it was sold to me as the best thing since sliced bread, so to find out that it's "just" a good puzzle metroidvania, with an ARG attached, was disappointing.
I was constantly waiting for that WOW moment. But it never came
Good video, but I found the cat ears distracting.
I think the homogeneity of game engines is just an excuse, the issue is more to do with gam design. Lies of P plays like a soulbourne game with a few idiosyncracies but it was made on unreal. gameplay wise it doesn't feel like an unreal engine game. To play devils advocate you could mention maybe the graphics but it has it's own unique art direction. Game engines are not an issue, just game design that isn't unique and samey is.
I would say you're right about lazy design being a bigger issue for sure, but I disagree with that entirely being the case. Lies of P is a great example of a game that hides well its engine idiosyncrasies, but it still has a lot of the hallmarks, particularly in the way the foliage is rendered and how the textures load. It's harder to tell, but it still feels like an Unreal game.
The difference, I think, is that Unreal just so happened to be the best engine out there to compliment Lies Of P's aesthetic and gameplay so it isn't as obvious. I'm not sure if Neowiz chose the engine for that purpose of if they just got lucky, but either way it worked in their favor and they ended up using the right tool for the job, exactly the kind of thing I'm arguing for here with the engine issue. But at the same time It doesn't feel like a FromSoft game or something made in their in-house engine though, not to me at least, but that's only a point in its favor as far as I'm concerned.
no such thing as too deep that is stupid
To try for hours just to find out it’s a community puzzle and you have 0 chance is to far without a dev note
@enternamehere142 A dev note at the start of the game hinting at how deep it is and how it's meant as a community effort/ARG would've pretty much solved all these problems, but I also can't deny that had one been present I doubt I would've gotten as deep as I did before looking something up which would've killed quite a bit of my enjoyment of the game. Bit of a catch 22 that one.