I've super enjoyed watching you play this one. I wanted to check it out but I can't pick it up right now for a few reasons, and your commentary is delightful.
It sounds like Billy Basso wants to make a more polished sequel going forward. I hope so. I really loved this game. My first Metroidvania of any kind. Now dipping into others, although so far they all seem more focused on bashing enemies than outright logic puzzles. I hope The Witness also gets another follow up.
10:42:13 Thor, that bell idea you gave for people with adhd is genius!! I think it's going to solve a problem i didn't even know i had until you explained it 😂😂
Yeah, agreed. I straight up don't see the Rainworld comparison. The two games function completely differently. Like... There ARE puzzles in Rainworld, and survival IS technically a component of Animal Well in certain specific respects... But the two games have nary a shred of DNA between them. Even saying they have similar vibes or aesthetics is a stretch. Rainworld does things aesthetically that Animal Well doesn't even approach doing in any serious capacity, and vice versa. They're both very good games that feel at least somewhat hostile and at least somewhat mysterious. But Animal Well uses hostility to reinforce mystery, and Rainworld uses mystery to reinforce hostility. They have utterly different goals, and playing them doesn't feel anything alike. Compared to each other, they are wholly alien experiences. They're both... 2D, and are weirdly strict with screen movement/screen transitions? They both have pipes? There aren't any human or human-adjacent characters in either of them? They both... Have fruit that has a gameplay function of some description? They both have weird and obliquely useful items? Each game has at least one animal that can throw rocks. They both have large, terrifying birds. And large, terrifying lizards. The telephones are sort of like the shelters. Same mechanic, VERY different vibes and ergonomics/affordances.
Art in the beginning of Homestuck wasn't all that good, but by that point Hussie was already a classically trained artist and did stuff like Starlight Calliope and inking tutorials (yes really) And yeah none of that blew up and PS and HS did
One of the few times I've disagreed with Thor is on the matter of xkcd. While the vast majority of webcomics have art that looks rough at their beginning compared to their end or compared to current day, and many good webcomics started out looking objectively ugly, and even some great webcomics' art still looks rough... xkcd is not among them. Randal Monroe (sp?) has an awe inspiring mastery of body language that elevates his stick figures. The placement and bend of those sticks is important, and a lot of skill does shine through with them. Let me put it this way: Try to recreate the comic in which a girl is spinning to try to slow down the passage of time (in regards to the Earth's spin) however little she can because even the slightest bit of extra time is worth the effort. Recreate this comic without looking at it. How well did you convey the girl's movement compared to Randal? Unless you've been practicing a lot with figure studies, I doubt the comparison is even close. Minimalism should not be confused and conflated with simplistic, and especially not with easy. Now, is the body language as important as the content of the comic? No. If you can convey funny science jokes, you too can probably succeed with stick figures, even ones that really are as simple as they appear at first glance. But credit should be given where it is due, and it's wrong to be dismissive of Randal's skill even for this reason.
I know Sony is the punch bag of the moment but, honestly, they walked back the requirement for existing players to have to get a PSN account. If they choose to not sell the game anywhere, that’s frankly dumb but it’s their prerogative. The important thing was that players who had paid for the game weren’t suddenly getting penalised. Just my opinion but some wholesale Sony boycott over this seems a little silly. In my opinion anyway but everyone votes with their wallet…
@@slackra3400 you’re entitled to your opinion dude but, until last year, you couldn’t buy a Wendy’s in the UK. You still can’t buy a Taco Bell. Sometimes companies just decide not to do business somewhere.
@@khastrak.s.c.7925 they walked it back though. I’m not white knighting for Sony. They did a truly awful thing and it should never have happened. Just trying to be a little balanced. Thor tends to go scorched earth on anything that pisses him off which is very funny but maybe a touch over the top.
@@adamwest8711 My opinion has nothing to do with Thor. I disagree with a lot of shit he says. If you want to say they walked it back you’re allowed to. But you’re being pretty selective in your history. For the record I can look up right now and see a PS2, PS3, PS4, and PS5. So yeah…. I’d say I would usually be cool with Sony in general.
getting some actual rest... That's a big part of life
Happy mother's day too
I've super enjoyed watching you play this one. I wanted to check it out but I can't pick it up right now for a few reasons, and your commentary is delightful.
My presence itself is worth 1 burrito every month, and it's growing.
Amazing
It sounds like Billy Basso wants to make a more polished sequel going forward. I hope so. I really loved this game. My first Metroidvania of any kind. Now dipping into others, although so far they all seem more focused on bashing enemies than outright logic puzzles. I hope The Witness also gets another follow up.
Give La Mulana a shot! Has plenty of puzzles to wrap your head around.
10:42:13 Thor, that bell idea you gave for people with adhd is genius!! I think it's going to solve a problem i didn't even know i had until you explained it 😂😂
Animal well 5:51:28
Thank you!
7:52:50 idk why but Thor's little hops while he was shit-talking the monkeys was hilarious
Hello at 12:59
I exist at 15:47
Dude, where's the end of this video? I have a TOC and it's killing me🤯😅
Everyone likes to call this game a Rainworld successor, but it's really more like La Mulana.
But much more fair than La Mulana haha! Good comparison.
Yeah, agreed. I straight up don't see the Rainworld comparison. The two games function completely differently.
Like... There ARE puzzles in Rainworld, and survival IS technically a component of Animal Well in certain specific respects...
But the two games have nary a shred of DNA between them. Even saying they have similar vibes or aesthetics is a stretch. Rainworld does things aesthetically that Animal Well doesn't even approach doing in any serious capacity, and vice versa.
They're both very good games that feel at least somewhat hostile and at least somewhat mysterious. But Animal Well uses hostility to reinforce mystery, and Rainworld uses mystery to reinforce hostility. They have utterly different goals, and playing them doesn't feel anything alike. Compared to each other, they are wholly alien experiences.
They're both... 2D, and are weirdly strict with screen movement/screen transitions? They both have pipes? There aren't any human or human-adjacent characters in either of them? They both... Have fruit that has a gameplay function of some description?
They both have weird and obliquely useful items?
Each game has at least one animal that can throw rocks. They both have large, terrifying birds. And large, terrifying lizards.
The telephones are sort of like the shelters. Same mechanic, VERY different vibes and ergonomics/affordances.
Animal Well is life 😋
11:11:10 :( the dream bunny XD
I think that animal well is like Halo 2 meets Halo 3 imo. Great game
5:06:40
Connor oburst-lover I don't have to love?!
How is the video 13hrs, I thought it was locked to 11:55:00 hrs?
I was just going to say something about it 😂
Same
well now it's down to 12hrs
It's now 11:55:00
That sucks I lost a whole hour of gameplay then :/
Art in the beginning of Homestuck wasn't all that good, but by that point Hussie was already a classically trained artist and did stuff like Starlight Calliope and inking tutorials (yes really)
And yeah none of that blew up and PS and HS did
One of the few times I've disagreed with Thor is on the matter of xkcd.
While the vast majority of webcomics have art that looks rough at their beginning compared to their end or compared to current day, and many good webcomics started out looking objectively ugly, and even some great webcomics' art still looks rough... xkcd is not among them. Randal Monroe (sp?) has an awe inspiring mastery of body language that elevates his stick figures. The placement and bend of those sticks is important, and a lot of skill does shine through with them.
Let me put it this way:
Try to recreate the comic in which a girl is spinning to try to slow down the passage of time (in regards to the Earth's spin) however little she can because even the slightest bit of extra time is worth the effort. Recreate this comic without looking at it.
How well did you convey the girl's movement compared to Randal? Unless you've been practicing a lot with figure studies, I doubt the comparison is even close.
Minimalism should not be confused and conflated with simplistic, and especially not with easy.
Now, is the body language as important as the content of the comic? No. If you can convey funny science jokes, you too can probably succeed with stick figures, even ones that really are as simple as they appear at first glance. But credit should be given where it is due, and it's wrong to be dismissive of Randal's skill even for this reason.
The bots are here
5:51:35
Raid who?
I know Sony is the punch bag of the moment but, honestly, they walked back the requirement for existing players to have to get a PSN account. If they choose to not sell the game anywhere, that’s frankly dumb but it’s their prerogative. The important thing was that players who had paid for the game weren’t suddenly getting penalised. Just my opinion but some wholesale Sony boycott over this seems a little silly. In my opinion anyway but everyone votes with their wallet…
Nah, if they haven't opened it up for sales in those countries that's extremely shady behaviour. I will be changing my review back to negative.
They took the game away from people who had already bought it. As an old gamer, I’m tired of shit like this. Either I own it, or don’t sell it to me.
@@slackra3400 you’re entitled to your opinion dude but, until last year, you couldn’t buy a Wendy’s in the UK. You still can’t buy a Taco Bell. Sometimes companies just decide not to do business somewhere.
@@khastrak.s.c.7925 they walked it back though. I’m not white knighting for Sony. They did a truly awful thing and it should never have happened. Just trying to be a little balanced. Thor tends to go scorched earth on anything that pisses him off which is very funny but maybe a touch over the top.
@@adamwest8711 My opinion has nothing to do with Thor. I disagree with a lot of shit he says. If you want to say they walked it back you’re allowed to. But you’re being pretty selective in your history. For the record I can look up right now and see a PS2, PS3, PS4, and PS5. So yeah…. I’d say I would usually be cool with Sony in general.