@Zero

I'm glad to see this because after multiple deaths I found that the switches I hit were still good, or perhaps rather the doors I had unlocked by hitting all switches.

nate38 said:

So after like 15+ hours it just hit me that this game is La-Mulana with the rough edges sanded down.

This is why you people need to be in Discord to tell me about these things!

I saw this thread title and someone playing on Steam and that's all I knew. Thought it was some sort of Animal Crossing-esque thing (based purely on the name alone.) Finally clicked on this out of idle curiosity and ...well.

No further convincing needed. I'm off to check this out after work tomorrow.

I've collected all the eggs! This game has been my new addiction, and I've nearly broken it. I only had to look up the location of one egg that I'd missed, as well as the solution to another late-game puzzle, both of which required me to use the top in (IMO) totally random locations.

The two realizations I had that got me the rest of the eggs were:

Regarding cats - All of the codes to free the cats are in the same whole castle area as the cats themselves. Once I realized this, it was just a matter of sweeping that area from top to bottom.

Regarding a certain optional item - The bouncy ball has an actual use! There are three spots where you'll need it, and your map can point you to them.

I'm now on to Layer 3 of the game, the bunny hunt, and it looks like I'm over halfway done already! I've also figured out another huge component of this puzzle.

In looking up a couple things about the game, I stumbled onto the fact that (this is sort of a spoiler, but I recommend highlighting it): the mural puzzle is impossible to solve on your own, and people had to crowdsource the solution. Being that this is a prerequisite to finding all the bunnies, I say lame!

Just started this today. Pretty cool stuff so far. I’m really digging this game’s vibes.

Okay, I looked up solutions for the last few post-egg collectibles, and I don't regret it at all. Some of these are pannenkoek-tier obscure. I'm calling the egg quest the end of the game for me. What a great ride.

Secret_Tunnel and TriforceBun said:

3) Numbers on the doors of the big clock.

RESPONSE:
Only just found these myself, and yeah, I'm really curious how to increment them. I have one idea for what to do with them that's a long shot.

RESPONSE TO THE RESPONSE:
I wondered about these for a while, but I think they're essentially just speedrun targets that get you goodies.

6) Pressing UP a lot seems to turn my character into...an apple? Huh?

RESPONSE:
I realized this last night too and have no clue haha.

RESPONSE TO THE RESPONSE:
You guys get an apple? I get what looks like the guy from Fez.

I've been away from this game for a week, and felt like I was spinning wheels before I left, so I might be almost out of gas on this. When I left, I was about where @Secret_Tunnel is here. I have all the eggs, rolled the credits the second time, and unlocked the study.

Things I have left to investigate or pursue:
- What's up with the study? Looks like there's some code to crack in there.
- Bunnies! I have found eight of them. I kinda expected that to be most of them, until I saw that it wasn't.
- One room where I can't seem to get into the left half, and has a very slow critter in it. What's it mean!??!?!
- The meaning of the stamp symbols and numbers. I've been marking them on my map when I see them and think I have most of them, but haven't yet put together what they signify.

Things I looked up and/or had spoiled for me:

- The cats, and the solution linked to them. I discovered that the flute would be the combination to unlocking the treasure chest cage in the big cat room, but never put two and two together that the other cats' cages could be unlocked with the flute as well. I was expecting a different puzzle involving the eggs would apply to the treasure chest cage.
- The location of the last egg I had to find. It was the turtle room egg. Once I knew it was in there, it was easy. Kinda wish the game had a more overt egg radar than the UV light item, would have saved me several hours of aimless wandering.
- I didn't look it up myself, but someone told me about the bunny mural and I'm glad they did.
- The skull room. I was very confused because when I reached it I couldn't get either treasure, so I assumed you could get both, and tried for at least an hour. Eventually I gave up and looked it up.
- I didn't have to look up the bouncy ball's "special" use, but only because I was playing with it in random places, and it just happened. This wasn't very well signposted somewhere that I missed, was it?

@nate38

My response to the response to the response to the response is that I thought Fez at first too haha.

I found ten bunnies all on my own by the time I found every egg. After looking up a guide, there were ***two*** more that I could have found on my own if I really banged my head against it for another 3 to 10 hours, and the remaining ***four***, including the bunny mural I never would have solved in a hundred years and I don't think you're intended to, which is lame because figuring out what to do with them afterwards was an extremely enjoyable puzzle to solve on my own.

Regarding the cats, I had the same thought about the eggs!

Regarding the item you mention, I think you're supposed to accidentally discover that in the kangaroo room that you find the item in.

I also kinda wish there was a better egg locator, but I'm also really impressed that I only ever had to look up the final one.

I have no idea what's going on. But, I can blow bubbles.

And the star of the game!:

I'm up to ten bunnies rabbit now.

Things left to investigate:
- Blink and you miss it sheep?
- Mural with a bunny on it and four...things?
- Pixel mural (basically unsolvable)
- The study (assume this comes into play once you catch 'em all)
- Strange symbol I found on a wall that looks sorta like an eye? Normally I'd assume this is nothing but nothing in this game is nothing
- Strange symbol I found on several walls that looks sorta like a ninja star?
- Secret image of a bunny mixing several potions makes me think there's a bunch of those to collect? I have one that I got from the shy guy

Me: "I'll stop in a minute, I just want to check out/try this one thing...."

Current time is now: 1:55 AM. On a work night.

This game is officially dangerous.

@Shadowlink

It's the perfect action-adventure game. A mysterious interconnected world full of puzzles, where every reward is a wacky new item that changes the way you traverse the world on a moment-to-moment basis. Zero downtime, pure rock.

Unfortunately this game isn't on the Xbox, which is probably because of Dunkey's feud with Microsoft.

@Secret_Tunnel

I picked up the disc last night and was just mucking about with it when I accidentally faced the wall and hit the jump button as I threw it.. All of a sudden, a trophy popped and I was staring slack-jawed at the screen thinking 'Did that just happen?!?'

I wonder how long I would have taken to think about trying that myself.

Okay the Manticore is down and the 'main' game is done.

Some stats- 42 eggs found, and just over 17 hours to get to this point.

....Now to go and figure out the rest.

Welp, I think I'm (basically) done.

Got to 60 eggs and hit a wall, ST's earlier post about the ball put me on track to find 3 more eggs and I threw in the towel on the last one. Turns out I was a dummy for missing it. (It was the Swan egg if anyone wants to look it up and see.)

Everything else I found, including the path to the 'real' ending. Only thing 'official' left to do is find some more bunnies (I probably won't bother) and input that big code. IYKYK. I must have messed up a couple of notes as it didn't accept it, I'll doublecheck my inputs later. Work tomorrow.

Not a bad little game at all, definitely scratches that mystery puzzle itch. I think Tunic was more elegant in it's design though, the hints on what you needed to do, and the path through the game (along with the final meta-puzzle) were just perfectly on point. This has an element of WTF randomness that I don't really like in these sorts of games. It's not too bad as it's completely doable without a guide- Up until the secret rabbits anyway., but just that whole 'look under every rock, try every item' philosophy feels a lot like busywork.

I speedran the game in 75 minutes the other day! I think if I executed perfectly, this route could maybe get me under 30 minutes, but I wonder if I'm missing something.

@Shadowlink

Yeah, after sitting on it for a bit, Layer 3 feels like a separate unrelated game stapled on top of this great Zelda/Metroid like. Those types of puzzles felt more natural in Fez and Tunic, though Tunic's super-secret collectibles—its equivalent of a "Layer 3"—annoyed me in how they were partially mandatory to solve Layer 2. Animal Well at least does a great job of cleanly separating its egg quest from its wacky ARG style mysteries. What it really makes me want is a game with a long-term sense of discovery that's relevant to the core gameplay.

I looked up the buns I was missing, some of which I never would have found for sure.
Now I have to figure out what they mean. I've been staring at it on and off for a while and haven't put it together.

@Secret_Tunnel

The one thing I will say for Tunic's defense with that particular set of collectables is that there was a checklist of where to find them, *and* a handy pointer spell. I had no trouble finding them all.

I would have described Tunic's third layer as being the Trophy room collectables. For which I got all but one or two of (After massively overthinking the manual hint for one of them.). And then you had the final area codes being those super stupid 'needs the internet' crowd-sourced codes of Fez's Red cubes.

Generally speaking, Tunic's final 'Golden path' puzzle came together in a crowning glory of chef's kiss satisfaction for me. Animal Well, not so much. It could have if the second ending was locked behind the 64 egg code which I worked out how to solve before I got the final eggs, but that leads to something else- Not the ending. So not as satisfying, more of a bonus.

@Shadowlink

But the checklist wasn't translated! The fairies and the trophies were the same thing IMO. Really though, my main gripe is that I combed the entire map multiple times looking for the final page before popping back into the fairy room on a lark and seeing it sitting there.

I agree that the puzzle in Animal Well you're talking about was satisfying in the same way (though not to the same extent) as the final big puzzle in Tunic. Tunic though was very much a game about figuring out obscure button combinations by decoding clues, whereas I don't think any of that stuff needed to be in Animal Well. As much as I enjoyed a lot of it, it was a big distraction for me during the egg quest that dragged that part of the game out for way longer than it needed to be, and not being able to complete the full mystery on my own soured me on that entire layer in its own right.

Well, I beat the second "layer" and I'm satisfied enough to call it, popping this lasagna back into the fridge for another day perhaps.

Overall, Animal Well is a neat game. It digs into a lot of the mysterious figure-it-out elements that worked so well with Tunic and its core gameplay is perhaps even a little more satisfying. The toy-based powerups are creative fun, the puzzles are clever and the pacing/exploration balance is very solid. But the elements that made the game a big social playground-rumor-type mystery are--in my opinion--quite a bit weaker gameplay-wise. In other words, I found each layer of this game a little less tasty the further I got.

I'd hate to have the egg hunt sour me on the rest of the game but there were long stretches of time where I'd just wander about without a clue on what to do next, namely in finding the last ten or so Eggs. The (32 egg reward) spinning top is an okay item and it is somewhat telegraphed, but you necessarily have to revisit every room in order to make the most of it. It's also easy to overlook spots where it can be used and there are only so many pixel-hunts I can take in a single game. Likewise, the UV light is an interesting idea for revealing more secrets, but it also necessitates the player going through the entire map again, combing every nook and cranny, and dealing with a slightly fiddly interface in order to check with it.

I hate to be too harsh on this stuff since it's all technically "extra," there's clearly a lot of thought put into it, and a lot of the secrets are very satisfying and rewarding to figure out. But of the 18+ hours I put into this game, I sure did enjoy the first six a lot more than the latter twelve.

All in all, it's great with some lumps. Perhaps I robbed myself of some of the interactive fun by not getting involved in a community, but I was also worried about spoiling some things for myself. I think Tunic stuck the landing a little more and did this sort of thing first, but that's also one of my favorite Indies so I can't compare everything to it. Animal Well is an 8.5 or 9.0 for me but I'm having trouble picking which.