Let's Play Animal Well Part 1 - The Animals Are, in Fact, Not Well

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Game Description:
Explore a dense, interconnected labyrinth, and unravel its many secrets. Collect items to manipulate your environment in surprising and meaningful ways. Encounter beautiful and unsettling creatures, as you attempt to survive what lurks in the dark. There is more than what you see.
Hatch from your flower and spelunk through the beautiful and sometimes haunting world of Animal Well, a pixelated wonder rendered in intricate audio and visual detail. Encounter lively creatures small and large, helpful and ominous as you discover unconventional upgrades and unravel the well’s secrets. This is a truly unique experience that can make you laugh in fear, surprise, or delight.
EXPLORE - ILLUMINATE THE DARK
Dense atmospheric puzzle box world with tons of secrets
Light candles for safety and gradually fill out your map
Nonlinear -- explore and collect items in whatever order you choose
SOLVE PUZZLES - OBSERVATION IS REWARDED
Enemies, environment, and items interact in surprising and systemic ways
All items have multiple uses
Learn how innocuous details can become meaningful
The main game is just the beginning. Players will be discovering hidden puzzles for years
SURVIVE - TREAD CAREFULLY
Assess for yourself what is safe and dangerous
Focus on tension and suspense rather than action
You are disempowered, but can make clever use of your environment and items
REVIEWS
“The new leader to beat in its sector, we're talking pure ecstasy.”
10/10 - Destructoid
“I'm astonished by it. Astonished by the ease with which it presents its ideas, the joy these ideas bring, and the sheer range of magical stuff it includes, all clipped together in such a satisfying manner. And fittingly, for a game about wells, I am astonished by how deep it all goes.”
10/10 - Eurogamer
“Animal Well redefines the Metroidvania genre”
10/10 - Noisy Pixel

[@Number1JettDawsonShrimp]

first time I've ever heard someone refer to a seahorse as "the mpreg horse" 😭

[@mandelbot5318]

I wonder if the replacement of a ‘double jump’ with a ‘bubble jump’ is a deliberate play on words? 😁

[@andreweber7801]

oooh, very excited to see this picked up! It feels like 2024 is just full of games you never see coming

[@TheSattocs]

I am very much looking forward to watching this entire series! Such an awesome and unique game. Love me a good Metroidvania.

[@nahoj.2569]

the thing you steal from the ghost dog is probably a frisby, thats why you can fly on top of it.

[@KeithBallardA]

a known property of frisbies

[@torthos1]

Makes me wanna create a witch OC that flies on a frisbee instead of a broom

[@enif_plays]

​@@torthos1Or a Roomba, though that's been done before.

[@liallen9380]

Watched someone do a "first" ending run, and there are a few points I am looking forward to. Also caught it on the stream the other day and was super excited, and not disappointed from what I got to see! Good luck, Keith!

[@greenbean7355]

1:14:55 Billy Basso actually said that SMB2 was one of the biggest inspirations for the game

[@sarveshnal200]

57:30 I just now noticed that there is a drawing of a fish in the background

[@pedrostormrage]

1:29:18 "In Animal Well, you cannot pet the dog" From a different perspective: in Animal Well, the dog pets you with its teeth 🐕

[@pairot01]

He noticed the background symbols puzzle at the one hour mark of playtime. He's insane, he can read the matrix!

[@KeithBallardA]

I've just played a lot of games that are Doing A Thing already lol

[@enif_plays]

So happy you figured out the flute warp!

[@DanielALahey]

Whoo, this game is definitely pretty fun. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your playthrough.

[@Sushi_for_lunch]

This game reminds me a lot of the game 'Rain World' and I think it's because it's similar in the fact that you get thrown into an environment and you have to figure out how to navigate through it without much guidance, while also trying to stay alive. I'll have to pick this game up soon!

[@ShadowDragonWolfie]

Visually and mechanically, this game looks really nice.

[@TheMARStudios]

Caught the stream of this yesterday but didn’t see if ya got to the end. Was actually just watching Toaster's on his Patreon so is Animal Well day XD. If you're not yet done with this then I hope you keep having fun with this charming and eerie game.

[@mothpawbs027]

i heard a lot of buzz about this on the hollow knight subreddits, so excited to watch you play it! it seems like a really cool game

[@michaelmatter1222]

14:28 - I also forgot the name and was like um it's a uh...horse-fish? 😆

[@orchidscion]

hippocampus, maybe?

[@Rekka7773]

29:35 people always reassure me that being a little dumb is ok, lol, too often in fact

[@Vlad-t3f6q]

love the little "eh", good noise

[@AquaticLotus7552]

I was kinda there for the livestream, so exited for the full thing!

[@umbra4540]

really excited to see you playing this! i had a lot of fun with it, and i hope you do too

[@Adam-dd9lo]

I'm so happy you're playing this game!

[@artfact2]

This is great. Very charming and doing fun new twists on familiar abilities.:)

[@thespeedyyoshi]

YAYYY KIETH IS PLAYING ANIMAL WELL

[@clarfonthey]

I also thought the wolf ghost was a cat, and then I was so confused when everyone else immediately got that it was a wolf. To be fair, it *is* in the dog area. But to also be fair, it has pointy ears.

[@n0etic_f0x]

This game title is very misleading. These animals are not well at all!

[@RudeMyDude]

Been hearing alot about this one! Looking forward to it

[@remrevo3944]

29:12 I tend to be pedantic, but not usually in reaction to let's plays. So consider me pandered to. (And be it just for the algorithm.)

[@nekoguardianlin6197]

do you think if we get enough people to sign some petitions, that we can rename seahorses to “mpreg horse fish”?

[@RudeMyDude]

32:51 I think this just might be the loudest gulp ever recorded on a lets play. How does he do it

[@KeithBallardA]

$1000 shotgun microphone that isn't actually reasonable let's play equipment to have lol

[@RudeMyDude]

@@KeithBallardA you truly spoil us

[@Blue_Rogues]

thats crazy i didnt figure out that teleport to the hub thing until so much later....totally not jealous you found it this early lol

[@Blue_Rogues]

oh cool i also chose the empty diamond to mark the wall faces

[@aliajam6187]

This game and rainworld scratch an itch alot of games cant seem to scratch

[@chocolate_maned_wolf]

THE WHAT HORSE

[@ultimagamer3976]

Finally found time to watch this and I'm immediately upset a didn't watch it sooner- Plus Keith marketing to vore furries at 32:51

[@lordofuzkulak8308]

2:00:26 - word you’re looking for is ‘cypher’ 😉

[@tombstoneslogan2994]

LETS GO I AM PLAYING THIS GAME RN

[@lordofuzkulak8308]

29:42 - *the pedants 😜

[@LB_]

29:20 stuff like this actually makes me hesitant to comment sometimes. If something stands out as being obviously comment bait it makes want to avoid "falling for it" per se. But it's very subjective...

[@enif_plays]

27:26 this is very true 😂

[@neomothdev2]

by the way you can just press B to cancel out of an item or action, you don't need to jump

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

Shrine of DOG

[@lordofuzkulak8308]

1:18:37 - now to try the songs from OoT to see if they’ve been included as Easter eggs.

[@lordofuzkulak8308]

2:11 - Clover Egg? What, is this an Undertale Yellow prequel? 😜

[@neomothdev2]

was hoping you'd play this :3

[@fatbrittalking5578]

Wasn’t this on sort of animal crossing in by a top down shooter horror game? I seem to remember something about the ballerinas legs being one of the bosses I can’t for the life of me remember the name of it

[@eumim8020]

What's up with the weird horizontal lines? It messes with the colors and it hurts looking at, bad idea in a puzzle game

[@themaker7822]

You can turn them off in this game, if you want to play it yourself. Keith decided not to turn them off, either for aesthetic reasons or some other

[@Charcoal190]

I've been so conditioned to think you're gonna make a base 4 joke whenever you say "It's fiiiine"

[@MadeOfMilk]

I can't tell if he is calling the Ghost dog a cat on purpose or not...

[@lordofuzkulak8308]

1:15:08 - yeah SMB2/DokiDoki Panic.

[@divineeye147]

Yummy

[@ShaunYoung-u1w]

I was watching this with the intention of finishing the whole playthrough. Then 7 minutes in he said "environs" and I had no choice but to dislike and immediately turn the video off

[@PPCPackOpenings]

@33:38 Did someone tell you the shark teleports? There is zero percent chance you figured out it teleports without help. This is like the IGN reviewer claiming you can finish this game in 5 hours without cheating (because she's too dumb to understand "getting help" from others is cheating).

[@KeithBallardA]

What shark? I misread the word "telephone."

[@greenbean7355]

People’s minds work in different ways, some people figure things out earlier than others. Also, cheating can mean different things to different people. I don’t count my friends giving me a small hint to a puzzle cheating but some might

[@buttonasas]

The fish (shark?) literally jumps out of the water looking to the right right left left down down up up, plays accompanying notes that completely match the pitches of the flute and it keeps repeating this sequence practically expecting you to do something - nearly 69% of players who got to this point have figured it out (or looked up a guide, I suppose, yes, but I don't think most players do that)