Ranking Every 2024 Game I’ve Played Extensively
I can’t remember two back to back years in gaming hitting this hard. 2023 definitely gave us more titles in high caliber series, such as Zelda, Final Fantasy and Diablo. While the level of franchises given a new release in 2024 may not be that high, I would still argue that there have been an incredible amount of good games that may even rival 2023.
TL;DR my bank account has been pissed off at me for the last two years.
I thought it would be a fun exercise to rank all of the new releases I’ve played this year and give my final thoughts on them!
Note: There are certain 2024 games I’ve only played for roughly an hour like Paper Trail and Tales of Kenzera: Zau. It obviously wouldn’t be fair to rank them in this list, so I didn’t. If you see an asterisk next to a game title, that means I played a good chunk, but did not beat it. I will put my playtime underneath the artwork of each unbeaten game. If you don’t see an asterisk or my playtime, that means I’ve beaten the game. Feel free to use your own judgement if you think my playtime warrants valid criticism.
21. Still Wakes the Deep
Still Wakes the Deep is a fascinating and multilayered failure. Even today, I still see certain websites describing it as a survival horror game. It is anything but. Still Wakes the Deep is a walking simulator made by The Chinese Room, who brought us classics in the genre such as Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Now, I’m not a hater on walking sims; I find them quite relaxing to play occasionally. But one of the best parts about walking sims is being able to soak in the environments at your own leisure, and find small tidbits of storytelling within the locations or in some exposition.
Still Wakes the Deep is just a straight line from beginning to end. And because of its genre, there’s no interesting gameplay mechanics to keep you hooked. Don’t get me wrong, the story concept and voice acting are excellent. And the setting of an oil rig is awesome. But this game fails at so much. It fails at being an engaging walking sim because of its intense linearity and lack of lore tidbits. It fails on delivering any answers to its story (I like ambiguity but SWTD embraces it a tad too much). It fails at scaring me because I can’t help but stare at the painfully obvious “straight line” design of the entire game.
This game screams “watch a YouTuber play me”, and I wish I did.
20. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes*
* Playtime: Roughly 5 hours
There’s been an unfortunate trend in game development starting around the mid 2010’s. It’s goes something like this:
Creator of legendary and dormant IP moves to Kickstarter to make a spiritual successor.
The game takes longer than expected to make. There’s usually some drama regarding updates and treating the fans who funded the game properly.
The game releases and it’s underwhelming.
It happened with Mighty No. 9 and Yooka-Laylee (I personally liked the latter). Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has sadly continued this trend. As a big fan of the first two Suikoden games, I gave Hundred Heroes the benefit of the doubt. One thing that immediately irked me was how the camera in the battle screens kept moving frantically. The camera moves every time you select a command with one of your party members, and when you select which enemy to use it on. I could easily see it giving me a headache if I stuck it out and played through the entire game. Then we have the unfortunately lackluster story and voice acting to go on top of that. I shut off the voices to avoid the pain and to also give it extra PS1 vibes.
As a diehard PS1 JRPG fan, nonetheless JRPG fan overall, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes was extremely decent. It’s not a bad game structurally. But you can easily make a list of a hundred (pun intended) games in the genre much more worthy of your time.
19. Penny’s Big Breakaway
3D platformers seem to be one of the most debated genres in the gaming community. Are they nothing but nostalgia-fueled time wasters? Or are they genuinely amazing video games when done well?
I absolutely adore a well made 3D platformer. Platformers usually emphasize intent within environments and the structural design of each level. They’re a great genre to play if you just want to shut your brain off and engage with interactivity at its simplest form- running and jumping.
I had my eye on Penny’s Big Breakaway for a while during development, and I jumped in immediately when it was shadow dropped. Other than one of the most hideous protagonist designs I’ve ever seen, this game is genuinely a great time! The camera perspective gave me more of a Super Mario 3D World feeling than a Super Mario 64 one. And the emphasis on combos within your platforming really makes you want to master your moveset. It’s almost got a touch of Jet Set Radio in its platforming. Yeah you could just play it normally, but playing stylishly is more fun. There’s a rolling move with Penny’s yo-yo that’s slightly reminiscent of Sonic’s spindash, which makes sense given the developers history. It’s a fun little platforming gem.
18. Black Myth Wukong *
* Playtime: Roughly 6-7 hours
The most noteworthy aspect of Black Myth: Wukong is that it’s one of China’s earliest attempts at triple-A video games. Being based on the legendary Chinese novel Journey to the West helps increase intrigue as well.
Unfortunately, Wukong also had a lot of eyes on it because of the online culture war. In late 2023, IGN ran a story all about the rampant sexism at Wukong’s developer, Game Science. Fans on Twitter wouldn’t shut up about this game being an example of a “non-woke” masterpiece.
My curiosity got the better of me; so I downloaded the game and sank about 6-7 hours into it. What I got in return was a souped-up version of a PS3 action game. Black Myth: Wukong is that nice 7/10 game you play to pass the time until a bigger game comes out later in the year. The action is fun, the graphics, are nice and the boss designs are pretty cool. The linearity of the game was also quite refreshing in an era of bloated open world games. But I didn’t find anything that made the game say “I’m special”. This is the first game on the list I regret buying. Despite that, I can tell it’s a well made boss rush game that will serve action fans quite nicely.
17. Crow Country *
* Playtime: Roughly 3-4 hours
It’s clear that Crow Country was made with a lot of heart and inspiration. Final Fantasy VII visuals mixed with Resident Evil 1-3 puzzles? Hell yeah. This is a game made by PS1 lovers, and as a PS1 lover myself, I enjoyed what I played of it. The main thing that put me off of the game was the incessant notes everywhere. There was one time while playing I audibly said “Bro should’ve just wrote a book”.
The aiming with your gun is a little wonky, and since this is a survival-horror game striving for a PS1-era feeling, that means it’s a puzzle game first. Get ready for a lot of a puzzles. Luckily, if you just want to play a puzzle game with a spooky atmosphere and no combat, there’s a way to shut off all enemies which is pretty cool.
16. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom *
* Playtime: Over 10 hours
If you read my impressions on Echoes of Wisdom, you may be surprised to see it so low (and to see I’ve yet to finish it). I had to have a hard conversation with myself; I didn’t love this game as much as I thought I did. I think the kids call it “copium”. Yes, it has the adorable art style I love from the Link’s Awakening remake. Yes, it has proper traditional dungeons which felt lacking in Breath of the Wild.
But, at the end of the day, it’s still not The Legend of Zelda I fell in love with as a teenager. The puzzles are cool, but having to rely on monsters to do almost all of your combat got old pretty fast for me. As I mentioned in my impressions write-up, the Echoes menu is atrocious. The dungeons are also kind of weak. It felt ridiculously fetchquesty, the worst offender being finding the friends of your companion Tri in the “rifts”. Oftentimes, the game throws multiple pings on the map and says “go here and there and there”. It started to feel a bit like chores to me. It’s a cute game with a lot of heart, and if you enjoy the more puzzling side of Zelda games, you might love this one.
I think I just have to accept that unless it’s a remake of the older games, the Zelda series is over for me.
15. Little Kitty Big City
Do yourself a favor:
Wait for a rainy day, light up a candle, make some tea or coffee, and play Little Kitty Big City. I went into this game with relatively low expectations during one of my rare months of Game Pass. I happily would’ve paid for this game. You control a small lost cat as they explore a city while listening to an impeccable jazz soundtrack by Riley Koenig.
For fans of miniature Breath of the Wild experiences like A Short Hike, you’ll feel right at home here. The game is really good at letting you experiment with what items you can interact with. When I was just goofing off, I would often swat peoples legs and grab their dropped smartphones. I’d knock potted plants off windowsills or merchandise off store shelves. Yep, I was a bad kitty.
You start off at ground level, but through a much more truncated BOTW stamina system, you’ll eventually make it towards the top of apartment buildings. You can beat this game in just a couple of hours, but doing all the extra stuff will take a few more.
What a delightful game!
14. Mouthwashing
Much like a game further on this list, Mouthwashing totally snuck up on me by surprise. I kept seeing people talking about it on social media throughout October. I didn’t get to play it in time for spooky season, but having just wrapped it up the other day with a friend of mine, I was enthralled the entire time!
Mouthwashing only lasts about two and a half to three hours, and thanks to some well thought-out pacing and excellent writing- its length feels just right.
I can’t get into the story, because it’s really a game you don’t want any spoilers for. Don’t go into this game expecting a survival horror. It’s more of an adventure game with an unnerving atmosphere. And while this game is also fairly linear, unlike Still Wakes the Deep, the game is seeped in interesting environments and bits of lore. I know I said SWTD is probably better watching a YouTuber play it, but I don’t feel that way about Mouthwashing. It’s quirky, it’s cerebral, it’s dark, and as I mentioned before- the writing is quite good.
Don’t sleep on this one!
13. Visions of Mana
As a diehard SNES fan, it made me quite sad that I never enjoyed Secret of Mana. Thankfully, the 2020 remake of Trials of Mana had me hooked. After finishing that wonderful game, I had my eyes on Visions of Mana. Just from a few trailers I could tell this was going to be the biggest budget put into a Mana game. Of course, budget doesn’t necessarily equal quality, but I’m happy to report that Visions of Mana has both!
Visions of Mana boasts one of the most beautiful and colorful worlds I’ve explored in a long time. You’ll cross fields of red grass and pink trees, all while chopping up the series iconic adorable monsters. I liked the crew of Val, Hinna, Corrina, Morley and Palamena more than I thought. Seiken Densetsu/Mana games have never really been known for their stories, and Visions isn’t going to win any awards for it. But I still found it serviceable enough. It’s another take at the Final Fantasy X sacrificial pilgrimage story (nowhere near as good though).
There’s plenty of customization between the multiple classes, skills, and equipment. Combat feels good but not too complicated; it feels like a modern day PS2 action-RPG. If you’re looking for a game to just shut your brain off and chop up enemies- look no further
12. Persona 3 Reload
The Persona series used to hold my heart totally captive. The idea of turning a 30-40 hour JRPG into a nearly 100 hour borderline life-simulator can be hit or miss for some. But for me back in the day? A total home-run. Nowadays, I’m mixed on Persona. I think I prefer the core Shin Megami Tensei games overall.
Despite that, I can’t deny that Persona 3 Reload is quite a good game. It takes the catchy pop music, dark storyline, and blue theme of the PS2 classic into a much more modern offering. And being built on Unreal Engine 4 means it looks leagues better than Atlus’ other offering this year, Metaphor. I’ve never liked the cast of Persona 3 nearly as much as 4 and 5, but I still enjoyed my time with the game.
My biggest disappointments with the game were a lack of variety in nighttime activities (which I remember from my time with the PS2 and PSP versions), and the main dungeon Tartarus remaining procedurally generated. I was hoping each block of Tartarus would feel like its own Persona 5-style dungeon. It’s hard to know if I’m valid in my criticisms, because as I wrote a few weeks ago, I have Atlus RPG burnout. But this remake is pretty controversial; many diehard fans do not enjoy it overall. Your mileage may vary, but I enjoyed it.
11. Dragon’s Dogma 2
Ever since the launch of Resident Evil 7 nearly eight years ago, Capcom has had a pretty golden reputation. The worst you’ll get from Capcom nowadays is a “pretty good” video game. Fans are begging them to dig up many of their forgotten IP like Breath of Fire and Mega Man for a second chance. One of these IPs that got a “golden age” Capcom revival was Dragon’s Dogma.
The original game was always seen as a flawed gem; a great game worth sinking time into if you’re not opposed to some jank. With Dragon’s Dogma 2, people saw it as a way for the series to hit the heights it was originally aiming for. Even on the title screen it just says “Dragons Dogma” with a suspicious lack of “2”. This feels like a second chance at capturing that vision.
I’m not a big fan of open world games, but I loved my time with Dragon’s Dogma 2. The world felt fun to explore yet treacherous. You’d best prepare for when the sun goes down, because the darkness will gobble you up (if the beasts don’t first). Combat is snappy and rewarding, especially when you fight large monsters and climb on top of them. I genuinely loved the Vocations system, which is essentially a class system which lets you mix and match abilities. Yes, the Square fanboy in me wants to scream “Look, it’s Final Fantasy 5!”. Nonetheless, I’m happy to see this type of system here!
There was a bit of controversy with the microtransactions and console performance. I’m sure the performance has been patched up by now. And as for the microtransactions, that’s typical Capcom fare. It’s a great game worth your time!
10. Stellar Blade
Stellar Blade attracted immediate attention for its main star, Eve. She elicited both backlash and praise from both sides of the seemingly immortal culture war. Despite such pettiness, Stellar Blade proved to be a great game just through its demo. The music quickly got stuck in my head, especially the song in the demo level. The combat, much like Black Myth Wukong, reminded me of an era long gone- the late PS3/360 era. But it also had a tiny dose of modern Souls design. Just a small bit! Don’t worry, this game isn’t nearly as hard as a Souls game.
The post-apocalyptic environments are nothing new to gaming, but I still found them gorgeous nonetheless. I would often stop and gaze at the destroyed structures which had been left dormant for many decades. The level design is mostly linear with some areas opting for an open world structure. But if you’re tired of open world games like me, you can just head for the next mission point and have yourself a linear game, again reminiscent of a PS3 game.
There’s some weak points like the game occasionally taking your titular blade away, and forcing you into these boring corridor shooter segments. The story also stopped interesting me about halfway through.
Stellar Blade isn’t going to change your life or barge its way into your top five games of all time, but it’s still a fun game very much worth playing.
9. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Like many, Final Fantasy VII is a game I hold dearly in my heart. Millions of gamers across the world would claim FFVII holds the greatest cast and soundtrack in any game ever. It’s environmentalist and anti-corporation themes seem to only get more prescient as the years pass by. The game is almost 30 years old, and asides from the graphics, I would say it holds up almost entirely.
I’ve made it pretty obvious that I find Square-Enix a frustrating company, and a far cry from my beloved 90’s Square/Squaresoft. They decided to turn a single 40 hour JRPG into a massive trilogy projected to span 120-150 hours. While I think the story in 2020’s Remake and 2024’s Rebirth are a complete bastardization, Kingdom Hearts-ified, and Nomura-fueled mess- the games are still good.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has the greatest action combat I’ve ever played. It scratches both my action itch and my turn-based itch. I absolutely adore being able to switch characters on the fly, and quickly flipping through the menus. Rebirth introduces certain attacks that take multiple party members to unleash. There’s also an affinity system that plays into that. Rebirth also hosts far more mini-games than its 2020 older brother. I can’t deny that the game is graphically stunning; it feels like a dream come true to see these locations and characters in such gorgeous graphics. If you want to get seriously lost in the world of Gaia, it’s now much easier than ever with a multitude of side-quests and mini-games.
While I wish the execution and structure were much different, I can’t deny that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is excellent.
8. Metaphor ReFantazio
I’ve already hinted during my Persona 3 Reload mention that I’m pretty tired of Persona-style JRPGs. But I have to put that aside and recognize that Metaphor is an awesome game!
Even though many people have expressed “fantasy fatigue” in games; I think allowing ex-Persona devs to explore their own take on fantasy has proven extremely refreshing. Metaphor tackles many themes, but as is the usual for many anime or Japanese pop culture, they don’t usually go very deep with these themes. If there’s one theme I think does remain prevalent throughout the 70-80 hour runtime of the game, it’s inequality.
The main party of Metaphor contains one of each “tribe” or race. You quickly learn how these tribes are treated in their day-to-day lives. There’s strong moments of racism, classism, and criticisms of power structures.
The Press-Turn Combat System usually seen in the core Shin Megami Tensei games is very welcome here too. The combat is extremely fast, as is the entire game. No longer do you have to wait 6-7 hours to get into the real meat of the game. You’ll be in the first dungeon within 2-3 hours. A surprise to absolutely nobody- the music is also incredible. And the enemy design was inspired by one of my favorite painters, Hieronymus Bosch. Atlus has long proven to have the most style in the entire industry.
I do think there’s some structural problems with Metaphor though. For one, there was clearly a cut dungeon. The game hypes up a location later in the game, only for that location to be totally unvisitable. It also continues a poor trend of giving the player party members extremely late in the game. It’s crazy to give the player a new party member 60 hours into a game; by then the player has more than likely made up their ideal party. Even worse, the player is only given one proper dungeon to use this new character in! And yes, it suffers from Persona’s infamously bad pacing. Sometimes you’ll just put your controller down and watch cutscenes for almost two hours!
Despite that, Metaphor offers so much style, quality content, and deep messages. It is so refreshing to see a new IP be so excellent in its first entry.
7. Unicorn Overlord*
*Playtime: Over 30 hours
Yes, the greatest original JRPG to come out this year is Unicorn Overlord.
I can’t understate to you how addicted I was to this game. I was playing it nonstop for like two weeks straight. With this game and another one later on the list, I’ve discovered that I love RTS’. The story is pretty generic; you play as Alain who ran away from his kingdom as a child and now must reclaim the throne. It’s really the deep levels of customization that had its hooks in me. Obviously you can change equipment and skills, but you can also make multiple parties of characters and change how they’d react to certain circumstances. Sometimes one tiny tweak is the difference between success and failure.
As always, Vanillaware hit a home-run with the art direction. Many characters have memorable designs, and I often grew an attachment to them simply because they look cool.
This is a perfect game for Switch, because other than the core battling, its a fun game to pick up and play for even just a five minute session. This is because you can gather resources or find hidden treasures all around the overworld. You can rebuild destroyed towns and give gifts to your party members.
Now I know what you’re thinking:
“Dylan, if you loved it so much how come you haven’t beaten it?”
And the answer is simple; I screwed myself over. The game gets pretty challenging in the second half, and I guess somewhere along the line I didn’t grind enough or customize my characters properly to finish it up. The enemies kept destroying me.
But I do plan to go back, restart, and finish the game one day. It’s truly a gem.
6. Kinitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
A lot of people complain that AAA game publishers don’t push out many new IP anymore. But when they finally do, those same people don’t put their money where their mouth is.
Despite being on Game Pass, I purchased Kinitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. And it was worth every cent. Kinitsu-Gami is one of those rare games that you can tell was made with passion and a love of art. It is an elegant blend of simple hack-and-slash combat (think PS2 God of War) and RTS systems (think Pikmin).
The game provides the player with a very soothing cycle. As Soh, you’ll be guiding Shrine Maiden Yoshiro to a Torii gate. She must dance her way there as part of the ritual. While she does this, you must protect her from demons known as Seethe. While you yourself will be chopping these Seethe up with many combat abilities, you can also command many villagers to attack or protect. There’s tons of classes to experiment like Thief, Ascetic, Shaman and Woodcutter. The second half of this cycle is daytime. During the daytime you’ll be building up destroyed settlements, hunting for resources, and customizing your classes. There’s also tons of customizations for Soh.
It was during one of these daytime segments that I almost cried. Something about this song choked me up. It was just this overpowering moment of loving video games as an art form. Kinitsu-Gami doesn’t strive to tell a deep story. It doesn’t strive to complicate you with its systems. It is just a fluid and pure gameplay experience filled with high quality direction in all of its artists departments.
Please play Kinitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
5. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
I know many people will roll their eyes at me putting a remake this high (get ready for later entries…). But I don’t care, the first two Paper Mario games are like dear friends to me. They are the epitome of “grab some hot cocoa and wrap yourself in a warm blanket” vibes.
The original Paper Mario remains fascinating because it made a serious effort to make the Mario world feel like a sprawling place with different cultures. You’d visit Goomba villages where each Goomba looked a little different. When you get a desert town later on, you’ll see Toads wearing desert-themed attire such as a litham/tagelmust.
The Thousand Year Door only takes this further. It takes Mario out of the core Mushroom Kingdom, and forces him to explore Rogueport, a dangerous town filled with shady characters and an iconic noose in the center. This means that once again, you’ll be seeing some interesting and unique takes on established Mario cultures. Even more (at the time) recent ones like the Piantas from Super Mario Sunshine are in this game, in a sort of Mafioso role. It’s funny and charming in a way the Paper Mario games shine at.
Combat feels like a next evolution of the original game, with your partner having their own HP and bigger moveset. The N64 Paper Mario was a tiny bit harder because Mario was the only character with HP. It would be game over as soon as he hits zero. But in TTYD, Mario can get knocked out and revived by your partner. It makes it a tad bit easier, but also feels more like a standard JRPG. I love the Badge system, which lets you make your own Mario. Wanna go for a glass cannon build with tons of abilities but no HP upgrades? Go for it. Wanna do the opposite and make yourself a tank? You can do that too!
This remake added in some quality of life features such as warp pipes that made some notorious backtracking much simpler. You can also swap party members in and out with great ease now. It’s pretty much the ideal remake. The only reason I could justify going back to the GameCube original is simply for nostalgia or historical curiosity.
One of the best Nintendo games ever made gets a fantastic and faithful remake.
4. Astro Bot
There’s a lot that can be said about a game like Astro Bot releasing during the current state of the PlayStation brand. Especially after releasing so close to the historic failure of Concord.
3D Platformers are usually limited to a certain plumber and smaller budget indie titles. Astro Bot is a refreshing AAA take on the genre. And somehow, with great ease, Astro Bot forced itself into the top 10 best games of its genre, maybe top 5!
With creative power-ups, level design, and nostalgic callbacks to old PlayStation IP, Astro. Bot can make somebody even with the coldest heart smile.
I was glued to this game for a full weekend. I got the platinum trophy in three days. That’s how much it pulled me in! If you just want pure fun, check out Astro Bot. It’s Sony’s best game since 2020’s The Last of Us Part II.
3. Dragon Quest III 2D-HD
I warned you there’d be more remakes!
You can call it recency bias (having only come out a few days ago). But to be perfectly blunt- I’m just biased overall in Dragon Quest’s favor. This series is everything I love in gaming. Very light storytelling. Emphasis on gameplay. Rewarding exploration (yet not leaning into open world design).
I’ve always linked Zelda and Dragon Quest in my head. There’s an inherent gamey-ness to the way you’re just collecting magical doohickey and doodad one after another, slowly opening new pathways in a treacherous world.
Dragon Quest III is one of the most respected games to come out of Japan. In 2021, a Japanese poll with over 50,000 votes ranked DQIII as the 6th best game of all time. If my count is correct, this game has been remade four freaking times! And I can totally understand why:
This 1988 game has an outstanding world. I felt it even when I played a fan translated rom of the Super Famicom version a few years ago. You’re simply told to find these six magic orbs with no hints at all. While traveling on your boat, you talk to a random NPC that mentions there’s a flute hidden in a faraway tower thats linked to these orbs.
There’s no big cutscenes or theatrics telling you where to go. You gotta just find your way. And I love the emphasis on rewarding world exploration. There’s not many JRPGs that feel like Dragon Quest III, and this newest remake makes it evergreen for future generations.
2. Silent Hill 2
Ok bear with me. Unlike Paper Mario, Silent Hill 2 is not a 1-for-1 remake.
The original game held a pristine reputation amongst gamers for its tone, ambiance, and deep story. Unfortunately, for many, the controls of the original game are too clunky to accept. Puzzles could be obtuse, and the combat was more of a nuisance than a genuinely engaging gameplay mechanic. I know many will disagree with me, but Silent Hill 2 begged for a remake.
Somehow, despite all expectations, the Silent Hill 2 remake adds in so many new concepts while remaining faithful to the original game. It brings one of gamings very best stories back to life with high end graphics, and bouncy raw combat. It doesn’t feel as fluid as Resident Evil, which it shouldn’t. Instead, combat feels like an uncomfortable last resort. Resource management always feels like a priority. And the way Luke Roberts voices James during combat was astounding; James always sounded out of breath and desperate. Combat isn’t glorious in Silent Hill 2. Little things like opening draws and lockers for supplies reminded me of The Last of Us. It took all the right cues from certain modern games, but never loses its identity.
And I can’t commend Bloober Team enough for how they brought the titular town to life. It must’ve be hard to recreate a PS2 setting which you couldn’t even see very well thanks to specific camera angles and intense fog. But they totally remade the town of Silent Hill to feel like a place I once lived in.
Miracle or not, Silent Hill 2 is one of my favorite games now thanks to this remake. Unlike Astro Bot or the final two games on my list, I do have a couple of gripes with this game like the pacing in the second half, but overall it’s an amazing time.
1. Animal Well
I got home from work on May 9th, ready to download Crow Country. But I saw that people online were also hyping up this game called Animal Well which released on the same day.
It’s a rare feeling for me nowadays to never hear about a game until it comes out. But I decided to try it, and within seconds I was blown away.
Animal Well gave me a similar experience to games like Limbo, Braid, and the very first Zelda.
It reminded me why I play video games in the first place.
I’m entirely burnt out on the metroidvania genre, but with an overwhelmingly ambient atmosphere and no combat whatsoever, Animal Well provided me with a new type of metroidvania. It is entirely puzzle focused, and relies on the players creativity with the few items at their disposal. For example, you get a frisbee which most players would assume is a projectile weapon. And while it can deter or push back hostile NPCS, like I said, there’s no traditional combat. You can actually hop on the frisbee to cross any gaps you see, as long as there’s a wall to bounce it off of. That’s just one of many examples of an item having multiple uses. It’s a lonely game with almost nobody to talk to. And the sound design is absolutely excellent. Without any text boxes or some grand plot explaining what your goal is, you kinda just figure it out. And I love it when games use their one unique language to convey objectives to the player- interactivity. Animal Well can only exist as a video game, which is frankly an honor that many games nowadays don’t always don.
In a world of boring metroidvanias with the same tired upgrades such as a wall bounce, double jump, and slide- Animal Well dares to do its own take. And it works so well.
A true masterpiece.
