Bruno Dias

@bruno

"mr storylets"

he/him
brunodias.dev/

writer (derogatory). lead designer on Fallen London.

THESE POSTS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE POSTS OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE POSTS.

Bluesky

brunodias.bsky.social

Letterboxd

letterboxd.com/notbrunoagain/

Backloggd

www.backloggd.com/u/notbrunoagain/

Bruno Dias @bruno5/30/2024, 10:14 PM

Animal Well impressions

I'll be honest I think this game suffered for me from the way people are talking about it. I think people are very hungry for this style of design where the game really doesn't tell you a whole lot upfront, and whenever people start saying "don't spoil yourself just play it" about a game, it will tend to create hype all on its own. So I ended up playing this game, seeing the things it was doing, going 'neat!', and wondering when the Cool Thing that people were so hyped about was going to show up. I think what was going on there is I'm jaded, heh.

Ultimately I'm not going to finish the game because while it kind of presents itself initially as an exploration- and puzzle-driven game, almost a pure adventure game, for some sections of it it just decides arbitrarily to turn into a frustrating precision platformer with very punishing checkpointing... and I just am not going to invest time into that.

#animal well

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @bruno's post:

brendan mcleod @sulcata5/30/2024, 10:15 PM

felt the EXACT same way

Bruno Dias @bruno5/30/2024, 10:16 PM

I think we're getting old lol. I think we're encountering a lot of people meeting this as their first "I have to take notes" game. It's barely an I-have-to-take-notes game!

brendan mcleod @sulcata5/30/2024, 10:44 PM

god you might be right

Amy Dentata @amydentata5/30/2024, 10:16 PM

Yeah it's def a mixed bag. I didn't have problems with the precision platforming but the deeper puzzles get absurd pretty quickly

@zaratustra5/30/2024, 10:20 PM

Cheat Engine's slowdown is your friend
While you go back to the last phone if you die, pretty much everything you've acquired remains acquired (with a few confusing exceptions)

izzy kestrel @iznaut5/30/2024, 10:58 PM

i’m envious of the reviewers who got it a month early and got to have that “discovering the game’s deeper secrets together” experience but that perspective absolutely overhyped the game

i played to credits and then looked up all the secrets bc i knew that it was built for a community to access any of it (literally, one puzzle requires data from 50 people)

@Fachewachewa5/31/2024, 12:07 AM

That's the biggest mistake the game made imo, pushing the community narrative so much. Apart from that puzzle that requires (way more than) 50 people, everything is around the same level as Tunic and very doable solo. Except the very last layer that's barely tracked by the game.

Bruno Dias @bruno5/31/2024, 1:27 AM

I mean honestly because of the aforementioned platforming I lost interest before I could get into any 'deep secrets' type stuff.

Dispatches From Outer Moon F64.9 @cwillcwont5/30/2024, 10:58 PM

yeah, I've been enjoying it on the whole but the multi-screen-no-checkpoint-fiddly-platforming thing turns segments that could have been a fun challenge into an exercise in frustration, especially with how much it expects you to backtrack and re-run areas you've visited.

@SamKeeper5/31/2024, 12:19 AM

I've felt like there was something really wrong with me that I wasn't getting out of the game what others apparently do, but this perfectly describes the trajectory I took with the game and, especially, the lack of sanity checks within the game to indicate whether or not the tedious, difficult trick you're trying to pull off is even the intended solution.

@cidolfas5/31/2024, 1:56 AM

I enjoyed what it was, but I spent the back half of the game remembering that I never played La-Mulana 2 which probably does the best things here better (if it's like the first one)

Pinned Tags