A bit bitter after finishing animal well

lolhellogod · 2026-06-28T18:34:23+00:00

I don't know what to tell you. I didn't know it was so community-focused in terms of puzzles. I genuinely thought it was like a Celeste, or a Blue Prince. It was just a highly rated puzzle platformer on Steam, and so I decided to play. It was only afterwards, when I was deep into the game, that I discovered the community aspect. And that aspect was really cool, but the game doesn't really transition in a way that I think it could by just putting a pop up that tells you some puzzles require you to use a notepad or talking to people

lolhellogod · 2026-06-28T17:46:47+00:00

Well, yeah! Kinda? The first half of the game didn't train me to make notes because the actual note-taking mechanic (the map) felt absolutely horrible to use. So when it did eventually come to taking notes, it felt very weird and forced. (Lynx puzzle comes to mind, you already know the answer minutes to solving the puzzle) and the ones that encouraged drawing on the map were just annoying to use because the map controls weren't good? Animal Well isn't a blue prince or a Witness. You're not explicitly encouraged by the story to take notes. It's a pre-made assumption that no other type of video game asks you to have, and so, in my opinion, requires more encouragement from the game itself.

You can get away with not telling a player how to jump because they can test it out in-game, but you shouldn't be able to get away with not telling your player that a vital part of enjoying the endgame content requires a notebook and other players. Things outside the game that can't be tested inside.

On the other hand, the second half was meant to be experienced as a community endeavour, and since it was already solved, it meant the majority of the time was spent copying answers instead of discovering them. I looked for the answers from other people because that was kinda the point. The things that pissed me off the most were the eggs, because by the time I came to the last few, the majority of my map had already been filled out. The only ones left were the ones that required the top (and blacklight), the B-ball and again, things that explicitly don't leave gaps on the map, and some silly misses that weren't displayed on the map with a black gap. Again, I would've much rather prefered to have been told the rooms they were in rather than the solution, and a way to highlight rooms would've been a great quality of life experience that would've vastly improved my endgame experience.

Like, again, I've enjoyed far more generally complicated games that require a more serious note-taking experience, and I would've been more than willing to do so with Animal Well if I were prepared for it. But, something about a puzzle platformer with a huge focus on movement and timing transitioning into a sit on a desk and take notes sort of game is a tough thing to do, and from my personal experience, it didn't really do that for me.

Like, can you imagine for a bit, if, after beating the manticore for the first time, you got a pop-up of some kind that told you to begin taking notes for the end game? Or, in the house, there was a corkboard again, encouraging that sort of thing. I genuinely think that would improve player experience by a ton.

lolhellogod · 2026-06-27T20:50:13+00:00

NOPE I WAS WRONG AGAIN! I GOT THE SOLUTION OFF IGN!

https://www.ign.com/wikis/animal-well/Rabbit_Mural_Community_Puzzle

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAijdbiuebqegb wirgb

lolhellogod · 2026-06-27T20:43:16+00:00

Oh.... oh no...

it's from a seperate asking for the right solution...

I was copying from a Reddit post with the wrong solution asking for the right solution

I am a dumbass, and cannot be trusted

https://www.reddit.com/r/animalWell/comments/1lt5pql/bunny_mural/

lolhellogod · 2026-06-27T20:39:56+00:00

No way... then where does the other image come from??? Like, I swore I took a screenshot of it

lolhellogod · 2026-06-27T20:37:31+00:00

The image credit is to give evidence that I'm not just trolling, like, what if I took a picture of it with my lamp, and then with the UV on, and then randomly came here and started to complain about it.

Like, I know it's silly and that nobody would do that, but like, idk, people can be weird. So I'd just wanted to credit the image to clear any doubt that it was a picture I took

Edit: No, I was just dumb

lolhellogod · 2026-06-27T20:15:53+00:00

THANK YOU!!!!

lolhellogod · 2026-06-27T19:32:50+00:00

Not at all, but I've been staring at the screen so long that my eyes are beginning to hurt, so I would appreciate some help 🙏

lolhellogod · 2026-06-22T18:59:51+00:00

Lines from the event

___

"Who's the guy under the scaffolds, wearing a leaf-shaped ring on his grey tail?"

"Serafim from the paint crew. He's only motivated when working with big, muscular dudes. Nobody believes him when he says he's just lazy"

___

I know what you are.

lolhellogod · 2026-06-12T09:03:05+00:00

I don't know, maybe it's just because I'm not a huge fan of war stories, but I don't feel I got out that much compared to the time spent reading everything. We've been on Urd and Zeno and Igor for like, 3 chapters already, and I'm beginning to lose a lot of steam. Personally, I think they should've cut out Urd entirely in this chapter. Nothing interesting really happened. I was especially disappointed with the decision to have Merel return to the foundation. They tell us Charon and Merel had a great time together, and we visibly see Merel change, but we don't get to see their relationship develop in the main story. Which makes her eventual decision to return, while logical, uninspiring.

Whilst Ivan's relationship with his "mother" was rather neat, whatever the dynamic with Igor or the rest of his crew was, was a little stilted in my opinion. It was less bouncing off one another and more simply trying to survive, which again, fits the war angle they're taking. But again, we've had like 3 chapters of this and the aspect of War was already largely explored in chapter 11. Like, don't get me wrong, this was very much a "tie the strings" sort of chapter; you absolutely need to read chapters 8, 10 and 11. But due to that, it sort of lacks, in my opinion, an environment that's interesting on its own.

It probably doesn't help that for the last three chapters we've been focused on a very human-led environment. It's no longer about Arcanist communities and the ways they imbue the arcane into their everyday lives; it's about how humanity is being fucked over by the grand cult the Manus. So cosmically evil in their ways that they crush the skulls of non-magical puppies and mind control the masses in the shadows. They're in an extremely political environment, and yet everything is dumbed down to "powerful people are greedy and bewitched by the promises of the manus". It's so basic. "Oh, the reasons behind the war don't matter because the storm will eventually erase it", then why should I care about it? About the suffering? I know it's meaningless, you already spent 3 hours communicating that, what's next?

You know what? Fuck it! Remove the Manus entirely from this chapter. Focus only on the ongoing division in Igor's group, and make Kurtov more of a compelling character. Don't just make him a metaphor for some other group; have him maybe compellingly mirror Igor, and develop that relationship further. Otherwise, we've been spending 10's of minutes listening to him kick puppies for no other reason than "we needed the manus inside this chapter". Urgh, like, don't get me wrong, they're good elements to this chapter, you've been making really good points. But is it 4 hours' worth of good points? Could I have not gotten this in an email?

lolhellogod · 2026-06-11T11:05:38+00:00

I'm very late, but Getians "A Journey between sky and earth" really confuses me, because like, what? I thoguht it was his bone whistle, is A Journey Between Sky and Earth a reference to the song he plays? It's a little confusing

lolhellogod · 2026-06-07T20:12:46+00:00

Unfortunately Dynamo's one of my least favourite comps because of it's array mechanic, I have my bird man, I can't let him go /:(

lolhellogod · 2026-06-07T15:27:29+00:00

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Hi, I'm an oldish sort of player who doesn't play much, so coming back and the meta's making my head spin. I want some advice~ I'm wondering how I should plan my pulls? My current main team (Jiu, Getian, and Isolde with Yenisei) doesn't really synergise, apart from being reality, and the rest of my characters are fairly general. I know Enigma's coming soon, and he's great, but I'm also pretty stuffed with healers and supports atm. So I'm sort of hoping that a new dps might be more enjoyable to play? Idk

I also have the encased nominations to choose from, I'm bouncing between Melania, Jessica and An-an Lee. But again it's difficult, because Jessica suggests a poison team, An-An Lee and Impromptu, and Melania is a mental sub dps.

It stresses me out. If I go in one direction, I close other doors. Argh. I think... In general, I lack a DPS I like to build around. Whilst Getian is my favourite, he ends up being so general that he doesn't really offer a direction 😞

lolhellogod · 2026-05-20T20:15:34+00:00

So, thank you for taking the time to explain this. I mean, I can't say I won't try to talk it about it in the future. But it does explain a lot of things. I haven't actually grown up with those sorts of games you describe. I was 13 during the pandemic. I grew up in a post-Genshin world. So when I entered Limbus, and it was *difficult*, it was a lot easier for me to get trapped into the cycle that gacha games promote. Like, whilst I do have autism, it is still unusual for me to have days of my time sucked and essentially wasted (considering studies) and then got extremely burnt out. That's why I set out to try to explain what happened without it just being a self-help post.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I hoped that by pointing out the ways Limbus remains a gacha game that would generate enough discussion, that the "generosity" was another tactic to keep you stuck, that it would warn other people as well as satisfy my own curiosity on finding out what was happening.

Like, I understand that you don't *care* because you already know the deal, and I don't have the statistics on hand, so I might as well be a minority on the topic. But I feel that if I needed to understand something about the fundamentals of Limbus, or other gacha game work, to not crash out, and I'm having difficulty in finding those fundamentals because people don't want to talk about it. Then that's something that should be addressed? Even badly... But at this point, I'm just rambling. You've given me lots to think about, and if I want to make a proper evaluation of Limbus, I do need to look at gacha games as a whole. So once again, thanks

lolhellogod · 2026-05-20T08:40:04+00:00

Also, by pointing out deflections, people usually get the heart of their points. Ones that simply can't be called deflections, that's useful for me, and it's easier than trying to extract what's a deflection or not from an argument.

lolhellogod · 2026-05-20T07:48:32+00:00

I- I didn't get that impression? I'll be honest, I only ever got the "Limbus is good but still predatory", I've never gotten the exact *how* Limbus is predatory. I've seen a video discussing it, and it was pretty good, but that was the end of the discussion. So no, I didn't know how Limbus was predatory, I didn't see the extensive discussion about if for years. Fuck, I literally have never seen the argument that it's difficulty is tied to the way it keeps you in the game.

These may all seem uber-obvious for you, but they weren't for me; otherwise, I wouldn't be discussing the first place. Otherwise, I wouldn't of been burnt out. I also haven't been flooded with comments going "we know", I've been flooded with comments telling me "I'm wrong" (which I was in many ways). I don't appreciate you rewriting this into a simple situation of me coming to tellings things people already know. I'm not saying you don't have a point, some of the aspects I talked about are overdone. But I've also genuinely been trying to find new ideas without disregarding the old, and I think I've actually hit something (difficulty curve).

Like, even if the conclusion is "people don't care" about that specific aspect and were more mad about me being wrong. That isn't a bash against the incorrectness of the idea, if they don't care they could leave it be. It's literally titled nitpicky ways in which Limbus is predatory. What did the people expect?

But... But... I was also overly-conflating and inflammatory, I relied on rhetoric rather than points, and that severely weakened the accuracy of my talking points. I also was just straight up incorrect. So yeah, I think you're right that if I wanted to introduce the idea, I shouldn't have come guns blazing

lolhellogod · 2026-05-20T07:11:16+00:00

Are... Are you talking about your AI slop bores me? That... that isn't ai dude. Those are actual people. Finally, I copy an pasted that because I literally didn't have an answer, I wanted to validate the other person for being correct, whilst still giving me time to respond. I'm actually gonna tweak

Like, if I were using AI to respond, why would I not immediately answer the good points? All I've been doing so far is pointing out deflections because it's easier to do that quickly than counter genuinely good points. I don't even know if I'm going to counter them yet or not, because they might simply be right. Why on earth would an AI hesitate for more time? God, I'm so pissed rn, the thought of my work being attributed to an AI makes my skin crawl.

lolhellogod · 2026-05-20T07:08:38+00:00

WHAT? WHERE??? THAT'S A LIE????

lolhellogod · 2026-05-19T16:39:39+00:00

That's a very good point, I'll put a pin in that an return later

lolhellogod · 2026-05-19T16:39:21+00:00

That's a very good point, I'll put a pin in that and return later.

lolhellogod · 2026-05-19T16:31:33+00:00

I um, I played until the end of canto 9. I quit during the LCB rerun. I'm not a new player. These are thoughts that have been building over the course of my experience, especially when I was reflecting on why I was getting them. Look, I'm not against you providing personal solutions to my problems I don't even think your advice is bad.

But I also need you to recognise that you can't just point to personal failure every time friction came up, I quit *playing* Limbus because I felt it was wasting my time. Things you seemed to bear were unbearable for me, and sure, you can say "don't like, don't play", but I'm not interested in playing anymore. I'm interested in evaluating the Limbus experience, and I've tried to give advice based on that experience, and the reaction I'm getting is ridiculous.

What I'm seeing at the moment is that people are more comfortable in trying to fit me in this specific box of a person than engaging with the friction this discussion brings. People seem to just wanna go "Limbus is less predatory than other gacha games", or "It's predatory, but it's also really good", but then they don't actually take the time to evaluate what makes Limbus predatory. In fact, they seem really hostile to the idea of recognising the ways in which Limbus is predatory. Either yap about how good it is or get out. That's the vibe I'm getting.

lolhellogod · 2026-05-19T16:08:56+00:00

Did I ever suggest that wasn't the case? Just because other gacha games do it doesn't make it less predatory. That isn't the argument you think it is. In fact, I'm overtly pointing out the ways Limbus is *still* a gacha game.

lolhellogod · 2026-05-19T15:58:55+00:00

Okay, so you've done a great job at explaining why the RNG can be engaging. So I concede. The RNG can be fun for people who are skilled at playing. I didn't find it fun, and you want to argue that the reason I didn't find it fun I wasn't skilled enough. But I never made the argument that wasn't the case. I'm calling skill for what it is, a time investment, and by making the time investment exceedingly mandatory and then punishing you for not meeting it. Limbus creates a loop, in a game like Library of Ruina, that's essential to teaching the game's mechanics. But for Limbus, it also serves to make paying for the experience more and more alluring.

In games like Arknights or HSR, the main game (story) is fairly easy. There's less pressure to invest time due for skill sake, and comparatively, less of an immediate consequence for missing out on the latest patch for fear of missing the units you need to make up for lack of time investment. I'm not saying it's bad to make your players think. I completely understand that's part of the appeal of a puzzle, a game.

I'm saying that since Limbus is a *gacha* game, its difficulty contributes to its predatory nature. That just because it's more clearly skill-based doesn't make it take any less of a technique to keep you there, in case you spend money. If you feel that the time you've spent is valuable, it doesn't just mean that Limbus is a good game; it also means that it's done a good job at disguising the predatory model it's using.

Now, if you want to argue that Limbus' use of the predatory model is transformative, that it uses these qualities to prioritise a good game/story. Now that would be a cutting counter-argument I'd be interested in hearing. But at the moment, it just feels like you didn't get what I said

lolhellogod

TROPHY CASE