I hated Animal Well until I beat the game
![Screenshot from Animal Well featuring the Dog Chase boss encounter](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EZ93AUeIA-xMcrZwi-9q-TNYB8o=/328x0:3568x2160/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73369614/ss_87a9f2941e114a2bb834db6350ccbedc1ade794d.0.jpg)
About midway through Animal Well, I felt I had been lied to. I read all the glowing reviews of the game and heard the breathless praise heaped upon it on social media. But my expectations did not match my reality... until I beat the game. Now, I’m well on my way to 100 percent completion for a game I was seriously considering abandoning.
Spoilers for Animal Well are below.
Though I loved Animal Well’s novel take on traditional movement abilities — the tools it provides possess multiple clever uses — platforming itself often felt demoralizing. Initially, Animal Well’s platforming felt like it had difficulty spikes that were both too great and too frequent. I could often see where I had to go and how to get there (and I often looked up...