If I had a rupee for every great Metroidvania game I’ve played that features an animal stuck in a well and lots of goofy side characters, I would have two rupees. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s also a surprising amount given that this is just from the last two years. The two games I think of are ‘Animal Well’ and ‘Well Dweller’. The latter released in September, and that’s what this article is about.
In ‘Well Dweller’, we play as a quintessential elder sibling of a bird family that has to somehow raise their much, much younger siblings and also save them from a certain death at the hands of an evil Queen. Glimmer, the bird, sets out on this quest with nothing but a burning matchstick in their hand, one that can swat out terrifying enemies if struck enough times. In this fictional land, the Queen has issued a decree to collect all bird feathers from far and wide to make a beautiful gown for herself. Sounds like something you might read in a fairy tale, right? There are also several smaller short stories that we “collect” through the game to learn more about the lore.
An engaging storyline and interesting characters are just a happy accident in Metroidvania (at least to me). What’s more important is combat and progression. And so is the art style — which more often than not dictates the vibe, which ultimately decides whether I’ll stick around playing the full game. ‘Well Dweller’ checks the boxes on both accounts.
But what do I mean about the progression being good? Because all Metroidvania games are functionally quite similar. You uncover new territory, defeat a boss, acquire a new skill that lets you traverse better. The thing is, in most cases, the skill level in the beginning is more difficult than it needs to be. The most recent offender here is ‘Silk Song’, which has unnecessarily difficult traversal sequences right from the start. And even ‘MIO’ that released earlier this year (which I loved), had a punishing health meter, that is till you got some upgrades placed in. ‘Well Dweller’ has a more logical progression metre where it starts easy and only gets marginally more difficult as we progress in the game. In fact, the complicated part of the game was actually solving puzzles, and not doing a series of complicated reflex-driven jumps. It feels a lot more winnable, and the vibe is a lot more relaxed. I’d argue that it’s almost even accessible to a relative newcomer to video games.
The artwork is what fully sold me, and it’s insane to imagine that this game was actually developed primarily by a two-person team that worked on all of it. The art resembles something that you’d imagine from a very well-thought-through children’s book. The sound design reminds me a lot of ‘Ori and the Blind Forest’. The overall feeling of a fantasy tale kind of lasts through a lot of elements of the game. At one point, there was a “witch” that turned up in a boss battle, and it had the largest and sharpest teeth, but it still looked very funny. It’s hard to find that balance between horror and humour, and this game kind of nails that specific aesthetic. Someone in another article said this already, but it’s worth repeating because it’s true: the art does feel a lot like the Quentin Blake illustrations from the Roald Dahl books.
I can’t resist when a good Metroidvania game releases, and ‘Well Dweller’ did not disappoint. As Metroidvanias go, it felt largely like a more lighthearted one overall, with a lot of whimsy involved in the story and the characters. I bought this game at a discounted price of Rs 425 on the Steam Store, and played this game on my ROG Ally — it’s a portable gaming handheld, and the game itself is best played with a controller.