I'm just over 10 hours into Animal Well now, and I can confidently recommend it. This game is a masterpiece of puzzle design with an unexpected amount of depth. It's shockingly difficult to talk about without spoiling things, but I think I've given a pretty good summary.
Animal Well is a puzzle platformer about secrets. Your primary objective - at least, initially - is to find four flames. Along the way you'll discover a variety of items that change the way you get around the map, allowing you to solve more puzzles and opening up new areas. You'll also run across numerous Easter eggs (literally - you'll collect eggs) which then appear in the "egg room".
At first glance, this game looks and feels like a metroidvania. You have the usual nonlinear approach to exploration, where new equipment allows you to access new locales. But there's zero comba - it's all puzzles. No item is single-purpose; every piece of equipment you find has multiple uses, and each is a delight to discover. This game takes ordinary objects and uses them in incredibly creative ways.
The puzzles themselves are remarkably well-designed. Every room you come across has some sort of puzzle embedded in it, though you may not see it the first time you come through. Some rooms are labyrinths that have to be navigated by interacting with switches or buttons. Others require skillful platforming. Often there's a mix of both, with clever use of items often coming into play.
Then there are the animals. Each creature changes the way you approach things. For example, one type of playful creature will want to grab you and throw you around, but can easily be distracted by a favorite toy. Other creatures are looking for a meal, and still others just want to be left alone. Some animals need to be rescued, and others should be feared. But you'll always have the right items in your toolbox to face the challenge, if you can just be creative enough.
Perhaps the most rewarding part of this game's design is how densely it's packed with mysteries to doscover. That funny marking on the wall that you thought was just background art? Turns out it was the clue you needed to solve a puzzle halfway across the map. And these puzzles aren't too obscure: they just take a bit of learning the game's language. They don't expect anything of you that they haven't given you the tools to uncover. (At least, as far as I've found. I've heard of one puzzle that gives a small fraction of the solution to each player, and requires external coordination to solve. But that's deep into the post-game: well after rolling credits and collecting all the eggs.)
If you decide to pick up this game, I recommend going in blind, with little knowledge of your abilities or the equipment you expect to find. This is one that will surprise and delight at every turn.
EDIT: and did I mention that the whole game is under 40MB? It's not only a feat of puzzle design but also software engineering.
