I’m so glad that Animal well attracted the wider attention of the gaming press and indeed players. This is a wonderful game that deserves to be a huge hit. It’s also exactly the kind of game that often goes completely overlooked. And if you don’t believe me, then you should definitely buy and play immediately Master key.
Let’s be clear: these are very different games. Animal well is Metroid-as a platformer, while Master key is 2D Zelda-as an RPG, but both are amazingly good games created by an individual that perfectly accomplish their tasks in an accessible and deeply engaging way. One is lucky, the other is not. Let’s get down to changing that.
Buried treasure
Buried treasure is a site that seeks out excellent unknown games that are not seen elsewhere. You can support the project through his Patreon.
Master key is 2D Zelda format distilled to its purest form. It’s a monochrome RPG in which you play an adorable fox, exploring an ever-growing territory as you gain new abilities that allow access to new areas. The map starts off shrouded in clouds, with each section revealing itself as you progress through it until you discover a host of biomes, temples, dungeons, and boss battles. And even though it’s “monochrome” (it’s black and white by default, with options in the settings to choose your own dual color scheme), it’s beautifully detailed, with a huge number of different enemy types, gorgeously animated, and each fighting differently way your increasingly interesting range of attacks.
So yes, this rather clinically explains that he delivers all the right ingredients. Much more important is how well it’s done. Master key is just so wonderfully crafted, a constant stream of new abilities opening up new areas, allowing you to always feel like you’re progressing. Reach a point where you’re stuck and the world map (which I’m pretty sure is just the live game running on a smaller scale) will flash a region for you to explore further. Inevitably, you’ll find the passage you missed, or the secret entrance it hints you to, or an NPC with an item you need. And then there’s that dopamine hit of realizing you now have another whole part of the game to explore.
There is no talking in the game, other characters instead communicate in the simplest icon bubbles. And yet everyone feels distinctive. Where the game doesn’t expose me, I find myself filling in the narrative for myself, imagining motivations for this little fox. Everything is charming.
It’s also full of secrets, puzzles and surprises. There are some pretty in-depth puzzles in there, some dungeons offering custom challenges that require quite a bit of brainstorming. At some points you’ll see rocks with peculiar patterns on them and start marking them in case they come in handy later. (Spoiler: they will.) Each area feels like it’s hiding something extra, so it’s always worth revisiting areas you haven’t seen in a while, in case your bucket of new skills now allows you to reach a previously inappropriate one looking platform or reveal a whole new dungeon.
Abilities are what every sane person desires. So yes, there’s a great hook shot for that oh-so-satisfying leap over gaps, and of course a boomerang for hitting distant enemies, along with a bunch of others that come in much later. Full exploration is always rewarded with more bonus items that will unlock more health, non-vital but awesome bonus abilities, and loads of awesome cash. So a new ability is a new chance to collect a lot more than that.
I’ve been properly stuck a few times and I’m not alone. But there’s already a small but wonderful community for Steam trading tips and a thread dedicated to those at the end of the game sharing discoveries about the game’s deepest secrets. I’ve certainly gone in there looking for prompts and at one point just begging for a clue. (Unfortunately, the game hasn’t gotten any YouTube guides or walkthroughs yet, but hopefully if we all shout about it loud enough, more people will get on board.)
This deserves to be a resounding success for developer Achromi, and it’s the eternal tale of frustration with Steam’s terrible curation that it isn’t. (I have to admit that I do get a little nervous when I see more successful indies hopelessly talking about it on Twitter instead of channeling their large followings into supporting projects like Buried treasure and many others.)
It’s ridiculously cheap for a game of this size and complexity, and it will consume you for many, many hours. If you, like me, wish Nintendo would just make another one A link to the past, then this is a must buy. He fully understands the mission and then delivers, delivers and delivers.
The master key is already out for Steam and Switching.
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