Well Dweller is the latest metroidvania by Kyle Thompson, and it embodies a pitch-perfect dark whimsy like no other game before it.
Away from the pompous fanfare of AAA games, what with their million-dollar budgets in marketing and cutting-edge graphics, there are a myriad of independent developers doing interesting things. One of them who has been able to release a solid game consistently every two years (no small feat in this landscape) since 2020 is Kyle Thompson. Someone who simply introduces himself as “Hi! I’m Kyle, and I make Metroidvanias” on his Steam page, you’d think his games could be unimpressive in their modesty. But that could not be farther from the truth. His latest game, Well Dweller, proves once again he is a master of his craft.
A Genre That Keeps On Giving
A set of patterns emerges when invoking the term “metroidvania.” Interconnected levels with shortcuts. Backtracking once a new ability is part of your repertoire. Tough boss fights in tight 2D spaces. In that sense, Well Dweller has all of them. Though we know all too well by now that passing a checklist does not make a game special, or even good. What makes Well Dweller unique is not just in how it is purposefully designed, not wasting a single space in frivolities, but in its unsettling charm. Or, as a term a friend brought up, dark whimsy.
The impression of going through a dark fairy tale is tangible throughout. Playing as lazy young bird called Glimmer, you live in a kingdom whose queen has become mad with power. Ordering every bird in the realm to be brought to her and sacrificed to create her perfect feather-adorned tiara, it walks a fine line between aiming for audiences of all ages.
Holed up inside a well (wink), you’re safe with your mother and three little brothers. After a food run gone wrong, they are kidnapped to be offered to the queen, and only you can save them. Now there’s a great motivator.
Throughout the journey, Glimmer meets other quirky animals and fantastical beings. Puppets, rodents, and forest spirits gently accompany his adventure. With a carefully placed tent as his base of operations—don’t ask when he set it up—he recruits some of them to sell useful trinkets to equip or maps to find the plentiful secrets that are customary for the genre.
Entering A Flow State
Eventually reaching a comfortable pace of collecting seven golden feathers to be allowed into the Queen’s castle, each main area has a darkly whimsical narrative going on. At times, they may want to sacrifice your friends. At others, maybe someone wants you to attend his birthday party. That’s the magic of Well Dweller.
On the gameplay side of things, controlling Glimmer is a peculiar experience. Initially, it feels deceptively simplistic. Our feathered friend can jump and dash and, at some point, climb and wall jump, but it is decidedly on the slower pace.
Unlike most modern metroidvanias that boast a double jump, air dash, and more to incentivize fast-paced combat and platforming, Well Dweller is instead welcoming to both old and new players. This does not mean that it is a walk in the park. Certain challenging platforming sequences to obtain special trinkets do test your abilities to the fullest. Then there’s the bosses.
Armed with a matchstick and a molotov cocktail, each boss fight is a memorable encounter. Every one of them having a bit of lore to them, you already know what to expect heading into a fight. To drum up excitement, they are usually stalking you in the back of the landscape as you progress through each biome. And once you meet them, they are horrifying. Fighting them is a dance in and of itself.
As the dash makes you invulnerable for a couple of seconds, the mix of learning their moveset while bouncing through the air and dashing keeps the battle hectic. Because their life bar is hefty, these last a couple of minutes require your full attention. One wrong move and it might be over. But that relief once beaten is second to none.
Straight To The Substance
No bloat, no fluff, all flow is how I can best describe Well Dweller. From the moment you pick up the controller, there appears to be no downtime to speak of. Naturally, you can reach a new area or defeat a boss and call it a day there, but nothing in the design allows you to hit a barrier.
Even though there is no persistent pointer that strictly tells you where to go next, you can just buy a marker in your cozy tent, and it will show you the way right then and there. Taking the difficulty settings further, other than Easy, Medium, and Hard, there are accessibility options to increase your attack on enemies or reduce incoming damage.
Lastly, the music wraps up the atmosphere in an unmistakably melancholic package. Outside the pumping boss fight soundtracks, the mellow melodies during exploration encourage you to take the adventure at your own pace. Composed by the developer’s brother (like his previous games), it is a match made in heaven. One designs a solid 10+ hour metroidvania that reaches the heights of the genre; the other authentically brings it to life with fantastical sounds. Could not have imagined a better combo.
Verdict – Well Dweller
The first Kyle Thompson game I ever played was Crypt Custodian. A game where a cat dies and fights his way back to his owners—it sneakily broke my heart. There is something deeply satisfying about a well-designed metroidvania. No boss fight feels cheap. Never will you be frustrated or puzzled about where to go next. Musicalized to a pitch-perfect melancholic soundtrack, there is no other game that embodies dark whimsy as well as Well Dweller. And it is a delight to play.
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2. Also available on Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam.
A key was provided for this review.
Developer: Kyle Thompson
Publisher: Kyle Thompson, Top Hat Studios, Inc., Doyoyo Games
Release Date: Out now
Pros
- Melachonic soundtrack
- Memorable boss fights
- Metroidvania level design is impeccable
- Equally endearing and macabre designs
- Plenty of secrets and post-game content
Cons
- A few stealth sections are hit or miss
- Some chase sequences should be allowed to be skipped
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Great
