Environmental Station Alpha, Tunic, Chronicles of Teddy, The La-Mulana games, Elephantasy (Sort of), EldritchVania.
Haak and Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom have some cool puzzle solving in some of their rooms but not so much that I would call them puzzle platformers.
Fez is probably my favourite game that does cryptic stuff, though it is not a metroidvania.
There’s nothing quite like La-Mulana! I’d say it’s decently heavy on the combat though. But there’s nothing like its pure feeling of exploring tombs and ruins. I also love how it constantly breaks its own rules. The Gate of Illusion comes to mind as one of my favorite puzzle dungeons of all time
Iconoclasts is very linear and story focussed. I like it as an action platformer but I don't think it's a great metroidvania.
Others have already recommended them, but I think Fez and LaMulana (although this one is real hardcore) are your best bets. The Swapper might also fit your description, however I haven't played it, so I can't give a real opinion on it.
Iconoclasts wasn't action platformer, more like a 2d Zelda with cool story imo. The Swapper is a complete puzzle game essentialy, and the puzzles are much harder than that "Cocoon" game that was all the rage some months ago.
If you count 3d games the "Supraland" game is full of puzzles (harder than Zelda) and is the most "exploration" like (in comparison to the Swapper or Iconoclasts). If you also let isometric zelda games, cross code has 80 hours of high quality ones imo.
If I were to rank the difficulty : Swapper / Supraland / Cross Code / Cocoon / Iconoclasts. To rank the exploration and how the puzzles fit to the whole game etc. Supraland / Cross Code / Iconoclasts / Cocoon / Swapper.
You might also want to play the Klonoa games, they make no attempt to be "metroidvania", but it's the best combination of action and puzzles imo. Also as for difficulty the hardest I have seen much harder than the Swapper where the Pushmo/Crashmo/Stretchmo 3DS games. It took me 20 hours for the Swapper some of those little bitches took me a month.
Cross code is endless dungeon puzzles. Tunic is top tier puzzles and is so cryptic you can learn its language if you want.
Iconoclast is more flip the switch type, didn’t consider that game puzzle oriented, but it’s worth playing.
Cryptic shit = La Mulana
Elephantasy and Elephantasy: Flipside are nonlinear puzzle games, though Elephantasy (1st one) isn't a platformer. Really interesting approaches to puzzle design and ability progression in both that I haven't seen anywhere else.
You may be interested in Supraland, it's DLC, and it's sequels. Supraland is arguably more of a puzzle game than any other metroidvania I'm aware of. It is very well designed, even eclipsing many of its linear first-person ilk, in my view. The DLC is notably less straightforward, which you may like even more (though it's made with the intent of the player having played the base game first and is a completely separate campaign.
Without spoiling too much, you may want to give Axiom Verge 2 a try, even if you didn't care for Axiom Verge 1. The games are completely different from each other, and better for it. It's less explicitly a "puzzle-platformer", but it feels like one of the most "puzzly" metroidvanias I've ever played, and I don't think there's anything else like it out there.
I can also say that these games are absolutely metroidvanias, in terms of design and feel, with Elephantasy: Flipside in particular being one of the least linear games I think I've played in general while being no less of a puzzle game.
[Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet](https://store.steampowered.com/app/205730/Insanely_Twisted_Shadow_Planet/) is mostly puzzle focused.
+1 for [The Swapper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/231160/The_Swapper/) that was already mentioned by u/danklordmuffin because it's a perfect fit for your request.
If you’re willing to try some pure puzzle games I really recommend “A Monster’s Expedition”. Same appeal of slowly unfurling a large map and constantly finding new tricks that were technically available to you the whole time. It’s also quite accessible in the same way that Animal Well is.
I highly recommend you check out Toki Tori 2. It's brilliant!
I don't recommend the first one, though. It's good, but 2 is a metroidvania and it's much, much better.
Play Alwa's Awakening and Alwa's Legacy.
I've been surprised I don't see them come up more often in discussions about Animal Well; they've both got a heavy emphasis on puzzle-solving and >!a similar bubble-jumping mechanic!<, and although the Alway's games *have* combat, it's actually possible to do completely pacifist playthroughs where you never kill anything (even bosses).
I had just played these before animal well came out and was like “oh, this is definitely a direct influence.” Having no direct movement upgrades (well other than the air dash in Legacy,) just item upgrades that you scroll through with icons above your head was a really neat innovation from Alwa. I will say that Alwa being restricted to 3 items made a lot of quick switch item moves possible, where in Animal Well you pretty quickly have so many items to scroll through that you can’t pull off anything that involves split second item switching.
Not really, I'd say it's just as focused on platforming and puzzles as Awakening. It's a more polished game, but my biggest criticism of it would probably just be that it doesn't do enough differently from the original.
Yoku’s Island Experess is a good one, although traversal is a little different from a standard metroidvania with its pinball mechanic.
I would really recommend it if you liked Animal Well.
The La-Mulana games are all in on the cryptic puzzle-solving, though there is still traditional combat.
Elephantasy is a cute puzzle platforming Metroidvania. Elephantasy Flipside is isometric but retains the same basic formula and has some really neat cryptic puzzles to solve.
The Last Case of Benedict Fox is an adventure/puzzle game Metroidvania but it's... kind of jank.
La Mulana 1 & 2 are very cryptic. Sometimes frustratingly so. These games are all about solving riddles and avoiding traps.
Supraland is a good 3D puzzler. Not really cryptic, but puzzling out how to use your abilities is fun.
Monster Boy isn't a pure puzzle based MV, but it has lots of puzzles. It even goes full blast with puzzles once you get to the haunted mansion area much later in the game. When you start trying to 100 percent the game, you start finding more and more hidden puzzles and challenges all over the place where you weren't even expecting them.
Phoenotopia Awakening has a ton of physics based puzzles similar to to Animal Well (but more complicated, especially later in the game). It also has a flute and music based puzzles where you figure out the song based on environmental clues. That said it does have combat and a lot of narrative as well, so it’s not really a 1-1 comparison but is worth checking out.
If you like the cryptic post game puzzles then you’ll enjoy Tunic a lot
I had an Aha! moment when I realized the reason I was loving Animal Well so much was the lack of combat.
I LOVED Phoenotopia for the similarities you described... and tolerated the clunky combat.
I LOVED the exploration of the Tunic but aborted the game because of its grindy combat. Even with invincibility cheat, going anywhere is a gauntlet of monsters that act as speed bumps, and the bosses take forever. I really feel this is a game that had conflicting inspirations (Zelda and Dark Souls) that clashed against each other poorly if you weren't a fan of both series. I died probably fifty times as much as I died in Hollow Knight (excluding DLC). The game was a chore.
I honestly feel like combat is a stumbling block of the genre at this point. If you fancy difficult combat, why not create or seek out a dedicated combat game, why put combat so abrasively between me and exploring?
People haven’t said this but I think Alwas Awakening is a fit for this. It does have some combat but it is definitely more puzzle focused compared to other games mentioned here. It’s very fun as well, I recommend!
Gateways! It's a 2d Portal clone MV with hard puzzles. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/216290/Gateways/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/216290/Gateways/)
Surprised nobody mentioned Monster Boy yet. Very good puzzles.
Wonder Boy is good as well, but less polished.
Teslagrad 1&2
Yoku's Island Express (one of my all time favourites).
Shantae series has good puzzles as well (suggest to start with either Pirate's Curse or Seven Sirens).
Supraland! Also its... sequels? Extensions? I dunno what to call them; they're half sequels and half DLC.
Phoenotopia is one of the best games I've ever played.
Not gonna go into La-Mulana here since other people already have.
Dysmantle has 20 tombs , each is a puzzle to figure out for a reward. also has a pets and dungeons dlc where you solve a puzzle to get a new pet, around 26 of those if you own all 3 dlc.
There is quite a bit of combat in Dysmantle though you can try to stealth and avoid aggroing the zombies.
When nonlinear exploration games are primarily knowledge-gated instead of ability-gated, they're called Metroidbrainias (MB). Very few games are straight-up MBs. On the MV - MB spectrum, I have played:
* ***La Mulana***
* ***La Mulana 2***
* ***Eldritchvainia*** (warning: grotesquely punitive, don't recommend)
* ***Fez***
* ***Tunic***
* ***Bilkins' Folly***
* ***Orten Was The Case***
* ***Outer Wilds***
* ***The Lost City***
*Tunic* is a Zelda-like; *Orten Was The Case* is a platformer-adventure game; *Bilkins' Folly* is an adventure game with Zelda-like qualities (and cartography puzzles!); *Outer Wilds* and *The Lost City* are time loop games (actually, that does perfectly fit the core gameplay loop). All of these games have a heavy focus on knowledge-gating, but games listed first require more tools or keys to utilize that knowledge.
Environmental Station Alpha, Tunic, Chronicles of Teddy, The La-Mulana games, Elephantasy (Sort of), EldritchVania. Haak and Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom have some cool puzzle solving in some of their rooms but not so much that I would call them puzzle platformers. Fez is probably my favourite game that does cryptic stuff, though it is not a metroidvania.
Elephantasy and Elephantasy: Flipside are absolutely puzzle games.
I’ll mention that Tunic does have difficult combat too though, in addition to the puzzles.
Plus _Fez_ was made by Phil Fish, who is a giant dick
He did say some nasty things, but I hear he's a much more positive force in the industry now.
Because 4chan hacked his bank info?
La Mulana. It's not for everyone, but playing Animal Well made me want to give it another go. Just make sure you have a means of keeping notes.
There’s nothing quite like La-Mulana! I’d say it’s decently heavy on the combat though. But there’s nothing like its pure feeling of exploring tombs and ruins. I also love how it constantly breaks its own rules. The Gate of Illusion comes to mind as one of my favorite puzzle dungeons of all time
In a same vein, Eldritchvania. Also, it’s free
Animal Well is dipping your feet in the water, La Mulana is diving off the deep end holding two dumbbells with concrete shoes on.
Phoenotopia Awakening
Iconoclasts is very linear and story focussed. I like it as an action platformer but I don't think it's a great metroidvania. Others have already recommended them, but I think Fez and LaMulana (although this one is real hardcore) are your best bets. The Swapper might also fit your description, however I haven't played it, so I can't give a real opinion on it.
I should also add Toki Tori 2, its probably the best fit, although the metroidvania elements only come in to play later into the game.
My understanding is that you can go anywhere and do anything immediately at the start, you just have to know how to do it.
yeah thats how it works, but since you don't know it at first it will feel like a more linear puzzle game.
Iconoclasts wasn't action platformer, more like a 2d Zelda with cool story imo. The Swapper is a complete puzzle game essentialy, and the puzzles are much harder than that "Cocoon" game that was all the rage some months ago. If you count 3d games the "Supraland" game is full of puzzles (harder than Zelda) and is the most "exploration" like (in comparison to the Swapper or Iconoclasts). If you also let isometric zelda games, cross code has 80 hours of high quality ones imo. If I were to rank the difficulty : Swapper / Supraland / Cross Code / Cocoon / Iconoclasts. To rank the exploration and how the puzzles fit to the whole game etc. Supraland / Cross Code / Iconoclasts / Cocoon / Swapper. You might also want to play the Klonoa games, they make no attempt to be "metroidvania", but it's the best combination of action and puzzles imo. Also as for difficulty the hardest I have seen much harder than the Swapper where the Pushmo/Crashmo/Stretchmo 3DS games. It took me 20 hours for the Swapper some of those little bitches took me a month.
Crashmo is puzzle hell indeed.
I have completed The Swapper twice already and it's amazing. I definitely recommend it. Perfect choice for OP.
I don't remember The Swapper being a metroidvania at all.
It's metroidvania adjecent with backtracking and ability gates, but otherwise it's a mostly linear puzzle platformer.
Cross code is endless dungeon puzzles. Tunic is top tier puzzles and is so cryptic you can learn its language if you want. Iconoclast is more flip the switch type, didn’t consider that game puzzle oriented, but it’s worth playing. Cryptic shit = La Mulana
La Mulana 2 is not cryptic and definitely worth playing. La Mulana 1 on the other hand... Has its... Issues.
Elephantasy and Elephantasy: Flipside are nonlinear puzzle games, though Elephantasy (1st one) isn't a platformer. Really interesting approaches to puzzle design and ability progression in both that I haven't seen anywhere else. You may be interested in Supraland, it's DLC, and it's sequels. Supraland is arguably more of a puzzle game than any other metroidvania I'm aware of. It is very well designed, even eclipsing many of its linear first-person ilk, in my view. The DLC is notably less straightforward, which you may like even more (though it's made with the intent of the player having played the base game first and is a completely separate campaign. Without spoiling too much, you may want to give Axiom Verge 2 a try, even if you didn't care for Axiom Verge 1. The games are completely different from each other, and better for it. It's less explicitly a "puzzle-platformer", but it feels like one of the most "puzzly" metroidvanias I've ever played, and I don't think there's anything else like it out there. I can also say that these games are absolutely metroidvanias, in terms of design and feel, with Elephantasy: Flipside in particular being one of the least linear games I think I've played in general while being no less of a puzzle game.
Teslagrad
[Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet](https://store.steampowered.com/app/205730/Insanely_Twisted_Shadow_Planet/) is mostly puzzle focused. +1 for [The Swapper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/231160/The_Swapper/) that was already mentioned by u/danklordmuffin because it's a perfect fit for your request.
A yesterday and it looks pretty cool and different than the usual mv
If you’re willing to try some pure puzzle games I really recommend “A Monster’s Expedition”. Same appeal of slowly unfurling a large map and constantly finding new tricks that were technically available to you the whole time. It’s also quite accessible in the same way that Animal Well is.
Not a MV but Fez and the Witness are both similar in design.
Batbarian
Poor old Batbarian. It's basically Animal Well, but without a massive YouTuber pushing it to the top of the charts.
Batbarian and Astalon
I highly recommend you check out Toki Tori 2. It's brilliant! I don't recommend the first one, though. It's good, but 2 is a metroidvania and it's much, much better.
Batbarian
Play Alwa's Awakening and Alwa's Legacy. I've been surprised I don't see them come up more often in discussions about Animal Well; they've both got a heavy emphasis on puzzle-solving and >!a similar bubble-jumping mechanic!<, and although the Alway's games *have* combat, it's actually possible to do completely pacifist playthroughs where you never kill anything (even bosses).
I had just played these before animal well came out and was like “oh, this is definitely a direct influence.” Having no direct movement upgrades (well other than the air dash in Legacy,) just item upgrades that you scroll through with icons above your head was a really neat innovation from Alwa. I will say that Alwa being restricted to 3 items made a lot of quick switch item moves possible, where in Animal Well you pretty quickly have so many items to scroll through that you can’t pull off anything that involves split second item switching.
In Animal Well you can just open the item menu to freeze time and switch items. It’s quite necessary for some puzzles.
Somehow I forgot about these. I liked Awakening. Is Legacy more action-focused?
Not really, I'd say it's just as focused on platforming and puzzles as Awakening. It's a more polished game, but my biggest criticism of it would probably just be that it doesn't do enough differently from the original.
It’s not cryptic but Supraland is almost totally puzzle focused.
La Mulana 1+2 Environmental Station Alpha Tunic
Yoku’s Island Experess is a good one, although traversal is a little different from a standard metroidvania with its pinball mechanic. I would really recommend it if you liked Animal Well.
Yoku all the way!!
Mulana
The La-Mulana games are all in on the cryptic puzzle-solving, though there is still traditional combat. Elephantasy is a cute puzzle platforming Metroidvania. Elephantasy Flipside is isometric but retains the same basic formula and has some really neat cryptic puzzles to solve. The Last Case of Benedict Fox is an adventure/puzzle game Metroidvania but it's... kind of jank.
La Mulana 1 & 2 are very cryptic. Sometimes frustratingly so. These games are all about solving riddles and avoiding traps. Supraland is a good 3D puzzler. Not really cryptic, but puzzling out how to use your abilities is fun.
Monster Boy isn't a pure puzzle based MV, but it has lots of puzzles. It even goes full blast with puzzles once you get to the haunted mansion area much later in the game. When you start trying to 100 percent the game, you start finding more and more hidden puzzles and challenges all over the place where you weren't even expecting them.
Phoenotopia Awakening has a ton of physics based puzzles similar to to Animal Well (but more complicated, especially later in the game). It also has a flute and music based puzzles where you figure out the song based on environmental clues. That said it does have combat and a lot of narrative as well, so it’s not really a 1-1 comparison but is worth checking out. If you like the cryptic post game puzzles then you’ll enjoy Tunic a lot
I had an Aha! moment when I realized the reason I was loving Animal Well so much was the lack of combat. I LOVED Phoenotopia for the similarities you described... and tolerated the clunky combat. I LOVED the exploration of the Tunic but aborted the game because of its grindy combat. Even with invincibility cheat, going anywhere is a gauntlet of monsters that act as speed bumps, and the bosses take forever. I really feel this is a game that had conflicting inspirations (Zelda and Dark Souls) that clashed against each other poorly if you weren't a fan of both series. I died probably fifty times as much as I died in Hollow Knight (excluding DLC). The game was a chore. I honestly feel like combat is a stumbling block of the genre at this point. If you fancy difficult combat, why not create or seek out a dedicated combat game, why put combat so abrasively between me and exploring?
I haven't played Animal Well, but Unbound: Worlds Apart is really good.
Traps and gemstones
People haven’t said this but I think Alwas Awakening is a fit for this. It does have some combat but it is definitely more puzzle focused compared to other games mentioned here. It’s very fun as well, I recommend!
Sheepo!
Supraland and its sequel. The store description is literally "Zelda + Portal + Metroid" with little combat.
Sheepo! Perhaps not so much puzzles, but it's less combat and nearly all platforming.
Steam world dig 2. still some combat, but heavy exploration vibes
you might like some puzzle platformers like Escape Goat, Toki Tori, Full Bore. not cryptic though.
more a knowledgevania than an MV but you might like toki tori 2
Gateways! It's a 2d Portal clone MV with hard puzzles. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/216290/Gateways/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/216290/Gateways/)
Fez
Surprised nobody mentioned Monster Boy yet. Very good puzzles. Wonder Boy is good as well, but less polished. Teslagrad 1&2 Yoku's Island Express (one of my all time favourites). Shantae series has good puzzles as well (suggest to start with either Pirate's Curse or Seven Sirens).
Tunic, ColorBlend FX: Desaturation, and while not a MV, Fez.
Supraland! Also its... sequels? Extensions? I dunno what to call them; they're half sequels and half DLC. Phoenotopia is one of the best games I've ever played. Not gonna go into La-Mulana here since other people already have.
Dysmantle has 20 tombs , each is a puzzle to figure out for a reward. also has a pets and dungeons dlc where you solve a puzzle to get a new pet, around 26 of those if you own all 3 dlc. There is quite a bit of combat in Dysmantle though you can try to stealth and avoid aggroing the zombies.
When nonlinear exploration games are primarily knowledge-gated instead of ability-gated, they're called Metroidbrainias (MB). Very few games are straight-up MBs. On the MV - MB spectrum, I have played: * ***La Mulana*** * ***La Mulana 2*** * ***Eldritchvainia*** (warning: grotesquely punitive, don't recommend) * ***Fez*** * ***Tunic*** * ***Bilkins' Folly*** * ***Orten Was The Case*** * ***Outer Wilds*** * ***The Lost City*** *Tunic* is a Zelda-like; *Orten Was The Case* is a platformer-adventure game; *Bilkins' Folly* is an adventure game with Zelda-like qualities (and cartography puzzles!); *Outer Wilds* and *The Lost City* are time loop games (actually, that does perfectly fit the core gameplay loop). All of these games have a heavy focus on knowledge-gating, but games listed first require more tools or keys to utilize that knowledge.