Well Dweller
It’s the spookiest time of the year again readers, and what better way to celebrate the season than by reviewing some spooky season games. A couple weeks ago I had to plan to either cover just a bunch of survival horror games or the entire Castlevania series, but then realized I didn’t want to burn myself out. Instead we’re gonna vary our subject matters, otherwise do what I have always done. When one thinks of horror they imagine gross or macabre imagery. The slasher films many grew up on, or the fact that video games have advanced so much we put too much time remaking the internal systems of a human being. Kind of surprised the medical industry hasn’t hired game developers to help them develop software and simulations. Anyways, horror is often associated as being a genre for teens or adults, but sometimes horror can be cute. No, I’m not talking about people whose comfort genre is horror. Yet again, Bloodborne is a game I vibe to so I don’t have the right to speak. What I mean are games who don’t prioritize gore or grossness when it comes to horror. Luigi’s Mansion is a great example of this. Sure it’s aimed toward young players, but it’s a fun comedic game that uses horror as the setting rather the goal of scaring you.
Beloved indie Cult of The Lamb has horror, but plays it in the sense of what you’re doing is pure insanity. With humor only thirty year old adults with the minds of angsty teenagers would enjoy. Then we have Well Dweller, a recent indie metroidvania solo developer Kyle Thompson. About two years ago he also made Crypt Custodian, which we’ve covered on this site. Thompson has really made a name for himself these last six years, and has grown into being one of my favorite indie developers of recent memory. Not because he’s the most innovative game designer in the world, but because he puts so much love and care into his craft. Sheepo was his first attempt at making a metroidvania, and then he made Islets which had one of the coolest ways of handling an evolving map. He took a break from metroidvanias and then made Crypt Custodian. Dipping into the world of zeldalikes and proving he could have his fingers in both cakes. Crypt Custodian is one of few rare indie games to receive a 10/10 from me, but the time I chose to review it was interesting. 2024 started off slow, but later on got heavy hitters like Lorelei and The Laser Eyes and Nine Sols. It was one of the first new releases I checked out in 2024, and at the time thought it would be one of my Game of The Year contenders. I don’t wanna assume the game got lucky with me, because I still believe it’s fantastic and one of the best of its kind.
Crypt Custodian was a cozy little adventure about death and wishing your loved ones goodbye before moving on, and so Kyle Thompson thought the best way forward from there was to lunge into the world of horror. A grim art style, monsters with big bloody smiles, and designs that will make putting your child to sleep difficult. As in putting them to slumber. Don’t want to resort to extreme measures just to get some peace and quiet. Kyle Thompson began work on Well Dweller and I had written down on a wishlist since its announcement. Thompson proved himself with the resounding high quality of Crypt Custodian, and Well Dweller looked to be a higher quality title than all his prior three games. The game released to high praise sitting with a perfect user score on Steam as of writing, and ninety one percent on Metacritic. An incredible feat for Thompson as very few indie games manage to get that high of a score. He shot himself into the metroidvania hall of fame, and I congratulate him for such an achievement. Well Dweller is thankfully as good as I hoped it would be. 2026 has been a stacked year for metroidvanias with Memories in Orbit, Grime 2, and Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse releasing just a few days ago. Well Dweller came out during a competitive time, but managed to succeed. To me Crypt Custodian is his best game , but Well Dweller sits at second and is by far the best metroidvania he’s made. Let’s talk about Well Dweller and why it deserves your attention.
Story
Long ago there lived a king and queen. They birthed a daughter that both they and the rest of the kingdom knew was cruel. Constantly fearing the day she’d one day step up to serve as their ruler. The daughter tortured critters around her, and when the day finally came for her inauguration she ruled with an iron fist. Demanding everyone give her exactly what she wants, and if not would face punishment. Obsessed with standing out against everybody else she planned to construct a dress made out of crow feathers. The creatures she dissected at a young age and hated the most. Basically it’s medieval 101 Dalmation, and so every hunter was contracted to sniff out any crow that lived. It didn't matter whether the crows were brought dead or alive just as long as the queen got her dress. Crows became an endangered species and very few of them still exist. The ones that still live reside within a small well far away from the kingdom's walls. A mother crows does the best she can to provide for her four small children. Teaching them how to gather food during the night, and hide when any hunters came by. The children yearn for being a part of the outside world, but one child is fine with living in the well for the rest of their existence.
That being the oldest pecker Glimmer. Despite being the strongest and most skilled at gathering food she isn’t the most confident in herself. Afraid that one wrong step will endanger her family. Mother Crow grows hungry one night and doesn’t have any food left for the family. She wonders who to send out, and despite her siblings begging to go alone she chooses Glimmer. The scared birdie ventures into a nearby hunter’s house for berries, picks them off a plate, and runs off a few minutes before the hunter wakes up. All's well that ends well, but unfortunately Glimmer left too late. The hunter notices Glimmer and follows her back to where her family resides. Waiting for the crows to lower their guard before ransacking the house. By that I mean shoving them all into a literal sack. Glimmer manages to escape by diving into a hole and falling into deep unexplored territory. Her new goal is to locate her kidnapped family members, save them, and confront the monsters of this world. Building the courage to believe in herself and assist other creatures who also are attempting to find their place in a world overrun with nightmares & chaos. Good luck.
Gameplay
The game plays quite similarly to Thompson’s previous metroidvania Islets. In a genre that has in recent memory prioritized snappy combat and movement, Well Dweller is quite basic. This is not the most mechanically rich or deepest game in the world, but Thomspon has some nice ideas that help separate Well Dweller from the rest of the competition. If you aren’t the most complex or biggest game in the genre then you might as well be unique. This game puts a heavy emphasis on exploration and abilities Glimmer unlocks to navigate the land. She’s outfitted with a match to fend off against enemies, and canisters that explode into fire. The canisters are charged through the whacking of enemies similar to how Hollow Knight handled soul and silk. You’re encouraged to play aggressively, but discouraged to spend those canisters frugally. As healing follows a flask system similar to Blasphemous, Ender Lilies, Nine Sols, and numerous other soulslike. This isn’t a soulslike game, but does have the mindset that every step away from a checkpoint is a risk you may die. That’s why you want to be careful what fights you tackle, how you spend your healing charges, and always check the map screen so you know where you are possibly going.
Even if you get lost you unlock the ability to spend acquired currency to pinpoint the next main objective. You can also spend currency to unlock specific trinkets and upgrades a merchant name Looter holds, or pinpoint secrets you may have missed. Finding secrets in Well Dweller is very satisfying as they help grant Glimmer perks to make her more powerful. Her means of defense are limited, but you might as well give her the support. These include leaving behind fire when she slides, have the canisters bounce instead of shatter upon hitting the ground, and simple stuff like further attack range and damage. More perks can be equipped through finding trinket slots, and you can even find trinket upgrade tokens to improve the effectiveness of specific trinkets. As you progress you unlock skills, and these aren’t the usual metroidvania skills. You do get a wall climb and brief flight in midair, so not everything is original. However, instead of a double jump you get a slingshot. Shooting your matchstick into a wall so not only does it create a mounted platform, but also a board you can bounce off. Reaching areas you wouldn’t be able to normally. This is the most creative metroidvania power I’ve seen in awhile. It makes you interact with the world design in intriguing ways. Leading to moments where you're trying to figure out how to apply your skills to a problem, do it, and feel elegant for doing so.
Every area holds a boss, and these guard your means of progression. With a variety of attacks to zip around and a second phase usually triggered once you knock them down to half health. These fights are frenetic, fast, and tough. You always have to be on your toes and know when to whack away or platform over. You will die a lot while playing this game. Either through trying to figure out where to go or the relentlessness of ferocious beasts. Well Dweller is not only the highest quality title Thompson has made, but the hardest one. I wouldn’t say Well Dweller sits at insane levels of difficulty, but you’ll be tested. Pushing every skills to their limit. Hopefully you got what it takes to overcome those fears.
Thoughts on This Cute Little Birdie
My time with Well Dweller was well spent with one of the first compliments I can give being on the… well, time of course! This is an eight to ten hour long experience, which isn’t all that long when compared to some of the metroidvanias that have come out lately. Grime 2 is my favorite metroidvania of 2026 right now, and that game is twenty five hours long if you decide to do just about everything it has to offer like I did. Haven’t acquired the true ending to Memories in Orbit, but the basic ending took me fifteen hours and might take others more depending on whether or not they switch on accessibility options. Last year's Silksong was twenty or so hours for the basic ending and forty for the true ending, and Ender Magnolia was fifteen to twenty. Metroidvanias are long games nowadays, and while I love getting as much meat on my bones some might not like how long these games have gotten. I don’t mind long games as my favorites of all time are quite lengthy, but you need to be doing a lot to make each passing five hours. Some games don’t, know they can’t, and instead choose to be shorter. Well Dweller is one of those games I’m glad is short. Gets every unique thing it has out of the way, doesn’t overstay, and feels meaty.
A majority of the map can be cleared out before rolling credits, and I don’t know if this is due to tight world design or the game making secret finding not so much of a chore. One of the earliest trinkets you can acquire is an eyeball that unveils hidden areas and walls. Making finding those corners with trinket slots and upgrades much easier. Currency is plentiful even outside of killing enemies, and backtracking isn’t a hassle with how many shortcuts you can open up. They made this game as player friendly as possible by marking locked doors on the map and having the ability to pinpoint where to go whenever. I love the abilities you get to navigate the world. Even though Glimmer is a crow and oldest among her siblings she can’t fly easily and is quite weak. Her attacks feel more like whacking rather than bashing a blunt weapon. Hence why throughout this review I’ve been saying ‘whack’ instead. When you do get those platforming abilities they are good but restrictive. You can fly but only for a few seconds, and if endlessly it can only be done through updrafts. The wall climb has stamina up until the endgame, and you can’t double jump so instead you jab your matchstick into a wall. These abilities get you to think on how to navigate the environment. There’s quite a bit of platforming and all of it’s fun to overcome. At times it can feel like a puzzle and wondering just how to apply Glimmer’s skillset.
I mentioned this is by far Thompson’s hardest game, because if you don’t pay attention or react well enough you can die easily. Your health bar doesn’t increase with time and you only ever get two healing charges. Glimmer dies in five hits, and healing gives you essentially three more hit points. You start exploring the world with care and determining what encounters you can handle. Well Dweller turns into a methodical journey of survival, and I think the game benefits with what the main premise is. Boss fights are a highlight of combat as you face off against crazy designs. The type of creatures only someone experienced in horror knows how to make, and it’s crazy as Thompson’s previous game was a soft colored cozy trip through the animal afterlife. A major selling point for this game is of course the art direction. Thompson has always had a distinct look for his games aside, but Well Dweller tries to go beyond them. Blending the cutesy look of prior titles with horror, and it leads to this lovely blend. There was maybe one point I got scared, and it was during a cutscene. Creepiest ass smile I’ve ever seen, but then it was followed up with this dark comedic moment. I think Well Dweller does dark comedy in a very lighthearted way.
The game contains the most story among Thompson’s games. Not a lot, but enough to make the world interesting to the point you want to unravel all of it. Picking up these page collectibles not because they make you stronger, but you want to hear of the legends in this world. What came before and how it now came to be. Well Dweller is honestly pretty sad when you piece it every piece together. How figures of the past destroy themselves and fail to find healthy ways to deal with their problems. The feeling of the game conveys this with the atmosphere being top notch. The soundtrack is like any Kyle Thomspon game soundtrack, but I noticed it more this time with the overall vibes. This is a game with a horror setting, but it doesn’t want to be scary or the worst thing human artists can conjure onto paper. Again, this game can be comedic and lighthearted at certain points. It’s wondrous proof that horror doesn’t need to be disturbing to work in the exact same ways, kind of like what I said in the intro with Luigi’s Mansion and Cult of The Lamb.
There are soft critiques to be made about Well Dweller. Boss fights are highlights yes, but some are less of a test of skill and more on how fast you can kill the damn thing. Granted that’s every boss in video game history, but I say that due to how fast Glimmer can die. Five or so hit points and only two healing charges that can’t refill to my knowledge. The game pushes the player to stack as many perks on top of each other, so it becomes this game of how much cheap bullsh*t can I have rather than how you build your character. In games like Silksong or Ender Magnolia you’d have to put thought in, and I’m not saying in Well Dweller you don’t. You can’t have all trinkets equipped at once, but eventually you can have one third of your stuff equipped. Controls aren’t bad, but they can take a bit to get used to. Glimmer has the exact same movement and feel as the protag from Islets where they’re slippery. I wouldn't doubt if Thompson reused assets and code from before to make this game. Those are about my only complaints, because overall I love this game. It’s another worthy metroidvania in the year 2026 and deserves the recognition it has gained. In the end I am gonna have to give Well Dweller a 9.5/10 for being pleasantly superb.
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