It's a really great game that for me is an easy 9/10. While it's in the same genre as Animal Well, I don't think that it would necessarily be a great recommendation to anyone who liked it, since it's much different from it both visually and in its mechanics and progression. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who played Animal Well and enjoyed the item/egg collecting aspect of the game, since it can scratch a similar feeling to that. Apart from that and the fact that you solve environmental/creature-based puzzles, it really is its own game that is very unique in most of its aspects.
The biggest issue for me at the beginning, which kind of threw me off a little, was the visual aspect of the game, since it's retro inspired and I'm not usually a fan of it, but in this case it feels really fitting and coherent throughout the whole game. Each level/screen feels unique and is kind of memorable. While some secrets can be very well hidden, there are usually some clues or things that you can notice that can hint to you that there is something hidden nearby. While in this case the world map is much smaller than in Animal Well, it's really packed and filled out with content to explore and find. Even after exploring new parts of the map, you can find your way back to the previous areas where you find new things that you missed, unlocked, or didn't know that you could do anything with them.
This is also connected to another great aspect, that if you scan all the creatures that are available in some level or if you scan any of the unique creatures, it will be marked on the map, so it makes it much easier to track and find some secrets. Without it, the whole map exploration would be much more painful.
Coming to the puzzle difficulty, this game seems much more accessible than Animal Well. The text hints and the visual cues are usually enough to solve most puzzles and they are much more direct in Emuurom. Just to note, right now I can't really talk about the end-game puzzles in this game, since I'm still trying to find out how to progress with some endings and I haven't taken a shot trying to decipher any of the cryptic messages (the ones with strange hieroglyphs), but I'm at the point where I explored the whole base map and collected all the butterflies. Based on that I would say that puzzles in Emuurom are easier and not as complex compared to the Animal Well.
Music overall really fits the whole atmosphere and the aesthetics of the game. It's really great and doesn't feel looped or short (which is sometimes an issue in the retro inspired n-bits games) and it has some variety based on the location that you are currently exploring or some user states.
But for me personally, this game also has some issues that are worth noting and mentioning:
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[*] While the music is great, it sometimes feels like it gets cut off abruptly by some user events or world events that can happen. This happens mostly when entering some rooms or by interacting with some creatures/environment elements - my biggest gripe on this is with the [spoiler]turtles[/spoiler], since interacting with them can quickly change the music or play some sounds that can be annoying.
[*] Exploring the map can be painful, especially at the beginning of the game. Going back to some earlier level without having some later skips/shortcuts available, can be quite tedious, since you don't only have to remember where each level was set, but also what was in it and how to traverse it using the usual visible routes, creatures and the hidden paths that aren't visible at first glance. I'm glad that I didn't have to take some longer breaks between each game session, since I feel like forgetting some hidden paths or map levels and having to discover them again would be quite painful. Because of that I can't really recommend this game to anyone who doesn't have a good memory or at least some time to play through the whole game without longer breaks in between each gaming session.
I feel like this issue could be easily resolved if the game also gave you the option to look at the rooms that you already discovered and marked on your map. Another solution would be if the game would allow to somehow mark the hidden paths that you discovered and scanned by showing them in some special mode or as part of the map with some slight shadow/hue or whatever way to hint that it even exists.
I know that the game has a mechanic that allows you to [spoiler]send a ghost[/spoiler] and to use it to [spoiler]look through already discovered levels[/spoiler], but the game hints it to you in a very late part of the game. Also while useful, it's really bothersome and slow to start and use, so I wouldn't really call it a solution to this issue, since at this part of the game you would usually already be forced to memorize most of the map.
[*] Adding mutually exclusive achievements to the game that prevent you from getting them legally at the same time in any form or adding some achievements that aren't implemented/reachable in any way is something that shouldn't be allowed in my opinion. I understand if not implemented achievements would be added shortly before releasing them, but it doesn't seem to be the case in this instance. As of right now, at least based on my knowledge so correct if I'm wrong, there are 2 achievements that are mutually exclusive (and that have some protection built-in against having them both at the same time) and 3 achievements that aren't implemented, so they are just placeholders.
I know that some people might feel like this isn't important or that it's just some small part or that it's just part of the game design and it's some meta elements of it that are meant to say that you shouldn't expect to get all the achievements. For me personally, achievements are meant to be something that is achievable by the player and that could be used to tell what they achieved in the game or if they can or are meant to find something else in it that's intended to be found. They don't have to be achievable in a single game playthrough and can even be granted for some extra hard challenges that aren't meant for the majority of players. But what's the point of them if they aren't meant to be achieved at all? If they aren't meant to be achieved, then why not simply remove/hide them for the time being? This is something that can easily make some players come back in the future, since it will be easier for anyone to notice that some new content was added in the meantime along with achievements that they are missing (assuming that they are gonna get implemented at some point).
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