Aniimo review

In a sea of monster collection games, only a handful stand out. The world is familiar with Pokemon, Digimon, and more recently, Palworld, but more companies want to leave their mark on the space. Enter Aniimo, which blends creature collection, evolution, and battle, with a free-to-play model. Does the upstart title prove worthy of your time (and maybe a few bucks) or will survival of the fittest leave it to fend for itself?

Aniimo, which I read to sound like wordplay on “animal”, is an open-world creature collector with an adventure-filled narrative. As a “Pathfinder,” you’ll catch, grow, evolve, and battle 95+ creatures (at launch, with variations spread across the world) as you explore the continent of Idyll to study aniimo. 

What starts as an attempt to prove yourself as a research candidate quickly turns into a fight between good and evil as you choose between one of two benevolent ancient aniimo to guide your path. As you begin to explore the world, meet the people, and learn about the creatures that live in harmony with them, a dark, nefarious group sneaks in to claim the ancient aniimo you left behind. Thus starts our journey.

Aniimo and the land of Idyll are gorgeous. The land is full of lush, green forests, deep valleys, beautiful beaches, and more. As you journey, you’ll find waypoints that let you fast travel from zone to zone. Each zone has its own variety of aniimo, so you’ll have to travel the world to see it all. To Pawprint’s credit, the creature design is well-done

Like the games it’s imitating, Aniimo gives you a throwable item to catch creatures in, called aniipods. As you play, you’ll earn different kinds of aniipods, each with increased effectiveness and the opportunity to grant some bonus effects. Like the Pokemon Legends games, you’ll run around and chuck aniipods to catch as many creatures as possible, while weakening them in battle or catching them asleep increases your chances. For each aniimo you catch or beat, your party of up to four creatures will get XP and level up.

Aniimo have a wide range of stats that can affect whether they’re a good fit for your party or not. There’s the creature’s element, of course, but Aniimo also splits their creatures up by combat role (DPS, Healer, Support, etc), as well as a “Potential” rating that is, effectively, how rare (and potentially strong) they can be. You’ll want the variety to handle situations as they arise, but I’ve found that focusing on elemental advantage is going to be your best indicator of success.

While it isn’t traditional turn-based monster collector combat, I like Aniimo’s battle system. Combat is real-time with up to three skills at your disposal. You can have one creature out at a time, and it’ll fend for itself if there’s a conflict. As a Pathfinder, you can equip yourself with two support abilities to help out (like healing it or interjecting to deal some damage yourself). You can throw aniipods mid-battle for a chance to nab the creatures. Aniimo can be “broken” in combat, which will stun the creature and temporarily boost your chance of catching them.

The way you’ll probably actually play is to “Twine” with your aniimo. This essentially has your Pathfinder meld with the creature, giving you total control over it in combat. You can attack, dodge, and use its creature-specific skills. As meters charge, each aniimo will have special abilities they can activate for extra damage or special effects. If your creature gets low on health, you’ll be able to swap to one of your 3 benched creatures and continue the fight.

Leveling and evolving aniimo are a big part of where we’ll start to see some of the free-to-play mechanics blend in. You can get experience as you fight and catch creatures, of course, but Aniimo gives you the options to quickly power-level creatures by using in-game items for quick XP boosts. This will let you take a creature from level 1 to the cap in an instant. Unlike Pokemon, aniimo don’t automatically evolve when they hit a certain level. You’ll have to be intentional about every single evolution. Many of the base forms just require they be a certain level, but others have additional requirements. You may need to use specific items, be in a location at a certain time of day, or do certain things while twined with your aniimo. Often, you’ll have to conquer specific “Alpha” versions of a creature to unlock its evolution. I enjoy the various mechanisms they have for evolving your creatures. As a little bit of a purist, I’m not a big fan of using items to skip ~50 levels (yes, rare candy, I know), but if you give me that option, I’m going to use it.

The part of Aniimo where you really start to feel the effects of the free-to-play model is in the insane breadth of systems and rewards you’ll have to interact with. Each day, I log in to 3-4 notifications. There’s seasonal content with companion-specific goodies, events, and rewards. You can unlock the advanced track for ALL the goodies for $20. 7-8 events are going on at any given time, each with their own quests and progression tracks. The game has cosmetic microtransactions, a monthly pass that’ll net you some bonuses for $5. Each individual aniimo has a series of challenges you can complete for bonus items. There’s a lot and it can feel overwhelming…But the most important thing to note is that you can enjoy the game and never have to engage with any of it. Do your dailies, if you want, and accept the free goodies, then go about your business. I’ve never once felt like the game squeezed my fun for money, and that’s important.

I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence if I didn’t discuss the game’s aesthetic, which I frankly love. The world is beautiful, and the aniimo designs range from cute to cool. I think the regional creature varieties are a nice touch (and yes, Pokemon did it first, but they’re all here, on one landmass to be captured and trained). 

All of that said, I want to address what seems to be a continually growing concern in the gaming space, and rightfully so – Generative AI. If you look at the community surrounding Aniimo, folks are generally pretty positive on the game, but many players believe Aniimo uses generative AI. It’s worth discussion since the GamingTrend tagline is, “By humans, for humans.” Pawprint has admitted to using some generative AI in their marketing, which they’ve apologized for and walked back. They have denied any allegations of generative AI in the development of Aniimo, though. As this is the company’s official stance, I have chosen to assume all assets are human-created for the purposes of my review. It can be healthy to approach things like this with a lens of skepticism. 

Having said that, I think Idyll and the creatures of Aniimo have a clean, polished look to them to such a degree that I see why players are balking at AI. I think the menus can be a bit clunky, but I otherwise love Aniimo’s visual aesthetic. It’s bright, colorful, and endearing.

What we have at launch is a beautiful, fun creature collector with an engaging world, fun distractions, and narrative beats that keep things moving. It’s a fun, rote popcorn-munching tale that serves its purpose. The variety of creatures is satisfying, though I do hope they continue to add new areas, creatures, and big story moments to dive into. The game’s menu system can be dense, but it is a free-to-play game. That said, they never make you feel like you have to spend money to keep having fun. I just hope it’ll have the legs to keep going for the long haul.