There is a lot going on in Aniimo. Pawprint Studio’s free-to-play RPG is a creature collector, an open-world adventure, a real-time action game and, to a lesser extent, a life-simulation game. There is an RV to develop, a character to customise, resources to gather, multiplayer content to explore and more than 200 Aniimo to discover. It is an ambitious combination, particularly for a game built around a concept that is already familiar.
What gives Aniimo its identity is Twining, a system that allows you to merge with the creatures you collect and effectively become them. This isn’t just a transformation used for combat. Different Aniimo have different abilities that affect how you move through Idyll, solve environmental challenges and reach places that were previously inaccessible. The collection system therefore has a practical connection to exploration rather than existing solely to provide another set of creatures to level up.
That relationship between collecting and exploration is where Aniimo is most successful. Finding a new creature and discovering what it can do can be enough to make you want to keep exploring, particularly when an ability opens up a route you noticed earlier. Unfortunately, the game surrounds that appealing core with a large number of progression systems, currencies and activities, and it can sometimes feel as though the simpler parts of the experience are being obscured by everything else.
Aniimo is at its best when it allows you to explore Idyll, capture creatures and experiment with Twining. The further it moves away from that central loop, the less convincing some of its systems become. There is a good game here, but it occasionally feels like Pawprint Studio was reluctant to leave anything out.
Story and Setting
Aniimo takes place on Idyll, a large continent inhabited by the titular creatures. You play as a Pathfinder who arrives in the world to study its ecology and mysterious wildlife, eventually becoming involved in a larger story surrounding the planet and its legendary Aniimo. The research angle is a nice fit for a creature-collecting game because it gives the act of observing and cataloguing creatures a little more context than simply treating them as combat companions.
The story is more successful than the game’s early presentation might suggest, although it is unlikely to be the reason most players stick around. There is a sense of discovery to the setting, and the mysteries surrounding Idyll give the adventure a little more purpose than simply travelling from one collection area to another. The writing can be uneven, though, and some of the dialogue is more functional than memorable.
That is not necessarily a major weakness. Aniimo is clearly designed around exploration, and the story works reasonably well as a framework for that exploration. It gives you somewhere to go without demanding that you follow the main path constantly. Some of the better moments come from ignoring the next objective and wandering into an area simply because something caught your attention.
The opening hours are less effective because the game takes a long time to introduce its systems. Aniimo wants to explain almost everything, and the constant tutorials and prompts can make the beginning feel more cumbersome than it needs to be. Once the various mechanics have been introduced, however, the game becomes much more enjoyable when it starts trusting the player to figure things out.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Twining is the mechanic that makes Aniimo stand apart from a straightforward creature-collecting RPG. When you merge with an Aniimo, you gain direct control of that creature and access to its particular abilities. Those abilities matter both during battles and while exploring, which gives the system considerably more purpose than it would have if it were simply a combat gimmick.
The creatures effectively become part of your movement toolkit. Some can glide, dive or burrow, while others provide different abilities that can help you navigate the environment or overcome specific obstacles. As your collection expands, the world gradually becomes more accessible. Progression is therefore not entirely about increasing numbers; it is also about expanding what you are capable of doing.
That is particularly useful for a creature collector because it gives you a reason to care about Aniimo that aren’t necessarily the strongest fighters. A creature may not replace anything in your combat lineup but can still be worth keeping because of an ability that makes exploration easier. It gives the collection process another dimension and makes discovering unfamiliar Aniimo more interesting.
The game also changes which creatures you encounter depending on the environment, weather, phenomena and time of day. Most Aniimo can evolve as well, providing another reason to revisit areas and continue expanding your collection.
The mechanics themselves are generally easy to understand, but the sheer number of systems can make the overall experience feel more complicated than it really is. Aniimo has a lot of menus and progression screens, and several launch reviews have pointed out that the interface can be overwhelming.
That problem becomes more noticeable because the underlying game doesn’t actually need that much explanation. The basic loop of exploring, finding Aniimo, capturing them and learning what they can do is straightforward. It is the collection of secondary systems around that loop that makes the game feel busy.
Combat and Abilities
Combat takes place in real time, allowing you to fight alongside your Aniimo or Twine with one and use its abilities directly. That makes encounters considerably more active than the turn-based battles found in many traditional creature collectors. You can move around freely, attack, switch between creatures and make use of different abilities while the fight is happening.
The system is accessible, and that is useful because the game has enough other mechanics to learn already. It doesn’t take long to understand the basics of a creature’s attacks, and Twining gives you more direct involvement than simply issuing commands from a menu.
The problem is that the combat doesn’t always make enough use of that potential. Many encounters are forgiving, and there isn’t always a strong reason to experiment with the full range of your collection. Once you have found a few creatures that work well for you, a lot of fights can be approached in much the same way.
That makes combat enjoyable without making it particularly deep. A greater emphasis on enemy variety, positioning and the specific abilities of different Aniimo could have made the battles more demanding, but the game generally prioritises accessibility over complexity.
The controls can also become awkward because Aniimo has a large number of functions competing for buttons, particularly when playing with a controller. One launch review noted that it is easy to mis-press and trigger something unintended. That is a small problem individually, but it contributes to the broader feeling that the game has slightly too much going on at once.
World and Exploration
Idyll is where Aniimo makes its strongest impression. The world is colourful and varied, with different environments providing reasons to keep moving rather than simply serving as scenery between objectives. The game also makes good use of verticality, and the different traversal abilities provided by Aniimo give the landscape a practical purpose.
The best moments often come from noticing somewhere you cannot reach yet and remembering it for later. Once you have an Aniimo with the appropriate ability, returning to that location can feel like a genuine reward for building your collection. It is a simple idea, but it works because it connects character progression directly to the physical world.
The creatures themselves also make wandering worthwhile. Aniimo are part of the environment rather than simply appearing when the game wants you to fight something, and seeing them moving through the world helps make Idyll feel more like a living ecosystem. Spotting an unfamiliar creature can be enough to interrupt whatever you were doing, particularly when you know that capturing it may unlock another ability or give you access to areas and challenges that were previously out of reach.
The problem is that Idyll can sometimes feel cluttered with activities. There are quests, resources, collectibles, research objectives and various progression systems competing for your attention. The world itself is inviting, but the interface can make it harder to appreciate because there is so much information being presented at once.
Even so, exploration remains the game’s strongest part. When Aniimo lets you forget about its currencies and progression screens and simply wander around looking for something interesting, the design comes together particularly well.
Creature Collection
Collecting Aniimo is naturally at the centre of the experience, and the game gives you more than 200 creatures to find at launch. New Aniimo can be encountered while exploring, during battles and through other activities, while eggs provide another method of expanding the collection.
Capturing them is more involved than simply selecting a command. You use Aniipods and can set traps and time your attempts, giving encounters a little more interaction. Different circumstances can also influence what appears, which makes returning to previously explored areas worthwhile.
The variety in the creatures themselves is one of the game’s more appealing qualities. Some are cute and approachable, while others have more unusual designs, and the roster generally avoids making every creature feel like a minor variation on the same concept. The fact that they can also be used for traversal and other activities gives collecting a purpose beyond filling out a catalogue.
Eggs add another layer, with different rarities and potential outcomes. Legendary Aniimo are also obtained through a dedicated token-based system at launch rather than the Rift Exploration mechanic that appeared during the final beta. The latter was removed before release following considerable criticism of its resemblance to a traditional gacha banner.
That change is important because it means the launch version is materially different from the system some beta players experienced. It also reinforces the idea that the creatures themselves are supposed to be found through gameplay rather than simply rolled for through a banner.
Progression and Monetization
Aniimo’s free-to-play structure is impossible to ignore. The game is free to download, but it includes a cash shop, premium currency, a monthly pass and the Companion Handbook, which functions as its battle pass. The shop uses Lumin Crystals, while other in-game currencies and resources are also used throughout the progression systems.
The launch version is not a conventional gacha game in the sense of using randomised banner pulls to obtain Aniimo. Aniimo, equipment and eggs can be obtained through gameplay, while Legendary Aniimo at launch are acquired through token collection followed by a guaranteed capture. The Rift Exploration system that appeared during the final beta, which did resemble a gacha banner, was replaced before the full release.
That does not mean the monetization is purely cosmetic. The current shop includes outfits and accessories, but it also offers bundles containing resources, capture-related items and other progression materials. Some of these can be earned through gameplay, although paying provides another route to them. The Companion Handbook likewise has premium tracks containing additional rewards, including Aniimo and cosmetics.
This is where Aniimo’s free-to-play design starts to affect the overall experience. The game itself is perfectly capable of being enjoyable without spending money, but the amount of shop and progression infrastructure surrounding it makes the journey feel less straightforward than it needs to be.
The issue isn’t simply that the game contains a store. Free-to-play games obviously need some way of making money. It is the way the different currencies, passes, bundles and reward systems are woven into the interface that can make progression feel like a constant series of things to check rather than something that happens naturally while playing.
That concern has also been reflected in the game’s early reception. At launch, Steam reviews were marked Mixed, with monetization and progression among the most common criticisms.
Base Building and Customization
Away from exploration and combat, Aniimo gives every Pathfinder an RV and a personal Homeland that can be developed and decorated. You can grow crops, build decorations and arrange the space with your Aniimo, providing a quieter alternative to travelling around Idyll.
The Homeland system is more enjoyable as a change of pace than as a major reason to play. It gives you somewhere to return to and provides a sense that your character has a place in the world, but the farming and decoration systems do not have the same depth as the creature-collecting and exploration mechanics.
Character customisation is more substantial. There is plenty of room to create a Pathfinder that feels personal, and the ability to customise both your character and your Aniimo fits naturally with a game that puts so much emphasis on collecting.
Pawprint also expanded Homeland content for launch, adding new features and activities following beta feedback. These additions make the system more useful than it was previously, although it still feels secondary to the main adventure.
Multiplayer and Co-op
Aniimo supports online co-op, PvP and cross-platform multiplayer, with Egg Heist providing one of the more distinctive competitive activities. Egg Heist is a three-player PvEvP mode in which teams search and battle in the Lost Isles.
The multiplayer systems make sense for a creature collector because there is an obvious appeal in taking a collection you’ve built into activities with other players. They also give the game something to offer once the novelty of simply exploring Idyll begins to wear off.
Still, multiplayer doesn’t define Aniimo. The strongest parts of the game are available while playing alone, and the online content feels more like an extension of the main experience than its foundation.
That is probably for the best. Players who want to explore Idyll at their own pace can do so without making multiplayer the centre of the game, while those who want more competitive or cooperative activities have additional options available.
Graphics and Performance
Aniimo has an attractive visual style, particularly when it comes to the creatures and the environments. Idyll is colourful and varied, and the Aniimo themselves generally have enough personality to stand apart from one another. The world has the kind of bright, inviting look that suits a game built around exploration and collecting, with its different environments providing plenty of visual variety as you travel from one area to another.
The human characters are less distinctive, and there are also some technical rough edges. One launch review reported character animation snapping during cutscenes, strange audio during some scenes, follower Aniimo moving awkwardly and noticeable pop-in while exploring. These aren’t game-breaking problems, but they are noticeable enough to remind you that Aniimo is a live-service game still receiving technical improvements.
Pawprint has already made some launch adjustments, including optimised controls for gamepads and improved translation quality and multilingual voice acting in the main story. That suggests some of the rougher edges may be addressed over time, although the launch version isn’t completely polished.
The PC requirements are also higher than the game’s colourful art style might initially suggest. The current Steam listing calls for at least 8GB of RAM, a GTX 970 or Radeon RX 5600, an i7-4770 or Ryzen 7 2700, and 40GB of storage. The recommended specification rises to 16GB of RAM, an RTX 3060 or RX 6700, and an i7-10700 or Ryzen 5 5600 or better.
Early PC testing suggests the game can run well at sensible settings, although performance varies with resolution, scenery and the number of players around you. Testing at 1440p found performance generally in the 70s and 80s on medium settings, while 1080p on high could exceed 80 FPS, although heavier scenery, water and busy hubs could cause drops. Players with older hardware should still pay attention to the requirements before jumping in.
Final Verdict: 7/10
Aniimo is at its best when it concentrates on the idea that makes it different. Twining gives the creatures you collect a purpose beyond combat, allowing them to affect how you move through Idyll and which parts of the world you can reach. That connection between collecting and exploration is the strongest thing about the game.
It also makes the world more enjoyable to explore. Finding a new Aniimo, discovering what it can do and then using that ability to reach somewhere you couldn’t before creates a satisfying sense of progression. The creature designs are appealing, the environments are colourful and there is enough variety in the roster to keep collecting interesting.
The other systems are less consistent. Combat is functional and accessible but doesn’t always demand much experimentation, while the story is competent without being particularly memorable. Homeland and multiplayer provide useful diversions, although neither has the same impact as the core exploration and collection loop.
Then there is the free-to-play model. The launch version deserves credit for removing the beta’s Rift Exploration system and replacing it with a token-based method for obtaining Legendary Aniimo. It is also important that the creatures themselves aren’t locked behind conventional random banner pulls. However, the game still has a substantial monetization layer, including premium currency, a monthly pass, paid battle-pass tracks and shop bundles containing both cosmetics and gameplay-related resources.
That economy is ultimately more distracting than it needs to be. Aniimo already has a perfectly good reason to keep you playing: there is a large world to explore and a collection of creatures that can actually change how you interact with it. The constant presence of reward screens, currencies and purchasable progression makes that straightforward idea feel more complicated than necessary.
There is still a lot to like here. Aniimo doesn’t completely reinvent creature collecting, but Twining gives the formula a useful twist, and Idyll is a pleasant world to spend time in. Its rough edges, shallow areas and busy free-to-play structure prevent it from being as polished as its best ideas suggest it could be, but those ideas are strong enough to give the game its own identity.
For a first major release from Pawprint Studio, Aniimo is an interesting foundation. It has more ambition than focus, but when it stops throwing systems at the player and simply lets you explore, catch creatures and discover what they can do, it becomes much easier to appreciate what the game is trying to accomplish.
