Anyone who has met me for more than five minutes has probably figured out I’m a Pokémon fan. This isn’t because I refuse to talk about anything else (I do have some social etiquette) but because I’m rarely seen without a Pokémon pin in my hat or some sort of Pokémon clothing adorning my curvaceous frame. I’m always excited to branch out into other creature collecting games though, be they other established franchises like Dragon Quest Monsters or indies like Cassette Beasts. Another take on the genre is coming soon in the form of Aniimo, and I got to check out its gorgeous open world in the latest closed beta.
In Aniimo you start by creating a custom character who will one day be the very best. There are plenty of options to create an avatar that suits your style, as long as you want to look like a supermodel who eats once a week. You do have to fit in with all the other characters though I suppose, including the wise old professors who like they’re in their early thirties.
The game starts with you filming some Aniimo with your friend, until all hell breaks loose when a giant D20 flies in from the sky and summons a massive dragon to attack you. Then you get to choose from two ancient god Aniimo who’ll join you on your adventure, and finally get recruited by the Polaris Institute. These boffins are all about researching these magical creatures, and after your recent experience you’re welcomed into their ranks as long as you take part in a bit of training. Lots more happens in this fairly hefty introduction, but before you know it you’ll be let loose to start catching critters and hiking across the land.
Aniimo isn’t a slow paced RPG like many of its peers, and you won’t be taking turns to fight or throw balls. Instead everything happens in real time, and if you want to catch a new buddy you’ll need to aim and throw a pod. I especially appreciated that you gain an increased chance to catch a new flaming dog or flying squirrel by sneaking up behind it and hitting it from behind, which makes the collecting element much more immersive and even strategic.
Combat is equally action packed, and rather surprising. When I first held down the mouse button to attack an adorable grinning mushroom I expected my buddy Emberpup to rush up and bite it, and instead my human character just started battering the poor thing. Your allies do help too though, with all the usual elemental weaknesses to take advantage of. You can even fully take over your Aniimo by twining with them, becoming them and using their different offensive and defensive skills (with associated cooldowns) to succeed in combat. It’s a lot of fun, and feels more like a traditional action game than I’d expect from this genre.
Twining with Aniimo is even better outside of combat though, as you can use their abilities to explore. This means changing into a bird and flying through the sky, swimming through rivers as a lily pad monster, and dashing across the land as an adorable lion cub. It’s such a lovely way to explore a frankly breath-taking world, and switching between creatures is seamless with context sensitive single button swaps.
Your collected friends have uses for puzzle solving too, helping you collect all the hundreds of different doodads from this sprawling environment. In every cave you’ll find passages that require you to burn down brambles, challenges where you’ll need to race to collect tokens as quickly as possible, and of course new Aniimo to catch. There is so much to do in this world, and I could’ve stayed there forever if the beta didn’t end.
As much as I enjoyed my time with Aniimo, I tried my best not to spoil the full experience by playing for dozens of hours. I want to explore things like Aniimo evolution and farming when the game won’t reset itself after a week, and when the monetisation is made a little more obvious. There’s still so much to this game left to discover, and I’ll make sure I get stuck in on day one.
I only really had one major issue with Aniimo in the closed beta, and it’s in the designs of the creatures themselves. All of the critters you can gather are ridiculously cute with perfect HD coats, and it just gets a little bit boring. There are no weirdos, silly little guys, or creepy designs, and just like the humans in this world they end up feeling a little bland. It’s like Mr Incredible said in the Pixar classic – “if everyone is beautiful, then no one is”.
We are reaching an age where creature collecting games are only gaining popularity, and if Palworld can become an overnight sensation then there’s no reason Aniimo can’t too. I’m interested to see how everything in the game translates to a full free-to-play release, and explore all the elements I didn’t yet in the open beta. I’ll be back to catch all the critters when the Aniimo releases in full later this year regardless, and you may want to join me on this adventure.
Aniimo is “coming soon” to PC via Steam.