When we were younger, video games were undoubtedly simpler. You’d play a platformer and jump around playing coins, an RPG where you took turns slapping goblins, or an FPS where you pumped lead into demons. You knew what you were getting with a new purchase, and once you saw credits you’d happily play something else or just start all over again. Now though games can last forever, and you might just spend a year with a single one. Often this is because of multiplayer appeal and getting better, but some games are so much more. Fortnite now has more ways to play than ever, and you could play for months without even considering a battle royale match. Aniimo is another example of a game that does absolutely everything, by combining the joy of creature collecting with the sprawling universe of a MiHoYo game.
Aniimo sends you to the magical world of Idyll, which is full of charming creatures known as Aniimo. These are adorable animals with magical powers, which aren’t yet fully understood. Once you’ve made a suitable K-Pop idol of a character you’re dropped into this world and made to witness an important event immediately. A massive D20 flies in from the sky and absorbs your robot companion, so you rush after it and awaken a legendary Aniimo that can talk and battle a massive dragon. Obviously this makes you a person of interest to those studying Aniimo, so they bring you in as a member and ask you to help with their research. The narrative of this game is a bit twee and very tropey, but at least this introduction launches you into the open world very quickly.
The open world of Aniimo is packed with places to investigate and stuff to do, but really you’ll want to start by catching some critters. Aniimo can be found in all sorts of environments, be they lily pad monsters playing in the stream or chunky squirrels climbing trees. By sneaking up on an Aniimo you’ll have a better chance to catch it, and that will rise even more if it’s busy eating a tasty meal. At that point you should throw your Aniipod and make a new friend, which you’ll probably force into battle and take over the body of.
What sets Aniimo apart from all the other monster collecting games I’ve played is Twining. When you Twine with one of your monsters you essentially transform into them, and can use their powers to fight or get places you once couldn’t. In the introduction you already catch a flying Amiino that can climb walls, a fire one that can burn down thorns, and one of the swimming lily pad friends, and there are dozens and dozens more that’ll aid your exploration. It’s such a cool system that affects everything you do in the game, and never stops feeling exciting.
Twining is most useful in battle though, because it enables you to dodge and unleash attacks to beat even higher level opponents. The action is frantic and fun, with a nice selection of both aggressive and defensive skills you can use on cooldowns to take down foes. You’ll do best taking advantage of elemental weaknesses, and this is made easy by arrows that ensure you know what attacks are most effective. There are even ultimate attacks you can build up to that help turn the tide of battle even more, and are always well worth using.
Like any good creature collecting game, the critters you gather only get stronger as you battle and explore with them. They also all have different requirements for evolution, be it reaching a specific higher level or having enough materials to turn them into a massive bipedal emo wolf. Aniimo even have branching evolutions so you can choose what they turn into, allowing you to avoid the designs you like less or pick a type of Aniimo that benefits the team more. It’s worth putting the effort in to evolve your friends, because they gain so much power when you do.
Usually in similar games you’ll need to do a lot of battling to strengthen your army of elemental animals, but in Aniimo that’s not required at all. All the creatures in your party gain levels from finding collectibles, solving puzzles or catching new friends, and if you’d rather spend hours doing that then that’s absolutely an option.
The world of Aniimo is so densely packed that it’s so easy to get lost in completing side quests and finding collectibles. Shrines litter the land where you’re made to twine with one specific Aniimo, and solve puzzles just like in a game like Breath of the Wild. There are also races to complete where you need to collect gems within a time limit, and collectibles hidden in tough to reach places where you’ll need different Aniimo to access them. Almost everything you do also helps you unlock badges, which are essentially achievements with rewards attached. It would take dozens of hours to clear out even a few areas in Aniimo, and the world is so much bigger than that.
Just when you think you’ve seen everything Aniimo has to offer, it throws something new your way. Like the farming mode, where you can customise and work on your own homestead. Your portable farming dimension exists on the back of an adorable camper van, and in this world you can create your own slice of heaven. Farming works like it does in most games, but it can also be automated by leaving your creatures there to work for their food. It’s a massive fleshed out side of the game that some will lose entire days to, but is also entirely ignorable if it’s not your jam.
Aniimo has a lot to offer and could be played forever, but some elements of it are disappointing. The sheer amount of currencies and unlocks is frankly ludicrous. None of this ever led me to want to purchase real money like a lot of Free to Play games, it’s just difficult to keep track of everything. There were sessions where I’d spend around fifteen minutes switching between menus to claim rewards for completely inane tasks, with no way to just claim everything easily. The menus in general are a nightmare to navigate, and I never got used to them. The visuals don’t always click either, especially character models and monster designs. They’re all just too perfect and pretty, and it makes the world feel fake and less charming. The old professor shouldn’t look like a model, but I guess in this world we just kill everyone after they hit thirty.
Aniimo is one of the best creature collecting games I’ve played that isn’t named Pokémon, and its scope and amount of content is second to none. Exploring the world is a dream thanks to Twining, and catching and battling Aniimo is snappy and entertaining too. It’s not without its issues, but I’d be very surprised if Aniimo didn’t hook a lot of people with its seriously impressive depth and all the different ways to play it.
