It seems that there is always a gaming season that features one specific genre, and now’s the time for the creature collector genre to shine. Many of us already saw the gorgeous trailer for Aniimo, and some have already had the chance to jump into this beautiful world and start gathering a party of Aniimo. Well, I was finally lucky to get a chance to drop into the recent closed beta, and I have to say that Aniimo was a pleasant and refreshing surprise for the genre, but also for open-world titles.
An Idyll-ic World
Aniimo throws you into the most beautiful open world I’ve seen for a creature collector so far. As for the story, you’re a Pathfinder, drawn into a conflict that forces you to adopt one of two legendary Aniimo, as you also work to rank up among a group of researchers. The truth is that, at least right now, I didn’t find the story to be too appealing, which is a shame because Aniimo does an excellent job at world-building. Every single thing is explained well, and the fact that everything feels so cohesive, from what you do as a protagonist to what everyone is doing in Idyll, is just superb. Then again, if history has taught me anything, it’s that the first version of a live service open-world RPG like this one doesn’t have the best narrative, but that always changes in later updates.
Leaving the narrative aside, I was blown away by the scope of everything Pawprint Studio is trying to do. As soon as you complete a somewhat long tutorial, which, despite its length, explains most systems perfectly, you’re thrown into colorful Idyll, a map full of gorgeous zones, Aniimo, and dozens of quests and activities for you to tackle alone or with others. And yes, co-op actually works here and in a way that is seamless. You can team up with several players and practically do everything together, from the cozy aspects to the more PvPvE-oriented ones. I hope other studios take note of how Aniimo has implemented its multiplayer mode.
As for activities, I was already expecting dozens of them, but what I was not expecting was how intuitive and immersive they would be. You have your usual exploration challenges, which may remind players of Wuthering Waves or Genshin Impact, but you then have duels against other players and even a housing system. Oddly enough, I never found the activities overwhelming. I feel the game separates them easily in a way that players can tackle whatever they prefer.
Sadly, when it comes to overwhelming things, the UI was one. While I am used to seeing menus like this one in other games, Aniimo falls into the “extremely bloated” category. There are just so many tabs, sub-menus, and things to go through to do just one thing. This was especially frustrating in the events tab, which I didn’t bother navigating after a while. Fortunately, the character and Aniimo menus feel a bit more intuitive, so I appreciate that, as you’ll be spending a lot of time in those.
Become Aniimo
With the world and story out of the way, now’s the time to talk about the actual bread and butter of the game: Aniimo. These colorful creatures appear all over Idyll, and as long as you have Aniipods, you’re free to catch them for your team. Capturing them is quite easy- well, the process of it: you just aim your Aniipod at one, check the capture percentage, and pray to the RNG Gods that your coveted Nimbi will join your team. You also have Aniipods of different quality, which will always provide better results the higher the rarity.
Those who haven’t kept up with the game might think they’re in for another turn-based creature collector, and that’s where they are wrong. Aniimo lets you become your Aniimo, which is one of the best things that has happened to the genre. On top of that, it’s an action combat system, meaning that you’ll be dodging, evading telegraphed attacks, and swapping Aniimo on the fly.
For me, and at least in this closed beta test, the combat was my absolute highlight. It was great to see all enemies attacking me in real-time and having to think about the best strategy to dodge their hits and get a few of my own in. Furthermore, every Aniimo has different skills and roles, meaning you’ll have to be building a balanced team with a few Support Aniimo and your heavy-hitting ones. And since it is a genre staple, there are also elemental weaknesses, which just spice the combat system even further.
Another thing I ended up loving was the variant and evolution system. You’ll see Aniimo all over the map, with a few having different looks depending on the area. To evolve them, there’s a useful chart you can find under every Aniimo’s profile that tells you what you have to do to get that Gamma or Nova stage. I felt this made the process of evolving some Aniimo more immersive, as you don’t need to hit a level cap to see their new forms.
Lastly, I don’t want to talk about monetization, as this is still a work-in-progress version, but there were a few things that felt a bit alarming for me. For instance, there was one Aniimo you could only capture through an event, but your capture chance would increase by using some of the most expensive Aniipods. In the long run, this might be a bit unfriendly toward F2P players, but then again, I’ll have to wait for the full release to see how Pawprint Studio will treat these events and systems.
Ambitious Ideas With Just a Few Bumps
Overall, I left the closed beta extremely surprised and satisfied, with only a couple of likely bumps that I’ll have to experience during the game’s full launch to see if they will harm the game. Still, there were only some minor negatives to this test, as everything else was a jaw-dropping experience.
With so many creature collectors in the market, and one big franchise letting us down with each main installment, I’m glad to see Pawprint is taking a new approach to the genre with a formula that has a lot of potential. Yet, as I always say from other beta tests, there’s still a long road ahead, but I’m excited to see how the live version will work, and I’ll be there as soon as the doors to Idyll open for all.
