Arms On: Aniimo is A Creature Collector, Pictures Simulator and RPG Battler All in One

Following Aniimo’s reveal on the Xbox Games Showcase final month, I used to be as eager as anybody to find what this vibrant, creature accumulating “next-generation RPG” needed to provide. Fortunately, I didn’t have to attend lengthy – a hands-on alternative at Gamescom allowed me a day journey all over the world of Aniimo, which manages to be three completely different video games all rolled in a single. And that’s finally a really promising factor. 

The demo wasted no time in letting me get out right into a portion of the open world, a textbook, grassy vista with an endlessly inviting horizon, stuffed with cute, docile starter Aniimo. Even this quick beginning space feels so wealthy and vibrant – a keenly stylised, fantasy world teeming with life however with a sophisticated, sci-fi aptitude that feels distinctive.  

Here, I swiftly captured my first few Aniimo within the wild, which is easy at this stage – merely goal a dice (Aniipod) at a creature, examine the likelihood of a profitable catch, and throw. Each Aniimo has their very own talents which are helpful each out and in of fight. Emberpup is an cute canine with quietly devastating fireplace talents, Budclaw is an unassuming crab with nice evasive abilities, and Nimbi, an cute pastel sheep that may hurl items of its personal fluff at its enemies. Aniimo’s story additionally affords a selection between two speaking Aniimo that function a companion of types – a fiery lion referred to as Hellion and a glittery, moon-inspired fox referred to as Lunara. All of those Aniimo can evolve into extra highly effective creatures too, given the precise care, and it appears as if you’ll want them to take down more and more highly effective Aniimo later down the road. 

But even in demo kind, Aniimo goes a lot additional than a easy collect-a-thon. You’re not simply right here to seize all of those creatures and make them battle – you’re additionally right here to analysis them of their pure habitats, perceive them, and doc their behaviour, which results in better rewards.  

It’s right here that Aniimo morphs right into a pictures recreation of types – capturing photos of particular Aniimo partaking with their pure habitats, displaying sure behaviours and interacting with one another will enable you study extra about your Aniimo and unlock factors for different collectibles. This is what made Aniimo really feel a lot thrilling to me personally – as an enormous Pokémon Snap fan, making the artwork of observing and documenting the life in Aniimo’s world, giving every creature a persona and a deep sense of place made me wish to uncover extra primarily based on their design, fairly than their use as a weapon.  

And whereas your creatures do provide a swathe of fight talents, their performance outdoors of combating is what actually makes Aniimo a distinct sort of journey. 

One core function of Aniimo is Twining – a capability that lets your playable, human character merge with the physique of one in all your Aniimo. From there, you’re in management– fairly than commanding the creature to make use of its assaults, you may deploy them because the player-character in actual time fight, which feels wonderful. Darting round as a tiny fox or a star-powered sugar glider is classy, and I used to be pleasantly shocked by how enjoyable it feels to simply develop into the creature I’ve spent a lot time observing and documenting. How would it not transfer? How would it not battle? Suddenly, it’s not only a role-playing recreation to your personal character, I’m actively contemplating the best way to have interaction in fight primarily based on the persona of this creature too.  

Twining can be constructed seamlessly into exploration, which was one other private spotlight.  There is one thing so deeply nostalgic about roaming across the open world with the power to morph into a distinct Aniimo with ease – reaching excessive factors with or as Celestis, utilizing Budclaw to swim, even transferring throughout plains at pace with Flameruff (the bigger evolution of Emberpup) – took me again to the anthropomorphic platformers from my youth. The world isn’t only a area to discover, it’s a puzzle to unravel, and your collaboration with each Aniimo will enable you clear up it.  

There’s a coziness right here, paired with a way of marvel that feels concurrently harking back to video games I’ve loved however surprisingly recent in the way it makes the Aniimo extra than simply numbers to tick off within the recreation’s encyclopedia, the Aniilog. They’re residing, respiration, dynamic components of a world that exists past you. 

Even in only a few hours of play, Aniimo feels remarkably promising – it’s an alluring mixture of genres that circulate collectively surprisingly nicely, and I’m excited to see extra.  

Aniimo

Kingsglory Games

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Aniimo is a next-gen open-world creature-catching ARPG set to launch in 2026.