Aniimo: the Game that tries to do everything

Intro

For today's review, we are going to talk about a game that has me confused but intrigued me. That game is Aniimo, by Pawprint Studio. It is a game first released on PC in August, and then to mobile in September. Aniimo is a creature collector hybrid where you can become the animals you catch and fight, solve puzzles, and explore and open world. 

Gameplay

Aniimo is a strange game with a lot of mechanics that either work, or simply feel clunky. It's like throwing a dart at a board full of ideas and then creating lore to make them fit into the world. This game consists of 80+ creatures, most of which, have unique mechanics or moves to help you traverse the world and solve the various puzzles hidden throughout. Aniimo like Scorchhowl or Inferlupa have fairly simple abilities: they can dash, set things on fire, and break a tiny stamina bar to "Break" the enemy. Aniimo who have simply annoying abilities to use are the ones like Helmut or Helgon: Helmut shows things through walls but has this weird visual effect that hurt my eyes, and Helgon has split vision, like looking through a chameleon's eyes only used for hyper-specific puzzles. 

To catch these Aniimo, you must use "Ani-pods" and those Ani-pods come in abundance from several sources. Simply exploring, picking them up from the ground, treasure chests, shops, or challenges can give you a lot to catch whatever you need. When you catch them however, there is a chance you can get ones that are Common, Good, Epic, or Perfect. The higher the rarity, the better the stats! You'll find most of your Aniimo roaming the world, with the most efficient way of catching is to "Break" them and then throw the Ani-pod with right click in the catching mode. Some Aniimo are inherently better than others, with Alphas being better, and perfect Alphas with the "Sparkling" variation being even better. Sparkling is this game's variation of a Shiny, or a special one. It has several different versions of Sparkling it can be, so collecting all of them will be a challenge as some have over 10 versions. 

Scattered around this open world are luminous amber, treasure chests, pathfinder challenges, and side quests that require specific aniimo to complete. Our first specific item is Luminous Amber. This is used to upgrade your world, stamina, and give max flight stamina when maxed out, think of the Final Fantasy 14 system where you unlock unlimited mount flight once you complete an area. Moving on, Pathfinder Challenges are where you are battling another Pathfinder who is also using their Aniimo. These require specific elements and strategizing as some can be brutally hard. The treasure chests and side quests often go together, as all of these require specific Aniimo to do specific challenges or to talk to the local wildlife. 

Story

Speaking of that, let's get into this game's story. Aniimo is set in the world of Idyll, and that world's color is slowly being drained by a mysterious force. It is your job as a Pathfinder to help study this world and figure out why things are going awry. I will note here, that the visuals in this game for cinematics can be breathe taking, but the story is more MMO-coded, meaning we'll be waiting for another expansion to learn more. 

Graphics

On that note, let's talk about the most challenging topic for this review, graphics. This game is simply gorgeous with the entire world feeling alive. That being said, my biggest issue is the artwork around the menus and the UI. It feels uncanny, almost like AI was being used in some of the art. I'm not the biggest fan of that, as a game as good as this, really shouldn't be using it. I however, am not a professional, so I cannot and will not say for certain that AI was in-fact used. Aside from all of that, let's get into the conclusion! 

Conclusion

Aniimo is a game that took everything from everyone and made it a sight to behold. It is addictive with minimal cash grabbing that you would see from other MMO gacha games. It is a very conflicting game that has its ups and downs but overall is a solid experience that made me play for over 30 hours. That is why, in my opinion, this game deserves a solid 8.5 out of 10. It needs more content, more Aniimo, and more things to do once you've pretty much maxed out your Pathfinder rank. For the price of free, you should give it a go and decide for yourself if this is a game worth your time, or a game not worth the grind.