Aniimo

Aniimo is a free-to-play, open-world creature-catching RPG set on the continent of Idyll. Players take the role of explorers known as Pathfinders, catching and bonding with creatures called Aniimo, then using a signature ability called Twining to take on their forms and powers. The game blends open-world exploration, real-time combat, creature collection, and social play across a shared, cross-platform world. See Aniimo Creatures for the collectible companions at its heart and Catching and Aniipods for how they are caught.

At a Glance

Overview

As a Pathfinder, you roam Idyll catching wild Aniimo with devices called Aniipods, building a collection of companions that can grow through evolution lines into stronger forms. The standout mechanic, Twining, lets you merge with a captured Aniimo to glide, dive, burrow, and fight as the creature itself, summed up by the game's motto, Be One Be All. The studio puts it plainly: you do not just have an Aniimo, you can become one, and Twining is what lets a Pathfinder see the continent again through a creature's eyes and senses.

Beyond solo adventuring, Aniimo offers competitive and cooperative play. The Egg Heist mode pits teams against one another in real time, while your personal RV and Homeland give you a base to farm, build, and decorate.

There is no fixed win condition. The studio describes the endgame as a set of identities a player can pick up rather than a single track: the professor who has catalogued every Aniimo, the undisputed champion of Aniimo battles, Idyll's greatest treasure hunter, a master gardener, a home design genius.

The Creatures

The official creature index catalogues 94 entries. Every one of them carries a dex number, one or two elemental affinities drawn from a set of nine, a battle role drawn from a set of five, a base stat line, a passive trait, and a set of combat skills. Many also have alternate Forms that change their element and move them to different habitats, and about half carry a mobility ability that becomes a traversal tool once a Pathfinder Twines with them.

Rarer variants sit on top of that. Prismana and Umbral creatures, Sparkling and Alpha individuals, and a graded Acquired Potential rating are all tracked separately, so the same species can be collected in several genuinely different versions. A small set of Legendary Aniimo is obtained through one-time story encounters rather than ordinary catching.

Development and Release

Aniimo is developed by Pawprint Studio, itself described as a FunPlus publishing label, and released under the Kingsglory label. See Development for the studio and release history.

First revealed in June 2025, the game ran three closed beta tests before launch. The third and largest, the Global Closed Beta, ran through July 2026 and closed on July 25, 2026, wiping all test data. Pre-registration passed 30 million ahead of release, clearing every published milestone tier.

The build that launches is not the build the testers played. A September 2026 letter from the studio set out an itemised list of what changed, including a progression system that was removed outright; see Launch Version Changes.

Aniimo launches on September 16, 2026 at 10:00 (UTC+8) on PC, consoles and Xbox cloud gaming, with the mobile versions following on September 23. Pre-orders opened in August; see Pre-Orders and Editions for the paid editions, Servers and Cross-Play for platforms and regional servers, Events and Showcases for its convention history, and System Requirements for the published PC specification.