Official key art banner for Aniimo on its Steam store page, showing the game's title and a Pathfinder with an Aniimo creature

Aniimo launched on September 16, 2026, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store), followed by iOS and Android on September 23. The free-to-play, open-world creature-collecting action RPG is developed by Pawprint Studio and published by Kingsglory, a label backed by FunPlus. It was first revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2025.

Catching creatures in Idyll

Players are Pathfinders exploring the continent of Idyll, home to more than 200 Aniimo at launch, whose forms can vary by habitat and weather. Captures use Aniipods in several tiers, up to one that guarantees a catch, and a missed throw returns the pod to your inventory.

The signature mechanic is Twining: you merge with a captured Aniimo to take over its movement and combat abilities, which unlocks flying, digging and sprinting. Combat is real-time rather than turn-based, and Aniimo fill roles such as DPS, Healer and Support. Progress carries across all platforms.

No gacha for creatures, but a full shop

Executive producer Jovi Zhang told DualShockers that "gacha mechanics will not be employed for obtaining Aniimo." In the closed beta, the legendary Aniimo Irisalis was tied to a gacha-style event; after criticism, the team reworked it so players earn Legendary Tokens through exploration and catching, then craft a Legendary Aniipod.

The game still has plenty to buy: a monthly pass, a battle pass called the Companion Handbook with a premium track, a premium currency (Lumin Crystals), cosmetics, storage and speed-ups.

Launch: a big Steam peak and split reviews

Aniimo passed 100,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch, according to Automaton, with other outlets reporting a first-day peak above 127,000. Early Steam reviews landed at Mixed, with complaints about energy gates, the passes and a shop that appears early; one Steam reviewer called it "very much a gacha game" after an hour of play. Ratings recovered after launch: on October 19, Steam showed Mostly Positive, with 19,414 positive reviews out of 26,619 (about 73%).

For another creature collector launched the same week, see our Lumi Master launch coverage, and for comparison with gacha games, our best free-to-play games of 2026.

Sources

Vostrike Newsroom
Editorial team

Vostrike's editorial desk. Articles are researched from cited sources and checked by a human editor before publication. We don't put our own score on games we haven't played.