Aniimo's global closed beta just went live

Pawprint Studio has officially opened the global closed beta for Aniimo, a free-to-play open-world creature catcher coming to consoles, PC, and mobile. The game takes place in a vibrant world filled with diverse biomes, mount-based traversal, and a bustling futuristic city hub.

The core loop revolves around taming magical creatures and exploring the continent of Idyll. Pawprint Studio is a new internal team established by mobile giant FunPlus, and they are clearly throwing a lot of money at this project. The environments are heavily saturated and packed with detail. You can ride large beasts across grassy fields or harvest crystal pumpkins in a dedicated farming mode. It looks like a high-budget stab at the genre that blends life-simulation elements with real-time action RPG combat.

Becoming the monster

The main gameplay hook is a system called "Twine." Instead of just commanding your creatures from the sidelines, this mechanic lets you physically merge with them. You borrow their skills directly for combat encounters and environmental puzzles. Different creatures offer different traversal options. You can glide through the air, dive underwater, and burrow through the ground.

The spawn rates for these creatures depend on the environment, current weather conditions, and the in-game time of day. Pawprint Studio has already revealed several of the monsters you can catch. There is a dark-type creature called Celestis that has glowing stars on its head. A grass-type turtle called Budclaw mates for life and grows a heart-shaped flower on its shell when it is happy. Another dark-type named Pawney runs around with a broken sword and rusty armor.

Most of these creatures have multiple evolutionary forms. You will need them to tackle the game's real-time PvE dungeons and PvP multiplayer modes. Players can explore a massive, high-tech city hub to meet up, trade, and organize dungeon runs.

Beyond the Xbox ecosystem

Microsoft highlighted the game on the official Xbox YouTube channel today, but Aniimo is not a platform exclusive. Pawprint Studio plans to release the game on Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5, PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store), iOS, and Android. The current closed beta is restricted to PC and mobile devices.

The cross-platform approach makes sense for a free-to-play title. The game will support cross-progression, letting you farm crystal pumpkins on your phone during your commute and run dungeons on your console at home. The game carries an ESRB rating of Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence, and heavy "work in progress" watermarks cover the current gameplay footage.

Pre-registration is open right now through the game's official website and mobile storefronts. The creature-collection genre has seen a massive influx of competitors lately. Standing out takes more than just cute monster designs and bright colors. Aniimo seems to be banking on its visual fidelity and a massive list of side activities to keep people logged in. We will see if the farming and the Twine system are enough to hold our attention when the full release drops later this year.