Aniimo: The Next Creature Catcher For 2026
We all know Summer Game Fest brought us tons of announcements and news, and in fact, here at MLG we’ve covered most of them! If you want to read the full article, just CLICK HERE. The thing is, we’ve intentionally left some titles out of that list, because for one reason or another, they probably deserved a separate spotlight. Yes, of course, don’t worry gamer, we know several of the titles on our list also deserve a separate spotlight, we’re very aware of that! But right now we’re focusing on one of the other cases, one we haven’t mentioned yet.
The Xbox Games Showcase on June 8, 2025 was a Summer Game Fest event where Microsoft presented a powerful mix of hardware and titles. Specifically speaking about games, we had several exciting updates, such as news about the Persona 4 remake, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, The Outer Worlds 2, High on Life 2, and many more! This time, we’re stopping to highlight a little gem that deserves to be mentioned here, and one you shouldn’t lose sight of in the coming months. We’re talking, of course, about Aniimo, the upcoming open-world ARPG and “creature catcher” set to officially launch sometime in 2026, but whose closed beta will begin at the end of summer, and you already know it’s just a couple of months away!
Everything Aniimo Represents
Aniimo aims to be better and more beautiful than Pokémon and Palworld, and completely free! Yes, this title from Pawprint Studio will be entirely free to play, and available for Xbox Series, iOS and Android mobile devices, and PC via the Microsoft Store. As expected, the game will include microtransactions, which makes perfect sense, and on the other hand, it offers a business model that isn’t hostile or aggressive to F2P players from most countries. Publishing will be handled by Kingsglory Games, a label under FunPlus focused on driving cross-platform IPs with high graphic standards. Pawprint Studio, led by executive producer Jovi Zhang, has spent several years building this dream game, and now aims to deliver the best player experience possible, offering a title that’s more immersive than others in similar genres, as well as more social and visually stunning.
As we’ve already mentioned, this new title will be an open-world ARPG whose main mechanic revolves around capturing, collecting, and evolving creatures. Can you guess what they’re called? Yep, the “Aniimos.” Very good, gamer, you nailed it! Aniimo will offer not just the features we already know and expect, but also some innovative ones, like the “Twining” mechanic, which allows players to fuse with their captured creatures, gaining unique abilities and the chance to explore the world from a completely new perspective!
Where will all this take place? This adventure unfolds in the world of Idyll, a living, dynamic environment with different biomes where each Aniimo will react uniquely to its surroundings and contribute to the player’s emergent narrative. Idyll will be a fully explorable, expansive open world, absolutely fascinating, as you may have noticed in the video up there. Players, as Pathfinders, will be able to explore it entirely while collecting, evolving, and living alongside different Aniimos, who will eventually be necessary to progress both in exploration and in the adventure itself.
Aniimo won’t lack dungeons, there will be plenty, and they promise big mysteries and even bigger rewards! Players will also be able to choose between PVE and PVP combat modes, both happening in real time! Ancient riddles, challenging puzzles, and much more! Idyll will have everything to keep us entertained, busy, and captivated, crossing beautiful unexplored landscapes and discovering mysterious locations and fantastic creatures, and all this with next-gen visuals, another one of the game’s strong points! Sure, we mentioned it looks better, but you probably noticed that yourself in the video, right?
So…
Okay, at this point we’re pretty sure we’ve given you all the reasons to keep an eye on Aniimo, both for its full release next year and for its closed beta starting in just a couple of months. If you’re wondering where to begin, don’t stress! Down below, as usual, you’ll find all the necessary links. That said, since we have to wait for the closed beta, and even more for the official release, how about you jump into the comments and tell us what you think of this proposal? You know gamer, we’ll be reading you! 🙂
Images Source: GameTrailers Official YouTube Channel, Aniimo Official Website
