📸 BTS Aniimo – Game UI 🖥️ + Picturesque World 🎬 & Our Farm 🌾
(Disclaimer: I had the opportunity to participate in Aniimo's Closed Beta. Please keep in mind that the game is still in development, which means features, balancing, visuals and overall gameplay may change before or after release. Everything shared in this post reflects my personal experience with the current beta build.)
Today I'll show you as much as possible before the closed beta ends on July 25. As the game offers a lot of different mechanics, systems, biomes and aniimos, I won't be able to cover all of it in detail. I'll add an official database website at the end of this post where you can discover additional in-depth info on your own if you like =)
Main Interface:
One of the menus I ended up using the most was the main interface, which can be opened at any time with the Escape key. From there, every important system is only a few clicks away, making it easy to manage your inventory, progression and collected Aniimos no matter where you are in the world.
The tabs I found myself returning to most often were Aniimo, Log and Homeland. The Aniimo menu lets you manage your current four-member team while also providing detailed information about every Aniimo you've collected. As I mentioned in my previous post, the Log keeps track of all your quests and objectives, while Homeland takes you to your personal farm, which can also be accessed through your RV trailer. I'll be talking a lot more about that later in this post.
A small quality-of-life feature I really appreciated was the shortcut system. Every menu tile displays its own keyboard key in the corner, allowing you to jump directly to that specific menu without opening the full interface first. It's a tiny detail, but one that made navigating the different systems feel much smoother.
General In-Game UI:
Once I had spent a few hours exploring, the overall HUD started to feel surprisingly intuitive. Most of the information I needed was always visible without cluttering the screen and after a while I rarely had to stop and search through menus anymore.
In the bottom left corner, you can always see your currently equipped Aniipod, which is used to capture wild Aniimos. Different pod types become available as you collect, craft or purchase them, and choosing the right one for the strength of the Aniimo you're trying to catch can make a noticeable difference.
The top right corner keeps the most important menu shortcuts within easy reach. I could either press the corresponding keyboard shortcut or simply hold Alt to activate the mouse cursor and click on the icons directly.
Right below them, the game displays my current four-member Aniimo team, allowing me to switch between companions instantly with the number keys. The selected Aniimo will follow you visibly in game.
Finally, the bottom right corner displays the available commands for the active Aniimo. Outside of combat, I mostly used the Recall command, which calls my companion back to my side whenever it starts fighting a wild Aniimo. It turned out to be a simple but very useful way to keep exploring without getting pulled into numerous encounters along the way.
Another small detail I appreciated was how the interface communicates progression. Whenever new rewards become available through quests or story progress, the corresponding menu shortcut is marked with a small red notification icon. This makes it very easy to notice when there's something new to claim without constantly checking every menu manually.
I also liked how simple it is to switch between tracked objectives. Right below the minimap, I could cycle through my active quests with a single press of a button, making it easy to decide which objective I wanted to focus on next without opening the quest log every time.
Battle UI:
Combat follows the same clean interface philosophy as the rest of the game. While controlling my character normally, the layout stays almost identical, with one notable addition: the large Enhance ability gradually charges as my Aniimo attacks, allowing me to unleash a powerful attack including a cutscene once the gauge is full.
I also appreciated how clearly the cooldowns are displayed. At a quick glance, I could always tell which abilities were ready and which still needed a few more seconds, making combat feel easy to follow even during more hectic encounters.
Once you Twine with your Aniimo and take direct control of it, the interface only changes slightly. Instead of the generic support abilities like DMG Increase and Heal, those slots are replaced by the combat skills you've trained and equipped for that specific Aniimo. I liked this approach because the transition feels natural. You don't have to learn a completely new interface, only a few new abilities or rather when to use them to increase your chances.
Discovering Quests:
While exploring, quest NPCs are very easy to spot thanks to the small magnifying glass icon that appears once you get close enough. Even side quests stand out clearly without feeling intrusive, so I rarely had to wonder where to go next.
Most of these encounters begin with a short cutscene in which the Aniimos share their worries, stories or simply ask for help. One detail I genuinely enjoyed was that these conversations happen while Twined with an Aniimo of the same or at least a similar species only. Instead of talking about the Aniimos, it feels like you're actually communicating with them, which gave many of these small quests a surprisingly charming storytelling touch.
Homeland / Your Farm:
Another big feature is Homeland, your own personal farm. Every visit begins with two short reports: one summarizes the little adventures and mishaps your working Aniimos experienced while you were away, while the other lists everything they managed to produce in the meantime. I found these reports surprisingly charming, as they made the farm feel alive even when I had been out exploring the world for hours.
Which Aniimos work on your farm is entirely up to you. Since each one brings different abilities, building a balanced workforce becomes an important part of efficient production. They also need to be fed regularly, with food that can either be crafted, collected throughout the world or purchased if you prefer a quicker solution.
Homeland also has its own progression system. Instead of following the main story, its quests focus exclusively on expanding and improving the farm itself. As you earn the local farm currency, you can unlock additional land plots and gradually transform your small starting area into a much larger production hub.
Building and managing the farm felt surprisingly intuitive. Rather than walking to every individual field, many tasks can be adjusted directly through the building interface, making larger farms much easier to organize. Over time, you unlock more than simple crop fields, including forests, workshops and some wonderfully creative production facilities, my favorite being the mill, where Aniimos happily ride tiny horse-shaped mechanisms while producing materials. It perfectly captured the game's playful personality.
What impressed me most, however, was the sheer variety of items the farm can produce. Many products can simply be sold to finance further expansion, while others, such as Aniipods and useful crafting materials, can be taken back into the main world and used during exploration. At first the number of production options felt a little overwhelming, but I can easily see it becoming a rewarding long-term progression system for players who enjoy building up an efficient farm.
As promised earlier, here's the Aniimo Database website: https://aniidex.com
-> If you want to learn more about the world, the Aniimos living in it, the detailled elements system or anything else, you can definitely find more info on it through this website =)
Before wrapping up, I wanted to leave you with a few extra screenshots that didn't make it into the final sections of this post. Some of them simply looked too beautiful not to share, while others made me smile during my time in the Closed Beta.
Have a lovely week and stay safe, my friends! <3
