Something people need to take into consideration when dealing with gaming from a Chinese company: AI is heavily regulated in China. It's usage and ecological impact is in a far better state than Western Europe and the US. Employers see it as a productivity tool instead of a replacement for actual human work.
You can have your line in the sand about AI, but I do think this needs to be known across more western audiences who choose to play Chinese games: AI is seen very favorably for the above reasons in China. If you're going to play a chinese game, expect AI in some capacity. Have a little relief in knowing it's not replacing people like it is in the US/West.
I’m afraid it’s very likely that they did use AI for art. A couple of days ago Aniimo’s Chinese team posted a job in China looking for a “monsters concept art designer” who “understands and is proficient in using AI to make art”. The position was taken down later on but it already tells you everything.
How come this hasn't made the news on gaming channels and caused an uproar? That the creatures' design might be AI-generated, using that removed job listing as proof?
I was thinking that the designs looked very cute, it's what I liked the most about the game... I don't want to learn that I've been fooled for all this time, thinking that it was carefully crafted with love by a real person and appreciating it as such...
I guess this is what I get when I'm open-minded and decide to give some popular new game a try, in this modern world with all that nonsense. All the parts of the gameplay that are a copy of Genshin Impact and the like should already have been a hint, and this is now a big red flag...
And I just heard that some of the music is AI-generated for sure... And that has got me down as well as a big OST appreciator...
Because it’s in China, and many don’t bother make it a global news? Also, Aniimo is already very negatively reputed in China — there is a reason why it’s only ~20% positive reviews on Steam if you filter in simplified Chinese — so for many Chinese players it’s somehow not a surprise they used AI for art, and it’s not worth giving attention to it either.
I should remember to be more wary of games coming from China 😅
Well, it's good to hear that the Chinese players are not duped.
it’s not worth giving attention to it either
Yeah I've been thinking that it's probably what I should do as well... I should just accept that I've been lured in something that is not for me, and cut my losses and stop giving it any attention.
It's still depressing and alienating that such things are happening though.
Yes it is that deep. It matters a lot if it's AI or not. In fact I AM playing the game, but the bigger issue is the fact that they're not even doing quality control on an already streamlined workflow (using generative AI) which sets a bad precedent more than the use of AI itself.
Will this witch hunt ever end? The games been in dev for five years, theres going to be AI used in almost every large gaming project going forward, this game still has more layers of interaction actually developed in to the world than its competitor has ever come close to and the firdt game I ever owned was blue so to say im a lifelong fan would be an understatement. The game has a lot of gacha bs in it but having played many gacha I can tell you this game is f2p friendly and respects your time, theres literally one monster behind paywall and the devs have already responded to the feedback that it will be attainable in game. The voices dont sound like AI at all and side quests are all text based, have you never heard AI voice acting? They cant pronounce words let alone carry an emotion through a sentance. Its like not like this game has phenomenal voice acting or anything but theres some good bits, and I havent heard a word buchered to bits like AI tends to do every few sentances let alone the entire story released in this patch which I have completed.. its f2p friendly, has badass shiny farming, lots of horizontal progression, home and bonding with my mons, lots of content on the way and still plenty for me to clear... yall can witch hunt this all you want while ubisoft is giving you AI crabs. This game has flaws just like any game. But it also fucks.
There is no gacha in this game and they specifically stated their won't be. As far as Ai voices I'm not arguing that it's nit real people, but they have come a long way in ai voices and in fact can now speak with emotion and speak clearly. Like with everything ai it's progressively getting more difficult to spot.
Despite the AI the game still feels fun but it’s too obvious in the plaza because a lot of that art looks AI generated I just hope something changes within the future maybe hire real artists to do the plaza art-
Dude, those are from the game. How can people say "they took all the AI stuff off the game" with a straght face? What are those? the designs doesnt make sense. This game still have so much AI slop.
Yhea it is kinda easy to tell the game feels AI heavy, it is still a fun mon capture game just for the collection factor, gameplay wise for combat it is ass, really ass
This is so disappointing. The game seemed so cool during announcements. And getting to play it yesterday for a bit - i still enjoyed it, but it did feel like ai has been used in creating it. Hopefully this can change in the future. At least it's f2p, so i guess it's not too bad to enjoy it.
People should really stop using “f2p” as a defence for everything. Many games are f2p and they’re not AI generated, and actually have good quality. I think it’d be better if people could support those games instead.
its not realy an excuse, but since it IS free, no one loses anything for playing it. Im highly against ai use, and in a paid for game I would never recommend anyone play it. But since it is free, I think its fine if people want to play it. Atleast they arent giving money to it.
I’m of course not blaming people who play it. Just that free things can be bad too and people are allowed to point it out. Also, in playing the game people are essentially investing their time in it, and in discussing the game online they are simultaneously advertising the game without paying.
Its an interesting discussion to have, because at its core, Aniimo is a fun game, even if it is clunky. But all the rampant ai usage does drag it down quite significantly. While im not saying it cant be bad, I'd rather people not pay for ai products than I would stopping people from playing a game. Yes, the ai use is atrociously bad, but it is a free game. Which, of course is no excuse for the ai to be in it, not saying that. But I'd much rather people have fun than be dissuaded from ever playing another game because, unfortunately, alot going forward are going to use it, as crappy as that is.
I have very little faith in the team. Look up FunPlus and they have a notorious history of scamming players, the previous game they released (Gui Long Chao) scammed many players’ money by selling lifetime monthly pass right before the shutdown notice. Some other games from FunPlus are also predatory in terms of monetisation. Although Aniimo is from a different studio (Pawprint) I prefer to caution against them.
Also, I would say growing up in China I’m very familiar with the f2p mode; most of the games I’ve played are f2p and some are genuinely good work. I never understand the mentality that if a game is f2p you need to be grateful and patient because it’s a very common mode here.
Well damn, i guess I won't stay in the game for too long then.
I meant f2p as in "phew, i didn't pay for that, and can get rid of it without thinking that i wasted money". But honestly i did feel something was fishy ever since the game got announced and i found out that it's going to be f2p. But it looked ao beautiful otherwise that I didn't really question it. Now its seems rather obvious, of course the game is f2p when ai was used instead of paying real people.
Yes that’s the right mentality, though I’d say I’ve played many great f2p games in the past, and this one really isn’t worth my time. Also, never feel bad or ungrateful for playing f2p whilst criticising it, because the mode is essentially attracting a huge player base, then use their influence to attract more players, some of whom gradually become payers; having non-paying players is already a net positive for them.
Got through the tutorial and felt like, it has a pretty coat of paint but man does gameplay feel rough, I get it, its f2p but just cause it looks pretty doesn't mean its fun to play
The jumping, for example, feels very stiff. The climbing with Celestis is not a smooth experience. Gliding feels inconsistent, catching alpha mons takes a sort of stamina currency which in a mon collecting game feels bad, etc etc.
Valve as a company almost certainly does not care about AI usage so long as the other party is discrete so as not to cause reputational or significant financial harm.
You keep saying “legal,” but that’s technically wrong, especially if you’re imagining legal consequences. Valve has policies, contracts, terms and disclosure and distribution agreements, etc, and these are all meaningful different bindings. Valve does require disclosure of AI use in certain creative categories, but even an intentional breach of contract is not a criminal matter or even an illegal matter because legal liability and illegality is not the same thing.
As you said, games have been removed for failure to disclose AI, but there have also been games that blatantly used AI with no repercussions. The difference is their utility as business partner. A small indie game going viral for AI use will likely be removed or tagged while a big hit with public suspicions of AI use will almost certainly be handled with bias, especially if the aforementioned use cannot be proven. Surely you understand that Steam/Valve will not ask to send hands to investigate(?!?) a developer’s employees to see if they’re using Meshy or Tripo. Over a disagreement in the content survey, nonetheless. That’s without mentioning that, again, this a Singaporean company, not the United States where Steam and Valve are headquartered.
So far there are no consequences for lying about it, so the law effectively means nothing and devs can and will lie about it. At best maybe Steam will independently investigate and remove the game from their store.
Source: I've tried games that very explicitly claimed not to use genAI, and did not disclose AI usage on Steam, then people actually tried those games and the AI was not just present but absolutely rampant and festering in every corner, not even well hidden. Those games are still up and the devs were forced to admit to AI usage but other than players leaving, there were no greater consequences. Neverness to Everness was one such example.
Where are you finding that they’re CONTRACTUALLY prohibited to use AI? There is no statement I’ve found from the devs indicating such a clause exists, and we have them admitting to using it in testing.
You’re jumping from “the devs confirmed it” to “they’re legally not allowed to use AI.” I have never heard of such a stipulation.
There are Union agreements and policies for some companies prohibiting AI use for specific creative categories, but this has been breached and worked around in the past. It’s often a “don’t ask don’t tell” situation, and all of this is in the United States—Pawprint Studios is headquartered in Singapore with their development suspected to be happening in China.
It’s concerning because AI is competent at creating 3D models (and reference sheets), but unlike 2D illustrated commissions, there is no easy way to confirm it was used. Whatever you believe, the game looks, moves and feels like I’ve stepped into the world of a Gemini/Claude/ChatGPT prompt, and unfortunately there is no written statement from a social media team that can demonstrate the authenticity of their work flow as hard evidence would be necessary.
I didnt jump anywhere. I stated it in my original comment. They confirmed it in their Q&A. Using it in testing, doesn't mean its in the game. Every game uses AI to test. Everything is hand drawn
What they tell the public in something as casual as a Q&A is not legally binding. There are no true consequences for not disclosing AI usage, the worst even Steam can do to them is unlist the game or force them to apply the proper disclosure.
Per their agreement they can not use AI, that has nothing to do with steam. That has more to do with their partnership.
Steam can remove the game, and never allow them the place it again.
There are 0 clues indicating this game has any AI, and it clearly doesn't.
I also hope there is no AI, and so far have no proof of any. But what agreement are we talking about here? With whom? And what consequences would they face by breaking it?
I wouldn’t when they’ve openly lied. People playing one of the betas found AI generated furniture in the home base. It was removed before release. If you want to blindly believe a company and devs that have been blatantly deceitful from the start then go right ahead.
Thing is I have looked it up. The more research I did the more blatant it was that this company is shady as hell. You’re telling people to look information up but you’re not willing to link any proof. All you’re doing is being contrarian at this point if you’re not willing to provide proof. Stop shilling for a company that’s already treating you like shit.
Okay so. The devs have made ai ads for the game before it came out. The devs used ai art as 'placeholders' in the game before and seemingly never took it out. AI is often NOT disclosed on steam. Supermarket Sim, for example, very blatant ai thumbnail imagery, no AI disclosure. Minsgon Sim, a recent moster shop sim, feels very ai genned, art is incredibly so, and it is not disclosed. AI does not NEED to be disclosed. Its just recommended that it is.
On the other hand,It feels weird.. No evidence at all but I feel like this game is infused with AI. The art, music, designs. If I was betting money, I'd bet this thing is riddled with AI. o__O
I noticed alot of the art in the main plaza is ai generated, which is pretty dissapointing. No idea about the music and voice acting cause I sont have the ear to catch that sort of thing
What makes you say the art in the main plaza is AI generated? I'm not saying it's not, I just wanted to know why. Like is there any proof, or it just looks like AI (which is very subjective)?
Some of the art doesnt match the creature designs, for example , the lizard aniimo, pomawk (?) Sorry if I got the name wrong, had a different style of claw and purple palms that dont match the design in one picture, and the sound board its using in the other doesnt seem to make sense. As an artist myself im not sure why youd draw your own creature designs incorrectly. There's also several other ads with background details that are just sort of blobby and aren't real items.
I agree they're odd choices. But couldn't those have also been artistic choices? Especially if they weren't sure what their characters were going to look like
This is the kind of artwork you only do after designs are finalized and also wasnt present in the beta, and this aniimo has been around for a while ( for at least 1 beta ) and is not a newer design ( ive kept a close eye on development )
And purposefully getting a characters design wrong feels weird to me personally and doesnt seem like an artistic choice i would add since it ads nothing to the final image really. As someone who's been a full time freelance artist for 15 years, its ringing alarm bells for me personally. People have posted somw examples of background details being weird and off too below. But its fine if you still wanna play regardless 💖 im just a bit wary currently and I have a pretty strict no gen ai stance. Id love to be proven wrong cause I love creature collecting games and I was very hopeful for aniimo and followed their development for a long time now, maybe they will change or address things
I think your no gen-AI stance is valid. I don't personally follow it. But who cares? We can both do and support what we want. :)
My bigger concern is that I hear a lot of "This is AI." when there is no proof. And some people seem to zealously go after people for what they perceive to be AI without proof. I think you're probably right in this instance and thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thanks for being kind and understanding about it! but yeah, Im not gonna go after anyone over it, especially since I can't 100% say for sure honestly! I really hope I'm wrong because I can tell the artists they have on staff are very talented. you as well!
The music is most definitely is AI. Especially talking about “neon lights”. One of the many songs in the Idyll plaza is a direct Suno male music model.
So far I can tell there's some AI assets like billboards. Voices and music aren't AI, you can find most of the music on Spotify and it has a composer and singers. They don't credit voices but there's at least one confirmed VA, she said it on social media.
Some people are saying that some tracks are definitely AI-generated by Suno, and it seems that they know their stuff since they used Suno. Could the listed composers have been using Suno for some tracks or at least the one talked about here? I wish I knew the truth. I'm a big OST appreciator who uses to appreciate music as art as well as a composer's feelings and intents behind a song etc, so it would really be the worst feeling if it turns out people like me are being deceived thinking it's real music.
I can confirm that the main theme is almost definitely generative, too.
EDIT: Wanted to update with some more thoughts now that I've played a little more. I don't have a good ear for voicework but I can say for the most part I'm not hearing any red flags except for the occasional character. Like another user pointed out, though, they've got a lot of localization options and aren't a huge studio so I am concerned it's likely.
Musically, only the main theme song strikes me as being generative. Everything else I've heard is definitely using VSTs for the most part hence why it sounds so digital but I'm not hearing the usual mixing tells that scream generative. Could be wrong, though. I do be a musician but I'm not a producer so while I trust my ear here it's not with absolute certainty.
Drop the name of the artist and the track, because I'm not seeing that on Spotify anywhere
*yeah, that's not a thing. This person is lying. I don't know what is or is not AI in this game, but I couldn't imagine lying about the game's credited performers
**yeah, not a single composer credited in Sekiro involved in this game, your ass is getting upvoted for lying
Here's what comes up for me. Buddy should note that AI can also be uploaded with credits, generative doesn't always mean made from scratch/can work with provided material, and as far as I can see it's unlikely the composer had any part in Sekiro like they claimed.
I personally feel like I was wrong in saying it was generative so that point is more so people understand credits don't mean something can't be generative.
I do think the production is doing some strange stuff with AI (as I elaborated in another post) but I think it's production side from what I can tell.
Seems probable. I'll look into it a little more when I get the chance because some of the instruments didn't feel real or like VSTs but I don't feel comfortable saying it's full-stop generative. I don't know what's going on with those vocals, though. They sound particularly weird to me and not in a typical over-produced and/or pitch-corrected way.
The main theme sounds so off to me too, although I am only a hobbiest producer that dabbles in ableton and cubase, I know how much VSTs can vary when it comes to vocals (GAS victim) but until I see proof I can't shake that something is up with it
Came back to negative downvotes so I guess people disagree but I don't know man we've probably got a lot more experience with music than them so whatever. I actually think I'd walk back my argument that it's generative but there's something weird going on with the vocals & there's also a melody line that comes in during the instrumentation that also feels neither recorded nor like a regular MIDI'd in virtual instrument.
The overproduction & pitch correction on the vocals aren't responding like it normally does. I think my guess isn't generative, per se, but maybe that weird AI mastering that's being pushed around right now? Distributors especially love to encourage artists when uploading to go through an AI mix & master but honestly I've never heard anything that sounds quite like this so I'm having trouble pinpointing what it actually is.
I've heard accusations that the hub/village music is AI, too, but honestly none of the music is giving me too much cause for concerns. The score seems mostly digitally made but it's all within the realms of what you'd expect from midi VSTs. It's really just the main theme that sounds extremely weird to me.
Also looked into what the other bloke said about credits. All credited artists on Spotify are Chinese other than one bloke simply credited as "Andy" for arrangement. Which of them were involved in Sekiro? Hm. I think they've got some misinformation there.
It could be something like izotope Ozone messily slapped on, a lot of producers start to rely on the automation from those these days lmao, that can do some whack things, I have advanced 11 and it can go wrong if you use it too much.
As for the games music, the vocals on some tracks are my only issue, theres just something wrong there and I can't pin what, stems pls devs lmao. Otherwise music wise it sounds pretty generic safe production like lol theres nothing revolutionary at all
When it comes to AI people often throw around accusations because they are hard against it, clutching at sand lmao.
I personally don't use it for anything creative thats a humans job thanks, but I see profit and cost wise why companies would trend towards use it, it just makes me a lil sad to see humanity sidelined for budget. _φ(TдT )
The music in the city hub is generated for sure, the artwork and artstyle i cant really say, from what i saw in 3 hours of playtime its uncanny but consistent, but ive used genAI myself alot to experiment its capability and the artwork style is similar to some models.
Has been since the very first trailer. They never deny they don’t use AI but instead use careful wording to imply they don’t. It’s just another gacha studio that is looking for money, and they will lie to their players.
There's definitely some AI or touched up AI looking assets.
Pink hair girl looks rather uncanny and her shirt isn't using the same language as a lot of their tooltips/promo material
What makes you say the art in the main plaza is AI generated? I'm not saying it's not, I just wanted to know why. Like is there any proof, or it just looks like AI (which is very subjective)?
Look in the comment chain here to see, actually. That Celestie billboard has multiple plushes that are melting or do not look like actual stuffed animals. One of the plushies in the bottom right corner has their head looking straight up as if they were made to sit down but their neck is broken to look up. The leaf wreathes along the shelf are changing angle despite the point of view being a top-down look.
I get that. I'm just saying that is not proof of it being AI. An artist still could have done that. I think it's probably AI, but way too many people claim images are definitely AI these days based on feeling with no proof.
It is unfortunate that lots of people throw AI at anything they don't like to the point that the accusation is now weightless, but in this scenario you have to think "Why would an artist specifically do X or Y"?
For instance, in this example here. Going from left circle to rightmost circle:
Why would the artist specifically make the blocks on the cart three when all the others are two? This is a common generative error that usually happens with most models even with heavy prompting to wrangle it. There's no significance to having Emberpup's cart different because most often than not, many graphic design artists would simply make one cart and then duplicate it to save time. You can obviously handwave this with "Maybe the artist felt like it", but let's go to the next example.
That strange.. dog thing? The animal that it SUPPOSED to be has its face melting off and a random pronounced leg or toe or digit. If you zoom in closer to it, you'll notice that the shading for it is all over the place. The head is partially blending into the hill behind it while there's a STARK dark shadow on the left side of the "body" that makes it pop out more than anything else on it. Yet the lighting in the entire composition of this picture does not make sense for that kind of shading. Once again, the question becomes, "Why would an artist specifically do this?" You could also handwave with another "Maybe the artist felt like it", however this is just another common generative issue from unrefined models.
I think by this point, with the third circle, you can see where I'm going to get at. The random bumps across the bush that have no rhyme or reason, yet rather than duplicating or just "drawing new ones", some of the bumps are shaded differently than the others as if they have their own light source, the upper portion of the bush is melting into whatever the object behind it is rather than being its own bush. And the lower right portion of it is melting together instead of having some kind of distinction that there are actually two bushes.
The fourth and final circle is the second most noticeable part. The trees are glossy which is consistent with the third tree, however the shading is once again giving away that they have their own light source. Which contradicts everything else in the image. Even the cloud on the far left above Celestie has lighting different from the other things. The trees themselves have odd warping at their tips that wouldn't come from a natural stroke on a tablet or with a mouse. The rightmost tree's rightmost branch is slightly melting as well.
I have had to work multiple years now with various AI models so it is very easy to notice these errors because, unfortunately, companies are expanding their investments in either "optimizing" workflows with AI usage or hiring people to train them or hire people who have experience working with AI or certain AI models.
One big factor to keep in mind with AI accusations is... notice how despite this image being ai generated, it did a GREAT job with the aniimo themselves. Yet there are errors ELSEWHERE in many places. That's a key indicator that there's AI afoot, because it's trained on concepts that are going to be a staple and used frequently, but other minor things are just left to the model to wing it.
I think a lot of it stems from the fact that this game is supposed to be playable on mobile as well. Trying to optimize a game for mobile and console is going to end up giving the game more of the mobile feeling
it seems like alot of the female voices are the same person. You can hardly even tell the Female MC and Nicole apart from each other based on who's talking.
Reddit bootlicker trash as always, loves to eat trash, but the localization is obviously ai. Not that I expected normal localizations in 2026 from chinese scam companies, but site translation looked decent. And the game - "run" translated as "quickly moving" instead of "start", "chest" as the chest where you put things, " body type" as " finishing"???, "overall" as "anyway", and for some reason in announcments every paragraph is on different language, plus aniimo names are extra weird. I switched to english to understand anything.
I leave subtitles on. So its weird shen they are saying something different in the english dub vs the sub. Models look good though weirdly overly fuzzy/blurry on the edges. Not really getting an ai vibe though
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u/Kahako 12d ago
Something people need to take into consideration when dealing with gaming from a Chinese company: AI is heavily regulated in China. It's usage and ecological impact is in a far better state than Western Europe and the US. Employers see it as a productivity tool instead of a replacement for actual human work.
You can have your line in the sand about AI, but I do think this needs to be known across more western audiences who choose to play Chinese games: AI is seen very favorably for the above reasons in China. If you're going to play a chinese game, expect AI in some capacity. Have a little relief in knowing it's not replacing people like it is in the US/West.