Aniimo Steam reviews: 47.3% positive in Japanese, with criticism focused on performance
The dataset contains 112 reviews written in Japanese and 200 written in English. The Japanese data covers the period from 16 September to 22 September 2026, while the English data was collected on 22 September 2026.
Own research by 648 News. Every figure in this article was counted by us from 112 Steam reviews written in Japanese and 200 written in English, collected between 2026-09-16 and 2026-09-22.
Overall recommendation rates
In the Japanese sample, 47.3% of players writing reviews recommend the game. The English sample shows a 75.5% recommendation rate. Steam lists a 71.6% positive rating across its full history of 6716 English reviews and a 47.3% rating across 112 Japanese reviews. The difference between the two language samples is 28.2 percentage points.
The numbers
Topics in recommending reviews
Japanese-language reviewers who recommend the game most frequently mention gameplay, combat, and core mechanics. This topic appears in 52.8% of their positive reviews.
あのパルワールドのブームに乗っかったゲームではあるが、ゲーム性はかなり違う
It rides the Palworld wave, but the gameplay is quite different.
Players writing reviews in English also prioritize this area, with 47.0% of recommending reviews discussing it. English reviewers frequently discuss the amount of content and length, appearing in 29.8% of positive reviews. Japanese reviewers mention graphics and art direction in 37.7% of their recommendations. They also discuss the amount of content in 28.3% of positive reviews. English reviewers praise graphics and art direction in 21.2% of recommending reviews. Monetization and microtransactions appear in 5.7% of positive Japanese reviews. English reviewers mention price and value for money in 15.9% of their recommendations. Online play and servers appear in 7.5% of positive Japanese reviews and 2.6% of positive English reviews. Music, sound, and voice acting are mentioned in 3.8% of positive Japanese reviews and 2.6% of positive English reviews.
Topics in non-recommending reviews
Among Japanese-language reviews that do not recommend the game, gameplay and combat top the list at 54.2%. Performance, optimization, bugs, and crashes appear in 33.9% of negative reviews.
コントローラ対応が終わっている。
Controller support is incomplete.
English reviewers who do not recommend the game focus on graphics and art direction in 28.6% of their negative reviews. They also discuss the amount of content and length in 22.4% of negative reviews. Story, scenario, and writing appear in 18.4% of English negative reviews. Japanese reviewers mention characters and character design in 20.3% of their negative reviews. UI, controls, and key bindings appear in 16.9% of negative Japanese reviews. Difficulty and balance appear in 5.1% of negative Japanese reviews and 2.0% of negative English reviews. Monetization appears in 0.0% of negative Japanese reviews and 4.1% of negative English reviews. PC port quality and Steam Deck support appear in 3.4% of negative Japanese reviews and 2.0% of negative English reviews. Developer or publisher conduct appears in 4.1% of negative English reviews.
Differences between language groups
Players writing reviews in English recommend the game at a higher rate than those writing in Japanese. The English sample shows a 75.5% positive rating, compared to 47.3% in the Japanese sample. The statistical difference is 28.2 percentage points with a p value of p < 0.001. English reviewers discuss the amount of content and length more often in their positive reviews. Japanese reviewers mention performance and optimization more frequently in their negative reviews. English reviewers cite story and scenario more often in their negative reviews. The two groups of reviewers differ in their topic focus and recommendation rates.
Methodology and sources
Data
Steam user reviews, retrieved with Steam's public review listing between 2026-09-16 and 2026-09-22: 112 written in Japanese and 200 written in English. Steam's own all-time totals for Aniimo were read on 2026-09-22.
How the reviews were classified
Every review was read by a language model, which rated how positive it is, how much concrete detail it gives, and which of 15 fixed topics it talks about. The counts and percentages in this article were then computed from those labels in ordinary code, not by the model. Automatic classification makes mistakes, so single percentages should be read as approximate. Reviews of fewer than 15 characters were not sent to the model; they count as positive or negative from the reviewer's own recommendation and carry no topic.
Limits
People who write a Steam review in Japanese are not a representative sample of everyone who plays in Japan, and the language of a review does not establish where its author lives. Steam's default filter for off-topic review activity was left on, so periods Steam marked as review bombing are excluded from the counts in this article. Reviews that arrived after the retrieval date are not included.
Links
Data from Steam. Steam and the Steam logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation.