Three years after it was revealed at gamescom 2023 as Project Mugen, Ananta finally has a release date, January 15, 2027, on PS5, PC and mobile. NetEase and developer Naked Rain announced it at Opening Night Live, showed off a second city, and ran closed-door demos on the business floor. I played it almost an hour at Gamescom and it left a very pleasant impression on me.
Many people call Ananta as "Anime GTA" and it is clear why. You get a big open city, driving, multiple NPCs, a long list of side activities, and a lot of playable characters you can swap between.
Storyline and setup are unusual. Nova City is a Manhattan-sized, Tokyo-flavored city where paranormal events called "Chaos" keep breaking into everyday life. You play as Captain, an agent of the Anomaly Control Department, an organization that is falling apart when the story begins, and your job is to rebuild it while looking for your missing father (feels like looking for missing relatives is becoming a cliche). The pitch NetEase keeps repeating is "Go Viral. Save the World": bounties, stunts and helping NPCs to grow your follower count. Whether that fan system becomes a meaningful loop or just an XP bar with a different name was hard to get from demo, but the idea looks promising.
Combat and characters
My session opened with a fight against a gang of street criminals. The lead character, who for now goes only by Captain, fights with what looks like a strange black arm. What struck me right away was how smooth it all felt. The rhythm of dodges, counters and hopping between targets felt well polished and very fun.
Combat isn't the only tool either: there's a stealth option, and the demo hinted that a fair number of situations can be handled more than one way. The crowds aren't there just for display. You can pick a fight with any NPS, tackle them and even put in cuffs.
The character switching is another big thing. Rather than one hero, you cycle through a list of agents who live a different life in the city. Richie, for example, is the patrol officer who levels up by writing tickets and making arrests. There is also a courier on a transforming bike; a hacker; a content creator. Each has their own storyline, style and combat skills, so they are not there just for the decorations.
Chongxiao and the no-gacha bet
Everything shown before August was Nova City. The Gamescom trailer introduced Chongxiao, a second region inspired by Chinese cities like Shanghai and Hangzhou, with its own metropolis, Lingyun City, and a rural side of white-walled villages and tea plantations where martial arts masters hide in plain sight. Fights are built around martial arts styles you learn from those masters, with Shaolin kung fu named as one direct influence. Making the two cities feel like parts of the same game, rather than two projects stitched together, will be one of Naked Rain's bigger challenges.
Then there's monetization. Despite the Genshin-adjacent art style, every playable character is unlocked through story progression. Paid content is cosmetics: outfits, vehicle skins, furniture for your apartment, with a season pass "under consideration."
The open question
The overall impression is extremely fun, although slightly chaotic. There were too many things happening in the demo and too many activities.
Will those side activities add up to something, or is this a giant city stuffed with useless mini games? Can a single story juggle cops, gangsters, anomalies, mechs and half a dozen protagonists without collapsing? And will each of those protagonists come with enough content of their own to make switching between them a needed feature rather than just a decoration?
I'm slightly concerned if NetEase will be able to hold it all together to feel naturally, but let's wait for more gameplay and demos before making a final conclusion.
