Netease’s free open-world gacha RPG Project Mugen now has a proper name: Ananta. As Edwin points out in the Maw, it’s a lot like Spider-Man meets Zenless Zone Zero, with a mix of city dwellers and uninhibited anime teenagers with long, flowing hair and a penchant for metal accessories.
Project Mugen debuted in August 2023, and the developers of Naked Rain released the game slippery trailer which showed the anime cast (not technically) walking around a lavishly depicted city, as well as driving cars and cyberbikes through neon streets. This attracted a lot of attention. IGN has an interview from later this year that discusses combat and microtransactions. Then there is a moment of silence.
Naked Rain came with a bit Chinese New Year art in February 2024. In August, they held a recruitment event in Shanghai where fans could talk to the creators and possibly join the team (here is the link to the reddit post which sums it all up nicely). Now they have released a trailer announcing the game’s name change and overhaul with fragments of game materials.
Does this look good? Well, the world is pleasing to the eye and a joy to wander through. I like the way you can enter stores without loading screens, and the tricky combat moments seem clever. It’s still too early to tell how this will all come together, especially when it’s a gacha game and will no doubt feature a bazillion currencies and drive players towards opening their wallets to secure the bunnies with the highest stats.
Another trailer will be released on December 4, so hopefully that will tell you a little more about what you’ll see Actually get up to. You can pre-register for Ananta starting at their websitealthough there is no release date yet.
