Chinese developer Naked Rain presented the Ananta demo at Tokyo Game Show 2025. Previously known as Project Mugen, the team first showcased gameplay in a trailer on Sept. 22nd. After watching the footage, gamers were either furious or excited about the inspirational mash-up of playstyles.
Hands-on reviewers offered mixed opinions about this upcoming urban open-world RPG due to its confusing concept. Others have disrespected Naked Rain for not focusing on a character gacha system. Ananta’s lead producer, Ashley Qi, and publisher NetEase gave some answers about the anime game.
Ananta’s Multiple Game Styles Explained
Push Square interviewed Qi after the gameplay trailer hit over 2 million views on the PlayStation YouTube channel. It can be described as a combination of various popular titles. It’s inspired by Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Yakuza, GTA 5, Batman: Arkham Collection, and Uncharted, to name a few.
NetEase has dedicated a full page to Ananta, providing more details about its concept. Players will explore the modern-futuristic utopia known as Nova City. Switching between multiple members of the Criminal Agency, they can either stop offenders or participate in recreational activities.
They will start as Chenxiu, the captain of the Anti-Chaos Directorate (ACD). After assisting NCCA director Lykaia with the Black Metal Rhythmists, she offers him a job position. Most importantly, she’s interested in his strange tentacles. He will work alongside different partners during investigations. So far, Ananta has introduced the money-hungry Taffy, NCCA officer Richie, and the anime-masked hacker, Seymour.
When asked about the decision behind Ananta’s multiple playstyles, Qi answered, “The key point is we have different professions designed with their own game mechanics to create more storylines.” The other reason is that the developers wanted to create a unique experience that would appeal to a young audience.
No Character Gacha in Favor of New Online RPG Model
Naked Rain and NetEase both confirmed that Ananta will have more characters in store for future updates. Gamers were surprised that the RPG would not run a character gacha system. For almost half a decade, online RPGs like Zenless Zone Zero and Genshin Impact relied on players to spend in-game or real currency for daily pulls. This generates their developers’ revenue while the game is available for free downloads.
Qi explained, “We still need to commercialize our game, but we want to create a new model that’s not pay-to-win or anything like that. We prefer making a good-quality game for everyone to enjoy. And that’s the baseline before we start making money.” Instead, Naked Rain plans to earn revenue on cosmetics used for house decorating, outfits, and vehicle customization.
Naked Rain Took Player’s Feedback to Lower File Size
Ananta is currently available for pre-registration on Taptap, a Chinese game download service. Early access players tested many of the game mechanics and enjoyed what the open-world RPG had to offer. However, they found that the file size was huge, standing at 232 GB.
Naked Rain listened to the fanbase’s feedback since Ananta is still early in development. They are currently identifying which game assets can be rebuilt to lower the massive memory usage. According to YouTuber Darkos88, the space requirement has been updated to 40-100 GB.
Does Ananta Deserved to Be Hated?
The past week has been wild for Sony after viewers watched the final footage of Ananta’s latest gameplay trailer. Many wanted the PlayStation company to halt Naked Rain’s development after seeing similar gameplay that resembled Marvel’s Spider-Man’s web-swinging travel. This ended up backfiring as the attempted boycott increased supporters for the online RPG. The game even surpassed its 14 million pre-registration count.
Naked Rain would receive more praise as they continue polishing their gameplay. They actually repeated the same effect when Nintendo attempted to sue Palworld, the FPS monster life sim. Even after updating their monster-catching patent, developer Pocket Pair is still continuing to offer updates and create spin-offs.
Ananta also doesn’t deserve the negative criticism for combining multiple game genres in one package. The developers aim to create a fun game without the paywalls standing in the way. There is also currently no known copyright or patented mechanics on the inspired mechanics.
Not to mention, Qi and his team are striving to push for improvements on a free action open-world game. We do hope to see proper story trailers about Ananta in the future. While it’s cool to see the anime GTA, learning about Chenxiu and his companion’s stories would be appreciated. Especially with the ACD’s captain superpowers and the chaotic nature of Nova City.
