Ananta, formerly known as Project Mugen, was announced nine months ago and looked like yet another Genshin Impact-style game from the Chinese developer Naked Rain. It turns out Ananta is going to be that and more, based on a new gameplay trailer released ahead of Tokyo Game Show 2025, where it will be playable.
Publisher NetEase Games describes Ananta as an urban open-world RPG with a high degree of freedom in which you play as a variety of characters. What we see in the trailer, though, is a game that seems to borrow from Marvel’s Spider-Man, Sleeping Dogs, Grand Theft Auto, Watch Dogs, and even Yakuza-like minigames. Seriously, this game looks wild, especially for a free-to-play title heading to PlayStation 5, PC, Android, and iOS.
The seven-minute trailer shows off the game’s cast of characters, which includes Captain, Taffy, Richie, and Seymour. Highlights include interactive hotspots across the world map where players can trigger events (petting cats, gang clashes, and more), reckless street racing, snooping on passersby’s phones, and traversing the open world with a Spider-Man-like skill. The trailer also shows off elements of the combat system, which reminds me of Sleeping Dogs and actually looks quite fun.
While some gamers are understandably tired of these Genshin Impact-style clones and we are getting many of them these days, you can’t deny the production value or how much content these games are packing. We’re possibly getting a legitimate anime Grand Theft Auto clone before Grand Theft Auto VI.
