Some folks will tell you that comparisons are a lazy crutch for critics. Don’t tell your reader what a game is like; tell them how it stands on its own merits. The problem is that game design is an iterative process.
One of the first video games was Tennis for Two, but the first breakout hit was eerily similar, yet much more refined: Pong. Hell, we used to call FPSs “Doom clones.” Comparison is a useful tool because so much of game design is based on iterating on the competition.
Ananta takes this logical endpoint by essentially acting as a blender to emulsify popular game mechanics together for something bizarrely unique in its sheer lack of new ideas.
### An Everything Bagel Game
So, what is NetEase’s next big game? Well, to use a useful crutch, it is one part Grand Theft Auto open world, one part Batman Arkham combat. There is a dash of Like A Dragon’s zany side-missions, a touch of Spider-Man movement, alongside some of the bones of a linear Sony first-party action game. There is also a sprinkle of Persona character building.
All of this is held loosely together with an anime aesthetic and gacha structure that amounts to a game that feels like a dozen experiences you’ve had before — ultimately, something less than the sum of its many parts.
In many ways, it’s like an everything bagel, or — more accurately — like when you were a kid and your friends mixed together every flavor drink at the freestyle machine for something truly nightmarish. Ananta isn’t going to make you want to throw up like a Coke, Pepsi, Seven-Up, and milk combo drink, but even after a thirty-minute demo, I can tell that its “everything, everywhere, all at once” game design approach makes me wince in places.
None of these elements are bad; in fact, in isolation, they are excellent distillations of the core ideas they borrow from other games. Developer Naked Rain clearly understands that video game innovation comes from iteration. However, when this many elements are combined together after being recreated so authentically, the disparate pieces quickly begin to rub against each other, causing an untold amount of friction in the act of playing Ananta.
### Concessions in the Name of Volume
This first became apparent as soon as I started playing. The demo kicks off with a story mission where our Spider-Man in a sharp business suit is ambushed by countless assailants. This is where you are introduced to the first form of combat: hand-to-hand Arkham-style brawling.
In theory, this combat plays out just like a Batman Arkham game, or Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, or Mad Max — take your pick. However, in practice, so many buttons on the controller have been reserved for movement abilities you use in the open world that punching and blocking are shifted to the shoulder buttons, creating a less comfortable experience.
This is further exacerbated when you take out a gun, as the triggers are reserved for special moves, meaning aiming and shooting also rely on the shoulder buttons. Although during scripted missions like the one I played, you don’t really need to worry about aiming, as the car chase was nearly impossible to fail.
In these segments, you magically forgo the need to reload your assault rifle, letting loose an endless barrage of bullets. These issues aren’t deal breakers, but every element of the game feels like it has to cede ground to several other mechanics and ideas in order for things to function.
The game also features GTA-inspired driving — I describe it that way because the driving model feels just like GTA rather than other open-world driving games. However, you have to ask: why would you ever choose that when playing as the main character, or “Captain,” who can literally swing above the traffic at twice the speed? Or when you could fast travel on the subway (which, yes, also features Spider-Man-esque loading screens of the Captain commuting with city locals)?
### Gacha Theft Auto
It’s worth noting that this gameplay diversity is somewhat justified both narratively and structurally. You see, Ananta will apparently be a free-to-play gacha game, meaning you’ll take on the role of an ever-growing cast of characters, expanded through ongoing pulls.
So, it makes sense that one character controls like Peter Parker and another has an electric unicycle to get around quickly. In fact, gacha mechanics are among the few things that seem cleanly integrated with the overall GTA-like open world.
You will be able to create a roster of three characters you can quickly swap between with a quick menu that zooms out to a world map and then back in — directly out of GTA 5’s playbook. Often, you’ll pick up with your new character in the middle of a funny little encounter.
Keeping up the pattern of borrowing beloved mechanics, the character building of GTA: San Andreas is also here. After trying some side-missions, I found myself taking one of my characters to the gym to level up stats and abilities, just like CJ trying to get cut.
Are gacha pulls and character leveling really something I wanted in my GTA-like game? Not really. I can’t say I’m excited to spend money pulling a legendary future cop. However, I’m clearly in the minority—considering the game’s recent Tokyo Game Show trailer has over five million views on the official PlayStation YouTube channel alone.
### Like Like A Dragon
After all that—and having played the game myself—I still can’t help but wonder: What am I doing in Ananta? What is this game?
Yes, it will have a main narrative focusing on the Captain, with set pieces and the like. But what am I doing with the roster of gacha characters? Why would I continue to put time and money into a free-to-play GTA-like?
It seems each character you gain access to will have their own set of missions. These missions lean into the wackiness of Like A Dragon’s sub-stories, with the structure of GTA filler content.
In one mission I played, I was tasked with delivering a mysterious crate in the back of a kei truck. After a quick hand-to-hand brawl and some driving, it became clear what I was delivering was a sleeping vampire, who eventually woke up and vomited rainbows.
Yeah, I don’t really know either.
The mission ended with a pretty funny sequence where the bunnygirl I was playing as was recruited to continue making similar deliveries before she could protest.
While this cutscene was fun, I realized I was ultimately partaking in the much-derided GTA mission structure, which has been called out as padded filler since GTA 3.
I drove somewhere, beat up some guys, got in a car, listened to some character dialogue while driving, then finished the mission.
Games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail have similarly repetitive mission structures, but the gameplay they’re based on is inherently more engaging moment to moment. Genshin’s exploration and Honkai’s turn-based combat both lend themselves to satisfying daily routines.
I’m skeptical I would ever find similar joy driving the same streets over and over again for missions like those in Ananta.
### Less Is More
The more I think about it, the more Ananta might well be the everything bagel of video games.
It sounds great on paper because I’m getting all the things I love — all filled with salmon and other toppings. However, halfway through eating an everything bagel, I usually have the same thought: “I kinda wish I was just having a poppy-seed bagel with cream cheese. Nothing fancy, but doing one thing better than anyone else.”
I may end up eating my words, but I wish Ananta was doing less.
The idea of an anime-style GTA-like is fun, but there are so many systems and ideas taken wholesale from other games that it ends up cluttered with constant bloat.
While gaming innovation usually starts with borrowing someone else’s good idea and building on it, I don’t know if yanking a dozen different ideas and adding nothing new will lead to anything other than an overcomplicated bagel.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146329/anantas-kitchen-sink-approach-to-game-design-is-as-overwhelming-as-it-is-impressive