NetEase’s new Spider-Man-esque open world gacha RPG has a real name – Ananta

Netease’s free to play open world gacha RPG Project Mugen now has a real name: Ananta. As Edwin points out in Maw, it’s a lot like Spider-Man meets Zenless Zone Zero, with its mix of city-slinging and sassy anime teenagers with long, flowing hair and a penchant for metal accessories.

Project Mugen debuted in August 2023, when developers Naked Rain released a smooth trailer that showed their anime cast (technically not) lurching across a lavishly presented city, as well as driving cars and cyberbikes around its neon streets. It attracted a lot of attention. IGN has an interview from later that year that goes over combat and microtransactions. Then there is a bit of silence.

Naked Rain appeared with a bit of Chinese New Year Art in February 2024. In August, they held a recruitment event in Shanghai where fans could talk to the developers and possibly join the team (here is a link to a reddit post that rounds it all off nicely). Now they have released a trailer announcing the game’s name change and an overview with excerpts from in-game footage.

So does it look good? Well, the world is easy on the eye and it seems fun to traverse it. I like the way you can enter shops without any loading screens and the sneak peaks of combat seem smooth. It’s still too early to tell how it all comes together, especially when this is a gacha game and will no doubt feature a bazillion currencies and steer players toward opening their wallets to secure the bunny girls with the highest stats.

Another trailer will be released on December 4th, so hopefully that will reveal a bit more about what you want actually come up to. You can pre-register for Ananta again their websitealthough there is no release date yet.