Judging from its current immense popularity, the gacha RPG genre isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it’s going to become even bigger, as games like HoYoVerse’s Genshin Impact have proven how there’s a rather big audience for ambitious and immersive open-world RPGs powered by gacha mechanics. Back in 2021, Chinese studio Hotta Studio tried getting into the trend with Tower of Fantasy, which provided a competent open-world experience featuring a solid visual design and gameplay, but failed to become a worldwide phenomenon due to issues that inevitably impacted the good the game has to offer, such as a confusing user interface, average balancing which renders some characters useless after a certain point in the adventure and some technical issues. Still, Tower of Fantasy proved Hotta Studio already had what it takes to create a compelling open-world gacha RPG back in 2021, and the experience made developing the game is going to serve Neverness to Everness well, judging from the second closed beta test.
Doing away with the fantasy setting with sci-fi elements of Tower of Fantasy, Neverness to Everness is set in the futuristic metropolis of Hethereau, where the amnesiac main character finds themselves after a Level VII anomaly disaster strikes New Helios. Possessing special abilities that allow them to deal with the strange occurrences known as Anomalies, the main character agrees after spending time in prison for observation, to participate in Code Zero containment operations, joining the Anomaly Hunter team at Eibon Antique Shop. Just from this premise, it’s clear how the game has been heavily inspired by the latest entries in the Persona series, as the episodic, almost short anime show narrative arc, nature of the story, the character interactions and the Anomalies being not too dissimilar from the Shadows are clearly based on the ATLUS series. Though the second closed beta test only features a small part of the story, the episodic format works great to develop the overarching story while providing some self-contained, anime-styled fun, although the comedic situations and banter between characters sometimes diminish the unique, almost horror, feel that the vast majority of investigations possess. Thankfully, this isn’t a major issue, at least for now, as the characters, although a little bit on the tropey side, are charming and personable, thanks to great design and animation works, and a decent spread between male and female characters, which tends to be a little unbalanced towards the female side in a good portion of the most popular games around.
As a gacha RPG lives and dies by how charming characters are, Neverness to Everness already seems to have everything needed to become a success, but I expect the setting and the open-world mechanics to become the defining feature of the game. When the game was revealed, it was often described as anime Grand Theft Auto, and this definition is not too far from the truth, although the opportunities to be a criminal are limited compared to the Rockstar Games series. Still, the police will start looking for you if you start stealing cars left and right, and in the game’s current state, don’t expect to be able to get away from officers too easily, as they put up quite a fight. Aside from committing crimes, Hetherau offers a lot of different side activities already, which include purchasing and managing businesses, car races, Spacetime Projector missions, where players need to rewind recordings of incidents to pinpoint the exact moment an Anomaly has appeared, hunting hidden items, and so on. Considering this is only the beginning for the game, the open-world mechanics and activities show a lot of promise.
Besides spending a lot of time roaming around Hetherau, players will spend quite a bit of time fighting Anomalies in Neverness to Everness using a big cast of characters. In this regard, the game looks promising as well, with a functional yet simple combat system which incorporates elements from character action games like perfect dodges and parries without feeling overwhelming, although the system would benefit from some additional depth, as the moveset of many of the characters available in the closed beta featured some interesting fighting styles that could have incorporated more than a special skill, an Ultimate and a basic single-button combo string. The room to grow and expand the combat, however, is definitely there, so hopefully the developer will provide a slightly deeper experience down the line. Character customization also feels to have potential with the Arcs system, which grants passive skills to characters, and a unique “artifacts” system that has the player slotting Tetris-like pieces to further enhance a character.
As for every similar game, however, it’s the fairness of the gacha mechanics that can make or break the experience, and in this regard Neverness to Everness definitely has what it takes to be successful, as unlocking characters and leveling them up to use them in current content without any trouble promises to be less painful than in other games. Sure, there are still rolls and multiple currencies to keep track of, but players are guaranteed to get an A-Class item within 10 rolls, and an S-Class character within 90. Better yet, if multiple S-Class characters are available as part of one of the virtual tabletop boards, which represent the traditional banners seen in similar games, the player can choose which character they want, which is a great option that will likely make Neverness to Everness an extremely player-friendly gacha.
Neverness to Everness might not revolutionize gacha RPGs, but it shows how much more engaging and polished these games are becoming. The urban open world has a lot of potential with satisfying traversal and varied side activities,, and the overall presentation feels closer to what you’d expect to find in full-priced title. While there’s still work to be done regarding performance, balancing, and speed of traversal on foot. Neverness to Everness definitely has the chance to become one of the best gacha games of the past few years.
Closed beta access provided by the publisher.
