ANANTA vs Neverness to Everness: how the two urban open-world games compare

Neverness to Everness and ANANTA are the two Chinese urban open-world RPGs most often compared with each other, and with GTA. NTE came out worldwide on April 29, 2026, after an April 23 launch in China; ANANTA follows on January 15, 2027. Both are free, and both are on PC, PS5 and mobile. The clearest difference so far is how you get characters: NTE sells them through gacha banners, while NetEase says ANANTA characters come from playing (fact in the registry).

NTE is out and ANANTA isn’t, so this comparison sets a released game against announced features. Where a point about ANANTA rests on a rumor, we say so.

ANANTA vs Neverness to Everness at a glance

• Developers: NTE is made by Hotta Studio, a Suzhou-based subsidiary of Perfect World Games, which publishes it. ANANTA is made by Naked Rain, with studios in Hangzhou and Montreal, and published by NetEase Games (fact in the registry).
• Release: NTE launched on April 23, 2026 in China and April 29, 2026 worldwide. ANANTA launches on January 15, 2027 worldwide.
• Platforms: NTE is on PC, PS5, iOS, Android and macOS, according to Wikipedia. ANANTA is on PC, PS5, iOS and Android.
• Price: both games are free to play.
• Characters: NTE sells them through gacha banners. NetEase says ANANTA characters are unlocked by playing.
• Engine: NTE uses Unreal Engine 5. NetEase hasn’t named ANANTA’s engine; a heavily modified Unity is a rumor.
• Setting: NTE takes place in Hethereau, a fictional modern metropolis where supernatural anomalies are part of city life. ANANTA has Nova City and Chongxiao, both troubled by Chaos anomalies.

Characters and money

NTE sells characters through limited-time banners. PCGamesN reported in 2025 that those banners drop the 50/50 rule: an S-Class character pulled from a limited banner is always the featured one, and an S-Class is guaranteed within 90 pulls.

ANANTA has no character gacha: Famitsu and producer Ash say every playable character is unlocked by playing, and paid content is mainly cosmetic (fact in the registry). The App Store and Google Play still declare paid random items for ANANTA, and NetEase hasn’t said what they are (fact in the registry). The details are in our monetization article.

Team and combat

In NTE you control a team of four and switch between them; combat uses dodges, perfect dodges and parries. ANANTA lets you switch between recruited characters, each with a separate life. In 2023 its team described battles with four chosen characters and a shared special ability, but later materials don’t give a party size, so whether that system survived is an open question. ANANTA’s combat draws on martial arts and gives every playable character telekinesis, GamesRadar reports.

Movement and driving

NTE limits special movement with a regenerating stamina bar, according to Wikipedia. ANANTA’s producer said in 2023 that its traversal was built without stamina: swinging, parkour, wall climbing and driving (fact in the registry).

Both games have cars. NTE lets you customize and upgrade vehicles. ANANTA sells vehicle cosmetics and lists transport from motorcycles to helicopters, yachts and hang gliders (fact in the registry).

Map size

A claim that ANANTA’s map is six times the size of NTE’s, with about 24 minutes by car from end to end, appears in a fan wiki’s list of unverified leaks without a source or date (rumor in the registry). NetEase hasn’t given a map size. It has only said that Chongxiao is larger than Nova City and that the goal is the biggest open world among free-to-play games.

Reception so far

NTE has been out for six months. As of August 2026 its PS5 version had a Metacritic score of 73, which counts as mixed or average reviews, and its Steam reviews were Very Positive, according to Wikipedia. ANANTA has no reviews yet; GamesRadar’s Tokyo Game Show 2025 hands-on says its author enjoyed playing it.

Which one to play?

Our assessment: you don’t have to choose, since both are free. If character gacha puts you off, ANANTA’s promise is the main reason to wait for January; whether it holds up will depend on what those random paid items turn out to be. If you want to play now, NTE is already out on the same platforms. How both games relate to GTA is covered in why ANANTA is called the anime GTA.