Ananta takes back the headlines in a new promotional video published on December 5, featuring a new official name and just some of the many changes that have been made to the game after a year of silence. Formerly known as Project Mugen, Naked Rain’s newest game-in-development had originally dropped over a year ago at Gamescom 2023. Ananta renewed a charge for competition against HoYoverse’s titan of a game, Genshin Impact, since the game does follow a similar formula of anime aesthetics with a male and female main character interacting in an explorative open world.
While not one-to-one, Ananta still shared a similar premise to the famous single-player RPG at the time and notoriously closer to a sister game that had yet to release, Zenless Zone Zero. It promised the same attractive qualities of charming characters, an enticing story eluded in the promotional video, and a modern-day world that players could explore freely with those collected characters. A year later, many of those same elements remain, just under a new name and website.
Summed down, Ananta is the answer to the question what if you partnered anime with GTA and Spider-Man. That’s because a lot of the gameplay that has been featured mainly focuses on the open-world exploration being set in an urban city with a lot of attention to detail to NPC’s, walking into shops, driving around in vehicles, and swinging from building to building with some special mechanic. One of the draws of Genshin Impact was its enticing character designs as well as how they interacted with the world around them and Ananta looks incredibly promising in delivering the same dream but in a more modern-day setting. Their newest trailer showcases a lot of activities that players can perform aside from driving around a realistic Nova City in an array of different vehicles, such as training units in a gym, battling to the death in beach volleyball, and perhaps going on outings or dates with said units.
Aileen, Lykaia, and Ringo from Ananta
As the director of an organization that seeks to combat paranormal phenomena occurring throughout the city, Ananta’s main character is seen partnering with various colorful characters to restore order and maintain the peace of Nova City. In this new video amongst the chaotic happens of racing toilets, speed races, and volleyball games, we are introduced to a few new characters that had not been previously shown. Aileen, Lykaia, and Ringo are all new characters that have been updated to the Ananta website with Lykaia taking the spotlight in starting this video.
Along with seeing some new combat forms, we see a return of the main character’s ability to grapple and swing throughout the urban city and through battle alike by dragging items into battle. This leads to one of the major changes aside from Ananta’s name, which is the main character’s design. Originally, we had only seen the male version of the MC in Project Mugen with black hair and orange eyes, wearing sporty casual attire but now the MC has been revealed in both female and male versions with some alterations. Known as the ace of A.C.D., or elite member of the Anti-Chaos Directorate, the MC’s design has softened with a more neutral gray-haired, red-eyed character in more stylized office worker attire. Now blended more with the world of Ananta, this appears to be a finalized draft of what players can expect for the playable main character when the game releases.
Ananta’s Main Characters Before & After
With a year to gather more expertise under their belt, we could be looking at a day when Naked Rain will release Ananta’s official release date, so be sure to follow their socials and X and preregister for the game so you are more prepared when that time comes.
