I know I shouldn't compare every new gacha game to Genshin Impact, but I can't help it. Hoyoverse is the developer that really got me interested in the genre, and having since dabbled in Honkai Star Rail, Arknights, and Love and Deepspace, among others, I always wonder whether a game will knock Genshin off its throne. Well, this time I think Neverness to Everness has a very good shot.
I've been playing the beta for about two weeks now, and the game has captivated me from the get-go. It opens with a cutscene set in a city that looks heavily inspired by Shibuya, Tokyo, before a broadcast rings out, warning the citizens that it's about to start raining. However, when the downpour begins, it's not normal rain, and as it hits the crowd, they start to twitch and glow, and you realize not all is as it seems.
Panic ensues before some very obviously future playable characters appear, and you're tasked with fighting massive anomalies with some very stylish skills and amazing setpieces in the background. After this opening, I couldn't stop playing. I watched a few more cutscenes, which explained that the main character is, to my great shock and surprise, an amnesiac who has no recollection of their life prior to the events at the start of the game.
I'm going to be real with you, the amnesiac protagonist in a gacha game shtick is starting to get a little old; however, I can look past it, as I understand these characters are generally meant to be self-inserts, so I guess it makes sense for me to have as much knowledge of the world as they do.
After that epic opening, you get inducted into a massive corporation whose purpose seems to be investigating and solving issues that anomalies create for the citizens of Hethereau. From there, you get to explore a little of the city before meeting up with a group of anomaly hunters, and now your colleagues, before heading off on your first official mission.
I absolutely love the vibes of this initial adventure. You and the gang head off to a camera shop in your neighborhood after receiving reports of an anomaly causing havoc. As soon as you enter the building, the atmosphere shifts completely, and you start to feel as if you've drifted into a light horror game. Dark, shadowy anomalies leap at you through camera reticles, the music feels sombre, and the environment shifts and twists around you. If the opening of the game somehow didn't grab your attention, this will.
I'm not going to go on much more about the story, but it's really impressed me so far. Despite not playing the last beta, I know that there were a lot of changes to the game, and this really has me hoping we won't see such a large shift again, as the story so far feels almost perfect to me.
Let's move on to another important aspect of gacha games, the combat and character build system. I'm not going to beat around the bush, battles feel heavily inspired by Zenless Zone Zero, with simple-to-start action combat that takes a bit of skill to really master. Attackable anomalies appear during missions in separate zones from the main city during quests, as well as popping up around the open world.
You can take up to four characters into combat, each of which has a basic attack, skill, and an ultimate, as well as a support skill. Some characters can apply buffs and shields, some excel at dealing damage, and some offer heals for the party. There weren't many available healers in the beta, but I hope to see more arrive down the line.
Then there are six different Esper ability attributes - essentially character elements. These are Cosmos, Anima, Incantation, Chaos, Psyche, and Lakshana. When you build your team, you need to really think about each character's attribute, as they react with each other to form 'Esper Cycles'. These trigger when you swap between party members in battle and can often offer up extra damage or debuffs.
Something I appreciate as a sometimes lazy gamer is that the game is very good at making it clear where each character fits in your team. When you change your party formation, you can see in the bottom-left corner of the screen where the character excels, and also check whether you have good Esper Cycles active. As for building each character, you need to equip them with an Arc and a Console. If I were to compare these to Genshin Impact's equipment, they're essentially weapons and artifacts, respectively.
You can also 'Awaken' a character up to six times - à la Genshin Impact's constellations - for assorted buffs and stat boosts. You can unlock each awakening by pulling a repeat of the character from the game's banners - more on them very soon. It's pretty standard gacha fare, and if you're a seasoned connoisseur of the genre as I am, it will all feel very homely and comfortable.
Now, onto those banners, or as NTE calls them, 'Scarborough Fair'. This may be one of the most interesting gacha systems I've seen before, as rather than using a piece of in-game currency to pull for a random item or character, Scarborough Fair is a board game! There's a limited and standard board to progress through, and you need to roll a solid or fabricated die, respectively, to see how far you move around the board.
Each board makes it super clear what you can nab from each space, and takes a lot of the mystery out of the gacha system, which is honestly really neat in my book. It also tallies up your number of rolls in the top-left corner of the board to let you know how close to the next S-class character you are, which, if you're like me, makes things feel a little more exciting knowing exactly how far away from pity you are.
Oftentimes, the monetization in betas is much kinder than it is on full release, but so far, I'm very impressed, and was even more surprised to see that most characters have a slew of outfits that you can purchase completely with in-game currency that doesn't require you to open up your wallet. I'm crossing my fingers that this isn't something that changes when the game finally graces your screens.
Now, that's all well and good, but what really sets Neverness to Everness apart from other games in this almost overwhelmingly saturated market? Well, for one thing, this gacha has taken inspiration from an unlikely source: Grand Theft Auto. As you explore Hethereau, if you accidentally (or deliberately, who am I to judge?) damage civilians or property, among other things, your wanted value rises. This causes the police to start tracking you down, and if they catch you, off to jail you go!
Once you've done your time, other unique aspects that set NTE apart from the crowd include renting property, purchasing and racing vehicles, and other very GTA-style gameplay. Sadly for me, the build I had access to stopped me before I could start the city tycoon side of things, but I'm very interested to dip my toes in the full release.
I'm very much a handheld gamer, and unfortunately, this beta was only available on PC, so I can't comment on the mobile performance. However, it's definitely worth highlighting how gorgeous and vast this game is, almost to the point that I have slight concerns about how well it will run on my hearty wee phone.
I don't want to end this preview without mentioning my very vague qualms. This game has almost unignorable undertones of Zenless Zone Zero, from the general vibe of the city to the use of the word anomaly, and even a conveniently placed stack of TVs during the first main mission. A lot of gacha games seem to unabashedly borrow from their predecessors, so at this point in time, I'm giving NTE the benefit of the doubt, as, despite the similarities, I'm actually enjoying this title much more than ZZZ, and hope that even after release, it can continue to carve out its own niche amongst the crowd.
After my time with the beta, I genuinely believe NTE has a great chance at being the next big thing. With its super stylish cities, personality-filled characters, and enthralling story, I can't wait for the Neverness to Everness release date and its arrival on mobile.