Some folks will tell you that comparisons are a lazy crutch for critics. They argue that you shouldn’t tell your reader what a game is like; instead, you should focus on how it stands on its own merits. The problem is, game design is inherently an iterative process.
One of the earliest video games, *Tennis for Two*, laid the groundwork, but the first breakout hit that really captured players was *Pong*—eerily similar but much more refined. Back in the day, first-person shooters were often dismissed as “Doom clones.” Comparisons are a useful tool because so much of game design builds by iterating on the competition.
### Ananta: An Everything Bagel of Game Mechanics
Ananta takes this concept to its logical extreme, essentially acting as a blender that emulsifies popular game mechanics together into something bizarrely unique—for all the wrong reasons. It’s a game with no new ideas, just a mishmash of familiar elements.
So, what is NetEase’s next big title? To lean on a helpful crutch, it’s one part *Grand Theft Auto* open world, one part *Batman Arkham* combat, with a dash of *Like A Dragon*’s zany side missions and a touch of *Spider-Man*’s movement mechanics. Add in some linear Sony first-party action game bones and a sprinkle of *Persona*-style character building, all wrapped in an anime aesthetic and gacha structure.
The result? A game that feels like a dozen experiences you’ve had before—yet somehow less than the sum of its parts.
In many ways, it’s like an everything bagel. Or maybe more accurately, it’s like that nightmare combo drink you made as a kid when you mixed every flavor from the soda machine. Ananta won’t make you want to throw up, but after a thirty-minute demo, its “everything everywhere all at once” design approach made me wince in several places.
### Borrowed Mechanics That Clash
None of these individual elements are bad. On the contrary, they are excellent distillations of the core ideas they borrow from other games. Developer Naked Rain clearly understands that innovation in video games often starts with iteration.
But when this many disparate mechanics are combined so authentically, the pieces begin to rub against each other, causing friction in the gameplay.
### Concessions in the Name of Volume
This friction became apparent as soon as I started playing. The demo begins with a story mission where our Spider-Man-in-a-business-suit is ambushed by waves of enemies. Here, you’re introduced to hand-to-hand combat inspired by the *Batman Arkham* series.
In theory, it plays like a *Batman Arkham*, *Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor*, or *Mad Max* combat system. In practice, because so many controller buttons are reserved for open-world movement abilities, the core combat inputs—punching and blocking—get shifted to the shoulder buttons. The result is a less comfortable experience.
When you switch to guns, it only gets more awkward. The triggers, normally used for aiming and shooting, are instead mapped to special moves, so aiming and firing also happen on the shoulder buttons.
Luckily, during scripted mission segments like the car chase I experienced, the difficulty feels dialed down—you rarely need to worry about precision. For example, your assault rifle magically never needs reloading, allowing an endless barrage of bullets.
These issues aren’t deal breakers, but every gameplay element feels forced to cede ground to accommodate others.
The game features GTA-style driving, which—true to form—feels exactly like GTA’s driving mechanics rather than other open-world driving games. On the other hand, why would you ever choose to drive when your main character, “the Captain,” can swing above traffic at twice the speed? Or when you can fast travel via the subway, complete with Spider-Man-esque loading screens featuring the Captain commuting alongside city locals?
### Gacha Theft Auto
It’s worth noting that this diversity of gameplay is somewhat justified by Ananta’s narrative and structural design. The game will be a free-to-play gacha title, meaning players control an ever-growing cast of characters obtained through pulls.
It makes sense that one character controls like Peter Parker, while another zips around on an electric unicycle. Gacha mechanics are among the few aspects that integrate cleanly with the GTA-like open world.
You’ll even build a roster of three characters you can quickly swap between via a “zoom out to world map and zoom back in” quick menu—right out of *GTA 5*. When switching, you’ll often pick up in the middle of a quirky encounter.
Continuing its pattern of well-borrowed mechanics, the character-building reminiscent of *GTA: San Andreas* is here, too. After trying out some side missions, I took one character to the gym to level up stats and abilities—as if I were CJ getting into shape.
Are these gacha pulls and character leveling elements something I wanted in my GTA-like game? Not really. I can’t imagine being excited to spend money to pull a legendary future cop. But clearly, I’m in the minority; the game’s recent Tokyo Game Show trailer has over five million views on the official PlayStation YouTube channel alone.
### Like Like A Dragon
After all that, having played the game myself, I’m still left wondering: what exactly am I doing in Ananta? What kind of game is this?
Yes, there will be a main narrative focusing on the Captain with set pieces and story beats. But what about the broader roster of gacha characters? Why would I want to invest time and money into a free-to-play GTA-like?
It seems each character will have their own set of missions, which lean into the wackiness of *Like A Dragon* side stories, combined with the often-criticized filler mission structure of GTA.
In the mission I played, I was tasked with delivering a mysterious crate in the back of a kei truck. After some hand-to-hand combat and driving, I realized the crate contained a sleeping vampire who eventually woke up and vomited rainbows—yes, really.
The mission ended with a funny cutscene of the bunnygirl character being conscripted to continue similar bizarre deliveries before she could protest.
While this was amusing, it also highlighted the well-worn GTA mission formula that has been criticized for padding since *GTA 3*: drive somewhere, beat up some bad guys, get in a car, listen to some character dialogue, and repeat.
Games like *Genshin Impact* and *Honkai Star Rail* suffer from similarly repetitive mission structures, but their gameplay systems—exploration and turn-based combat respectively—are more engaging moment to moment.
I’m skeptical I’ll find the same kind of rhythm and satisfaction cruising the same streets over and over in Ananta.
### Less Is More
The more I think about it, the more Ananta feels like the everything bagel of video games.
On paper, it sounds great—you’re getting all the things you love, loaded with salmon and every topping imaginable. But halfway through, I usually have the same thought: “I kinda wish I was just having a poppy-seed bagel with cream cheese. Nothing fancy, but doing one thing better than anyone else.”
I may well end up eating my words, but I wish Ananta did less.
The idea of an anime-style GTA is fun, but so many systems and ideas have been taken wholesale from other games, cluttering the experience with constant bloat.
While gaming innovation often begins by borrowing a good idea and building on it, I don’t know if yanking a dozen different ideas wholesale and adding nothing new will lead to anything more than an overly complicated bagel.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146329/anantas-kitchen-sink-approach-to-game-design-is-as-overwhelming-as-it-is-impressive