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ANANTA Gameplay and Mechanics — Urban Open-World Combat and Traversal

Source-first overview of ANANTA's gameplay: parkour, swinging, vehicles, party-based action combat, character identity loops, and the no-gacha monetisation model.

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ANANTA is positioned as an urban open-world RPG with three loud design pillars: free-form traversal across Nova City, party-based action combat that uses the environment as a weapon, and a no-gacha model for character acquisition. This page summarises what NetEase, Naked Rain, and the ANANTA Fandom hub have publicly confirmed.

Overview

The game’s loop is built around three intertwined activities:

  1. Move through Nova City using parkour, climbing, swinging, and vehicles.
  2. Fight Chaos incidents and enemies in real-time, with party switching and environmental interaction.
  3. Live in the city between fights — character-specific routines, NPC encounters, and casual urban activities.

Each pillar feeds the next. Traversal is also exploration; combat is also storytelling; civilian activities also drive levelling.

Traversal

ANANTA’s movement set is unusually broad for the genre. Public material confirms all of the following:

  • Parkour — free running, climbing on building facades, vaulting urban geometry.
  • Wall-climbing — direct vertical traversal up surfaces, not limited to scripted handholds.
  • Swinging — a grapple/swing mechanic that reaches rooftops and hard-to-access ledges, evoking comparisons to web-slinging traversal in other open-world city games.
  • Vehicles — cars, taxis, buses, helicopters, and public transport are all available as movement options.

The intent is to let players pick the right tool for the moment: a swing across a city block, a sprint over rooftops, or a taxi ride across districts.

Combat

ANANTA uses party-based action combat with on-the-fly character switching.

Confirmed combat fundamentals:

  • Real-time action, not turn-based.
  • Party composition — players bring multiple characters and switch between them mid-fight.
  • Character-specific combat styles — each character has their own weapons, abilities, and rhythm.
  • Environmental interaction — urban props (street objects, signage, set dressing) can be picked up or used as part of attacks.
  • Enemy-weapon use — players can take and use weapons from enemies during fights.
  • Defensive options — dodging and blocking are part of the moment-to-moment skill ceiling.

The combat language is closer to a stylish urban action game than to a static MMO rotation — fights are choreographed around the city itself.

Character identity and levelling

One of ANANTA’s most distinctive ideas is that each playable character has a unique civilian identity, and their levelling loop reflects that identity. Examples confirmed in public material:

  • Taffy — a delivery worker. Levels up by completing deliveries.
  • Richie — a police officer. Levels up via police duties such as issuing tickets or making arrests.

The implication for players is that “levelling a character” is not a single grind. It is a set of role-specific routines: doing the job that character does in Nova City. This ties character progression directly to the world rather than to a generic XP bar.

City interaction and NPC ecosystem

Outside combat and main missions, Nova City is designed to be inhabited rather than just traversed. Public material highlights:

  • Casual urban activities — petting animals in parks, taking photos with citizens, and similar non-combat interactions.
  • Lifelike NPC behaviour — citizens have routines and reactions that contribute to the sense of a living city.
  • Side encounters rooted in everyday city texture rather than in fantasy quest tropes.

This sits alongside the more dramatic Chaos-investigation content, giving the game a slice-of-life undercurrent.

No-gacha monetisation model

ANANTA’s monetisation is the standout pillar for many existing players of the genre. The currently confirmed position:

  • No character gacha. All playable characters are unlocked through gameplay.
  • Cosmetic monetisation — clothing, vehicles, and other customisation items are the commercial layer.
  • Pre-registration is open on the official website ahead of launch.

For more on how this fits NetEase’s wider plans, see the Development & Release guide. For a head-to-head with the dominant genre comparison, see ANANTA vs Genshin Impact.

What is still unknown

Even with the September 2025 TGS reveal package, several systems are not yet pinned down:

  • Final stat / damage formulas, gear tiers, and upgrade economies.
  • Endgame structure beyond Story Mode and Exploration Mode.
  • Multiplayer / co-op behaviour, if any, at launch.
  • Final difficulty and accessibility options.

These will be tracked here as NetEase and Naked Rain publish concrete data.

Sources

  • ANANTA Fandom — ANANTA hub page: https://ananta.fandom.com/wiki/ANANTA
  • Official ANANTA website (NetEase / Naked Rain): https://ananta.netease.com/
  • NetEase Games: ANANTA, the Highly-Anticipated Urban Open World RPG, Releases New Trailer and Gameplay Details for Tokyo Game Show (2025-09-22)
  • NetEase Games: Enter A New Era of Urban Open World RPG with ANANTA (2024-12-05)
  • Reporting on character gacha removal (2025-09-24)

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