Ananta means “unlimited possibilities,” and that includes being Spider-Man, Venom, or just yourself
Tom is an expert in all things Fortnite or the latest RPG release, but is probably spending too much time on the latest EA FC game.
Published: October 3, 2026
Ananta is a wild experience. While it might look like a particularly gorgeous anime gacha game at first glance, it’s much more than that. I went hands-on with it at Gamescom, and I did so many different things during my 45 minutes with it.
I asked Link, Ananta’s Global Publishing Lead, and Rain, Ananta’s International Marketing Lead, about what exactly the game’s title means. “It’s named from Sanskrit. It means unlimited possibilities,” they told me. And having played it, that name makes a lot of sense.
I visited two of the game’s locations. One was a massive New York-inspired city, and the other was a small country town. The visual style was completely different, as was how you get around and what you do. The small town featured NPCs going about their quiet daily lives, and I was able to zip about on a motorbike to take on some tasks for the locals. It was slower, more traditional anime RPG stuff.
In the city, though, things went at breakneck speed. Intense hand-to-hand combat, impressively fluid traversal that I’ll get to in more detail later, and cinematic quick time events.
At one point, I was in a car with a couple of the protagonist’s friends, hurtling through the huge modern city while being chased by bad guys. Between short cutscenes and quick time events, I used my assault rifle to shoot the pursuers from their cars. Within minutes, I was back on my feet, fighting a group of enemies with my Venom-style extendable arms.
That wasn’t my only means of attack, though; this isn’t a Devil May Cry game. While jumping around and punching people felt great, I could still pull out my guns and blast them away that way. Netease hasn’t taken this unlimited possibilities attitude lightly.
The single most impressive part of Ananta is the traversal in the city. You can swing between buildings, climb up walls, and launch yourself off grapple points. There’s no way to downplay it, it feels just like getting around New York and Queens in Insomniac’s Spider-Man games. It’s fast, fluid, satisfying, and even features a lot of the quirks of the PlayStation games. The way your character twists and turns as you reach the apex of a swing, or rolls as they hit the ground, feels very alter-ego Peter Parker, and the developers have done an incredible job of making it work in their world.
It’s the variety of things you can do in Ananta that blew me away. Flying through the skies, action movie cinematics, cozy exploration, and fantasy melee combat are just the things I played in less than an hour. I can only imagine how much is going to be in the full game. If NetEase is able to make everything feel as good as what I saw, then it’s going to be a game with something for everyone that’s impossible to put down. I just hope all of the systems and mechanics don’t overwhelm the story.
The duo told me that the game takes “inspiration from the day-to-day life of the developers,” and that it’s full of “elements you can also experience in the real world.” They want it to be grounded to a degree; a second life simulator that also follows the unlimited possibilities sensibility.
While they want players to experience life “as they do in the urban life,” they also want to represent their “preferences and fantasy of real life. “We hope players can do what they cannot do in the real world,” they continued.
Unless your name is Peter Parker, I’d hope you’re not able to swing around your local town with your extendable arms, but who am I to judge what you call fantasy?
I’m sure Ananta will continue to expand in the weeks and months after its January 2027 launch, too. The team told me they’ll be adding new locations and characters, so I’m sure we’ll see new ways to fight, get around, and generally live our perfect fantasy life.
Overall, Ananta is a spectacular package. By taking away the expected character gacha mechanics, it lets players focus on everything you’re able to do in-game. It looks incredible and feels great; I just hope it all comes together into a coherent package.
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