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It was a quirky journey to find some tomatoes that lured me into believing that Neverness to Everness, the new sci-fi urban action game, could be my new favorite gacha. I had just bought my first cafe in its City Tycoon side activity, you see, and needed a few dozen veggies to start serving better meals. No problem, that nearby shop with a tomato sign out front must sell some. Somehow it didn't, which seemed weird, but I'm glad the shopkeeper was a big 'ol liar, because in my determination to hunt down some tomatoes, I went on quite the adventure.
Are you a 3D gacha? Then I've played you. There's something about losing days of my life to a sprawling landscape that gives my brain that good feeling. Until it doesn't. Because apart from the grandaddy of open world gacha, Genshin Impact, the overworld in gachas tends to be underdeveloped, boring, or outright ignored. Which is why I was really hoping Neverness to Everness could come and save the day. Spoiler alert–it didn't. But it's not completely devoid of other charms.
On my way to the next shop I stop to talk to a mouthy pair of sentient boxing gloves. Might as well, right? Turns out it's a mini-boss who transforms the area into a boxing ring. Just one of the many quirky boss fights I can stumble into around the city. After that, I hop on my measly starting scooter and chug towards another shop. I can unlock flashier vehicles later (or steal them, GTA-style) but a scooter and its complimentary snail's pace is all I've got at the start. The next barrier between me and tomatoes is a line of green, bouncing ball… things blocking my path by minding their own business. These "anomalies" are the many weird and wonderful supernatural events (be they battles or friends) infesting the city. Think SCP, but with a Scooby Doo level of horror.
Anomalies range from:
- Cursed objects that glimpse a parallel world
- People who've turned into teddy bears and animals
- Paintings that just want to be praised
- And random anthropomorphic balls ruining my dreams of owning even a single tomato
Onwards to another potential tomato dealer to get my side hustle as a cafe manager started, I'm distracted again, this time by a carjacking in progress. Being the good Hethereau city citizen that I am, I broke out the usual action-gacha classic of spamming flashy Ultimate and Skill moves to battle the perpetrators. NtE's real-time battles and the resulting lingo are nothing new for Genshin or Wuthering Waves players, but still feel satisfying, especially when you work in a well-timed dodge for bonus damage.
Article continues belowThen, finally, after returning the car to its owner, I found my new bud Basil selling tomatoes by a cherry blossom-covered roadside. It was only after all that I realized the item description had told me which shops sell tomatoes all along. A face palm moment from me for sure, but with reading comprehension skills I never would have had such a memorable gauntlet of goofy detours.
I've played 20 hours more of Neverness to Everness since tomato-gate and haven't had an experience like that again. What I thought was just the first of many surprise encounters in a vibrant city turned out to be the only example I've got. The fun I've had since has been in spite of the increasingly stale open world with its almost mandatory repeatable activities, and thanks entirely to its goofy main storyline and charming cast of characters.
My new favorite goofballs
I'm a sucker for a silly plot, so I love that Neverness to Everness' quest design philosophy seems to have sprung from developer Hotta Studio asking "What if we made a game of anime filler episodes, but they were actually good?"
It starts off semi-serious with a sinister, mind-controlling UFO anomaly threatening the entire city, after which the main character (Zero) emerges with a classic case of anime amnesia. Hijinks soon kick in when they join Eibon: a perpetually-broke bunch of Anomaly Hunters led by lady Hitori, who would rather drink away what money she has than take part in a commission herself.
The rest of the team is made up of familiar archetypes: the impossibly polite butler-like Adler, brat kids Nanally and Sakiri, genius-child Edgar, and Hotori's stoic bodyguard, Daffodil. There's also Tageydo, an anomaly resembling a chubby otter with a TV in place of a head. They're a lovable little group of found family, which would be perfect if they didn't make Zero look so dull by comparison.
The commissions I complete with Eibon involve clearing out a haunted photography studio or helping Tageydo on a date, during which I'm bombarded with flashy battle set pieces, corny jokes, anime references galore, and increasingly goofy bosses. I've had to time jumps, dodges, and strikes to defeat a boombox; spar against a humungous, fluffy interdimensional dog; and battle with a floating ballgown who can slow down time around me. The boldest fights are saved for main missions and "Spinoff" side quests, but there are plenty of mini-bosses to test your combat skills in the city as well.
Bosses have been delightful to encounter around the city the entire time I've played because they're usually a new enemy type in every encounter. Bumping into other characters while I'm out and about is one other thing I also really like about the open world. I've seen a pal out for a coffee while on a break from her shift at the very Control-inspired Bureau of Anomaly Control, and I've also bumped into my jellyfish-riding friend by the fish tanks in a pet shop. I don't know how I should feel about that, but it was amusing nonetheless.
I heard NTE has dating?
Yes, you can go on dates with a select pool of characters as part of the "Bond" mechanic where you give gifts to unlock perks such as date spots, holding hands on a stroll, and inviting characters to your houses (where you can make them pose in extremely questionable positions). There are no dateable male characters at launch, but unique character events also take part in the open world regardless if somebody is romanceable or not. These let you do things like bake a cake, play a game, or just have a chat. It's not Mass Effect levels of romance, but it does extend time spent with favorite characters.
A city stuck on repeat
The same can't be said for other open world activities, unfortunately. Apart from the usual open world fodder like collectibles, the city quickly became more of a shell housing various "Hethereau Hobbies" mini-games. Which isn't to say the mini-games are bad. In fact, I really like a bunch of them. Especially "Owner's Selection" where I maniacally serve cafe orders, and "Pink Paws Heist" where I get to speedrun a bank robbery.
After 25 hours, though, even my favourites are already starting to feel stale, because the same nine minigames are the main way I can earn Fons. The pun-tastic in-game currency is used for purchasing cosmetics, houses, and various other helpful items. (Like, say, tomatoes.) Fons are also required to rank up City Tycoon levels, which unlocks even more cosmetics, houses, cars, game mechanics, and six copies of a free S-Class character and her powerful weapon. So I'm pretty incentivized to use up my "City Stamina" currency every week to take part in these mini-games.
Sure, the Fons rat race is ignorable if you're not interested in cosmetics and the like, but not for long. Neverness to Everness deploys another annoying gacha trope: level-gating the main story. That means everyone is basically forced to take part in its repeatable activities to earn EXP, or just as something to do in the meantime when side missions dry up. Inevitably, what was initially fun will become mundane. Once I did something in NTE for the first time, the shine was already wearing off, so what about after the hundredth time? The thousandth? A grim future indeed.
I want to like Neverness to Everness. I find myself rooting for it because I haven't stuck with a new gacha since Honkai: Star Rail. Some flirt with my free time, but I usually just park them for when I feel like going back to the main story. I don't see Neverness to Everness escaping that fate, despite what its initial few hours had me believing. So unless it has one hell of a surprise in store soon, I can't see myself enjoying it in the future as much as I have so far. Not when I can so clearly see a roadmap of the same activities greeting me week after week, in a city that would feel completely dead if it weren't for its cast of lovable characters and engaging bosses. Stay weird, Neverness to Everness. I guess I'll see you in the next story patch. Hope you have a few new mini-games by then.
What about the gacha?
On the surface, NTE's gacha mechanics seem great: Free S-Class Arc weapons by just playing the game, copies of S-Class characters purchasable from the in-game currency, the ability to pick any character copy buff ("Awakenings") out of order, and no 50% of getting a character when you reach 90 pulls–it's a 100% drop now. BUT you do need to pull on a limited banner 200 times to unlock every cosmetic. Plus, the gacha math behind pulls is now represented as a board game, not just a button press. A very dangerous inclusion when real-life wallets can top up dice rolls. It's very tempting to keep going when there's an S-Class a few moves forward. Just one more pull, right?
