Despite all appearances, upcoming F2P open-world RPG Ananta isn't a gacha game—only charging for cosmetics and furniture

The main character in Ananta wears "deal with it" shades on the beach.

(Image credit: Naked Rain)

I wrote about Ananta yesterday, and while I'm all for its slurry of genres and inspirations, I'm eating humble pie as I write this one. I have thoroughly and completely judged a book by its cover.

Despite having all the hallmarks of a Zenless Zone Zero, or a Genshin Impact—that is to say, being a free-to-play RPG with cute anime girls in it—Ananta won't actually be a character-based Gacha game.

ANANTA | Gameplay Trailer - YouTube

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That's per a news story by Famitsu (thanks, Automaton) discussing its upcoming October issue. Relieving me of a bit of my embarrassment is the fact that the magazine itself also seems surprised, here's a quote (via machine translation):

"Surprisingly, this game does not have what is known as a 'character gacha,' and basically, you can get all of the playable characters just by playing the game. Seriously?! … So, what are the in-game elements that require payment? Mainly the parts that allow players to customize their clothes, vehicles, homes, and more to their liking."

In other words, this isn't a Genshin Impact—it's just shaping up to be a solid open-world, free-to-play RPG with cute outfits and furniture you can buy with money. Which has quite frankly made me a thousand more times likely to play it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a little grumpy at games with cosmetics-only cash shops, but that cynicism is greatly reduced when the base-game is free, and I certainly still prefer that over having all the cool characters locked behind a digital slot machine.

It helps that Ananta is looking like a pretty good time, so far—a mish-mash of Insomniac's Spider-Man games, GTA, Watch Dogs, Sifu, a little dash of the Batman: Arkham series, a little Yakuza… the gamer stew is simply overflowing with chunks.

Alright, Naked Rain. At first you had my interest, and now you've got my attention. Ananta doesn't have a release date just yet, but you can pre-register to play it on the game's official site.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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