I’ve touched the ultra-ambitious anime open world game Ananta a couple of times now, and I still can’t quite believe it’s real.
But it’s launching on 15th January, just weeks after the equally impressive GTA 6, setting up an exciting end to the PS5 generation for urban sandboxes.
My demo, which ran for around 45 minutes, focused on a story mission in the newly announced city of Chongxiao.
Producer Rain tells me this location is inspired by the dev’s home city of Hangzhou, which is located just inside the eastern side of China.
The team wanted to include two different cities to reflect their lived experiences, and familiar locations within Hangzhou are reflected in the game, like a version of the real-life Xi Lake where it spends weekends eating and relaxing.
Nova City, the more urban metropolis of the two, is based on Shanghai, and Rain tells me that it’s supposed to represent a “foreign” location for the protagonist. You’re meant to feel a bit like a tourist.
Despite all this, my demo focused on a new character called Yinlong, who’s being hunted by a faction of men in animal masks. My goal was to find a character called JinPing and not get detected in the process.
To be honest, this auto-fail stealth sequence did feel a bit dated, as one wrong move sends you back to the nearest checkpoint, with no way to fight your way out of trouble.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pushsquare.com/previews/i-still-cant-believe-this-insanely-ambitious-ps5-open-world-is-real
