Game8 had the opportunity to play a hands-on demo of ANANTA this August. Learn about our impressions of the demo, and how our experience has shaped our expectations for the full game.
Introduction
| Duration | 30 Minutes |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To provide initial impressions for news coverage |
| Contents | Story Mode and Exploration Mode |
Game8 had the chance to play two excerpts of gameplay from the upcoming title, ANANTA, at an exclusive demo. Although it was only a taste of what the game has to offer, we're excited to share what we learned and our thoughts on what we experienced at the event.
Story Mode
A New Aesthetic for a New Area
In the footage we've seen of ANANTA up to this point, including the Launch Date Trailer which recently debuted at Gamescom 2026, we've been treated to high-octane action courtesy of our wise-cracking protagonist, Captain. The cast of ANANTA usually finds themselves on the move in the big city, on motorcycles, flying cars, or even swinging around from building to building.
That made it all the more surprising to experience a story taking place in a much more rural area. Although this part didn't take place directly in Chongxiao, the new second city introduced in the Launch Date Trailer, it seemed to share its traditional Chinese aesthetic, with temples, stone structures, and plenty of greenery surrounding the area.
We don't want to spoil any of the details of the story itself, so that players can enjoy it for themselves, but we found ourselves far away from the follower-hustling lifestyle of Nova City, the location of most of the previous trailers, in a scenario which was a fair bit quieter, yet highly intense in a different way.
A Cinematic Approach to the Genre
One aspect of ANANTA which many players are already excited for, and which the Story Mode delivered upon, was the highly cinematic delivery of the story directly through gameplay. The game's intricately choreographed cutscenes transition seamlessly into gameplay, allowing players can experience the story first-hand, rather than just watching their character act it out during cutscenes. This gives players a deeper feeling of connection to both the story itself, and the character who they experienced it with.
While many games have a clear divide between a cutscene and gameplay, ANANTA manages to blur the line. In some parts, events would be happening around my character which felt like part of a cutscene, but the character would still be controllable. For a free-to-play title, it's surprising how well it manages to reach the feeling of being the main character in a movie.
On top of all this, the demo I played managed to convey all this without any kind of combat, while still keeping me on the edge of my seat for the entire experience. There's clearly more to the game than just big-budget action scenes, and even when stepping into different types of gameplay, it doesn't feel forced; rather, I got the impression that ANANTA will use the most effective method needed to tell its story, depending on what the situation calls for. I'm excited to see what kinds of surprises the game's story brings with it on launch.
Exploration Mode
Chilling Out with Minigames in Chongxiao
For the second half of the demo, we found ourselves in what seemed to be part of Chongxiao, a city positioned in the middle of a highly natural landscape filled with trees and centered on a huge lake. It's hard to say if we were within the city proper, since our location felt closer to a scene in the Chinese countryside than anything you'd see in Nova City, but it might just be part of the charm of Chongxiao to find areas like this even within the city.
Befitting of the small-town vibe, there wasn't a lot of action happening, but various minigames were available for play around town, particularly in an area in the center which seemed to be a small festival, with various stands selling Chinese street food.
The minigames were of the simple but addictive sort; rules which you can understand in a few seconds, but which keep players trying five, ten, or more times to try to get a high score. They seem to have been made with the festival vibe in mind, and reminded me of games which western players would have encountered at carnivals or fairs. In that vein, sometimes they seemed to be purposefully harder than they appear, and I had a fun time trying to find “tricks” of my own to give myself an advantage.
Summary
A Game With More Sides Left to Show
As the Launch Date Trailer demonstrated when it introduced Chongxiao, there's more to ANANTA than what we've seen so far. In our demo, we were able to see that this extends not just to the aesthetic, but to the gameplay as well. Honestly, it was a bit of a surprise to play an entire two-part demo without a single element of combat, but that just goes to show that ANANTA has more up its sleeve.
We're not sure what all secrets wait in store in future trailers and on the game's release, but whatever comes, we're here for it. ANANTA releases on PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile devices on January 15, 2027.
ANANTA Game Information
| Title | ANANTA |
|---|---|
| Developer | Naked Rain Studio |
| Publisher | NetEase Games |
| Genre | Urban Open World RPG |
| Platforms | PlayStation 5 / PC / Mobile |
| Voice over | Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean |
| Supported Languages | Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Italian, Polish, Arabic, Thai, Vietnamese |
| Genre | Urban Open World RPG |
| Official website | https://www.ANANTAgame.com/ |
| X | https://x.com/ANANTA_EN |
| YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@Ananta_Game |
| TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@ananta_en |
| https://www.facebook.com/ananta.en | |
| https://www.instagram.com/ananta.global/ | |
| Discord | discord.gg/ananta |
| https://www.reddit.com/r/AnantaOfficial/ |
