Ever since the release of Genshin Impact, the gacha game scene feels like it has changed. Now, whether that’s in a good way or a bad way, I personally can’t really tell. But over the past month or so, I’ve decided to give Neverness to Everness a shot. The developer of this game, Hotta Studio, already dove into the gacha market with the release of Tower of Fantasy, and that game was one I had a lot of issues with. So, I’ll be the first to admit I was somewhat cautious going into this new game.

Thanks to Perfect World, I had the opportunity to check out Version 1.1 before its official release on June 3 to see how the game is shaping up. So, join me as we answer the question of whether Neverness to Everness has a bright future ahead of it, or if it will soon see its doors closed, joining the ever-growing gacha game graveyard?

A City Full of Anomalies

To start, in Neverness to Everness, NTE for short, our story takes place in the city of Hertheneau. One day, a huge fissure opened up in the sky, and the strange substance that dripped from it caused anyone to turn into a monster that attacked anything on sight. These monsters would later be called Anomalies, and in order to understand them more, humanity has established a group of organizations that form one gigantic organization known as The Circle. One day, as one of those organizations, the Bureau of Anomaly Control, to be more precise, is defeating an Anomaly that appeared, they find the protagonist, and find that they have a highly unusual aptitude when it comes to dealing with Anomalies.

Worried, they initially decide to apprehend the protagonist and keep them in check in prison until they investigate just who they are. But after finding that they genuinely do not seem to possess any connection to any criminal organizations, the Bureau decides to make a deal with them: Enroll as an Anomaly Hunter, and use their skills to assist the Bureau in exchange for your freedom. You decide to accept the offer and are sent off to the Eibon Antique Shop, where you’ll live out your new life.

The tone of NTE’s story is very comical and extremely over the top. In fact, I will admit the beginning of the story made me ask a friend for a rough explanation at first, because the more I played, the more I got confused about whether I should take certain parts of it seriously. The story is overall pretty decent, but there are many times when the quality just seems to abruptly drop. This is especially true due to a specific quest, which involves you helping the shop’s mascot… go on a date?

I will admit that when I saw that quest, I had to do a double-take on whether I was in the Main Story tab or if this was just a side story that opened up, but no, it’s actually a required quest. Which is strange, seeing as the Side Story that was unlocked had much more narrative relevance to the overall story of NTE than this weird date quest that feels like unnecessary filler. I do hope that Hotta Studio has obtained enough feedback from the player base for future stories, because there is a lot about NTE‘s world that we can find out, without the need for quests that feel like they’re padding for time.

Why Fix What Isn’t Broken?

NTE‘s combat system will feel very familiar if you’ve ever played any of its contemporaries. The general gist is that your characters can be one of six elements: Lakshana, Cosmos, Anima, Incantation, Chaos, or Psyche, and are classified under three different “types”: main damage dealers, sub damage dealers, and support units. As you deal damage with a character’s skills, you can swap with another character to trigger an elemental reaction, which will apply various effects, from damage over time to debuffs. Honestly, there’s nothing in this combat system that makes it different, and although this might sound like a bad thing, I didn’t really see that as a con. In fact, I do think it’s nice that the developers didn’t try to reinvent the wheel, and as such, it just works.

In addition, instead of each character having its own weapon, NTE uses something it calls the Arc System. You can think of them as discs that provide buffs to specific elements. You can spend Arc Keys in the Mall to either roll for random, you’re able to pick whichever Arc you like, and not just that, but for a good chunk of the currently available characters, the first copy of their Arcs can be obtained by just defeating a boss from their quest, so it didn’t take very long for me to already have the best weapons possible for my team. Of course, this could change as time goes on, but even as of Version 1.1, that doesn’t seem to be a problem just yet.

Time to Roll Your D6

Now let’s talk about the gacha system of Neverness to Everness, because this is a very interesting system. Instead of using tickets or any similar currency, the gacha is presented in the form of a board game, where you’ll throw the dice and move a set number of spaces. Upon landing on a specific space, you’ll get a chest that has a chance of getting you a specific character. Dice can be obtained by converting Annulith, which is this game’s “Stellar Jade”, or “Primogem” equivalent, and there are two types: Solid Dice, which are used for the limited-time banner, and Fabricated Dice, for the standard permanent banner.

Playing throughout the month, I would say that NTE is rather generous in its gacha system in many ways. For instance, you are guaranteed to obtain the limited-time character in 90 pulls. And from your 70th pull and onwards, the entire board will morph and greatly increase your chance of obtaining the character. Furthermore, if you obtain a duplicate copy of a character, what this does is unlock a slot of sorts, and you’re able to choose which of the six available buffs you would like to equip, and that’s customizable as well. So that story about “this character only gets good with their skill you get after their 4th dupe” is practically nonexistent here, and I commend the team for doing this.

Furthermore, the monetization isn’t as aggressive as I thought. The game doesn’t flash constant ads on the screen, and also doesn’t have any limited-time packs that it pressures the player to buy before they miss out on. It appears the main monetization tactic the developers have chosen is to sell cosmetics, skins, and vehicles, instead of focusing on the gacha. That is definitely a very courageous thing to state, but it’s ultimately something that only time will tell whether the team will keep with that promise until the game’s 1st anniversary in 2027.

The City Is Your Oyster

In addition to defeating enemies and containing Anomalies, NTE offers a plethora of hobbies for players to do. After progressing a little further in the story, you’ll unlock the ability to purchase and drive your very own car, which you can use to participate in various races and get around the city. You can also run your own café business, go fishing, and even purchase apartments that can be decorated and feature furniture that will give you in-game buffs. You can also just go around the city. Because of its open-world nature, there’s a lot you can do. In fact, the game highly encourages you to explore around and find an activity that you’re interested in.

From those features, the one I was most intrigued by in the advertising was the races and driving experience. But well, let’s just say that the experience was less than ideal. For one, the controls feel super floaty, and the physics are virtually non-existent, creating a very arcade-y feel that doesn’t feel all that good. There were some improvements that were made in Version 1.1, but there’s still a lot that can be done, in my opinion, and while I know driving isn’t the only thing you can do, it is something that I think NTE can really work on improving.

Poor Controller Support

Let’s face it: Unreal Engine 5’s release was pretty messy for the gaming industry in general. While it is much more capable of outputting beautiful graphics than its predecessor, it can only do so at the cost of a borderline insane amount of optimization. Among all Unreal Engine 5-developed games I’ve played, they always had some optimization bug or another, or required a beefy setup to even run. So when NTE proudly announced that it was built using Unreal Engine 5, I was hesitant. During my gameplay, I used three devices: My PlayStation 5, my PC, and my Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Due to my PC barely meeting the minimum requirements, I had to set everything on the lowest presets and my frame rate to a locked 30FPS. Even so, the game fell into single frames frequently, and assets weren’t able to load on time, even though I’ve been playing on an NVME SSD. On mobile, it wasn’t as bad, but playing the game for more than 30 minutes drained an insane amount of battery, and my phone was also very hot at the end. The only platform that had very few performance issues was the PlayStation 5. It just comes with the unfortunate con of the controller experience being very subpar.

Now, compared to other gachas on the PS5, I’ve certainly seen much worse, but there are lots of UI and menu oddities that make me feel the developers did not design NTE with a controller in mind, or did very little testing on a controller. The Version 1.1 patch notes mentioned improvements for the controller, but there’s still a lot of jankiness across the board, even in this early access build I checked out. Navigating the UI on mouse and keyboard feels much more responsive, so I hope the developers can fix a lot of this as the game gets more updates.

The Unfortunate Problem of AI

I would be remiss if I did not mention one huge controversy that has plagued NTE recently: the use of generated AI assets. While I did not catch these instances myself, I did notice the buzz it had generated on social media. So far, two cases have been spotted. One of the ad posters you see around the city depicts two AI-generated anime characters that are suspiciously similar to the protagonists from the movie Weathering with You. The second was a video that plays in the Pink Paws Heist minigame, where the owner of the vault, Giovanni Dvořák, gives a quick backstory.

Shortly after the discourse on social media, the NTE team promptly removed both occurrences in a hotfix. The poster was replaced with a sparkling soda ad (as seen in the image above), and Dvořák’s video was replaced with just TV static. Although these instances were found and quickly removed, this is a huge stain on their reputation that will likely take months to wear off, if at all. I think this just shows the unfortunate scene that we’re currently facing with modern games, where AI seems to be shoved into everything now.

A Title With Lots of Potential

My experience with Neverness to Everness was full of ups and downs. The wide range of activities it offers is quite impressive. With the fixes introduced in Version 1.1, it has become very clear just how much the developers are keen on improving the rocky bumps that formed during the game’s initial release. While the story may not be to everyone’s liking, I still think a game like NTE has its place, and it’s certainly a far cry from Tower of Fantasy, I can tell you that much.

Still, it’s a game that requires a lot of improvements before it can be truly great. I think that if you have the teeniest bit of curiosity, there’s nothing that should stop you from trying the game out for yourself. As a gacha game, its monetization isn’t aggressive, and playing it myself throughout this month was an experience I found decent, although it barely hits the passable bar. I’ll be closely following the development of this game because I do see the vision that Hotta Studio wishes to craft, and I truly hope the team can bounce back.

Disclaimer: Neverness to Everness was reviewed on PlayStation 5.

Final Weapon received early access to Neverness to Everness’s Version 1.1 thanks to Perfect World Games. Some images that were used are from an in-development build and may not reflect the final product.