NTE: Neverness to Everness

If you like urban open worlds with life sim elements, then it's impossible not to recommend NTE right now. This game has one of the most beautiful, vibrant sandbox settings I've seen in some time – and despite some irksome characters, I'm generally enjoying its plot so far, which blends slice of life mangas with sci-fi horror.The gacha business model is understandably not going to resonate with everyone, but at launch this is one of the more generous games in the genre thus far. And the sheer number of things to do day one, from managing coffee shops to beating down possessed DJ decks in DDR-style rhythm battles, is simply unprecedented.

Neverness to Everness is a beautiful game with beautiful characters and a lively city packed to the brim with content. The developers implemented a fairly lenient gacha system and offered interesting in-game activities. However, you have to put up with a lackluster story, a generic combat system with no flair, and less-than-polished technical performance.

Neverness to Everness is a gacha game that really has the potential to position itself amid the sea of currently available games. There are a lot of small issues that keep it from unleashing its full potential, but the development team seems keen on fixing them.

The gacha system without a 50/50 represents one of the smartest ideas seen in the genre in recent years. Neverness to Everness has everything it takes to join the ranks of HoYoverse, Kuro Games, and Hypergryph.

In spite of its simplistic combat and not-quite-unique characters (especially in a world with ZZZ animated caricatures), NTE is still a blast to play due to its standout feature: city life sim bits, driving, and open-world shenanigans not unlike your Rockstar Games and Volition fare. But, you know anime and cat girls.

Neverness to Everness is the new free-to-play anime-style action RPG from Hotta Studio: beautiful to look at.

Ultimately, at launch NTE just lacks sufficient content to keep it interesting past a few days of playing, especially the abrupt story end. What's there is decent quality for a free-to-play game, and you're not forced to spend any real money, as everything is doable through in-game progress. You can't go wrong with checking it out, but don't expect a huge RPG or an offering which meaningfully separates itself from the rest of the gacha pack beyond its city setting.

Neverness to Everness is an ambitious open-world gacha game bursting with content. Its main strength lies in the beautifully crafted city of Hethereau and the wide variety of activities it offers, including exploration, management, and combat.

Neverness to Everness is a very pleasant surprise in the world of free-to-play gacha games. With its huge living city, fast-paced gameplay, wide range of activities, and highly successful art direction, the game easily manages to keep players engaged for dozens of hours without requiring a single purchase. Despite controls that can sometimes feel awkward on mobile and content that becomes repetitive once the main story is over, the game’s potential remains enormous moving forward. If the developers continue to add new content and expand the available activities, NTE could clearly become a benchmark for the genre on both mobile and PC.

Coming off the underwhelming Tower of Fantasy, NTE: Neverness to Everness won't set the free-to-play world on fire, but it's still a surprisingly strong debut effort with a solid foundation.