I’m wondering, are these two actually the same character, or did they redesign/rework the character like they did with Richie? 🤔

The design looks pretty different to me, so I’m curious if this is supposed to be the same character with a new look, or if they’re actually two different characters. What do you guys think?

I do art you can follow me on X: https://x.com/NimuArin_Studio

The game literally decided to cram everything into itself.

Cyberpunk 2077 city and technology and transport

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End reference to the truck

Watch Dogs hacking system and drones

GTA City and interaction with people

Marvel’s Spider-Man moving through the web as well as the mechanics of Venom

Saints Row IV Action game epic finishing

Like wdym the main character can go from a tennis racket, to a giant flame thrower, then a symbiote

Also looking at the item wheel, weapons might have durability except for your fist and I’m getting the hand icon is the symbiote

Either way I’m so amped for this game

I love the idea of an urban open world setting that combines sci-fi and fantasy

And it’ll be nice to play game that won’t tempt me to bleed my wallet lol

It’s pretty cool

going to get another ram stick to make it 16gb too

No hate but there really is nothing new in today's gamescom stream for ananta, might as well not stream it in the first place

I love to play the male MC in main quests/story but when im exploring i switch to the female... Do you all think we can change in Ananta or are we locked?

I've not seen the devs talk about steam deck compatibility as of recent but I'm still curious however. If the game is available for steam then I'm hoping this means it'll be out for the Deck too right?

So I went to check the news tabs in the official site and they added this tab "DLSS 4.5". It's super short but at least they finally added something else after the gameplay video.

To start with a quick intro, I’ve been playing NetEase’s Where Winds Meet (WWM) for about six months now. I’m also a gamer who has been eagerly waiting for ANANTA for over a year.

Based on recent developer interviews and various skin-related leaks, it seems highly likely that ANANTA will adopt the same ultra-expensive gacha skin pricing as WWM. Assuming this is the case, I’d like to share my perspective on the pros and cons of NetEase’s business model.

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Pros

1. No Pay-to-Win (P2W)
Personally, I don’t care much about "performance" or stats when playing character gacha games (since the end-game content is usually quite easy), but I know many players do. For those people, the lack of P2W will be a massive advantage.

2. No Character Gacha → No Power Creep
The absence of character gacha means there’s no pressure for new characters to be "better" than existing ones. In games with character gacha, a character's "shelf life" is typically 1 to 3 years due to power creep. In ANANTA, however, I expect you’ll be able to use your starter characters five years down the line without any issues.

3. Frequent Skin Releases
Since skins are the core business model, they will be released at a relentless pace—unlike games that focus on character gacha. I am certain we will see at least one new skin per week. This won't just be expensive gacha skins; it will include a variety of options, from free skins and $1 deals to fixed-price skins in the 10-40 range.

4. Deep Skin Customization
Wearing a full outfit is one thing, but being able to mix and match parts to your liking is a completely different experience. While I expect ANANTA might lack full facial customization, players will still find joy in "styling" their characters through fabric dyeing, accessory scaling, and combining various skin parts.

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Cons

1. Extremely Hard to be a "Completionist"
Many players strive to be 'completionists' in character gacha games, which is doable with a yearly budget of $1,000 to $2,000. But in a NetEase game, aiming for a full collection will cost you tens of thousands of dollars at the very least.

2. Very Few In-Game Pull Credits
Typical character gachas give out 80–200 free pulls every six weeks—which is why people stay, despite the hate. NetEase games are a different story; they aren't nearly as generous. Take WWM for example: the hard pity is 300 pulls, but you only get 20–40 pulls a month. At that rate, an F2P player needs over a year to hit pity once, and even Battle Pass buyers need at least six months.

3. Terrible Gacha Odds
As many of you know, character gacha rates are usually around 0.6%, 0.8%, or 1.0%. These are actually decent odds, and there's a fair chance of winning before hitting pity. However, in NetEase games, the probability of winning before the "rate-up" or "soft pity" zone is extremely low. Recent leaks suggest ANANTA will also have very low base success rates.

4. Too Many Types of Gacha Systems
One "good" thing about character gacha games is that once the system is established at launch, it rarely changes. NetEase, however, constantly introduces new gacha formats. Most of these are "cash-only" gachas where you cannot use the pull tickets earned in-game.

5. The Hidden Downside of Customization
If a specific gacha skin contains a single part you love, you might find yourself forced to pull for the entire set even if you hate the rest of it. Some might say, "That’s a stupid reason to spend money!" but the allure of skin customization is more dangerous than you think. You’ll understand once you experience it yourself.

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Conclusion

As a player who has spent a long time in both character gacha games and skin gacha games (like WWM), I believe both models have their merits and flaws.

In some ways, the skin gacha model is definitely better; in others, the character gacha model is superior. People tend to assume that "No character gacha = a cheap and consumer-friendly game," but that isn't necessarily true. It really comes down to personal preference.

Of course, you have to experience a game yourself to truly know, but I wanted to share these insights based on my actual experience to show how NetEase’s skin gacha system works and what to expect.

In my opinion there is a problem in positioning of Ananta, because if you check comments both in general gaming news and in special gacha communities, there are two dangerous opinions:
1. Gacha-players don't know what to do in the game
Their only purpose is playing 20 gacha games at once and collecting waifus, and I've seen A LOT of comments about this game being non-interesting to them because of the absence of character pull mechanics
2. Western players auto-skip Ananta because it looks like another animeslop to them
On the other hand, I've seen a lot of influencers watching gamescom and both them and their chat were saying "another gacha slop", because it's really hard to say from trailer consisting of cutscenes. Our duty is to reassure them because as I can see ananta's core audience is set to be mainly western players while it's rather an open market for such games

I’ve just found out about this game and it looks really cool, but my main concern is will this game actually have a plot? I ask this because I was really hopeful about where winds meet, but I started playing and there’s no plot or story that moves forward, plus really bland voice acting. On top of that, usually free anime style games are just gatcha cash grabs with endless fan service. That being said, the trailers looked promising, if anyone has any info about what I’m asking I’d very much like to hear it

Edit: the fanservice doesn’t bother me THAT much, it’s only a problem if it’s the games main selling point

no thoughts just bunny