April’s Massive GTA-Clone May Finally Make Me Love Gacha Games

I have always been absolutely willing to try pretty much every type of video game, no matter how predisposed I am to dislike its gameplay mechanics. I’m not a huge fan of puzzle games, but my unceasing adoration for the Portal games compels me to try even the most obscure of titles in the genre in the hopes of falling in love once again. Similarly, I cannot stand Metroidvanias, but I’ll still sink dozens of hours into Hollow Knight and Silksong just so I can see if I’m the problem or the genre at large. It’s me. I’m always the problem. However, there has been an exception to this rule, and that is gacha games.

As I understand it, it is a genre infamous for predatory gambling mechanics and an onslaught of complicated currencies designed to make playing the game without investing money into it as impossible as possible. As a result, I have avoided even the very best gacha games, as they simply don’t interest me. The only exception was Genshin Impact, but even then, I didn’t last long, not due to the microtransactions (although they didn’t help) but the endless amount of content that meant I’d literally never see the end of the game. This was the case until I learned about the existence of the GTA-clone, Neverness to Everness, a game so impressive and so intent on eschewing the norms and conventions of the genre that it may finally get me to break my golden rule and delve deep into a gacha experience.

Neverness To Everness Is Anime Grand Theft Auto, And I Love It

I have spoken at length about how it is a great shame that we don’t get more games like Grand Theft Auto, as the urban open-world crime caper is often a legendarily good experience, especially when a handful of life-sim elements are sprinkled into the mix. As a result, I felt it would be disingenuous of me to completely overlook one of the most anticipated gacha games of 2026, Neverness to Everness (or NTE), a game that takes the GTA Online open-world formula, chucks in a few extra life-sim elements for good measure, and a healthy dose of attractive anime characters and bizarre boss fights.

This isn’t a case of ill-fitting comparison for engagement or clicks. It is, after all, too easy to see a game is just like X when only the faintest aspects justify the comparison. However, in this case, NTE really is anime GTA. It has fast cars, a sprawling open world city to explore, a wanted rating, the ability to go to jail, open a cafe, buy and decorate apartments, and so much more. If anything, Neverness to Everness looks a tad more involved than the 13-year-old GTA Online. Frankly, I’m always interested in an open-world game with changing seasons, the ability to ride a train through a Japanese countryside-inspired region (niche, I know), and fish. NTE has all of that, so I’d be a fool not to at least try it.

Of course, there is still the problem of Neverness to Everness being a gacha game. Sure, it’s a single-player experience, much like its contemporaries, but there are microtransactions, banners full of interesting S-tier characters you’ll want to pull, and it is all bound to get in the way of enjoying certain aspects of NTE. Normally, this alone would be enough to dissuade me, much like the majority of live service titles, as I fail to find the fun in opening my wallet to buy digital anime girls and boys. However, Neverness to Everness largely addresses the most prominent issues with the gacha genre, and it could set a new norm I’d be more than happy with.

NTE Almost Fixes The Biggest Problems With Gacha Games

Now I’m not going to pretend I understand all the gacha game lingo, but it very much seems like Neverness to Everness is removing the gambling aspects inherent with the “pity” system in its rivals. Typically, if you reach a certain number of pulls on a specific banner, you hit the “pity” value, at which point games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail will give you a 50% chance of getting the advertised character. If you fail to get said character, you’ll have to reach the “pity” value again, which, naturally, means spending a lot of extra money. Neverness to Everness removes the 50/50 mechanic altogether and will automatically give you the advertised character when you hit the “pity” value (which is 90 pulls in NTE’s case).

That’s a whole lot of jargon to say that if you spend enough money, you’ll get the character you actually want. Does it still mean you have to shell out an inordinate amount of cash just to play as a slightly more enjoyable character? Yes, absolutely. However, considering the game is free to begin with, and it is expected that NTE, like its contemporaries, will be making money through its microtransactions, it is at least refreshing to see that Hotta Studio is playing fair. It is a significant change to a fairly broken and unjust system that means Neverness to Everness might actually be a gacha game worth playing.

Sadly, the one issue NTE doesn’t solve is the endless amount of content inherent to this type of experience. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that gacha games are live service titles designed to take up all of your time and keep you hooked perpetually so you continue to spend money on them. As a result, its developer has little incentive to end the story, as by doing so, one’s interest will likely wane. However, considering it is a single-player experience, the lack of an ending is frustrating, at least to me. I appreciate that many will enjoy having an endless time sink, but I have things I need to do, and other experiences I wish to have. I don’t have the time to play nothing but NTE.

I somewhat selfishly hope that Neverness to Everness is structured in such a way that I can reach a reasonable stopping point and return when I feel compelled to do so, but I’m not convinced that will happen. Regardless, I suspect it will be a lot of fun to simply explore its gorgeous, sprawling world and engage with the life sim content until I grow bored, so long as NTE’s microtransactions don’t get in the way of that. Ultimately, I am definitely swayed, and I will finally be breaking my rule to abstain from the gacha genre. Hopefully, the GTA-inspired Neverness to Everness won’t disappoint, and future games in the genre pay close attention to what it gets right, specifically within the monetization department.

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