Games Like Neverness to Everness to Play While You Wait for the Next Update

NTE scratches a specific itch: team-based action combat, gacha character collection, and an open world that feels lived-in rather than decorative. If you've cleared the current story chapters and you're between banners, here's where else to look, sorted by what each game actually does differently, not just "it's also anime."

Genshin Impact, For Deep Elemental Combat and Years of Content

Developer: HoYoverse (miHoYo) · Launched: September 2020 · Platforms: PC, mobile, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch

If NTE's Esper Cycle appealed to you but you want a system with more theorycraft depth, Genshin's elemental reaction table (Vaporize, Overload, Electro-Charged, and more) is still the genre benchmark. You'll trade Hethereau's single dense city for Teyvat's sprawling multi-nation fantasy continent, and you'll get several years' worth of story and world content to work through. See our full [NTE vs Genshin Impact comparison] for the detailed breakdown.

Zenless Zone Zero, For Faster, Chain-Focused Combat in Another Supernatural City

Developer: HoYoverse (miHoYo) · Launched: July 4, 2024 (Xbox added June 6, 2025) · Platforms: PC, mobile, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

ZZZ swaps Hethereau for New Eridu, another city built around a supernatural threat woven into daily life, in this case, dimensional rifts called Hollows. Combat here is faster and more chain-focused than NTE's, built around three-character squads and tight parry timing rather than four-character rotations. If you liked NTE's investigative framing (you play a hired guide navigating anomalies, not unlike NTE's Appraiser), ZZZ's Proxy role will feel familiar.

Wuthering Waves, For Fluid Movement and Six-Element Combat

Developer: Kuro Games · Launched: May 22, 2024 (PS5 added January 2025, Steam April 2025) · Platforms: PC, mobile, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, macOS

Wuthering Waves leans hardest into pure movement tech, climbing, double-jumping, gliding, grappling, layered under a six-element combat system with its own synergy mechanic (Concerto effects). It's a good pick if NTE's driving and traversal options were your favorite part and you want a game that pushes that even further, even though its setting is a post-apocalyptic wilderness rather than a living city.

Tower of Fantasy, For More Hotta Studio DNA

Developer: Hotta Studio · Launched: August 2022 worldwide (PS4/PS5 added August 2023) · Platforms: PC, mobile, PlayStation

Made by the same studio behind NTE, Tower of Fantasy is worth a look specifically because you can feel the shared gacha and combat instincts underneath a completely different setting, a sci-fi world called Aida rather than an urban metropolis. If you're curious how Hotta Studio's design philosophy evolved between projects, this is the direct point of comparison.

Ananta (formerly Project Mugen), For an Even Closer Urban Concept, Later

Developer: Naked Rain (NetEase Games) · Announced release: January 15, 2027 · Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, iOS, Android (announced)

This one isn't out yet, so treat it as a watchlist entry rather than a recommendation you can act on today. Ananta is built around a strikingly similar pitch to NTE: a modern city (Nova City) where paranormal "Chaos" events intertwine with everyday life, and you play an Agent of an Anti-Chaos Directorate investigating them. The key structural difference: Ananta has stated it will not use a gacha system for characters, everything unlocks through gameplay instead, with cosmetics as the monetization layer. Given how directly it overlaps with NTE's premise, it's the one to watch once it actually has a confirmed release window that holds.

Persona 5, For the Investigation Structure Without the Gacha or Open World

Developer: Atlus · Launched: 2016 (Royal version 2019/2020) · Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC

Not an open-world action RPG, and not free-to-play, but if what actually hooked you about NTE was the Eibon Antique Shop crew and its episodic case-file storytelling (a structure reviewers have directly compared to Persona), the original is worth playing for that alone. It's a premium, single-player turn-based RPG, so go in expecting a very different pace and cost model.

Quick Picks by What You Liked About NTE

• Loved the Esper Cycle combat feel? → Zenless Zone Zero
• Loved driving around Hethereau? → Wuthering Waves
• Loved the elemental-style synergy system generally? → Genshin Impact
• Curious about Hotta Studio's other work? → Tower of Fantasy
• Want the same premise, no gacha, whenever it actually ships? → Ananta (watchlist only)
• Loved the Eibon crew's case-file storytelling? → Persona 5

Related Reading

• Not sure what makes NTE worth your time in the first place? Start with our Origins hub: [Neverness to Everness: Everything We Know About NTE].
• Deciding specifically between NTE and Genshin? Read our full Comparisons breakdown.
• Curious about NTE's visual identity and anime references? See our Origins piece on the influences behind Hethereau.

Sources

• Game8, "Wuthering Waves Global Release Date and Launch"
• Wikipedia, Zenless Zone Zero, Wuthering Waves, Tower of Fantasy, Ananta (video game)
• Ananta Fandom Wiki, development and release overview
• Escapist Magazine, "ANANTA release: Everything we know about the open-world game"
• Metacritic, Zenless Zone Zero details page
• Steam, Wuthering Waves store page