At Anime Expo 2026, VTuber Krystal Vee spoke with Perfect World Games’ Isabel Chung about NTE’s urban open world, chaotic side activities, character-driven exploration, and the team’s goal of making Hethereau feel like a place players can truly live in.

Anime Expo is always overflowing with worlds begging fans to step inside them. There are massive franchise displays, playable demos, character showcases, and enough upcoming games to fill an entire backlog before the weekend is over.

But Neverness to Everness arrived at Anime Expo 2026 with a particularly ambitious invitation:

Don’t just visit Hethereau. Live there.

Developed by Hotta Studio, Neverness to Everness—better known as NTE—is an anime-inspired urban open-world RPG set in Hethereau, a city where supernatural anomalies exist alongside traffic, apartments, movie theaters, police chases, and everyday city life.

During the convention, VTuber Krystal Vee spoke with Isabel Chung, Marketing & Communications Manager for Perfect World Games, about what separates NTE from the growing crowd of anime-style, open-world, gacha games and why its unique features may also be some of its most important.

A Supernatural Anime RPG Built Around City Life

Anime-inspired live-service RPGs are hardly rare anymore. Between expansive fantasy worlds, collectible characters, and ongoing updates, players have plenty of options competing for their time. So what makes NTE different?

According to Chung, it starts with the urban setting.

Rather than sending players into a distant fantasy kingdom, NTE places them inside a modern city influenced by both Asian and Western architecture and culture. Supernatural events—known in the game as anomalies—aren’t separated from daily life. They exist right alongside roads, buildings, neighborhoods, businesses, and the people who call the city home.

That combination gives NTE a different atmosphere from many of its genre peers. It can shift from anime action and paranormal danger to something closer to a city-life simulator without asking players to leave the open world behind.

Chung also highlighted the game’s summoning system, noting that NTE avoids the traditional “50/50” mechanic commonly associated with featured-character banners in other gacha titles.

Still, some of the game’s most memorable ideas have little to do with pulls or combat.

Yes, You Can Drive a Wheelchair Through the City

NTE’s open world gives players an unusual amount of freedom—and that freedom can get strange very quickly.

You can drive through the city.

You can commit crimes.

You can attract police attention.

You can get arrested.

You can break out of jail.

You can even end up in a prison fight.

And yes, you can drive a wheelchair down the street.

Chung recalled content creators reacting with complete disbelief when the wheelchair was added to the game. The feature became the kind of unexpected discovery that instantly communicates what NTE is going for: a world where experimentation and absurdity are just as welcome as carefully planned combat.

For players coming from more traditional gacha games, the character designs and anime presentation may be the immediate draw. But Chung said general gaming audiences have often been surprised by systems such as the wanted mechanic, jail sequences, and the different ways players can attempt to escape.

It is easy to see why NTE has frequently been described online as an “anime GTA.” When Vee brought up the comparison directly, however, Chung declined to define the game that way.

That hesitation makes sense. While the comparison captures NTE’s urban chaos, it does not fully account for the quieter side of the experience.

Because sometimes the game is not about causing trouble at all. Sometimes it is about going to the movies.

Dates, Movies, Apartments, and a Life Beyond Combat

In NTE, fighting supernatural threats is only one part of the player’s routine.

Players can go on dates, spend time with characters, watch movies, purchase and decorate a home, drive around town, or simply find a peaceful place to relax and take photos.

These activities are not being treated as throwaway diversions. Chung explained that they are meant to strengthen the player’s connection to both the cast and the city itself.

The characters are not supposed to feel like units that only appear when it is time to enter battle. Hotta Studio wants them to feel more like companions—people the player actually knows and chooses to spend time with.

“Some people, like, ‘I just wanna fight. I wanna drive,’” Chung said during the interview. Other players, she added, may simply want a game where they can “chill out.”

That contrast is central to NTE’s appeal.

One player may spend an evening hunting anomalies and mastering combat. Another may test the limits of the wanted system and see how much trouble they can cause. Someone else may decorate a house, go to the theater with a favorite character, or relax near the beach.

NTE is not asking every player to enjoy Hethereau in exactly the same way.

It is trying to give everyone a reason to stay.

Character Abilities Change the Way You See Hethereau

NTE’s characters are not defined only by how they perform during battle. Their individual abilities can also affect how players explore the open world.

Chung described characters with powers capable of changing movement and environmental interaction. One ability uses anti-gravity (Nanally), allowing the player to move across buildings in ways that would otherwise be impossible. Another can pause time (Hotori), creating new opportunities to explore the city, line up photographs, or simply observe Hethereau from a different perspective.

That means choosing a character is not only a matter of damage output, team composition, or combat strategy. It can change the way Hethereau itself feels.

A street that appears ordinary with one character may become a platforming route with another. A busy city scene may turn into the perfect frozen moment for photography. Exploration becomes another expression of character identity.

Chung said this variety was one of the features that excited players during the game’s beta testing periods.

The tests also allowed Hotta Studio to update maps, improve characters and environments, and expand the activities available throughout the city. According to Chung, the biggest question from players afterward was simple:

When can we play more?

Hotta Studio Wants Players to Feel Like Residents, Not Visitors

The clearest explanation of NTE’s design philosophy came when Vee asked what new players should feel when they first enter Hethereau.

Chung’s answer was not about progression systems, rare characters, or difficult battles.

“I don’t want them to feel they are playing a game,” she said.

Instead, she wants players to feel as if they are actually living in Hethereau.

That goal can be seen in the attention placed on transportation, city activities, environmental details, and NPCs with routines of their own.

A convincing open world needs more than a large map. It needs movement, personality, and a sense that something is always happening—even when the player is not actively completing a mission.

NTE wants battles against anomalies, police chases, casual drives, dates, movies, and quiet moments to feel like parts of the same life rather than separate modes selected from a menu.

“I hope they can feel themselves in NTE,” Chung told Vee.

For anime fans, that promise is especially appealing. The fantasy of stepping into an anime world is rarely limited to fighting villains or unlocking new powers. Sometimes the appeal is simply being there—walking through the streets, meeting the characters, and imagining what daily life inside that world might look like.

NTE is attempting to turn that fantasy into its core gameplay loop.

What Comes Next for Neverness to Everness?

Hotta Studio is not ready to reveal every detail about the game’s future, but Chung said the team intends to keep making the city more immersive. That includes adding more activities, improving character design and gameplay systems, and listening closely to community feedback.

“We do need more suggestions from players to help us make this game much greater,” Chung said.

She declined to share more specific development details, explaining that future plans remained confidential.

Her message to new players, however, was much more direct.

Players interested in combat can pursue combos, strategic encounters, and open-world action. Those looking for something more casual can buy and decorate a home, spend time with characters, watch a movie, or relax by the beach.

“Just give it a try,” Chung said, “and you will find yourself in it.”

That may be the best summary of NTE’s presence at Anime Expo 2026, where fans had the chance to meet members of the Hotta Studio team, take photos with NTE cosplayers, play the game, participate in booth activities, and giveaways.

Neverness to Everness is not only trying to build an anime open world filled with supernatural battles. It is trying to create a city where fighting, exploring, socializing, and causing ridiculous amounts of trouble all feel equally at home.

The anomalies may bring players to Hethereau. But if Hotta Studio succeeds, the life waiting between those battles may be what convinces them to stay.

Krystal Vee’s interview with Isabel Chung, Marketing & Communications Manager for Perfect World Games, was conducted during Anime Expo 2026 in Los Angeles.