Nova City: Ananta's Open World Explained

Nova City is the open world at the heart of Ananta — a dense, living metropolis where every street corner offers something to do. From underground heists and rooftop parkour to dancing in nightclubs and decorating your apartment, Nova City is built around the idea that an open world should feel like an actual city.

What Is Nova City?

Nova City is the fictional urban setting of Ananta, developed by Naked Rain (NetEase). It is a seamlessly explorable modern city — not a series of instanced zones, but a continuous open world where players can drive, fly, fight and socialize without loading screens between areas.

The city spans multiple districts with distinct visual identities, from neon-lit commercial areas to industrial zones and residential neighborhoods. The design draws from real-world urban aesthetics to create a grounded, believable city rather than a stylized fantasy environment.

Nova City · street level

Activities in Nova City

One of Ananta's core design pillars is breadth of activity. Naked Rain has showcased an unusually wide range of things to do in Nova City — from the expected (combat, quests) to the unexpected (sauna visits, slapfighting tournaments, social media scrolling).

Street combat

Night life

Player Housing

Nova City includes a player housing system. Players can own apartments or spaces within the city, which can be decorated with furniture and items. Housing decorations are one of the confirmed monetization categories in Ananta's cosmetics-only business model.

The housing system positions Ananta alongside games like GTA Online and Final Fantasy XIV in offering a persistent personal space within the game world — a feature that drives long-term engagement and social interaction.

Traversal: How You Get Around

Nova City is designed to be traversed in multiple ways:

• On foot with parkour — characters can run, climb and traverse urban environments fluidly
• Ground vehicles — cars and motorcycles for navigating streets
• Aerial vehicles — helicopters confirmed in gameplay footage
• Water vehicles — boat navigation on waterways
• Skydiving — confirmed as an activity (and traversal mechanic)
• Chaos abilities — supernatural traversal through character-specific powers

Skydiving · aerial traversal

Nova City vs Other Open Worlds

The clearest comparison is to GTA Online — both are urban open worlds with a wide range of criminal and social activities, vehicle diversity, and cosmetic-driven monetization.

The key difference is the anime-style character design, RPG progression systems (Chaos abilities, Esper powers), and the addition of elements borrowed from titles like Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero — notably the character story focus and the detailed character relationships system.

Frequently Asked Questions