NetEase and Naked Rain locked in Ananta’s release date at Gamescom Opening Night Live: January 15, 2027, on PS5, PC, iOS, and Android. That is five months of waiting for anyone hooked by the trailers of Nova City and Lingyun, the game’s two dense urban maps. If you want that same anime open-world plus grounded-city energy on your PC right now, these seven Ananta alternatives are worth installing on Windows this week.
Why players are looking past the January 2027 wait
- You want the anime silhouette without the wait. Ananta’s character designs and combat animation set expectations that other studios have met before.
- You want the urban open world without the gacha friction. NetEase games typically ship with progression systems built around monetization. Some PC players want the setting minus that model.
- You want story you can finish. Ananta is a live-service pitch. If you would rather play something with a definite ending, PC has stronger picks.
- You want combat you can measure now. Trailer cuts are trailer cuts. If you want to feel a moveset in your own hands this week, you have real options.
Quick comparison
| Game | Best for | Price (approx.) | Ananta similarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wuthering Waves | Anime open world, combat feel | Free-to-play | Very high |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | Dense urban open world | ~$30-40 | High |
| NieR: Automata | Anime action, sci-fi tone | ~$40 | High |
| Yakuza: Like a Dragon | Dense city, character-driven story | ~$30 | Medium-high |
| GTA V | Massive urban sandbox | ~$30 | Medium |
| Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition | Compact city crime open world | ~$20 | Medium |
| Persona 5 Royal | Anime cast, city setting | ~$60 | Medium |
The 7 best Ananta alternatives on PC
Wuthering Waves, best anime open world
Wuthering Waves (Kuro Games) is on Steam and hits the closest chord with Ananta’s promise: a large open world, anime character silhouettes, and combat built around resonators with tag-in mechanics. It is free-to-play with gacha progression, which is closer to what Ananta will likely be than most single-player options on this list. The Solaris-3 setting is more post-apocalyptic than urban, but the play grammar transfers.
Where it falls short: Live-service structure means daily energy caps and gacha pulls. If the reason you want an Ananta alternative is escaping gacha, this is not it.
Pricing:
- Free-to-play with in-app purchases
- vs Ananta: same business model expectations, no wait
Bottom line: Best pick if you want the exact Ananta feel right now and gacha is not a dealbreaker.
Cyberpunk 2077, best dense urban open world
Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red) is Night City in your PC’s hands. After the 2.0 update and the Phantom Liberty expansion, it is the most detailed urban open world you can buy. The vertical density, the crowd behavior, the traffic systems, all of it makes Ananta’s Nova City pitch feel familiar. V’s arc is a complete story with endings, not a live-service tease.
Where it falls short: Grounded near-future cyberpunk, not anime. If the character designs were what pulled you in, Cyberpunk lands in a different aesthetic entirely.
Pricing:
- Paid only
- Around $30-40 base, $30 for Phantom Liberty
- vs Ananta: fully single-player, one purchase, no monetization inside
Bottom line: Right pick if the dense city was the hook and you would rather have a complete story than a live-service loop.
NieR: Automata, best anime action with a real ending
NieR: Automata (PlatinumGames, Square Enix) still sets the bar for anime-flavored action combat on PC. It is not open world in the modern sense; the map is a series of connected zones. But the combat model, the character designs, and the willingness to be strange are all things Ananta is reaching for. Three playthroughs deliver a full story arc.
Where it falls short: Smaller scope. Ananta’s open world is a headline feature; NieR’s is not. And the PC port needs the FAR mod to run at its best on modern hardware.
Pricing:
- Around $40 on Steam, often on sale
- vs Ananta: paid, single-player, shorter but denser
Bottom line: Pick this if the combat animation and anime tone were the hook and you want a finished story you can hold in your head.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon, best dense city with characters
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Sega) drops you into Isezaki Ijincho, a walkable Yokohama district as detailed as anything in the genre. The turn-based combat is a departure from the usual Yakuza brawler, but the city, the side-quest density, and the sincerity of Ichiban’s story land in the same neighborhood as what Ananta is going for with Lingyun.
Where it falls short: Turn-based combat where Ananta is real-time action. And it is decidedly not anime-styled, though the tone gets close.
Pricing:
- Around $30 on Steam, often deeply discounted
- vs Ananta: paid, single-player, contained scope
Download: Steam
Bottom line: Best pick if the walkable city and character work of Ananta’s marketing was what actually pulled you in.
GTA V, best massive urban sandbox
Grand Theft Auto V is the baseline any “anime GTA” pitch is measured against. Los Santos is still one of the largest, most systemic playgrounds on PC. Story mode is finite and finished; GTA Online is the live-service side if you want that. Between the two you have hundreds of hours of urban open-world content while Ananta is still months away.
Where it falls short: Not anime, not sci-fi. And the driving-and-shooting core is very different from what trailers have shown for Ananta’s traversal.
Pricing:
- Around $30 on Steam and Epic
- vs Ananta: paid, mature-rated, no anime aesthetic
Download: Steam · Epic Games Store
Bottom line: Pick this if the “GTA-alike” side of the Ananta pitch is what caught you and you can set the anime part aside.
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition, best compact city crime
Sleeping Dogs (United Front Games, Square Enix) is Hong Kong rendered at a scale that still holds up on PC in 2026. The city is small compared to GTA V, but it is dense with side stories, martial arts combat, and street food stands you can eat at. It gives you an East Asian urban open world with a definite ending, which is very hard to find elsewhere on PC.
Where it falls short: Old. Combat systems and mission design show their age; the Definitive Edition papered over some of that but not all of it.
Pricing:
- Around $20 on Steam and GOG, often much less on sale
- vs Ananta: single purchase, much smaller scope
Bottom line: Pick this if you want an Asian city open world you can finish in a weekend, and price matters.
Persona 5 Royal, best anime cast in a real city
Persona 5 Royal (Atlus) is not open world, but it is the strongest anime-styled city game on PC. Tokyo is rendered as a network of hangout spots rather than a streaming map, and the party of eight is written with the character-first attention Ananta trailers seem to be pushing. A hundred hours, one story, one ending.
Where it falls short: No open-world traversal. You pick a district, you fast-travel there. And combat is turn-based rather than the action model Ananta is showing.
Pricing:
- Around $60 on Steam, often on sale
- vs Ananta: paid, much longer, no live service
Download: Steam
Bottom line: Pick this if the anime cast was your hook and you can trade the open world for the deepest character writing on this list.
How to pick the right one
- If you want the closest match right now, get Wuthering Waves (free).
- If the urban density was the hook, get Cyberpunk 2077.
- If the anime action animation was the hook, get NieR: Automata.
- If the walkable city character work was the hook, get Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
- If you want an urban sandbox at maximum scale, get GTA V.
- If you want an East Asian city you can finish in a weekend, get Sleeping Dogs.
- If the anime cast is what actually matters, get Persona 5 Royal.
Ananta will not be here until January 15, 2027. These seven cover every reason someone might be waiting.
FAQ
When does Ananta release on PC? January 15, 2027, alongside the PS5, iOS, and Android releases.
Is Ananta free-to-play? NetEase has not confirmed the final pricing model publicly, but the game is being developed and marketed on the same live-service and gacha-adjacent lines as their other titles.
Is there an Ananta demo on PC? No public PC demo is available as of Gamescom 2026. Closed beta tests have run periodically; check the official site for signup windows.
What is the closest game to Ananta already on Steam? Wuthering Waves is the closest match on aesthetic and structure. Cyberpunk 2077 is the closest on urban density.
Will Ananta support English on PC at launch? Yes. NetEase’s Gamescom announcement confirmed a global launch, English included, on January 15, 2027.
