Ananta vs GTA5 Gameplay: Just How Similar Are They?

The internet made up its mind a while ago: Ananta is “the anime GTA.” The nickname stuck the moment NetEase showed a sprawling city, wild car chases, and enough chaos to make Rockstar nod in approval. And now that Ananta has locked in a January 15, 2027 release – landing just two months after GTA 6 – that comparison is hotter than ever.

But labels are lazy. So let’s actually pull the two apart. How much does Ananta really play like GTA 5, and where does it veer off into something completely its own? I dug through the trailers, betas, and hands-on previews to find out. Fair warning up front: everything about Ananta here comes from pre-release footage, so treat it as “what’s been shown” rather than a shipped, final verdict.

Here’s the honest framing. Ananta and GTA 5 share a genre and a vibe, but they’re chasing different dreams. GTA 5, released back in 2013, is a gritty crime satire set in one sun-baked, Los Angeles-inspired city. Ananta is a free-to-play, anime-styled urban playground stuffed with supernatural weirdness across two cities. Same sandbox family. Very different toys.

To keep this clear, I’ve split the comparison into two buckets: the shared DNA that makes the GTA nickname fair, and the ways Ananta deliberately breaks the mold. Let’s start with the common ground, because there’s plenty of it.

The Shared DNA That Earns the Nickname

Fire up either game and some things feel instantly familiar. That’s not an accident – Ananta’s developers have leaned into the GTA comparison rather than run from it. In fact, they’ve openly said they appreciate it.

Here’s where the two genuinely overlap:

• A big, living open-world city you’re meant to inhabit, not just pass through.
• A stable of vehicles – cars, bikes, motorcycles, boats, helicopters – for tearing around town.
• Character switching as a core hook, hopping between different playable leads.
• A deliberate streak of chaos, mayhem, and over-the-top action sequences.
• Packed side content and daily-life activities scattered across the map.

That living-city feeling is the biggest shared pillar. Both games fill their streets with NPCs who have routines, reactions, and a sense that the world keeps spinning without you. Ananta lets you pet animals in the park, snap photos with citizens, and wander into cinemas, arcades, gyms, cat cafes, and mahjong parlors. GTA 5 had its tennis, yoga, and stock market. Different flavor, same philosophy: give players a world worth loitering in.

Even the character-switching, GTA 5’s signature trick, gets an Ananta twist that feels like a homage. In GTA 5 you swap between Michael, Franklin, and Trevor via a slick helicopter-style zoom.

In Ananta, you open a watch-like interface, pick a character who’s already living their own life elsewhere in the city, and the camera whisks you over to them. Smooth transitions, different faces, same fundamental idea.

Where Ananta Breaks the Mold?

Now for the fun part, because this is where the “anime GTA” tag starts to fall apart. Ananta borrows GTA’s skeleton but bolts on a bunch of systems Rockstar’s game never touched.

Here’s where it zags hard:

• An anime art style wrapped around a supernatural “Chaos” underworld, not gritty realism.
• Parkour, climbing, and Spider-Man-style swinging across a highly vertical city.
• Party-based action combat that weaponizes the environment, not just gun-focused shooting.
• A big roster of collectible characters, each with their own job and storyline.
• A free-to-play, cosmetics-only model with no character gacha.

Take traversal. GTA 5 keeps your feet mostly on the ground – you drive, you walk, you shoot. Ananta hands you a vertical jungle gym. Previews compared its movement to Marvel’s Spider-Man, with aerial swinging, wall-running, and climbing letting you scale the city and explore from rooftops down to secret alleys. And the vehicle list gets gloriously silly: skateboards, hang gliders, yachts, flying vehicles, subways, even one character’s mallet that transforms into a rideable bike. GTA 5 never let you glide off a skyscraper on a magic hammer.

Then there’s the cast. GTA 5 gives you three fixed protagonists and that’s your lot. Ananta reportedly launches with around 16 playable characters, each with a distinct identity and job that shapes how they level up. Taffy is a delivery worker who progresses by completing deliveries. Richie is a cop who ranks up by issuing tickets and making arrests. Every character is a different life to step into, which is a wildly different structure from GTA 5’s tight three-hander crime saga.

Feature	GTA 5	Ananta
Setting	One LA-style city	Two anime cities
Tone	Gritty crime satire	Anime action, supernatural
Traversal	Grounded driving	Parkour, swinging, vertical
Combat	Gun-focused shooting	Party action, environmental
Playable cast	Three fixed protagonists	16+ collectible characters
Price	Premium (paid)	Free-to-play
Platforms	Console, PC	PC, PS5, iOS, Android
Launch	2013	January 15, 2027

The Ananta vs GTA5 Gameplay Combat Divide

Combat is where the two games feel the most different in the hand, so it deserves its own spotlight. GTA 5’s fighting is functional and grounded: over-the-shoulder gunplay, some melee, cover shooting, and vehicular carnage. It’s a crime game, and the combat serves that fantasy well enough, if a little stiffly by today’s standards.

Ananta comes at it from a totally different school. Its combat is party-based and action-driven, closer to a character-action brawler than a cover shooter. The big idea is environmental improvisation – you grab urban props, everyday objects, and even enemy weapons, blending martial arts with dodging and blocking and each character’s unique style. Previews likened it to Yakuza’s beat-em-up scraps one moment and cinematic, Uncharted-style set pieces the next, including a sequence where you’re clinging to a moving vehicle. It’s not all fists, either; shootouts and gunfights show up too, just wrapped in flashier, anime-flavored spectacle.

There’s an interesting wrinkle around that party system, though. Early on, Ananta looked like it might feature rapid Genshin or Zenless Zone Zero-style combat swapping between your four-character team. But more recent hands-on impressions suggest it’s less about frantic in-fight switching and more contextual – you tend to play one character through a mission, then swap when a specific character’s skills suit exploration or a puzzle. So while the party framing sounds gacha-familiar, the moment-to-moment feel may sit somewhere between an action RPG and GTA’s single-lead missions. That’s a genuinely fresh middle ground.

Ananta vs GTA5 Gameplay: Free vs Full Price

Now the difference that might matter most to your wallet, and honestly the one GTA fans should pay closest attention to. GTA 5 is a premium game – you buy it once, and its online mode leans on Shark Cards for in-game cash. Standard, expected, fine.

Ananta throws that model out entirely. It’s completely free-to-play, and here’s the kicker that’s turned heads across the genre: there’s no character gacha. Every playable character is earned through story progression and gameplay, not random banner pulls or pity counters. Instead, Naked Rain has confirmed a cosmetics-only monetization approach – outfits, vehicle skins, and housing decorations are the paid layer. That puts it far closer to Fortnite or GTA Online’s cosmetic economy than to a typical anime collectathon.

That’s a big deal, and clearly a deliberate pitch to Western players who’ve grown weary of predatory gacha systems. With over 17 million pre-registrations across 110 countries, the no-gacha message is landing. For a GTA fan curious about an anime-flavored alternative, “free, no gambling for characters, cosmetics optional” is about as friendly an entry point as you’ll find. It launches two months after GTA 6’s premium 80-dollar price tag, into the quiet January lull, which is smart positioning.

So Is Ananta Really an “Anime GTA”?

Time to answer the question the nickname begs. Is Ananta an anime GTA? Sort of – and that’s the most honest verdict I can give. It shares GTA’s open-world bones, its living-city ambition, its vehicular chaos, and its character-switching hook. If those are the things you love about GTA 5, Ananta is clearly speaking your language.

But it’s not a clone, and it doesn’t want to be. The anime skin, the supernatural plot, the Spider-Man traversal, the character-action combat, the collectible cast, and that no-gacha free model all pull it toward its own identity. It’s less “GTA 5 with anime characters” and more “a new kind of open-world sandbox that happens to wave at GTA on the way past.” Whether it nails the execution is the multi-million-dollar question, since ambition this large is notoriously hard to land. But on paper, and in the footage shown so far, it’s carving out something distinct.

Here’s my quick read on who each game suits best:

• Love grounded crime drama and tight storytelling? GTA 5 still delivers that better.
• Want vertical traversal, flashy combat, and a rotating cast of lives to live? Ananta’s your pick.
• Hate microtransactions and gacha? Ananta’s cosmetics-only model is a breath of fresh air.
• Just want the polished, proven open world right now? GTA 5 – or GTA 6 – is the safer bet.

What GTA Fans Should Keep in Mind?

One last dose of realism before you get too hyped. Everything we know about Ananta’s gameplay comes from trailers, betas, and curated demos. That’s true of most pre-release games, but it’s worth repeating, because ambitious open-worlds have a habit of looking dazzling in a controlled trailer and playing rougher at launch. GTA 5, by contrast, is a known, battle-tested quantity with over a decade of polish behind it.

So keep your expectations calibrated. Pre-register if it excites you – it’s free, after all – and let the actual January launch prove whether the “anime GTA” can back up the label. The potential is genuinely thrilling. The execution is the part we haven’t seen yet.

FAQ

Is Ananta basically GTA 5 with anime?

Not quite. It shares GTA’s open world, living city, and character switching, but adds parkour, swinging, party action combat, a collectible cast, and a free-to-play model.

When does Ananta release?

Ananta is slated for January 15, 2027, on PC, PS5, iOS, and Android – roughly two months after GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026.

Is Ananta free to play?

Yes. Ananta is fully free-to-play with no character gacha. Characters are earned through story progression, and only cosmetics like outfits and vehicle skins are monetized.

How does combat compare to GTA 5?

GTA 5 leans on grounded gun combat. Ananta uses party-based action combat that weaponizes the environment, blending martial arts, dodging, and cinematic set pieces.

Does Ananta have character switching like GTA 5?

It does, via a watch-like interface that swaps you to a character elsewhere in the city. Recent previews suggest it’s more contextual than rapid combat swapping.

How big is Ananta’s world?

It features two distinct cities, including Nova City, with a highly vertical design encouraging climbing and swinging on top of ground-level driving and exploration.

Will Ananta be on the same platforms as GTA 5?

Partly. Both hit PC, but Ananta also launches on PS5, iOS, and Android, giving it a mobile reach GTA 5 never had.

The Bottom Line

So where does the Ananta vs GTA5 gameplay debate finally settle? On a game that borrows GTA’s best ideas without becoming a copy. Ananta takes the open-world sandbox, the vehicular mayhem, and the character-switching that made GTA 5 iconic, then layers on anime flair, vertical traversal, character-action combat, and a refreshingly fair free-to-play model. It’s the same neighborhood, a completely different house.

For GTA fans hungry for something new – and free – while they wait out the post-GTA 6 winter, Ananta is easily worth a pre-registration and a curious eye come January. Just remember it still has to prove itself in the wild. Fingers crossed the anime GTA sticks the landing.

If breaking down this Ananta vs GTA5 gameplay showdown saved you an evening of squinting at trailers frame by frame, do the YaninaGames team a solid – cruise this post over to wherever your fellow open-world junkies gather, and bookmark it so it’s ready when Nova City finally opens its doors. Every share genuinely keeps our small crew driving forward, and it costs you nothing but a tap. And if creative or commercial collaboration is the road you’re on, our garage stays open around the clock – write to the T-Minus team directly, and let’s build something worth exploring together.