During Gamescom 2023, NetEase’s Project Mugen showcased an upcoming open-world anime game that depicts stunning graphics and gameplay, breaking ground for these types of action-adventure genres. With a cyberpunk aesthetic, it promises the best of all of the current games in this field with creative animated bursts and exciting combat mechanics.
In this trailer, Project Mugen follows the adventures of your standard trio, with the player presumably acting as the male character, similar to how Genshin Impact has Lumine and Aether. The other members include an outgoing pink-haired girl with a knack for artistic flair and a younger girl with rabbit ears who may just have the ability to summon a motorcycle for her gameplay.
Project Mugen depicts hints of a grander story than just what we see in the trailer and depicts our main characters attempting to help a pale-haired woman named Dila, who is seen both with the trio and destroying the city in later scenes. Hinting at fighting against the Chaos, players must gather a rag-tag team to fight back. Whether that Chaos is being caused by Dila or by a system in power has yet to be seen.
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This game has been dubbed as the new Genshin Impact ‘killer’ after Tower of Fantasy, while managing to come to some acclaim, failed to divert the attention from the HoYoverse juggernaut. Project Mugen does showcase a variety of fun and personable characters along with an intriguing plot line and incredible graphics that only add to a gameplay that depicts over-world combat, animated bursts, and a traveling mechanic that involves a Spider-Man “Thwip and Swing” throughout a skyscraper city.
Project Mugen is promising to be a real competitor against Genshin Impact, heralding many characteristics that Tower of Fantasy lacked in just its trailer alone. However, whether it will live up to actually stealing players away from HoYoverse with Zenless Zone Zero still hovering in beta has yet to be seen.
