Honkai: Nexus Anima is the newest project from HoYoverse and the latest game set within the Honkai franchise. That means that certain familiar characters from Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai: Star Rail will make their appearances in unexpected ways and fashions.

Since the game’s initial announcement, I found myself wondering: how could this possibly be Honkai? An overly cute and bright open-world game about capturing magical creatures and using them to fight others in TFT-like combat?

But, after spending a few days in Nexus Anima and going through what the beta test had to offer (although not in full scope, there is still plenty to do), I can only conclude that it is as Honkai as any other game in the series, working off both contrasts and similarities.

Let’s check Honkai: Nexus Anima out together, this is our Evolution Test hands-on impressions. Note that the article contains spoilers and is using the beta version of the game for basis. The content is subject to change due to game still being in development.

The game begins with character creation, and that’s what sets it apart from other HoYoverse titles immediately. In addition to choosing the gender of your protagonist, you can also play with their characteristics and stats: Strength, Charisma and Intelligence. Technically, there is also Luck, but it isn’t present in the current beta test.

Both the strong and the weak characteristics give your character extra dialogue options. For example, someone with high Charisma but low Intelligence can smoothly talk their way through a conflict or easily recognize someone’s emotional state and appeal to it, while also failing miserably in trying to draw even the most obvious conclusions.

Some of the Anima that you can capture and bond also provide extra options: reading other characters’ thoughts (which some may notice and express their displeasure), and interact in a myriad of ways, from hugging to scaring to hitting with a sweet treat to temporarily disable an onlooker and let you do your nefarious deeds in peace. But more about it in the open world selection down below, before we get there let’s talk about what makes this game feel like Honkai even if it doesn’t look the part – purposefully so.

The story kicks off in an expectedly mundane fashion: your character is running late in meeting a dear friend, Darsea, and tries to think of a way to avoid her rightful wrath. As you distract your friend with various activities such as drawing or taking a quiz – which will let your character’s personality shine through the choice of characteristics – it is also impossible to dismiss the vague feeling of something being quite wrong.

From time to time, the screen flickers with static, and you notice a suspicious Anima following you around. Darsea explains that it is Inkifoal, one of the Anima that gets a bad rep for following the World-Ender, and gives you the first taste of the real lore behind the game.

Initially, the world of Nexus Anima had been united and ruled by 39 Sovereigns, each of whom controlled two opposing Aspects: Love and Hate, Light and Dark, and so on. But over 200 years ago, the World-Ender shattered the world and connections between people, creating Anima from the frayed Aspect energy in the process.

Now, the world is split into 81 Planes, each ruled by a Novarch – an incredibly powerful individual that controls both their own Plane and an Aspect, something like a Path in Honkai: Star Rail. Some of the Sovereigns have lost their power after that catastrophe and became Novarchs, but not all of them. Darsea also doesn’t explain how there were 39 Sovereigns, but now there are 81 Novarchs. Where did the extra Aspects come from? That is for you to wonder and for the game to reveal in the proper time.

But this is where things are getting interesting: the protagonist in being hunted, and very shortly learns that they are the World-Ender who had lost their power and memories, although a glimmer of the previous personality remains in the Anidex and takes control of our hero in order to save their life.

Additionally, the entire city you are traversing is but a prison built by Darsea’s brother – a Sovereign in his own right. He disdainfully explains that Darsea, the Sovereign of Memory and Oblivion, had perished after World-Ender’s Sundering, but he had given her a promise not to kill the protagonist – and he keeps it, by booting our amnesiac hero into one of the other Planes.

Alone in an unfamiliar place called Iia of the Reality Plane, the protagonist joins forces with newly met characters to begin unraveling their past. Their arrival had not remained unnoticed – only a Sovereign or a Novarch can open a portal between Planes (that we know of), and it makes our hero an incredibly interesting figure to those around.

In this world, Anima battles serve as a way to solve any sort of conflict, and you find yourself naturally drawn to them. So prepare your Anidex – you are setting out to Bond a great many Anima you will encounter on your way.

And as you delve into the mystery surrounding the protagonist’s origins, other characters will be drawn to you. Some out of curiosity, others in search of power or vengeance against your past incarnation’s transgressions. But one thing remains: the Nexus, the game’s word for connections and bonds, forms between you all the same.

One thing that repeatedly impressed me is how expressive Nexus Anima is compared to its older siblings such as Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail. Sure, the protagonist and characters around still sometimes strike the familiar hand-over-chest or fingers-on-chin HoYoverse pose, but overall the game seems much more reactive than other titles.

It is also supported by better expressions and creative camera angles and effects that keep the experience fresh and engaging. The beginning might be a bit hard to follow along with as Nexus Anima unleashes its full dictionary of specific terms upon you right off the bat, but as you let the knowledge settle a bit, the game becomes much easier to follow.

The Nexus Anima designs are a bit of a mixed bag, which is exactly what gives it a unique personality. Some characters look like they could step into Star Rail or HI3 right away, brandishing weapons and farming aura. It also already has a female character in pants – something that HSR still lacks 3+ years in. And yet, some are… uniquely Nexus Anima, something you can only describe as a lovable cringe.

A similar thing can be said about the Anima, it feels like the designers were finally allowed to move away from the cookie-cutter designs, and move away they did – in more directions than one. Some are beautiful, others interesting, third silly, fourth… I have no words to describe, but they work.

The game also tries very hard to avoid empty drawn-out dialogues – an effort that is largely successful. And, for those who don’t care for side dialogues, mini-events or just want to unlock everything as soon as possible, there’s even a skip button. To avoid spoiling various twists and turns of the story, all I can say is that there is a lot of unexpected – profound, sad, scary and repulsive – underneath the game’s cheery and bright visuals. If this doesn’t make it Honkai, I don’t know what does.

When it comes to gameplay, Honkai: Nexus Anima is as varied and diverse as it is with its story and designs. You could split it into several spheres: open-world exploration, acquiring and leveling characters and anima, battles, events & mini-games. Let’s go over them one-by-one.

When it comes to exploring, Honkai: Nexus Anima works as a perfect mix of Genshin Impact’s vast open world, Star Rail’s more guided approach to map-building, and Zenless Zone Zero’s urban fashion, all rolled into one cohesive ball with its own twist presented by the Anima.

There are chests to collect, side-quests to complete, mini-events to participate in, which does sound like other HoYo games, sure. But there are also Anima to bond – and later use for traversal such as jumping up the roofs, safely gliding, galloping around astride your Anima or even flying.

And even when you get used to it, the Anima have other purposes. A side quest might require you to bring an Anima who can hug a distressed Sheriff, or you’d stumble on a script that can be deciphered by your Inkifoal or perhaps a leaf pile that needs the winds whipped up by the wings of an Anima Bird.

The world has its own language, and you slowly learn it as you go along. Simply put, it feels alive and responsive. Note that some mechanics only open after you’ve reached a certain level or finished a certain main story quest, so try to temper your exploration!

When it comes to characters and Anima, Honkai: Nexus Anima is both complicated yet quite easy if you have played any of HoYoverse gachas before. Let’s start with characters.

You acquire your first cast through the main quest – but this is but dipping a toe in the system. From then on, you get to level your characters up, level their skills (Eidognosis) and acquire additional copies for passive buffs (Eidothread).

Characters generally have three abilities: a Passive related to their Aspect, an active ability that you can use in combat – attack, buff, debuff, shield, heal, and more – and a unique companion enhancement that buffs the specific Anima. For example, Blade buffs Bladehound while Olympia buffs Noctumbra.

Between that and Anima’s own Aspects and buffs that capitalizing on them provides, it allows you to quickly form a core for any specific team. Ideally, a number of teams with different Eidoses (characters), Animas and Aspects – you’ll need them, especially in the endgame that buffs specific Aspects.

It is worth noting that there are no items, at least yet – no artifacts, relics, planars or any other RNG-based power-up. All of your farming and grinding has a specific point at which you’re done, and it is clearly within sight.

For Anima, the system is quite similar. First, the game will have you battle and Bond specific creatures to form the baby World-Ender’s first team, mostly consisting of 3-star and 4-star creatures.

It is worth noting that in addition to getting them from quests and gacha, you can also spend some time and manually upgrade all your Anima to their max Rapport, which would require obtaining the creature first and then getting 6 copies one way or another. 3-star and 4-star Anima run around in abundance, although it might still take you a bit of time as some of them only come out in specific circumstances, such as at night.

You also have a certain chance to fail to capture and bond an Anima, giving it a chance to escape and you to pursue. Still, much like it is with leveling up characters’ abilities, it is great to know exactly how much you’d need to farm to max something out.

From that point on, you can focus on increasing the Anima’s level – which will be limited by your own Nexus level related to main quest and ascension – and figuring out which Disposition you want to use. Dispositions are simple passive buffs. Say, Fiery gives some extra Energy Regen, Cautious gives extra Armor. The way to unlock Dispositions is to capture wild Anima that have them, or feed your companions special meals. A bit of an RNG, and also a way to circumvent it in one go.

Having some pretty rotten luck with Planar Ornaments in Star Rail, I’m feeling positively envious of future HNA players right now.

When it comes to 5-star Anima, right now you can acquire several from log-in and milestone rewards, endgame and challenges.

Once you have your characters and Anima set up, it’s time to battle. After all, there’s no conflict that can’t be solved through some good ol’ combat.

Following a short preparation phase where you set up your team, the battle happens automatically in real time. At that point, your participation is limited to casting your Eidos’ (characters’) active Ultimates.

You might think it makes the battles boring – just 3 buttons that are available intermittently, and the rest is happening on its own, but positioning itself, choosing specific Aspects, positions on the battlefield, and Eidos to match decides the battle as much as leveling up your characters and Anima.

The battle system evolves even more once you reach endgame modes that give you randomized “Blessings” (think Simulated Universe in HSR) that you want to capitalize on. Some of them buff a specific Anima or Aspect, others provide more interesting buffs based on, for example, the Anima’s size.

Still, I hope that developers add some QoL features such as an option to speed up the combat or skip your character taking a picture with a freshly-Bonded Anima.

Say, you’ve done the story, leveled your characters and Anima up as reasonably as you can, tried the endgame, and explored as much as you want – and now you’re looking for something else.

This is where Honkai: Nexus Anima took a glance at Genshin Impact’s, Honkai: Star Rail’s and Zenless Zone Zero’s ideas, and took them all to incorporate in various events, endgame and exploration bits.

If you’ve played other HoYo gachas, you might find a certain mini-game with a sense of familiarity – oh, this feels just like cooking in Genshin. Or, it reminds me of exploring Amphoreus. Or perhaps one of the myriad of management mini-games that other games designed, and HNA gets to build upon.

You can play with Anima, enjoy little side-quests that will be more than fetch or kill and would require you actively finding and deploying a specific creature, or you can manage restaurants: upgrading, assigning staff, interacting with customers. All of it makes the world feel alive and unique.

Honkai: Nexus Anima does not even officially have a release date yet, but it is a game that consists of
a web of interconnected systems, each building upon and feeding off each other. The Eidos are tied to specific Animas, Animas naturally have their Aspects and dispositions and have open-world interactions, and much more.

The game has unique bright aesthetics and bouncy animations that might give you a wrong idea that HNA is a silly little game with no depth, but it couldn’t be further from the truth in a variety of aspects, story and gameplay included.

I think those on the fence should try the game out for themselves when it goes live and go through the first couple of chapters. By the time you finish the quest with Otto at the Academy, you will be able to see that looks do not entirely convey what the game has in store.

Before trying the beta, I’d been very gingerly following HNA announcements, but now I’m actually excited to see what the game has in store in the future.