By Joel Loynds,Paul McNally

Copyright escapistmagazine

Honkai: Nexus Anima, the new game from Genshin Impact developer MiHoYo, is running a closed beta test that sent invites out in the last week. As expected, eager fans have decided to blow it wide open, revealing a little more about what the game has in store for us.

While I would have liked to have seen more gameplay from the auto-chess mode that leaked a few weeks ago, it seems fans are more concerned with characters and other peripheral things. However, as expected, it seems to combine the exploration aspects of Genshin with the structure of a Pokémon game. The difference being that Nexus Anima will have auto-chess instead of the turn-based battling.

One user on Reddit described it as very similar to the Genshin Impact event that occurred this year from June to July.

Every Aspect in Honkai: Nexus Anima

This is even down to the “types”, or “Aspects” that each critter will have. Rather than just straight up fire, water, or grass types, it is instead split out like this:

Light Dark Love Hate Pride Regret Right Peace War Satiation Insatiabilitry Competition Change Memory Beauty Weakness Mastermind Explorer Gladiator Protector Blaster Hothead Striker Cherubim Mascot

Genshin fans chomp at the bit for any Nexus Anima leaks

While some leaks happened a couple of weeks ago, Nexus Anima’s playtest is still in the process of being mined. As I said, fans are looking for anything and everything, so that includes this pixelated, empty, and unannotated map:

Soundtracks have been extracted, with four videos with multiple tracks up on YouTube. If you’ve played any gacha game or, in fact, any HoYoverse game in the last few years, this will all sound familiar. It’s got that soft, airy feel to it, like nothing could go wrong for the person made of bread.

Speaking of characters, different ones have leaked out, including the people (Kardia) and the Anima themselves. It’s quite a big selection of creatures, all very clearly trying to avoid anything Pokémon-like, lest they be dragged through the mud by Nintendo and its fans like Palworld.

Much like Pokémon, or Digimon, they will “evolve” over time, with one critter’s new look revealed over a Discord leak.

Supposedly, there’s a link between Nexus Anima and Star Rail, with Argenti appearing in the closed beta test. In the images, the main character is also wearing Adam’s jacket from Honkai Impact 3.

We don’t know how Nexus Anima’s gacha will work yet

So what about the gacha? Well, right now, MiHoYo hasn’t included it in the closed beta, replacing it with a straight-up store that works off of levels and in-game currency. So far, it doesn’t seem like the Anima are attached to the gacha; instead, the Kardia are. Again, it’s not implemented, but users on Reddit in the beta have inferred it from how the store is laid out.

It’s theorised that the Kardia will come with an Anima unique to them, as in the artwork, but again, we really don’t know at this time.

While the game is in beta right now, there’s no release date attached. I would hazard a guess that it’ll launch next year at this point, unless of course, they hit the gas hard from now.