9 Anime-Style Urban Action Games to Play If You Like Neverness to Everness
Modern, urban-vibe games are a weirdly small niche. Usually, we keep getting referred to the Grand Theft Auto or Like a Dragon series when talking about it, let alone looking for anime-style ones. That’s why the gacha game Neverness to Everness stands out so much. Hotta Studio has successfully built a proper living city in beautiful anime visuals where you can actually move around, make some noise, and sometimes just take it all in within the stylised world. If you’re an anime action games fan looking for more, we recommend these few hidden gems that will undoubtedly scratch that itch.
1. Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed
In this game, the Tokyo district of Akihabara is quietly pulled into a supernatural situation where vampire-like beings known as Shadow Souls are hiding in plain sight. While the Japanese government has secretly deployed the NIRO organisation to deal with them, things quickly spiral out of control. As a young man accidentally dragged into the mess, your only way to defeat them is to strip them in public to expose them to sunlight. Although the plot sounds like something out of a sleazy B-movie, the game itself takes its premise just seriously enough to remain oddly compelling and tense.
Unlike Neverness to Everness’s massive, GTA-style open-world ambition, Akiba’s Trip offers a much more compact experience — closer to Like a Dragon‘s tightly packed districts. That’s not surprising, considering it comes from Acquire, the same studio behind Way of the Samurai, a series built around freedom in small but dense spaces. Still, it perfectly captures the layout of 2011 Akihabara, albeit with fictionalised store and product names.
Do note, though, because this is a remaster of a PSP game, it can feel a bit stiff and old-school in places. Combat is simple (it doesn’t even have lock-on), visuals and animations can feel dated, and the menus aren’t as smooth as later entries. But the core idea is already there: walking around the real-world anime hub fighting vampires, in the only way an otaku would.
2. Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed
Despite sharing the same setting and title, the game originally known as Akiba’s Trip 2 in Japan is not a direct sequel to Hellbound and Debriefed. Instead, both games take on the same concept with completely different tones. It still delivers an utterly silly premise with fun gameplay full of sidequests — but this time it fully embraces how ridiculous it is and leans harder into the silly concept.
Compared to its predecessor, this entry is noticeably more refined. Combat flows better, systems and navigation feel snappier, the heroines’ routes are more involved, and the overall gameplay aligns more closely with modern action brawlers or 3D beat-em-ups. The city is also more alive — sometimes literally. Every nook and cranny is plastered with real-life advertisements like the Maidreamin cafe, Animate hobby store, and other recognisable otaku landmarks. Unfortunately, adjustments to its last Kati’s Route DLC caused some of this time capsule authenticity to be altered or removed due to licensing issues.
3. Zenless Zone Zero
Taking control of a roster of 50 powerful characters known as Proxies, your task is to help people navigate dangerous dimensional zones called Hollows. Like Neverness to Everness, this is also one of the popular anime action gacha games. However, it’s less about free-roaming and more about racking up combos in instanced missions.
The character-switching combat in Zenless Zone Zero is fast, flashy, and full of personality, like playing a PVE Guilty Gear in the palm of your hands. The neon-soaked urban hub called New Eridu is also full of small details, giving off a vibe of cyberpunk alleyway mixed with a bustling shopping district. Even when you’re just relaxing between missions, it never really feels like a ‘menu hub’ so much as a small section of a city that’s breathing and alive.
4. Assault Spy
If what you actually want is fast, stylish combat rather than exploration, Assault Spy also delivers that in spades. You play as the self-proclaimed elite corporate spy Asaru Vito, who gets caught up in a terrorist takeover while infiltrating the mega-corporation Negabot. Now, the only way out is to fight your way through dozens of office floors and confront Mr. Showtime, the mastermind behind the attack himself.
The focus of this indie game is firmly on absurd, Devil May Cry-like agile combat — juggling enemies in the air, chaining combos, and looking as stylish as possible while everything explodes around you. With that in mind, if you’re expecting a city simulation, you will be disappointed. Nevertheless, it hits all the right notes for fans of anime-style action games.
5. Mightreya
Also from the developer of Assault Spy, Wazen, comes Mightreya, a transforming superheroine action game. Here, you play as the schoolgirl Reya, who, alongside her manager Nio, fights monstrous beings from another dimension as a so-called Hero Content Creator. As you might expect, the team once again delivers fast-paced, high-octane brawling mechanics reminiscent of anime action series like One-Punch Man and My Hero Academia. This time, it also comes with a more colourful and varied environment, making juggling interdimensional monsters more exciting.
Itâs still in development, with no confirmed release date, but a Steam demo is already available. The full game promises 38 stages and 24 enemy types, including powerful kaiju bosses.
6. Ananta
If we’re talking about Neverness to Everness, of course, we can’t avoid its closest ‘anime GTA‘ rival: Ananta. While it also drops you into a dense, fully realised anime-style city, what separates Ananta is its stronger focus on traversal and movement systems. One of its highlighted mechanics includes a Spider-Man-like electric grappling hook system, allowing players to swing, vault, and fight through the city at high speed.
It is still in development, but early showcases suggest a fluid, superhero-style approach to both exploration and combat. Will it truly compete with or even surpass Neverness to Everness? Only time will tell.
7. NEO: The World Ends With You
On number seven, we have the action RPG from Square Enix, NEO: The World Ends With You. Set in the Tokyo district of Shibuya, home to the âworldâs busiest intersection,’ it drops you into a version of the city that feels alive, recognisable, and constantly shifting between bustling everyday life and surreal scenarios. Here you play as Rindo Kanade, a reluctant participant in a deadly Reaper’s Game where survival depends on navigating both social dynamics with fellow misfits and encounters against the dreaded Noises.
NEO: TWEWY perfectly nails that bustling Shibuya vibe down to the packed, explorable streets and the iconic 109 Building. Complete with a strong urban-flavored aesthetic and captivating narrative, it remains one of the best anime-style city RPGs out there.
8. Dusk Diver
Tired of exploring stylised Tokyo? These last two entries take you to another part of Asia: Taipei. Dusk Diver blends real-world-inspired urban exploration with supernatural action. By day, you wander through the streets of Ximending and get a feel for the characters and environment. By night, those same streets transform into battlefields filled with otherworldly Phantoms.
The main character is Yumo, a schoolgirl who unexpectedly becomes one of the Guardians between dimensions after being pulled into a conflict she barely understands. While not fully open-world, the game has a decent free-roaming section and does a solid job of making its city feel like a lived-in place — with hints that something strange lurks beneath it.
9. Dusk Diver 2
Still set in the Ximending district with Yumo returning as the protagonist, Dusk Diver 2 builds directly on the foundation of the first game, expanding the scope, gameplay, and personality of its world significantly. It introduces more dynamic encounter spaces and more verticality. Combat is faster and more fluid, with improved combos and an expanded support system. Fans of both the first game and anime-style action games wouldn’t want to miss this.
