MiHoYo has announced their latest entry in the Honkai franchise: Honkai: Nexus Anima, a creature-collector adventure game.

In this beta, you’ll be able to encounter and capture 56 different Animas—a small portion of what the full game has to offer. Unlike Pokémon, where every creature has clear elemental strengths and weaknesses, Animas instead have “aspects” and “traits.” I counted 13 different aspects and 7 traits, which suggests plenty of potential combinations and playstyles. Traits seem more closely tied to their role on the battlefield—things like “gladiator,” “hothead,” or “blaster”—whereas aspects appear to reflect personality or appearance. I would say that these characteristics are bit unusual and do not feel very intuitive, but I guess that it was a deliberate choice from MiHoYo to avoid any complication with Nintendo.

Unlike Pokémon’s turn-based battles, Honkai: Nexus Anima uses an auto-battler system. Each turn, you’ll be able to choose a bonus from one of three cards or use skills and items to support your Animas. From what I could make out in the trailer, items can be purchased from a shop during battles, similarly to League of Legends. Items can also be used to level up your Animas. You can field up to nine Animas at once in combat.

Animas also play a role outside of battle, where you can make them play minigames like running courses, demolition challenges, or water balloons shooting.

The game will also feature character customization, including changeable outfit pieces. Although the trailer shows multiple main characters being playable, I think that was just for presentation and won’t actually be possible in the game.

Sign-ups for the beta test are now closed, but selected testers will be able to play from September 17 to September 23. If you’re interested in the game, that’s the perfect time to check YouTube for gameplay footage!

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