What is Arknights: Endfield? New 2023 Anime Gacha RPG

I’ve been playing a LOT of Arknights. I play it every single day, for anywhere from 10 minutes – to just run through my daily stamina exhaustion, to hours, if a new event releases and the stages are complex or difficult.
This is – to me – one of the greatest Gacha games on the market right now. There isn’t a tower defense or strategy game out there that I think compares to Arknights. Which is why I’m so excited for Arknights: Endfield, Endfield is the spiritual successor to Arknights – but taking it in an entirely new direction.
Where Arknights is a strategy game that takes place within small, instanced grids – Arknights Endfield is going to be set in a large, open world, feature real-time combat, and fully 3D graphics as opposed to the smaller, sprite-style aesthetic it currently utilizes.

Now I know a lot of you guys are sitting there scratching your heads wondering exactly what kind of game this is. I’ve received DMs asking me – “Stix, is Arknights Endfield an MMO?” “Is there character creation?” “Is it a Gacha game like Genshin?”
And that’s what we’re here today to discuss. What exactly is Arknights Endfield? And should you be excited?

So what is Arknights: Endfield? Hypergryph revealed that Endfield is going to be a fully 3D real-time RPG. It will be set in a large, open world with lots of varied environments to explore.
Neither a sequel nor a prequel, Endfield is going to be set in the same world as its predecessor, Arknights, featuring its own distinct stories, and characters. Now if I recall – Arknights is set on Terra. Endfield is going to be set on Talos-II, a name I’m sure a lot of you immediately recognize.
Talos-II is largely unexplored, and very dangerous. Meaning that players will be responsible for surveying and exploring the world with Endfield Industries operators as we attempt to uncover the mysteries hidden away on the planet.

Yes, yes it will. If you’ve played Arknights, you’d know that the devs are actually quite adept at crafting a good story. That’s something you can’t say for the majority of Gacha games. Most games built for the mobile platform feature honestly.. quite pathetic stories that most of us skip.
There are few exceptions to this. As Hypergryph noted, it’ll be our duty to uncover the mysteries of Talos-II. From what little information we’ve been given, it looks as though we’ll continue unlocking new Chapters – each more challenging than the last as we continue to play through the game and explore the world at large.
The world and subsequently the narrative will also feature additional factions – some good, some bad, that will have a direct affect on the outcome of your story.

No, unfortunately, as much as I would honestly love to see an Arknights MMO, this is not it.
In Arknights: Endfield, players are capable of deploying several different characters – with direct control over each character. Having other players occupy the same world as you would likely be incredibly difficult, which is why I’m assuming the devs have yet to confirm whether there will be any kind of multiplayer functionality present.
I honestly hope for some – I would love to explore Talos-II with my wife Mrs Stix, with each of us possibly controlling half the team each. Cooperative multiplayer games are incredibly enjoyable, and this is a gargantuan missed opportunity if they don’t take advantage of it.

Given this is going to be an Anime RPG as opposed to an MMO, it’s unlikely we’re going to be able to customize our character.
Like in Arknights, we’ll likely play as a faceless commander of types, sending our Waifu’s and Husbando’s out on missions. But, hey. Nothing is set in stone right now. Who knows – maybe we’ll be able to create our own custom character. We’ll need to wait and see. It’s just highly unlikely.

Hypergryph describes their combat as such: “Arknights: Endfield is currently in the early stages of development, and much of the contents have yet to be finalized. With regards to the combat, players will encounter epic experiences, featuring real-time combat with various tactics.”
Real-time combat does not necessarily equate to action combat. It merely means the combat will operate in real-time as opposed to turn-based. This means the combat could be action-oriented like Wuthering Waves or Genshin Impact. Or, it could take on a strategic style like in StarCraft.

Yes! Arknights: Endfield is confirmed to be in active development for PC, Android and iOS devices. This is going to be a completely cross-platform compatible game. Meaning you can play it on PC, or on your phone.
They haven’t elaborated on whether they’re going to take a Genshin or Tower of Fantasy approach, however. And by that I mean, whether they’ll follow Genshin’s formula and develop the game for each platform in mind, or if they’ll follow the Tower of Fantasy formula and develop the game for mobile, and port it on over to PC at a later date.
I’m hoping for the former, because it is going to have to compete with Wuthering Waves, which is shaping up to be one of the best looking upcoming Gacha on the horizon.

Arknights: Endfield is going to be releasing Globally. There’s absolutely no questioning that. Hypergryph are already looking to localize the game into English, and they’re only in the early stages of development.
It’s unconfirmed if the game will have a simultaneous release around the world, or if a Western launch will come after its Eastern release.

Unfortunately, the devs are not nearly far enough through the development process to release a playable Beta. Not in 2022, anyway. They will definitely be holding various test phases ahead of the game launching – which I honestly hope to get into.
But those test phases will be available in 2023 at the earliest. Keep an eye on the channel though – as I post videos whenever games I’m anticipating are playable!

Arknights: Endfield does not have a confirmed release date at present. 2022 would be expecting a little much I believe, but hey, I don’t think 2023 is entirely out of the question. They could be much further through development than when they last made an announcement several months ago.
It would be safer to assume a release date of 2023, at the earliest, though.

And finally, yes, this is going to be a Gacha game. I know that isn’t something everyone is interested in, and that’s more than fine. But at the end of the day, if you don’t like it, you can just not play it.
Given the track record for Arknights though, how fair the game is and how successful it has been up to this point, I can say with certainty that this is going to be big. Very, very big. This could be one of the biggest open-world RPGs of 2023.
Its only competition is Wuthering Waves.