{"id":66214,"date":"2026-05-05T15:55:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T06:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=66214"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T06:56:20","slug":"open-world-rpg-neverness-to-everness-fully-leans-into-initial-d-references-with-familiar-tofu-shop-panda-trueno-and-mountain-drifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/open-world-rpg-neverness-to-everness-fully-leans-into-initial-d-references-with-familiar-tofu-shop-panda-trueno-and-mountain-drifting\/","title":{"rendered":"Open-world RPG\u00a0Neverness\u00a0to\u00a0Everness\u00a0fully leans into Initial D references with familiar tofu shop,\u00a0panda Trueno and mountain drifting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Perfect World Games\u2019<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/open-world-anime-rpg-neverness-to-everness-hits-14-million-globally-on-day-one-led-by-japan-and-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new open-world anime-style RPG<\/a><strong>\u00a0Neverness\u00a0to\u00a0Everness\u00a0(NTE)<\/strong>\u00a0is full of anime references and Easter eggs, ranging from nods to\u00a0recent shows\u00a0like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/yuri_skyly\/status\/2050488846765240472?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bocchi the Rock!<\/a>\u00a0to classics like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Ag-AyeNq8qA?si=SKFhDozYEcZJB3Eh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Doraemon<\/a>. One Easter egg that players will have no trouble spotting is the \u201cGhost Racer\u201d\/Drift Away Legend\u00a0series of side missions\u00a0in the Miguel District, which\u00a0are\u00a0chockful\u00a0of\u00a0references\u00a0to Shuichi Shigeno\u2019s street racing series, Initial D.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u639f\u7834\u308a\u306e\u5730\u5143\u8d70\u308a\u3060\uff01\uff01<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NTE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NTE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jXOHhtYGqF\">pic.twitter.com\/jXOHhtYGqF<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u3090\u304b\u308a\u2693\ufe0e\u308b\u308a (@ikariruri) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ikariruri\/status\/2050612205360689165?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 2, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After completing Prologue 2, you can head over to the\u00a0Natsunari\u00a0Tofu Shop and talk to the owner, Sota. A quick conversation\u00a0with some nearby fans\u00a0reveals that\u00a0ten\u00a0years ago,\u00a0Sota\u00a0used to be\u00a0known as the God Racer of\u00a0Hethereau, an up-and-coming racer who quit just before he went pro. What follows is a series of missions where Sota takes you under his wing, all\u00a0while being reminded of\u00a0his love\u00a0for\u00a0racing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1383\" height=\"784\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1383px) 100vw, 1383px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260501-440831-002.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260501-440831-002.jpg 1383w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260501-440831-002-380x215.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260501-440831-002-768x435.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Aside from the Sota\u2019s Novus ST79\u00a0car\u00a0looking exactly like Takumi Fujiwara\u2019s panda-colored\u00a086\u00a0(the\u00a0Toyota Sprinter Trueno\u00a0AE86),\u00a0his profession as a tofu\u00a0shop owner\u00a0is a nod to the Fujiwara\u00a0Tofu\u00a0store owned by Takumi\u2019s father, Bunta.\u00a0The house itself also heavily resembles\u00a0the Fujiwara duo\u2019s home.\u00a0One of the earlier side missions even has you delivering tofu for Sota in his car, a reference to\u00a0Takumi\u2019s iconic tofu runs on mount Akina\u00a0in\u00a0Initial D. Succeeding races have you drifting up and down\u00a0Hethereau\u2019s\u00a0mountainous regions, and you can even purchase the Novus for 600,000 Fons, one of the game\u2019s earnable currencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"1080\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HHOsl9TbYAAixbS-810x1080.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HHOsl9TbYAAixbS-810x1080.jpg 810w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HHOsl9TbYAAixbS-285x380.jpg 285w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HHOsl9TbYAAixbS-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HHOsl9TbYAAixbS-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HHOsl9TbYAAixbS-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HHOsl9TbYAAixbS-scaled.jpg 1920w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Comparison image by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NKOO0O\/status\/2050172028855153008?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NKOO0O<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Neverness&nbsp;to&nbsp;Everness&nbsp;is available on Android, iOS, PlayStation 5, as well as Windows and macOS (downloadable from the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nte.perfectworld.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">official website<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/forza-horizon-6s-japan-map-bears-uncanny-resemblances-to-courses-from-a-certain-hit-drifting-anime-to-the-delight-of-japanese-players\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Forza Horizon 6\u2019s Japan map bears uncanny resemblance to courses\u00a0from a certain\u00a0hit\u00a0drifting anime,\u00a0to the delight of Japanese players\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the newly launched Neverness to Everness (NTE), players have discovered that they can channel their inner Takumi Fujiwara at the Natsunari Tofu Shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":66216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[73,18],"class_list":["post-66214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-anime","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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