For The Ignorant Like Me
Courtesy of GRYPHLINE, I’ve gone hands-on with the Arknights: Endfield Beta Test II for several hours. Consider this the uninitiated’s guide to all you can expect to experience when the beta begins on November 28.
I’d never heard of the Arknights universe before being invited to the event. Following a heavily scripted, partly awkward deep dive into Endfield led by Producer Light Zhong and Lead Designer Ryan, I’ve begun to understand its appeal.
Arknights: Endfield is a real-time 3D RPG existing in the Arknights universe. You play the role of an “Endministrator” tasked with leading a cast of nine new characters known as “Endfielders” or operators. Your mission is to explore the planet of Talos-II in the name of science and engineering. Along the way, you fight alien and human enemies alike.
Story at the Forefront
The impressive fidelity of the 3D characters, their animations, and the beautiful environments are immediately noticeable. The opening tutorial alone takes you across a stunning tundra, teaching you the basics of combat, introducing dialogue options, and culminating in a massive boss fight.
Developer HYPERGRYPH emphasizes the significant leap in engaging storytelling with cinematic cutscenes, further showcasing the work they’ve put into the voice acting and animations. The team describes the art design as anime sci-fi.
I’m unsure where to begin describing the narrative. It seems interesting, blending fantasy and mysticism with sci-fi, and potentially hinting at a time loop element. Given my short time with the game, garnering feelings toward the characters wasn’t easy. So far, they seem to fulfill many tropes of anime-like characters and RPGs—the mysterious, quiet protagonist, the comic relief role, the wise exposition dumper, the edgy gunslinger, and more.
HYPERGRYPH is wearing inspirations on their sleeve, but not in a way that seems detrimental to the experience. I didn’t experience anything I hadn’t before during my hands-on, but the storytelling and gameplay are on point.
You’ve Seen This One Before
I openly dislike turn-based combat, but I respect its legacy and can acknowledge when it’s well designed despite my bias. I share that to say I’m stoked that Endfield features real-time strategic combat.
At its core, it’s straightforward. You have your basic attack, battle skills, and ultimates. You attack enemies by holding the attack button, ending in a final strike that deals significant stagger damage. Battle skills unleash powerful attacks generally involving an AOE, and ultimates are precisely what you’re likely imagining they are.
It’s easy to grasp, looks great, and most importantly, feels good. I appreciate that it isn’t mindless. There are attack chains that trigger a follow-up attack by your fellow operators, requiring you to remain focused on your current task.
I fought hundreds of enemies as well as a few bosses. The loop is consistent: Basic attacks, battle skills, operator follow-ups, and unleash ultimates. The appeal is in the enemy’s respective attack patterns. Timing your dodge perfectly grants a powerful attack in return. You can also disrupt powerful enemy attacks by timing your battle skills correctly. The goal is to build up the stagger meter of enemies. Successfully staggering them opens the window for dealing the most damage.
Where It’s Interesting
A few hours into my demo, I experienced the extent of combat in the Beta Test II. It doesn’t put me to sleep, but it doesn’t offer me anything new. You can freely switch to any of your operators and experience their move sets, but they don’t require you to adapt. Each of them controls identically. One benefit of switching is getting a closer look at their animations. Having each control the same way is a wise design choice, as frequently learning new mechanics in an already mechanically dense game can be exhaustive.
The primary challenge of combat is the boss encounters. Each one I fought threw various attacks at me, demanding I dodge and attack at different intervals. Again, it’s basic design, but it’s diverse enough to keep me engaged for a while. If you’ve played several third-person real-time combat games, you’ll feel right at home, for better or worse.
“A Little Something For Everyone”
Most of my demo was allocated toward learning the Automated Industry Complex (AIC) factory building system. HYPERGRYPH is pitching it as a means to empower combat and exploration and improve life for humanity on Talos-II. That description alone may paint the picture for you.
You gather many resources for crafting and factory building during exploration across the planet. Most of your discoveries initially go toward crafting valuable items like healing tonics. Admittedly, I’m indifferent toward most crafting mechanics as well. I usually find them tedious. Endfield’s crafting system appears remarkably dense. It isn’t difficult to wrap your head around, there’s just a lot to it.
Ultimately, your goal is to build and maintain custom factories that automate resource collection and development. It reduces and may eliminate the need for manual crafting. On one hand, it makes me question the purpose of regular crafting. I assume the fun is meant to be found in designing and building your factories, with the reward being the work it eventually does for you.
HYPERGRYPH openly stated that its intent behind the system is to emphasize the fun factor and attract players drawn to the mechanics. AIC’s feature outpost trading, goods delivery, stock distribution, and blueprints.
Art Imitates Art
There’s a clear Death Stranding inspiration present in Endfield. Things like ziplines constructed by you and other players appear throughout the regions you visit, and other helpful structures like pylons. Blueprints designed by players can be shared, which expedites the construction process.
These are all great ideas that aren’t revolutionary, but new for Arknights. AICs don’t interest me much but they may draw a new audience. Generally, Endfield is striking me as a game that allows you to get what you want from it. AICs aren’t entirely necessary for a fun gameplay experience. There’s much on offer, whether you’re there exclusively for the story and characters, world exploration, combat, or factory building.
It’s challenging to know whether these systems are synergetic or undercooked. Beta Test II isn’t the final game after all, so I trust HYPERGRYPH is banking on player feedback to refine the game further as it nears 1.0.
Red Light, Green Light
Throughout several hours of hands-on, I was inundated with frequent tutorials. Tutorials are necessary. They’re crucial for onboarding new players to all that your game has to offer. I wish they were either spread out or more creatively implemented. I’d begin having fun exploring for roughly 20-30 minute intervals, only to be halted for a long-winded explanation on another system. The tutorials are excellent in explaining how to understand what you’re doing. They don’t ruin the game. It would just be nice if they were snappier.
A significant appeal of Endfield is the diverse regions you explore, featuring every biome imaginable, including traditional and modern Chinese architectural designs in Wuling City. They aren’t just eye candy. Each region has unique mechanics that mix up the moment-to-moment experience. For example, one area I trekked across introduced me to bombs that were used to deal damage to enemies or clear blockades.
Along your way, you encounter NPCs offering missions to complete. XP gained and tangible rewards granted feed into character progression. You can equip and level up weapons, unlock battle skills and ultimates, and equip gear offering passive benefits. I’m describing standard RPG fare, but it’s all well implemented.
Impressive Presentation
The game looks stunning, paired with good sound design and great music. On that note, the band Starset performed some of the game’s music live at the event, including a new song written for Endfield. The awkward aspect I mentioned earlier? It was this: A rock band bordering on metal dressed to the nines performing heavy music to a seated crowd of roughly fifty media personnel and a few influencers in a small hotel ballroom. The band killed it, but the experience was pretty funny. The band knew it, we knew it, but it was alright. It was an idea better suited for a conference or The Game Awards.
HYPERGRYPH has emphasized their effort in reworking the story and designing rich areas to explore. From my experience, their work is paying off. Mobile gaming has come a long way in a short time. It’s one thing for Endfield to run smoothly on PC and PS5. The most impressive feat will be its performance on mobile. Between the fidelity, animations, large maps, and real-time combat, it may be a miracle that the game runs well on older phones.
“Whenfield?”
The Arknights: Endfield Beta Test II technical test begins on November 28, 2025. It will be available on PC, PS5, iOS, and Android, with tailored controls for each platform. The test will be paramount for HYPERGRYPH in preparing the full launch for early 2026.
The team has shared that roughly 50-60 hours of content are available in the Endfield Beta Test II. I barely scratched the surface, and while the gameplay isn’t new to me, the Arknights universe is. It looks good, runs smoothly, and successfully introduces its many mechanics.
I hope what I’ve shared is informative for genre fans interested in giving it a shot. For more on Arknights: Endfield, stay tuned to COGconnected.
***Preview invitation, travel, and hotel provided by GRYPHLINE***
